NO LIE: PINOCCHIO COMES TO LIFE
National Ballet of Canada’s new production promises to be anything but wooden,
Just because the main character is wooden, don’t expect the National Ballet of Canada’s new production of Pinocchio to be.
British choreographer Will Tuckett promises that the ballet, which opens Saturday, will be filled with vivid characters, costumes and scenes drawn from the 19th-century children’s classic about a marionette that embarks on an eventful journey in the hopes of becoming a real boy.
“It’s very, very characterful. It should feel like a real story and piece of theatre, the language of which is dance,” said Tuckett, a former dancer who has created works for the English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet.
This is his first collaboration with the National Ballet.
“The way that we tell the story is dance, but the thing that drives it all the time is story and character,” Tuckett said.
And so, the choreographer has broken with ballet convention and given the dancers words to speak.
First soloist Skylar Campbell, one of the three dancers playing Pinocchio, says spoken language presents an interesting challenge, but it’s integral to Tuckett’s focus on acting as part of the dancers’ duties.
“The dialogue only enhances our characters’ movements or feelings and emotions. As a dancer, it’s something new and refreshing to have,” Campbell said.
“Working with Will, he’s brought a whole new dimension of what it means to be a dancer/actor onstage. Dancing like a puppet is not the hard part. I think it’s conveying the character’s growth with precise training and nuances that will really bring the puppet to life,” he said.
“It’s more than physically challenging. I think it’s the mental stamina that’s challenging in the production. There’s of course a lot of dancing, a lot of ballet, a lot of steps, but . . . I think it’s going to be one of the most mentally challenging roles I’ve done.”
Tuckett praised the National Ballet dancers as “properly a world-class company but, also, they’re great actors.”
“It’s a pretty full-on physical show. Nobody’s got time to get back to the dressing room and watch telly. There’s lots of scenes and characters. It’s a real action/adventure yarn,” he added.
Tuckett created an earlier version of the ballet about 15 years ago, and agreed to the request of artistic director Karen Kain to make an entirely new version for the National Ballet.
Helping to realize Tuckett’s vision is a fellow Brit, Colin Richmond, who is making his first foray into ballet after designing more than 75 productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, among others. The biggest hurdle for Richmond, which he called both “daunting and fun,” was creating a costume for a wooden main character that allows a full range of movement.
“Designing Pinocchio was a challenge in itself. Coming up with a character drawing was sort of the easy bit. The hardest bit is to make someone look like they’re made entirely of wood whilst still enabling the dancer to move freely,” Richmond said.
“There are various things which have to happen to Pinocchio throughout the piece — one being that his nose grows (when he tells a lie) — so we’ve had lengthy talks about how we would engineer that, again without hindering the performer.”
The result, Tuckett said, is impressive.
“Interestingly, it’s an incredibly unrestrictive costume. What’s amazing about (the costume) is that it looks like it’s made out of wood. There’s this kind of trompe-l’oeil painting on it and there’s a Lycra body suit underneath. But when you see it from even six feet away, it properly looks like a piece of wood. It’s quite unnerving.”
Richmond has supplemented the costume with foam pieces around the knees, elbows and wrists to enhance the character’s puppetlike qualities. Campbell said Richmond’s designs also ensure the production has a distinctly Canadian feel.
He “has brilliantly managed to come up with unique designs that are distinctly Canada, and it’s clear in every costume and piece of scenery,” Campbell said. The ballet, for instance, includes 23 lumberjacks, one Mountie, two beavers, one moose, four raccoons, one Nova Scotia lighthouse and two Niagara Falls tourists.
Campbell said Pinocchio would be an ideal entrée for those who’ve seldom or never been to the ballet.
“It’s a very theatrical production. For someone that doesn’t go to see ballet often, it’s a great first because it’s going to be constantly moving; all of the themes have been woven together effortlessly.” Pinocchio is at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W., March 11 to 24. See national.ballet.ca or call 416-345-9595 or 1-866-3459595.