From soup to the Nutcracker
T.S. Warren
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Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal's The Nutcracker
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December dance menu more like a Christmas feast
While dance in December is invariably overshadowed by ballet's timeless warhorse The Nutcracker, Ottawa audiences also have several contemporary performances on their plate this month, from an intimate encounter with choreographer Louise Bédard to the quirky Talk Show.First, bring on the warhorse: First performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1892 and an audience favourite ever since, two versions of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker are set to trot out their sugarplum charms.
The biggest and the best is Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal's gorgeous two-act production at the National Arts Centre accompanied by the NAC orchestra, December 7-10 with evening and matinee performances. Choreographed by GBC's Fernand Nault, it remains one of the most truly enchanting versions of ballet's Christmas fantasy tale. The onstage cast of 135 is augmented by dozens of young Ottawa dancers who appear on stage as mice, rats, angels and reindeer. At press time, some tickets remain (613-755-1111).
Smaller but charming owing to its youthful company, the version of The Nutcracker from Toronto's Ballet Jörgen, choreographed by company founder Bengt Jörgen, makes its annual appearance at Centrepointe Theatre till December 17 (www.centrepointetheatre.com).
But enough sugar. At Le Groupe Dance Lab, major Quebec choreographer Louise Bédard wraps up their fall season December 8-9 at Arts Court Theatre
with an exploratory work on mood and ambience followed by questions from the audience (613-235-1492).Arts Court provides the venue a few days later for Talk Show, December 12-14, an original multidisciplinary performance by Ottawa's collective (gulp) dance projects tackling media and celebrity culture. It's created and performed by Alexis Kate Andrews and Elizabeth MacKinnon with art objects by Uta Riccius (613-564-7240).
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| Le Groupe Dance Lab's Louise Bédard |
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A few days later, December 15-16, Arts Court welcomes the future with Traces, two evenings of new choreography created for, and performed by, the 14 students of the School of Dance's contemporary training program. Montreal's Emmanuel Jouthe and Ottawa choreographers Lana Morton, Yvonne Coutts and program director Sylvie Desrosiers created the dance works. Senior students Simon Desrosiers and Christel Bourque will perform their own self-choreographed solos. Tickets: 613-238-7738. And this just in: The DanceAbility Performing Group will be at the Nepean Creative Arts Centre Theatre, December 14 at 7 p.m., with 18 dancers and original musical compositions by Dominique Saint-Pierre. DanceAbility is a mixed-ability arts program of the School of Dance open to all. Tickets available at the door (613-240-9775).
Though still in its embryonic stage, XPress would like to salute Tara Luz, a new Ottawa contemporary dance company created by talented local choreographer Anik Bouvrette, whose work has been performed at the Canada Dance Festival as well as in Europe.
