CANADA’S
ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET ANNOUCES
CHIC NEW LINE-UP FOR 72nd ANNIVERSARY SEASON
Winnipeg, Manitoba (February 23, 2011) – You can’t go online these
days without seeing pointe shoes and pirouettes. Ballet is everywhere! It’s in
the movies, in Top 40 music videos, even advertising executives are putting
ballet dancers at the centre of nation-wide commercial campaigns. There can be
no doubt that ballet is showing a resurgence in
popular culture. At Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, however, we believe that
that the art form is timeless and evergreen. The beauty, grace, magic and
intrigue of ballet on stage are not fleeting or faddish. They are qualities
that have charmed audiences for centuries from Russia to Rome--and for 71 years
in Winnipeg, Canada.
“Is ballet making a comeback? Ballet never left!,” says André Lewis, RWB’s Artistic Director.
On behalf of André Lewis, Jeff Herd, RWB’s Executive Director, announced the RWB’s 72nd anniversary season in Winnipeg earlier today. A perfect blend of old and new repertoire, classical and contemporary styles, familiar artists and new faces, the RWB’s 2011-2012 season will touch the hearts and minds of Winnipeg audiences.
Svengali World Premiere
Visions of
Glitter and Doom
October 19-23,
2011
Choreography –
Mark Godden
Music – Sergei Rachmaninov, Franz Liszt, Amsterdam Klezmer
Band
Costume Design –
Paul Daigle
Scenic Design –
Andrew Beck
Lighting Design
– Pierre Lavoie
Based on the
novel Trilby by George du Maurier
Yearning for public recognition, Svengali escapes the repression of his mother’s ballet studio to decadent cabarets reminiscent of mid-century Weimar, where he finds the beautiful and malleable young dancer, Trilby. Under Svengali’s entrancing influence, Trilby is transformed into the darling of the ballet world, but her star ultimately rises beyond Svengali’s powerful emotional grasp.
This complex psychological drama will unfold with riveting choreography by the creative powerhouse behind RWB’s Dracula, and shades of Maddinesque irreverence, as Svengali’s deepest family secrets are revealed. You’ll be mesmerized!
Nutcracker
Holiday Treat
for All Ages!
December 21-28,
2011
Choreography –
Galina Yordanova & Nina Menon
Music – Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Costume Design –
Paul Daigle
Scenic Design –
Brian Perchaluk
Lighting Design
– Michael J. Whitfield
With the
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
“The charming holiday favourite still glitters more than a Christmas bauble.” -- Uptown Magazine, 2010
Nutcracker is back to bring joy and warmth to your winter season! This classic yuletide tale with its gorgeous Tchaikovsky score has been wrapped in festive Canadian imagery and adorned with generous ribbons of fantasy and fun. This turn-of-the-century story is set in a stately mansion on Winnipeg’s Wellington Crescent where, after all the guests have left the grand dinner party, young Clara’s Christmas dreamworld comes to life. The beloved cast of characters is back – dancing mice, the Sugar Plum Fairy, toy soldiers and a mischievous dessert-stealing bear. Sparkling holiday fun for the whole family!
Giselle
Classic Ballet
Meets the Supernatural
March 7-11, 2012
Choreography – Peter Wright, after Jules Perrot, Jean Coralli and Marius Petipa
Music – Adolphe Adam
Scenario – Théophile Gautier and Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges
Produced by – Peter Wright
Scenic & Costume Design – Peter Farmer
Lighting Design – Nicholas Cernovitch
With the
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
“Joy, innocence, betrayal, death and salvation are conveyed in floating or vital images which are always beautiful, and often tremulously fragile.” -- The Edmonton Sun, 1995
Long considered one of the most beautiful and haunting of all classical ballets, the full-length masterpiece Giselle returns after more than a decade’s absence. This timeless work will have a fresh face with elegant, lush new sets and costumes and RWB’s thrilling dance virtuosity.
Set in the twilight spirit world of the Wilis, the German legend tells the story of a young peasant girl’s love for a nobleman and her ultimate betrayal at his hands. Giselle’s heartbreak and despair lead to her tragic demise, but she and the other jilted village girls seek their revenge from beyond the grave as irresistible spirits of a deathly dance.
Pure Ballet
Fluid
Motion Virtuosic
Dance
May 9-13, 2012
Luminous
Choreography
– Peter Quanz
Music – Marjan Mozetich
Costume
Design – Anne Armit
Lighting
Design – Robert Mravnik
“Absorbing… masterly choreography…” -- The Financial Times, 2010
From the internationally-acclaimed choreographer and RWB alumnus Peter Quanz, whose In Tandem wowed New York audiences at the Guggenheim Museum last season, comes a gorgeous new work that explores romantic relationships at different stages in life. Playful, intimate and poignant, the moonlit ballet is “by far the finest new work commissioned by Hong Kong Ballet …[in] two decades...” (Kevin Ng, The Financial Times, 2010). The award-winning Quanz has created for the world's leading ballet companies including the Kirov Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Britain’s Royal Ballet.
The
National Ballet of Canada - 60th Anniversary Tour
Provocative
& Inspiring
October 4, 2011 – One Night Only
Celebrating its 60th Anniversary, The National Ballet of Canada brings its proven excellence to Winnipeg for the first time in over a decade with this exciting evening of mixed repertoire.
the second detail
Choreography – William Forsythe
Staged by – Jill Johnson
Music – Thom
Willems
Costume, Scenic and Lighting
Design – William Forsythe
White Dress Design – Issey Miyake
"As violent, hard-edged, and energizing as New York City, as weirdly stylish as the set's Issey Miyake dress or the Paris of Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva..." -- The Globe and Mail, 1993
"It is a masterpiece by an American genius working at the peak of his powers." -- The Washington Times, 1992
One of the most sought-after of contemporary ballet choreographers, the great provocateur William Forsythe challenges ballet traditions with inspiring new paradigms. This is ballet with attitude, featuring an electronic score and hard-edged, playfully physical choreography. Penelope Reed Doob of The Globe and Mail (1991) called this a “brilliant cacophony of creativity” with movement that is “polished, virtuosic, finely honed.”
the second detail is a gift from The Volunteer Committee, The National Ballet of Canada.
Other Dances
Choreography – Jerome Robbins
Music
– Frédéric Chopin
Costume
Design – Santo Loquasto
Lighting
Design – Jennifer Tipton
Recreated
by – Nicole Pearce
This piece was originally created for Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1976 for a gala benefit for the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York. With simplicity and virtuosity, Other Dances features the Romantic lyricism of Chopin and the fluidity of classical ballet technique. This extended pas de deux has been heralded as “sheer magic” by the New York Times and an “unforgettable tribute to Chopin” by Ballet Magazine.
Performed with permission of The Robbins Rights Trust.
Emergence
Choreography
– Crystal Pite
Original
Commissioned Score – Owen Belton
Scenic
Design – Jay Gower Taylor
Costume
Design – Linda Chow
Lighting
Design – Alan Brodie
“A beautifully crafted, mysterious, impressionistic piece that … can also stand as a metaphor for human existence.” -- The Globe and Mail, 2009
This riveting, dark-hued work casts a swarming group of dancers, insect-like, in a fascinating subterranean universe. The award-winning Crystal Pite explores the instinct for creating social forms through innovative, organic movement, infused with atmospheric palettes of sound and tone. Emergence has won four Dora Mavor Moore Awards and critical acclaim across the country.
Emergence is generously supported by Gail Hutchison.
Ballet
in the Park
July 27-29, 2011
A summer tradition since the late 1970s, Ballet in the Park attracts thousands of Manitobans and summer tourists to Assiniboine Park’s Lyric Theatre for complimentary performances by the RWB Company and the RWB School Professional Division.
Subscribe to an incredible season of dance in 2011-2012 with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet starting March 9, 2011. Buy early for the best seats! Subscriptions range from $132 to $288 and are available through the RWB Customer Service Office at 380 Graham Avenue or by calling (204) 956-2792 or 1-800-667-4792.
Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet acknowledges and thanks the Canada Council for
the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Winnipeg Arts Council, Arts
Stabilization Manitoba and The Winnipeg Foundation for their ongoing
support.
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For more information, to arrange interviews, or for access to high-resolution images and video footage, please contact:
Kate Hodgert
Publicity Manager
Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet
khodgert@rwb.org
380 Graham Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3C 4K2
(204) 957-3447
www.rwb.org
