CONTEMPORARY DANCERS TAKE OFF FROM THEMES OF ACCEPTANCE, ELVIS
If you think contemporary dance is a little too ethereal for your tastes, you might be surprised to know that Star Wars, Elvis Presley and video games helped inspire one of Canada’s most celebrated choreographers, China-born Wen Wei Wang.
A recent check-in with the busy dance man who currently splits his time between Edmonton and Vancouver found that he’s been dreaming of dance.
“I’ve been working 12-hour days lately,” he chuckles. “That’s when I start to dream about it.”
Those long hours and dancing dreams reflect the fact that the renowned choreographer currently has at least four projects of contemporary dance to be staged in coming weeks or months.
First, there’s Dialogue, happening this weekend as part of the Brian Webb Dance Company season at MacEwan’s Triffo Theatre, featuring Wang’s own Vancouver-based Wen Wei Dance group.
Next week sees the premiere of Futureland, when Wang harnesses the full company of Alberta Ballet at the Jubilee Auditorium for a work that takes off from video game reality.
In May, he uses Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as the soundtrack for the final part of his first season heading up Ballet Edmonton. Finally, there’s another piece he’s been working on with his own company in Vancouver.
“It’s going well and the company is working very hard,” he says. “I’m excited about the new works.”
Where does his inspiration come from and how does each work go from conception to fruition? Find out below with a snapshot of upcoming dance works from Wang, as well as two more works from Alberta-based dance masters as part of Alberta Ballet’s next presentation, running Feb. 22-23, titled de.Vi.ate. DiaLogue, by Wen Wei Wang Forces: Five male dancers of Vancouver-based Wen Wei Dance. Duration: Multiple solo, duo and group sections over 65 minutes. Music: Pop songs Wang selected from iTunes, ranging from Elvis Presley to Leonard Cohen.
Genesis: Five years ago, premiering two years ago in Vancouver.
Concept: “I was asking myself, when people come to this multicultural, diverse country, how do we communicate and understand each other? We all have different backgrounds and a lot of people don’t speak English as their first language, so we’re all isolated in a way, all strangers.”
Inspiration: Wang draws in part on his own life experience. After reaching the top rung of dance in China he came to Vancouver in a cultural exchange at age 21, in 1986. His experience with several of Canada’s top dance companies led to the establishment of Wen Wei Dance in 2003.
Connections: “It kind of comes from my life experience but politics right now deal with a lot of issues like refugees and immigration. Of the five dancers most of them come from different countries and backgrounds — one from Iran, another from Italy. Underneath it’s about acceptance and tolerance.”
Action: Multiple costume changes take in the character’s days and nights, a bar setting, and a fight sequence where one person is branded a terrorist. The dancers were encouraged to come up with their own spoken word content.
Shoes: No classical pointe shoes, but one dancer toys with gender images by wearing high heels.
FutuReLanD, by Wen Wei Wang
Forces: Alberta Ballet’s full company, encompassing nearly 30 dancers.
Duration: Approximately 26 minutes, in seven sections. Music: Tracks from various video games.
Genesis: “When Alberta Ballet approached me three years ago I started out picking music from video games, and watching them I realized how they reflect so much about our lives, what’s going on and where we’re going next, where the future is. It’s a whole new world for me.”
Concept: Wang’s experience with martial arts plays into the concept, since war is a theme in the video games presented.
Appearance: Costumes and makeup designed with an Asian esthetic, no pointe shoes.
Connections: “In ideas for costumes I was thinking a bit about Star Wars.”
Work hours: A month of listening to music and conjuring up dance moves, plus four weeks working with the dancers.
Landscape: “It’s about how groups come together and break apart. Towards the end they’re just walking in these patterns, I don’t know how I made it, but it’s still fresh three years later.”
sixth bReath, by ChRistopheR anDeRson, assoCiate aRtistiC DiReCtoR, aLbeRta baLLet
Forces: Seven female dancers, on pointe.
Title: Sixth Breath turns out to be Anderson’s sixth commission, and his third for Alberta Ballet.
Duration: Approximately 25 minutes, featuring three musical movements alternating with two silent interludes.
Music: Italian composers Ezio Bosso and Ludovico Einaudi touch on a minimalist esthetic.
Genesis: Anderson’s first commission from scratch without any suggested theme, ordered last year.
Inspiration: “I assembled the dancers that I best collaborate with to see what came together,” Anderson says. “After working on The Sleeping Beauty I wanted to address the challenges dancers face and how you can struggle to fit in. So there’s an undercurrent of how life’s struggles can be beautiful and artistic. More than any piece I’ve worked on, the direction is driven by the dancers.”
Costumes: Designed by dancer Heather Thomas, “they move with the piece.”
Action: “I wanted to infuse it with a performance art aspect.”
Message: “I wanted to inspire dialogue and conversation and demonstrate where ballet can go, but it’s open to interpretation by the audience.”
CaeLestis by Jean gRanD-MaitRe, aRtistiC DiReCtoR, aLbeRta baLLet
Forces: Five principal male-female couples from the company, all in pointe shoes.
Duration: “Thirty intense minutes of absolute challenges for the dancers musically, emotionally and especially physically,” in three movements.
Title: Latin for the infinite sky, the root of celestial.
Genesis: Commissioned by the National Arts Centre for Canada’s sesquicentennial in 2017.
Music: The first orchestral score commissioned for Alberta Ballet was nominated for a Juno Award, by Edmonton composer Andrew Staniland (now based in St. John’s, Newfoundland).
Concept: “I was really obsessed with this idea of humanity dissolving into technology, spiritually and physically. It’s an abstract theme that really sparks choreographic ideas.”
Inspiration: The Fibonacci Sequence in mathematics, also seen throughout nature as “the golden curve” or “golden ratio,” found everywhere from Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing to photos of galaxies.
Connections: The choreographer and composer were both inspired by the golden ratio. Once he found that out, Grand-Maitre says “I knew it had to involve multimedia.”
Visuals: Projected animation by Oscar-nominated Calgary filmmakers Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis hits the floor and backdrops of the stage, with stage lighting hitting dancers from the sides.
Effects: “It’s based on the beginning of life, the beginning of thought and mathematics, and visuals that evolve around the dancers like they’re swimming in an aquarium,” says Grand-Maitre. “It’s like a ritual, based on very profound themes, unlike anything I’ve been able to do before. The third movement is this gorgeous fugue that follows the Fibonacci theorem. Andrew’s music gave me a lot of colour and texture, and a clash between brutality and beauty.”
Message: “It’s about how ballet can capture what happens today.”