Dance Victoria Footnotes 46 (Winter 2014)

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Dance Victoria’s subscriber newsletter

ISSUE  • WINTER  • BalletBoyz + Nutcracker + Studio News + more

Dance at the Royal BalletBoyz® The Talent November 14 + 15 • Fri + Sat • 7:30 pm Royal Theatre Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes (incl. intermission)

Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet + Victoria Symphony Nutcracker December 5 + 6 • Fri + Sat • 7:30 pm December 6 + 7 • Sat + Sun • 2:00 pm Royal Theatre

BalletBoyz in Serpent. Photo © Hugo Glendinning

Running Time: 2 hours (incl. intermission)

Videos, + photos fo in e r mo web on the

 Footnotes • Issue  • Winter 

Fifteen Years Ago Hard to believe that 15 years ago, at this time, I was putting together

Dance Victoria brings the world’s best dance to the Royal Theatre and fosters the development of new dance at its studios in Quadra Village.

Dance Victoria is a non-profit charitable society.

Dance Victoria Board: President

Paul McNair

Vice President

Robert Milne

Secretary/ Treasurer

Regan McGrath

Directors

Mary Desprez Dr. Allana Lindgren Kari McLay Lynda Raino John B. Shields

Staff: Executive Producer

Stephen White

General Manager

Bernard Sauvé

Operations Manager

Shireen McNeilage

Technical Director

Holly Vivian

Production Consultant

Cameron Stewart

Graphic Design

Rayola Creative

Advertising Sales

Bonnie Light

Publicity

Ovation PR

Trips Coordinator

Bill Hamar

my first season of what was then called The Victoria Dance Series. I had just taken the reins from Douglas Durand, who had launched the series three years earlier. When I fast forward to today, I have to say I am so thrilled by the way the community has embraced and supported what we do at Dance Victoria. If you are new to our family this year, welcome. You’re among friends.

The Dance at the Royal series is the gateway to Dance Victoria. It is the biggest thing we do each year, but I encourage you to get to know us better through our other programs.

In January each year we partner with dance studios and teachers all over town to bring you Dance Days—a ten-day event that features scores of free dance classes for the adult beginner and intermediate dancer in genres as different as ballet and belly-dance or Bollywood and ballroom.

We also cluster a series of performances around Dance Days: smaller-scale contemporary works, many of which have been developed at Dance Victoria Studios in Quadra Village, supported by our residency program. In fact, February 5 through 7, at the Metro Studio Theatre (Quadra at Johnson) we are particularly excited to be presenting the World Premiere of a collaboration between Vancouver’s Wen Wei Dance and the Beijing Modern Dance Company called Made in China.

We encourage you to join us at our studios for Rough Cuts, informal studio showings of new dance works in progress where you meet and mingle with the artists creating the work. We’re proud to partner with BOUNCE Dance and Physical Theatre Cabarets featuring new short works by local artists performed in three separate events at Dance Victoria Studios in the new year.

There is a whole world of dance at Dance Victoria, so please don’t be a stranger. Visit our website, sign up for e-news and stay in the loop. We don’t want you to miss a step! FN

Studios and Office: 111 – 2750 Quadra Street Victoria, BC V8T 4E8 250-595-1829 DanceVictoria.com for trailers, tickets and more information Footnotes is written by Stephen White (unless otherwise noted) and proofed by Anne Moon..

Wen Wei Wang in Made In China. Photo © Chris Randle

If you’d like to volunteer for Dance Victoria please call 250-595-1829

DanceVictoria.com • 

Welcome (Back) to Dance Victoria!

Your patronage means a lot to us and we look forward to having you with us this year. Here are a few tips to help maximise your experience with Dance Victoria.

• Let us get your name right. If it is spelled incorrectly or something’s wrong with your address call us or send an email to Shireen at info@dancevictoria.com and we’ll correct it right away.

• At any time during the year you can buy extra tickets to any show and get the subscriber price (20% off). Just tell the box office you want the “Friend of Subscriber” price.

• Please don’t wear scented products at the theatre. Several of our patrons are sensitive to perfumes or even allergic to the chemicals that are combined to make scents.

• No babes in arms in the theatre. Just like you, we love them, but they are unpredictable little bundles.

Through the year we will be notifying our subscribers about special events at Dance Victoria Studios, such as Rough Cuts, dance cabarets, intimate performances of new works or updates about casting and pre-show chats for our Dance at the Royal series. To minimize marketing costs and maximize the fees we pay artists, we’d like to tell you about them by email.

Take a moment to email us at info@dancevictoria.com and tell us that you’d like to be included in updates. We will not trade or sell your contact information and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Pre-Show Chats Presented by Join us in the lobby at 6:50 pm for a chat about the evening’s performance throughout the season.

RWB’s Nutcracker Join us 45 minutes (1:15 pm for the matinees and 6:45 for the evenings) before the show for Nutcracker Story Time.

Professional storyteller Jim Leard recounts the tale of Clara’s magical evening with zest and zeal.

Pay Your Age Dance Victoria is very proud of its Pay Your Age program, open to anyone aged 12 to 29. We’re also grateful for the support from Il Terrazzo Ristorante for this initiative. Do you have a young friend who would like to attend a Dance Victoria performance but simply can’t afford to? Tell them they can Pay Your Age. Three weeks prior to each performance, Pay Your Age tickets are made available. There are limited numbers so the trick is to act fast. “Like” us on Facebook or follow our Twitter feed to learn when you can buy Pay Your Age tickets at the box office.

Also — did you know we have $29 tickets available for most shows this season?

Dance Victoria is brought to you by…

There are some new faces in the office this year, so please, when you see them in the lobby at the Royal, don’t be shy, say “Hi.”

General Manager Bernard Sauvé

Operations Manager Shireen McNeilage

Bernard recently moved from Vancouver where for  years he had been Senior Partner and Part Owner of Eponymous Inc., a cluster management company he co-founded to assist artists and companies working in Canadian dance. He acted as General Manager, Touring Manager and Canadian Agent for a number of sought-after companies such as Kidd Pivot (Crystal Pite), Wen Wei Dance, The Holy Body Tattoo, Lola Dance and many more. He also brings experience as Associate Producer of Dance House, a Vancouver dance presenter that programs an annual season at Vancouver Playhouse. In addition, Sauvé spent two years in Ottawa as a Program Officer in the Dance Section at the Canada Council for the Arts. Sauvé started his career as a professional dancer with Ballet BC.

Shireen has happily returned to Victoria after an extended stay in Sydney, Australia and is thrilled to begin her journey with Dance Victoria. Many of her formative years were spent dancing and singing, and professionally she has worked in the arts for 15+ years including an eight-year engagement as Resident Stage Manager at Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre.

Recently, Shireen has worked for Arts on Tour NSW (Australia) as Touring Manager, Sydney Festival as Crewing Coordinator, and RMTS as Assistant to the Producer on the Royal McPherson Centennial Festival. Shireen brings a suitably wide-ranging tool kit to the role of Operations Manager. FN

 Footnotes • Issue  • Winter 

BalletBoyz, Really?

Pillow. It was these images and Shawn’s history that inspired the next generation of BalletBoyz.

Shortly after returning to the U.K. in 2010 Nunn and Trevitt held open auditions and hired their first company of men and “fasttracked” their training, putting them through their paces in a sort of ballet boot camp. Once again, they commissioned works from leading choreographers and began to tour that work, winning accolades and awards. Their performance in Victoria will be the first time the company has visited Canada.

And as for the name? In 1999, a British television station interviewed Nunn and Trevitt in an insider “video diary-style program” devoted to the male dancers’ experience at the Royal Ballet. The program was called Ballet Boyz and was wildly popular. Shortly after leaving the Royal Ballet, the name stuck. Nunn and Trevitt were consistently referred to in the press as the Ballet Boyz, so they figured, why fight it? “[At the time] we thought BalletBoyz sounded rubbish,” says Trevitt.

BBoyz Choreographers Connections to the Royal Ballet abound. The original BalletBoyz trained at the Royal Ballet School as did the two choreographers whose works are on the program in Victoria.

Canadian-born Russell Maliphant joined the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (the ballet’s touring company, now the Birmingham Royal Ballet) after finishing his training. He left the company in the early 1990s to become an independent dancer. He studied anatomy, physiology and biomechanics and in 1996 established his own small company where he continues to develop work outside the numerous commissions he undertakes at the world’s leading dance companies. His piece, Fallen, created for BalletBoyz in 2013, won the prestigious Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best New Choreography.

Liam Scarlett is the new hot property in the world of dance. He too trained at the Royal Ballet School and danced in the company. In 2012, at the age of 26, he became the Royal Ballet’s first Artist in Residence. He has already choreographed extensively for his home company but also has pieces in the repertoire of Miami City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, the Norwegian National Ballet and more, for which he’s earned a fistful of awards. FN BalletBoyz in Fallen. Photo © Mark Barrs

Let’s be honest. The company’s name sounds commercial. The promotional images are overtly sexual. If you visit the BalletBoyz website, it’s very clear that the ten dancers are positioned as rock stars, speaking directly to the camera all tousled hair, bedroom eyes and five o’clock shadow. It seems like the marketing department has run amok.

Where is the art?

But when you look at the history of the Boyz you begin to see a natural evolution and you also learn that, despite all the commercial trappings, there is art at the core of what they’re doing.

When the founders of BalletBoyz, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, walked away from their positions as principal dancers at the Royal Ballet in 2001, a writer for the Guardian said they were “lippy, irreverent and brash. They trashed many of the clichés surrounding men in their profession.” For starters they were a couple of straight guys dancing together. When they struck out on their own they hired leading professionals to work with them and their fresh, muscular approach to ballet became a phenomenon. They are credited with bringing a whole new look to ballet. Both Nunn and Trevitt have been awarded the Order of the British Empire.

At age 40, nearing the end of their dancing careers, Nunn and Trevitt performed one last time at the renowned American dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow (profiled in this issue) in rural Massachusetts. The Pillow was established by 20th century modern dance pioneers Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Shawn bought the original farm in 1931 and over the next decade established an all-male dance company whose members helped build many of the original facilities when not rehearsing and performing. Today, photos of those young brawny men from the original company decorate the walls of the Ted Shawn Theater at the

DanceVictoria.com • 

Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet

Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Nutcracker. Photo © Vince Pahkala

Nutcracker

These days ballet companies treat Nutcracker, much like theatre companies approach Shakespeare, updating the story or setting the ballet in a different time period. There’s the famously dark Matthew Bourne (British choreographer) version set in an austere Dickensian orphanage wherein a wealthy couple descend on the home and select a young Clara and Fritz to take home for Christmas. When the party’s over, the kids are returned, much in the way unwanted gifts are taken back to the store on Boxing Day. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s version is wholly Canadian. Set in 1913, just before the outbreak of war in Europe, this Clara lives in large house on the banks of the Red River. Her dream world includes RCMP officers, a snowy-pond hockey game and more. There’s even a friendly bear that makes an appearance at the Christmas party.

Of course, whatever angle a choreographer takes with the story, thankfully, very few mess with the timeless score by Tchaikovsky, which is played live, of course, by the Victoria Symphony.

Nutcracker Ensemble Sponsored by

This year’s ensemble of local kids is being taught their steps by Nanaimo-based Jennifer Quibell, a graduate of the National Ballet of Canada’s three-year teacher’s training program. This is no small

order for Quibell, who is also training Nutcracker ensembles in Nanaimo and Vancouver, dividing her time among the three cities and keeping it all straight! Victoria’s cast includes 36 kids from nine different local studios, who are being put through their paces at Dance Victoria Studios.

Nutcracker Kids Supported by

Every year, we ask the community to help us send underprivileged kids to the opening night of Nutcracker. A $60 contribution from you buys two tickets that are then offered to families at Big Brothers Big Sisters and (new this year) Women’s Transition House. The good news is that it’s not too late to donate.

For many of the kids, Nutcracker will be their first experience of live performance and it’s doubly wonderful for them because the event includes the orchestra. After the performance we take the kids backstage to meet the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Nutcracker Prince and other dancers and they can stand centre stage and look out to the auditorium.

To donate, call us at 250-595-1829 or visit DanceVictoria.com and click on “Support Us.” The kids will love you for it! FN

ď˜ž Footnotes • Issue ď˜źď˜ž • Winter ď˜şď˜šď›œď˜ź

A Midsummer Dance Dream It’s every dance lover’s dream—all dance, all the time, in one of North America’s most beautiful settings—but only in summer.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival offers an intense program of dance (500 artists, 52 dance companies, more than 200 free events) and dance education over 10 weeks, using two indoor theatres and an outdoor gem of a stage, set against the backdrop of Massachusetts’ Berkshire Hills. It’s the continent’s longest-running dance festival, and a US National Historic Landmark.

This year’s ticketed offerings ranged from Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet, which has danced in Victoria, to the edgy Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group. At no charge—other than the blood lost to hungry mosquitoes—are performances on the Inside/Out stage featuring student dancers or small experimental troupes. It’s glorious to eat a picnic while watching potential Karen Kains find their legs.

Along with dance comes a free museum devoted to dance: This year’s feature exhibit was of vintage dance movie posters, along with a treasure trove of books and dance videos. Want to know how Anna Pavlova died as a swan? You’ll find her feathery finale here.

There are dozens of free lectures (called Pillow Talks, of course) and tours—telling the story of how Ted Shawn (1891-1972) founded Jacob’s Pillow 81 years ago. Two years earlier Shawn (a Martha Graham disciple) and his dancer wife, Ruth St. Denis, had bought a rundown farm that had been called Jacob’s Ladder since colonial times. A rock in the centre of the 200 acre site was called Jacob’s Pil-

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low, both references from Genesis.

But don’t be daunted by the size of the site. There is ample parking, with golf carts to ferry the not-so-spry and theatres just a hop, skip and jetÊ away from each other. Take bug spray and a picnic for the unticketed Inside/Out experience. Or dine at the pub or the posher Pillow CafÊ and Barre—reservations essential.

We enriched our visit by becoming a member. For $60 US we got special entrĂŠe to receptions and a rehearsal and first crack at buying tickets. The theatres are small and there are chances to mingle with the dancers at warm-ups and post performance. How else would I learn that the mother of one Harlem Dance Theater artist came from Quesnel, BC? Should you want more cultural variety, the Boston Symphony Orchestra spends its summer nearby at Tanglewood Festival, there are historic sites galore and some significant art galleries. And it is 10 minutes from a premium outlet mall!

If your timing is right you can catch the New York City Ballet or other visiting dance companies at the cavernous Saratoga Performing Arts Center, a 90 minute drive from Jacob’s Pillow. Next door is the National Museum of Dance.

The sad fact is you need a car. Accommodation is some miles from the site and there is no public transit. You fly into Boston or Albany and rent a car there. FN – Anne Moon www.jacobspillow.org www.spac.org www.dancemuseum.org

DanceVictoria.com • 

Night Moves is Movin’ on Up!

List Your Property with

Sponsored by

Dance Victoria is very happy about a program launched by DFH Real Estate in 2013. Ten per cent of the agent’s commission on any listing and/or sale that comes from a Dance Victoria patron is paid to Dance Victoria. Thus far, two sales have brought significant new revenue to us. So please, if you’re in the market to buy or sell, call DFH at 250-4777291 and mention Dance Victoria. Visit the DFH table at all Dance at the Royal series events for more information on the program.

Dance Victoria’s cool program for the 25 to 45-year-old urban professional is kicking it up a notch this season. Over the past two years, Dance Victoria has offered a discounted ticket to selected performances and added a pop-up after-party at a funky location that features specialty cocktails, a DJ and, as guests of honour, the dancers from the evening’s performance.

In the spirit of go big or go home, this year we are offering a massively reduced price on a four-show subscription package that includes the parties and other social events. Go to DanceVictoria.com or “like” the Night Moves Facebook Page to learn more.

Supported by

and

Chrystal Dance Prize In April, 2015, Dance Victoria will award a $27,000 Chrystal Dance Prize. The prize, western Canada’s largest dance award, is supported by a generous bequest from Dr. Chrystal Kleiman (held at the Victoria Foundation). The Chrystal has been developed to support projects or studies by western Canadian dance artists (MB, SK, AB, YT, BC) who are working with an international artist or studying at an accredited program outside Canada. Look for the proposal call and application online at DanceVictoria.com starting in early January.

New Sponsors Dance Victoria welcomes four new sponsors to its growing family of private sector support. Brown Henderson Melbye Family Law (BMH Lawyers) are the presenting sponsors of RWB’s Nutcracker. Cameron Izard Snell Professional Accountants (CIS Tax) are presenting sponsors of Ballet West’s Triple Bill. Fashion retailer Tulipe Noire is the sponsor of our Post-Show receptions. Metrics Chartered Accounting is the sponsor of the Night Moves program. A big thank you to these folks and of course to our returning sponsors.

Dance Victoria Hosted Tours Travel partner

Dance Victoria’s Trips Coordinator Bill Hamar puts together carefully crafted cultural tours that have proven to be extremely popular with our subscribers and their friends. The two-week tour to Argentina and Chile in April, 2015, sold out in 24 hours.

Two other tours are filling up fast: Our five-night Boston tour (early May) and 16-night tour to Prague, Vienna and Budapest (late May/early June) have a few spots left. If you’re interested in learning more you can call Bill at 250-5951803 or email William.Hamar@visiontravel.ca. The itineraries for these two tours are available on DanceVictoria.com FN

 Footnotes • Issue  • Winter 

Coming Soon Presents

DANCE VICTORIA DANCE DAYS Presented by

January 24 – February 1

Cherish: An Intimate Evening of Dance Saturday, January 24 • 8:00 pm

ODC Dance’s Waving Not Drowning. © 2008 RJ Muna

ONE NIGHT ONLY Dance Victoria Studios (2750 Quadra Street) NOW ON SALE!  Limited Seating Phone 250-595-1829 • Tickets $65

Nine days of free dance classes. Hard to walk away from.

The complete guide to free classes, workshops, studio showings and performances available online at DanceVictoria.com, January 10.

ODC/DANCE (San Francisco) Presented by

Triangulating Euclid Waving not Drowning (A Guide to Elegance) January 29 + 30 • Thursday + Friday • 7:30 pm Royal Theatre Exclusive Engagement! Canadian Premiere! Ten dancers in two works that are wry, witty and utterly compelling.

Imagine, in the intimacy of Dance Victoria Studios, a group of extremely talented artists performing a mixed program of solos, a duet and one trio. Victoria’s celebrated dancer Jung-Ah Chung in a choreography by Vancouver’s Jennifer Mascall, an award-winning solo entitled Leftovers created and performed by Josh Martin (Vancouver’s 605 Collective), a duet from Constance Cooke’s newest work Liminal, a new solo choreographed

by Ballet BC’s artist-in-residence Dario Dinuzzi, and a hauntingly beautiful trio danced by three artists from San Francisco’s ODC Dance. Never again will these exceptional artists from Victoria, Vancouver and San Francisco be assembled to perform together on a mixed bill program. Meet KT Nelson, Co-Artistic Director of ODC Dance and mingle with the artists at a champagne reception to follow. Catering by Truffles.

Made in China WORLD PREMIERE February 5 – 7 • Thursday – Saturday • 7:30 pm Metro Studio Theatre (Quadra at Johnson)

A charitable tax receipt will be provided for a portion of the ticket price.

A fundraising event for Dance Victoria Society

Tickets: $30. Phone the box office at 250-386-6121

Dance Victoria Studios seating risers purchased with support from the BC Arts Council and the Greater Victoria Savings Credit Union Legacy Fund

WEN WEI DANCE + THE BEIJING MODERN DANCE COMPANY

Featuring dancers Wen Wei Wang (Vancouver) and Gaoyan Jinzi (Beijing), the piece includes live music by Qui Xia He (Silk Road Music Ensemble) and video installation

by Sammy Chan. A deeply personal work, the four performers reflect on their common experiences growing up in China during Mao’s cultural revolution.