SPRING INSPIRES FRESH IDEAS FOR CITIE BALLET
The essence of spring inspired a program of three varied, new dance works for the final show of Citie Ballet’s current season, as artistic director Jorden Morris says.
“Spring is a time for fresh growth, fresh ideas and new voices. I wanted Lydia (Redpath) and Matthew (Klippenstein) to be those fresh voices, while my own piece really celebrates the actual season. I think it’s a really strong show with some fascinating movements.”
Citie Ballet has long encouraged its dancers to get involved in choreographing new works. Early on, Morris served as a teacher for Redpath and Klippenstein at other dance companies. Redpath’s work Jux and Klippenstein’s piece Untamed both lean towards more contemporary dance styles and music sources.
Redpath was fine-tuning her work Jux when she talked about the show earlier this week.
“There’s a point in the process where you stop the editing and go with the finishing phase, or the polishing aspect, making sure that everyone is at the exact same right angle, that the emotions are being conveyed the same way, that the spacing is accurate and that the lighting and music are on the same page. Making sure that it’s stageready is one of the really fun parts.”
Jux features one male and two female dancers who spin off in every combination, tied to three pop music tracks by the French band Nouvelle Vague and Sweden’s Koop. Redpath wants to leave the title open to interpretation, but she says the piece takes off from a dancer’s experience.
“My inspiration has come from the dancers and our experiences in the studio. All of our jokes and day-to-day interaction has definitely played into the creative process. It doesn’t have a story or a huge theme. Working with just three dancers allowed me to really hone in on their individual personalities, so it’s been fun to see what aspects of them I can bring into the choreography.”
Between classical and contemporary ballet styles, she puts Jux into the “quirky” category.
“We use ballet technique in certain aspects and throw it out the window in other areas. It’s quite dynamic and wearing socks allows them to slide around more.”
This is Redpath’s third season with Citie Ballet. Born in England, she moved to Canada at age eight and wound up training at both the National Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet, touring with RWB.
She came to Edmonton after
working with Atlanta Ballet. Jux is her second work for Citie Ballet.
“It’s been a tremendous learning experience bringing this piece to the stage.”
Redpath and Klippenstein both dance in the works they haven’t choreographed.
Manitoba-born Klippenstein started out in tap and made fourth place in the World Tap Dancing Championships before he switched to ballet, training and eventually performing with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He was drawn to Citie Ballet for its eclectic repertoire and mix of the classical and contemporary. Into his second season, Untamed is his debut as a choreographer.
Untamed uses eight other dancers and five music tracks to trace
I wanted to do something almost like a bad action movie that would generate a sense of humour or parody.
different sections of a loose story. Klippenstein says it involves “a creepy guy ” who uses mind control to put a spell on all the women. The series of dances includes a party scene where he continues to use his hypnotic power, before a good guy shows up, and the two men eventually face off in an all-male pas de deux.
“It’s not your typical storyline,” he says. “I wanted to do something almost like a bad action movie that would generate a sense of humour or parody. I like to put humour in there, not totally in your face, but it’s there. I would be happy if people were laughing throughout.”
The music tracks include excerpts from actual action movie soundtracks, a flamenco piece and a number from Eric Burdon of The Animals. He says he started with the story idea for inspiration, listened to music tracks, and imagined the moves from there.
“My process in the studio felt like using a pile of Play-Doh, slowly cutting parts off and adding parts to shape something, figuring out when to stick with an idea and when it needs to be tweaked. I think the music parts are all quite different, but they flow well and should keep the audience guessing.”
Morris’s work Back To Bach draws more from classical sources.
“It’s not the stuffy classical element, but a clean, almost crystalline classicism,” he says. “I had all these beautiful Bach and Haydn string pieces that I find to be really symbiotic with spring, so I thought I would take that route and give my interpretation of spring through that music and my movements.”
In the end, Morris’ extended suite sources both intimate and larger scale chamber music pieces by Bach, Haydn, Vivaldi, and by contemporary composer Daniel Hope. It uses the entire Citie Ballet company of nine dancers over eight separate vignettes, including some duo and trio dances.
“I wanted everyone to have a moment to shine, either in a pas de deux or a solo or trio thing. I’ve got a slow trio and a fast trio where I tried to really showcase these dancers and their fortes. The music kind of inspired some dances, but sometimes the dancers dictated what that final architecture would be and what would fit in with their strengths. We just put the final touches on it last week.
“I tried to pick images of spring that we all know. There’s an opening movement I call the waking up, for four ladies, while the men’s movement is sort of tied to spring thunderstorms and the power of spring. One of the trios is almost bird-like, when birds start to sing, so I tried to give it that flavour.”
Citie Ballet will tell you that ballet pointe shoes can cost up to $125 a pair, which costs the company around $20,000 a year. On that theme, its end-of-season fashion fundraiser is called Art & Sole, sponsored by several of the city ’s top independent shoe stores. It happens Thursday, May 10, in the ATB Financial Arts Barns. For tickets, go to artandsole.ca/tickets or the Citie Ballet site.