Konvalina was first ‘Blue Man’

Among the four men who’ll perform Song of a Wayfarer next week, former National Ballet principal Zdenek Konvalina is the only one who’s danced it before — once.

Konvalina’s fans were disappointed when he left to join the English National Ballet in London last fall, but he and artistic director Karen Kain agreed to keep a connection.

Konvalina returned to dance in the National Ballet’s Western Canadian tour last fall, appeared as the Prince in the Toronto run of Sleeping Beauty in March, and is now back for Chroma and Wayfarer.

(Other male Wayfarer dancers include National Ballet principals Aleksandar Antonijevic, Piotr Stanczyk and Guillaume Côté.)

Before he joined the Canadian company in 2006, Konvalina was a principal with the Houston Ballet, where Maina Gielgud was associate director. Gielgud, who is staging Wayfarer for the National Ballet, was sure Konvalina would be perfect for the Blue Man role and proposed it for a 2004 gala. But first she had to convince choreographer Maurice Béjart, who guarded the work closely for his own company, to let Konvalina do it.

Having staged the work during her years with the Australian Ballet, Gielgud taught Wayfarer to Konvalina and Houston principal Andrew Murphy. Seeing a taped performance, Béjart gave his blessing and taped a message of guidance.

“What I remember most clearly is Béjart emphasizing that although it’s a technically demanding work, the effort is not supposed to show,” says Konvalina. “What’s important is not the steps themselves but transmitting feeling.”

Béjart used the poetic angst of Gustav Mahler’s much-loved song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen to fashion a duet for two men.

Wayfarer was a National Ballet staple throughout the1980s. Rudolf Nureyev himself danced it here with Frank Augustyn in1987, but it’s been out of the repertoire for more than two decades.

As for Konvalina, he still has two months of the English National Ballet’s season to complete.

“I don’t regret resettling in London, but I always hoped I could maintain a special relationship with the National Ballet of Canada,” Konvalina says.