Hip-inspired All Of Us blurs boundaries
The lines between classical dance and the martial arts, between the ballet barre and the mosh pit, and finally, between environmental disaster and spiritual renewal were effectively blurred more than once when Alberta Ballet brought its new pop fable All Of Us to Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium Thursday night (the production continues through Sunday).
This sixth “portrait ballet” devised by AB’s imaginative artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre took on the music of The Tragically Hip with real panache, but it’s the setting, a post-apocalypse tale of power struggles between the last two tribes on a dying earth, which deserves to be seen.
If any of the many Hip fans attending found themselves recalling other associations to the 20 tracks that graced the show, rest assured that the combined forces of multiple designers, staging and lighting experts, costumers (five wig builders alone), Grand-Maitre’s hybrid punk moves, and the exceptional dancers themselves all work to reinvent the songs with a rhapsodic universality that speaks to deeper themes.
It opens with the bomb, a giant projection of nuclear catastrophe tied to brief sound effects and The Hip’s Man Machine Poem. Then we’re introduced to the survivors, on a beach or maybe in a desert (maybe a former beach turned desert?) with a rusty, rocky backdrop shaped vaguely like a map of Canada after the coastline had been altered by changing sea levels. Varied sky projections add a gorgeous touch.
Read the libretto in the program ahead of time and you will find a plot of considerable detail. But even if you don’t make time for that it’s not hard to follow and keep track of who’s who as the action builds around pretty archetypal contrasts. It’s not quite black hat/white hat, but the forces of light and dark are hard to mistake.
Meet the mostly male Clan of Hannibal (that’s Kelly Mckinlay), nasty brutes given to violence as a recreational sport, as you learn when someone gets foisted on a big fork in the opening scene, Their costumes lean toward leather, their hair springs out in dreadhawks, and their scavenged weapons are made of metal. Out
on the prowl, they’re apt to howl. Like beasts in The Hip’s Yawning Or Snarling.
A scene later, meet the Clan of Hadrien (Garrett Groat). Clothed in cotton blends with a few blond braids, they’re masters of wooden swords akin to kendo. They’ve got a monopoly on romance and despite their male leader the clan has more women. One feisty female named Cordelia (named after The Hip song of that name, danced by Luna Sasaki) even makes weapons practice romantic and she’s one of the most attractive warriors you could ever hope to thump you over the head.
In contrast, after dark, the lusty men of Clan Hannibal are dancing around a stripper on top of a stage of oil barrels as if they haven’t seen a woman since the bomb exploded.
In case you’re wondering who’s preserving the last vestige of humanity, Clan Hadrian gets a sunny morning scene to Ahead By A Century.
All this could be mildly comical and I’ll admit there were points when the athletic repetition of some ensemble dancing inspired thoughts of a cardio workout class, but Grand-Maitre ties the scenes to the songs (So Hard Done By makes the stripper scene an early highlight), The ensemble co-ordination is strikingly beautiful, even as the dancer’s excellent moves set aside classical ballet pointe footwork for more athletic leaps akin to kick-boxing moves.
The choreographer wisely alternates dances with several male-female duos throughout the show balancing the intimacy and tribal think, just as the choice of songs brings stark contrasts of a softer, warmer acoustic mood to the high action of noisy electric numbers.
This isn’t the first time that contemporary dance has been served up by four-four rock grooves and electric guitar but it
works.
A sense of doom develops as things head toward an inevitable confrontation. Along the way, Wheat Kings adds beauty to a sun-drenched ensemble scene. Locked In The Trunk of A Car plays behind a violent abduction, and At The Hundredth Meridian sets the tone for the final battle. The close is as bright and hopeful as ballet gets.
Hip fans may miss one or two faves — remember the songs were picked to set the story — though a quick check finds that 14 of the ballet’s 20 songs are in The Hip’s hits package Yer Favourites. The band’s guitarist Rob Baker offered his enthusiastic thanks after seeing the show in Calgary last week.
My only real critique is that post-apocalyptic clothes should probably look a bit more ragged.
And I’m guessing that the chorus of Ahead By A Century is going to be looping through my brain for the next week but there are worse things. If civilization ever actually ends we should be so lucky if it looks and sounds anything like Alberta Ballet’s All Of Us.