Ballet Edmonton: Music in Motion

Co-produced by Dance Victoria and Victoria Symphony

April 23 • Sunday • 2:30 pm

April 24 • Monday • 7:30 pm

Royal Theatre

Tickets DanceVictoria.com or 250-386-6121

Giuseppe Pietraroia, conductor

Wen Wei Wang, choreographer

Dance Victoria partners with the Victoria Symphony each season to bring a gorgeous Nutcracker performed to live music, conducted by the beloved Giuseppe “Joey” Pietraroia. Now we’re partnering to co-produce a whole new Music in Motion program with the amazing artists of Ballet Edmonton!

Music in Motion features new choreography by Ballet Edmonton Artistic Director Wen Wei Wang to Max Richter’s treatment of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Wang is also collaborating with composer Ian Cusson to bring movement to his instrumental telling of the legend, Le loup de Lafontaine

Cusson is a composer of art song, opera and orchestral work. Of Métis and French-Canadian descent, his work explores Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures. This musical composition is inspired by Le loup de Lafontaine by Thomas Marchildon, a cautionary tale that takes place in the small French-speaking Ontario community of Lafontaine in 1902.

The Lafontaine community lies on the banks of Georgian Bay and has long been a meeting place of diverse peoples. During the time of Marchildon’s story, various settler and Indigenous communities lived in close proximity, rarely intermixing. Each had a deep mistrust of the other. When a wolf arrives, they unite with the common goal of ridding the community of the intruder.

However, the wolf isn’t the monster the people think it is. It is gentle with children, keeps to itself, and except for killing sheep for food, it does no harm. The wolf becomes the ultimate scapegoat: it is hunted and killed, with the community coming together to celebrate a Mass in honour of its death. The community is rid of the intruder and is united — but at a cost. The final tender moment of the work will resonate and linger long after the curtain falls.

In the fall of 2022, Wen Wei Wang shared with the Dance Victoria and Victoria Symphony teams, some of his early ideas for bringing this story to life through movement. They’re powerful, fascinating, and emotional. We cannot wait to experience the fusion of Cusson’s musical narrative, performed by the magnificent Victoria Symphony, married with Wang’s incredible choreographic vision.

In between the two dance performances in the program, the Victoria Symphony will perform Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite (Ma mère l’oye suite), his fond tribute to children’s fairy tales.

You can get a sense of what’s in store from Quattro, an earlier interpretation of The Four Seasons, set by Wang and performed by Ballet Edmonton, at vimeo.com/744795304. FN

Malpaso Dance Company Mixed Repertoire

April 28 + 29 • 7:30 pm

Royal Theatre

Tickets DanceVictoria.com or 250-386-6121

Lead Sponsors

A Victoria Premiere! Malpaso Dance Company from Havana, Cuba, comes to the Royal Theatre for the first time in April with a contemporary dance program of four works. Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin’s 30-year-old masterpiece, Tabula Rasa, has been reset on the company, with duos, trios and quartets of dancers, performing contemporary movement atop intentional storytelling. Indomitable Waltz by Brooklyn-based choreographer, Aszure Barton (who was born and raised in Canada), explores the emotional range of human relationships through black-clad figures that emerge from the dark to dazzle in the light, moving in and out of groups of ever-shifting sizes. Lullaby for Insomnia, by company founder and associate artistic director Daile Carrazana, is an intimate solo, inspired by the work of the pianist and singer Bola de Nieve, an iconic personality of Cuban culture while Mats Ek’s woman with water is a fascinating study of temptation.

Pre-Show Chats

Presented by

Join us in the lobby of the Royal Theatre at 6:50 pm before Dance Theatre of Harlem and Malpaso Dance Company at the Friday and Saturday performances — a lively conversation about the evenings’ works with members of the companies we’re presenting, hosted by Dr. Allana Lindgren, dance historian and Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria. Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director and founding member, Virginia Johnson, will be our pre-show chat guest on March 24 and 25. We’re so lucky to have her with us before she retires in June. Johnson has been the company’s Artistic Director for 12 years, preceded by a staggering 28 years as a company member and Principal Dancer.

For woman with water, the set is minimalist with a woman, a man, a green table, a pitcher of water, and a drinking glass. At one point, the woman pulls the green table with a bent foot; at another moment, standing with a curved back, she stares forebodingly at the glass of water on the table. She is cool and distant with the man who comes on stage after her and pours a glass of water, which she stares at forebodingly. Will she drink the water? What does this mean? The choreography is performed exquisitely to the atmospheric and discordant score by Swedish band Fläskkvartetten. woman with water always has audiences talking animatedly afterwards, with their personal interpretations of what this dance work could mean! We look forward to hearing your reactions to this work, and the whole Malpaso program, which will conclude our 2022/23 Dance at the Royal Season.

Interested in learning more? You can watch videos of the works in the Malpaso program at DanceVictoria.com FN

Support Local Dance Artists Through Our Spring 50-50 Raffle

50/50 tickets are on sale in the lobby of our performances at the Royal Theatre during intermission and after the shows. Proceeds from our raffle support the many artists whose projects are developed in Dance Victoria’s studios and then performed across the country and around the world. Tickets are also available at DanceVictoria.com

Tickets are $10 each or a book of five for $40. With fewer than 2,400 printed, your odds are great, plus you’ll be supporting Victoria’s vibrant dance community.

Total Number of Tickets: 400 @ $10, and 2,000 @ 5 for $40

Sales end: May 19, 2023, 5:00pm

Draw: May 23, 2023, 2:00pm

Draw Location: Dance Victoria Studios, 111–2750 Quadra Street, Victoria, B.C.

Chances are 1 in 2,400 (total tickets for sale)

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