A celebration of the Canadian arts
By Lois Elfman, special to icenetwork.com

(02/03/2010) - The Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver may not open until next Friday, Feb. 12, but various celebrations in the city are well underway. The Cultural Olympiad began on Jan. 22 and will run until March 21, featuring performances representing many aspects of the arts in Canada -- theatre, dance, film, music and a variety of visual arts.

On Feb. 13 and Feb. 14, the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet will perform together at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The National Ballet will perform "24 Preludes by Chopin" and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet will perform "Hikarizatto." The two companies will combine to dance "As Above, So Below." For those seeking a direct tie to skating, National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Sonia Rodriguez is married to three-time Canadian Olympian, four-time world champion Kurt Browning.

"The people at the Cultural Olympiad were very keen on us performing 'Hikarizatto,' which is actually perfect in relationship to the Olympics because it has a very athletic output to it and it's a great work," said Royal Winnipeg Ballet artistic director André Lewis.

He and Karen Kain, artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, decided "As Above, So Below," would allow for a seamless collaboration. The ballet is based on relationships and people connecting together.

"'As Above' is the perfect ideal relationship, where 'So Below' is whatever else happens," Lewis said. "'As Above,' which is a pas de deux set to 'Moonlight Sonata,' will be danced by two dancers from the National Ballet. We'll do the 'So Below.'"

Founded in 1939, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's premier ballet company and is the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America. Lewis joined the company in 1979 as a dancer. After retiring from dancing, he became the associate artistic director and he was appointed artistic director in 1996. The company has 25 dancers, which is quite large for a city the size of Winnipeg. All the dancers will perform at the Cultural Olympiad.

"A company of 25 dancers has been able to thrive in Winnipeg. Most companies our size would need to be in a city of around two or three million people, where we are 600,000 people," Lewis said. "Winnipeg has a tremendous level of support for the arts."

Their inclusion in the Cultural Olympiad began as a discussion and blossomed into an invitation. Lewis said the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is well known in Vancouver, as they have been performing there for around 60 years while on tour. Just last year, they added extra shows to satisfy demand for their highly praised ballet "Moulin Rouge - The Ballet," which they'll actually be performing in Victoria, BC next week just prior to their arrival in Vancouver.

"There's a strong connection," Lewis said. "They're used to seeing us on a yearly basis."

Next week's performances may have some decidedly different audience members than in the past, as visitors from around the world will be in Vancouver. The myriad of Cultural Olympiad events presented will give people a glimpse of the diversity of the arts in Canada.

"It shows that Canada is more than just snow," said Lewis. "Certainly, there's a great tremendous variety of expression in Canada. I think that's wonderful. I can't say it's unique to Canada because certainly a fair amount of countries do have a variety of dance companies from modern to classical to indigenous.

"Movement is a natural thing, and I can see that in my children who are 7 and 9," he added. "When you become a professional dancer, you take it a step further. That instinct to move and dance is certainly very powerful. The instinct to try and reach the highest level too in sports is something that is a natural part of who are."

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is currently on tour. They will have a day off in Vancouver after the performances and Lewis hopes to check out some of the Olympic festivities.

Lewis said he sees the Cultural Olympiad as a positive for Canadian arts, giving Olympic visitors and participants a chance to see how diverse their expressions are. Hopefully, new relationships, collaborations and partnerships may result.

"The arts are always looking for partnerships," he said. "How we can bring further expression through those connections.

"You want to bring quality. You want to bring expression that people can understand. And move forward as a society."

2 Canadian ballet corps join in Olympic gala
CBC News | Last Updated: Friday, February 12, 2010 | 12:16 PM ET

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada will present a contemporary, intensely physical image when they share the stage at the Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver.

Canada's two premiere classical ballet companies are presenting a joint Olympic gala Feb. 13 and 14 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver.

The program includes the National Ballet's critically acclaimed 24 Preludes by Chopin by Canadian choreographer Marie Chouinard, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's striking performance of Hikarizatto, by Dutch choreographer Itzik Galili in addition to As Above, So Below by former Winnipeg resident choreographer Mark Godden.
Royal Winnipeg's artistic director André Lewis said he and National Ballet's Karen Kain sought out pieces that reflected the physicality of the Olympics itself.

"The Olympics — it's about pushing the envelope, it's about going forward making it happen and seeking new boundaries and I think all those three pieces do fulfill that mandate to a strong degree," he said in an interview from Victoria where the RWB is on tour.

"It's still made for ballet dancers. It's still very classically inspired … but it's just looking at different ways of moving and I think both Karen and I are committed to that in our respective companies," Lewis added.

It's not often that the RWB and NBC share a stage — Lewis recalls only the Winnipeg ballet company's 50th anniversary 20 years ago and Expo 86 in Vancouver. It's too expensive and a huge logistical challenge to have companies working on completely different repertoires try to dance together.

24 Preludes by Chopin is a chance to show the depth of talent at the National Ballet as well as showcasing the work of a contemporary Canadian choreographer.
But the two companies wanted to find some way to collaborate.

The solution was Godden's As Above, So Below, a piece for seven couples based on love relationships, with all their ups and downs and unpredictability, that has two distinct parts.

"As Above is what we consider the ideal that we strive for and So Below is everything else that happens ... real life," Lewis said.

The As Above portion of the program, a romantic pas de deux, will be danced by National Ballet dancers Sonia Rodriguez and Piotr Stancyzk.

"It was designed that way — a pas de deux with music of Moonlight Sonata which is perfect for the pure, the ideal, the ultimate," Lewis says.

The two dancers rehearsed in Toronto separately, under the eye of choreographer Godden, and will come together with the Royal Winnipeg dancers, only on the Friday before their performance.

The RWB is on a tour of the U.S. and western Canada with its new ballet Moulin Rouge and several other works and that gives the entire company a chance to dance as part of the Olympiad.

"It's nice for dancers. They want to say 'I was part of the Olympics,' but not 'I was part of the Olympics but I didn't dance,'" Lewis said.

A Vancouver official asked about Hikarizatto when VANOC issued an invitation to the ballet company to participate in the Olympiad, he said. The work, created for the Stuttgart Ballet, debuted to ovations in Winnipeg in 2007.

Hikarizatto is striking, in part, for its use of light, Lewis said.

"The choreographer had been to Japan and had been struck by the amount of light there was in the city and that was one of the inspirations for that piece," he said. "It is quite fascinating the way he used light and the effect almost like a strobe feeling to the light itself — very effective and very powerful."

The mixed program has just two performances Saturday and Sunday in Vancouver.