The inspiration for Compagnie Kafig’s latest dance performance of two intense, physical pieces – Correira and AGWA – was an encounter between founder, Mourad Merzouki and 11 young dancers from Rio de Janeiro. Recently, they performed on the Eric Harvie Theatre stage , and through broken English, a few Portugese words, and lots of French to fill in the blanks, Jiggy and Alessandro – two current company dancers – gave me a behind-the-scenes scoop on the creation of a the company’s new show. All photos by David Copithorne.
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Hear, feel, move, dance…
Choreographer Aszure Barton and composer Curtis Macdonald. Photo: Don Lee.
“Sound is vibration, vibration is movement … and movement is dance,” Curtis Macdonald says. “It’s all connected.” He’s talking about his latest project, collaborating with internationally acclaimed choreographer Aszure Barton to compose music for her new work, PROJECT XII.
Both of them have been in Banff for the past few weeks. Macdonald is an alto sax player, composer, and sound artist, and he’s been here with Aszure and dancers from her company, Aszure Barton & Artists, working six days a week on the new work, which is backed by The Banff Centre and a who’s who of partners, including The CanDance Network Creation Fund, National Arts Centre, Danse Danse, Canada Dance Festival, Le Grand Théâtre de Québec, La danse sur les routes, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
“There’s a subtle energy in the mountains that helps bring things to life,” Macdonald says. He’s been able to mix environmental recordings made at Lake Minnewanka and along the Bow River into the soundscape for PROJECT XII. He meets regularly with Barton and the dancers. “I sketch something, and bring a recording to their studio. They listen as they rehearse, which gives them a chance to absorb it, and then we have a dialogue about how it’s working. It’s a very organic process.”
PROJECT XII will premiere on June 8 at the 2012 Canada Dance Festival , but those of us in Banff will have the opportunity to attend a special late-night sneak preview on Saturday, June 2.
Guest post #2: Choreographer Robert Stephen
Choreographer Robert Stephen. Photo: Kim Williams.
The past four weeks have literally flown by. It seems like just yesterday I arrived in Banff and was presented with the daunting task of choreographing, rehearsing, and overseeing the performances of a 22-minute dance work – all in less than four weeks. Now that it’s all over, the whole experience seems to have been truly surreal.
First, I must mention the dancers. All 28 participants of this year’s Professional Dance program were exceptionally talented, and the 24 dancers with whom I worked on my piece, Hold Me, Neighbour, in this Storm, were just wonderful. The cast really became a great team, and each dancer put more heart, sweat and intelligence into this work than I had even imagined.
The Dance Masters ensemble in Hold Me, Neighbour, in this Storm by Robert Stephen. Photo: Don Lee.
The second element that worked out wonderfully was that one of my best friends, Curtis Foley, was able to join me for the entire process here at Banff. In his role in the Ballet Master Mentorship program, he shadowed the ballet faculty, taught a few company ballet classes, and acted as my assistant in all of my rehearsals for Neighbour. Despite our uncertainty entering into this arrangement, Curtis and I were very lucky to discover that we work extremely well together in the studio, in addition to being so close as friends.
The icing on the cake for both of us was being able to see all four performances of the Dance Masters evening. I was extremely pleased with the end result, and I owe a lot to everyone who was involved – the design, production, technical and artistic teams – for making it all come together so beautifully.
Now, back to reality…
Originally from Burlington, Ontario, Robert Stephen trained at Canada’s National Ballet School, and joined the National Ballet of Canada in 2004. He was promoted to Second Soloist in 2009, and to First Soloist in 2011. As an emerging choreographer, Stephen has created works for the Stephen Godfrey Choreographic Workshop, the National Ballet of Canada’s Choreographic Lab, the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre Concert Series, and Dance Ontario’s Dance Weekend, and the Ninth International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize. He is the most recent recipient of The Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Award in choreography.
Ballet behind the scenes
Since 2004, Karen Beames has spent summers in The Banff Centre’s costume shop, building, repairing, and managing all the boots and shoes for dance, opera, and theatre productions. The rest of the year, she splits her time between Canadian theatre companies like the Citadel in Edmonton, and the Stratford Festival. She’s one of a handful of skilled professionals working in our shop with workstudies in costume building, dying, millinery, wigs, and makeup. Dancers in this video are from our Dance Masters program – Esabelle Chen and James Applewhite - performing in this year’s Pas de Deux from Maurice Bejart’s Sonate No. 5.
Guest post: Choreographer Robert Stephen
The word “intense” doesn’t quite sum up the past week. Back home in Toronto, in my normal life as a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, I had just finished up a busy month of performing – in our new production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in a mixed program of Mozartiana and In the Upper Room, and in our annual fundraising gala – all culminating in a final run of Alice that finished last Saturday evening. The very next day, I got on a plane and made my way to Banff to jump right into the next project…
Choreographer Robert Stephen, in the studio with members of the Dance Masters company. Photo: Kim Williams.
I’m very excited to be at the Banff Centre as this year’s recipient of the Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award. I’m choreographing a new piece for the participants of the professional dance program, which will be presented in our performance, Dance Masters, July 20 to 23. This piece is set to an extremely beautiful piece of music called …hold me, neighbor, in this storm… by Aleksandra Vrebalov, performed by the Kronos Quartet. The music references traditional folk and religious themes from Central and Eastern Europe, and the composer’s notes on the work discuss how the cultural and religious differences that have led to centuries of conflict in that part of the world, strangely enough, produce incredible fusions in music. It’s a very powerful message and my aim is to create a simple and compelling work dealing with similar themes of conflict and coexistence.
The professional dance program at the Banff Centre, which usually runs for five or six weeks, this year has been cut down to four weeks, and that includes all rehearsals, tech runs and performances. So, considering the ambitious nature of the piece I have in mind, the dancers and I definitely have our work cut out for us. This year’s participants seem extraordinarily talented, and so far, have risen to every challenge. We’re barreling ahead at what feels like an insane speed – hence, the inadequacy of the word “intense” – but so far, it seems to be working. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Originally from Burlington, Ontario, Robert Stephen trained at Canada’s National Ballet School, and joined the National Ballet of Canada in 2004. He was promoted to Second Soloist in 2009, and to First Soloist in 2011. As an emerging choreographer, Stephen has created works for the Stephen Godfrey Choreographic Workshop, the National Ballet of Canada’s Choreographic Lab, the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre Concert Series, and Dance Ontario’s Dance Weekend, and the Ninth International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize.
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