Passion & islands & Angels' Atlas

Representing three groundbreaking Canadian creators, The National Ballet of Canada returns to the venerated Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, England for the first time since 2013. Artistic Director Hope Muir has curated an inspirating celebration of Canadian talent from the company’s recent repertoire, programming James Kudelka’s exquisite Passion alongside Emma Portner’s duet islands and Crystal Pite’s full company work Angels’ Atlas, with its mesmerizing light design and evocation of the human condition.

Passion

Overview

Created for Houston Ballet in 2013, Passion is a love story whose meticulous structure mirrors the music, the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano in D, Op. 61a. Two couples – one classical, the other contemporary – weave within the Corps de Ballet like musical themes, evoking complex relationships of passion.

Passion Trailer

Fast Facts

• Kudelka describes Passion as having three parts: two couples and the Corps de Ballet. He developed each part in a different studio to be a complete idea, saying: “It was very important, almost necessary, that each group not know what each other group was doing, so that everyone felt they owned the floor.”
   
• The ballet’s three parts are stylistically unique and align with the structure and mood of Beethoven’s music. One couple is contemporary and the other is classical, with the former exhibiting raw desire and the other more reserved.
   
• The contemporary couple closely follows the piano and their choreography is full of tension and passion. At times they appear to stalk one another around the stage.

Watch and Explore

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The Creator

James Kudelka served as Resident Choreographer of The National Ballet of Canada following his nine years as Artistic Director. He creates works of incredible musicality and vision for companies internationally, from original full-length ballets to short contemporary works and remounted classics. Kudelka was Resident Choreographer of Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie from 2008 to 2020.

The Score

Movement and music are deeply intertwined in Passion, set to the First Movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano in D, Op. 61a, a revised arrangement by the composer of his well-known violin concerto. As two couples perform simultaneously among the corps de ballet, the choreography illuminates the structure of Beethoven’s music while revealing the choreographer’s emotional and intellectual response to it. An unusual feature of the piece is the extended cadenza for solo piano and timpani.

Reviews

“Passion is a study in contrast – classic versus modern, romantic fantasy versus lusty reality.” – Houston Press

“At the emotional heart of the ballet is a starkly contrasted contemporary couple, similarly dancing in their own bubble. Their visceral attraction to each other is fraught and passionately unrestrained, cueing no-holds-barred athletic partnering.” – Dance International

islands

Overview

A sculptural duet for two women by Canada’s Emma Portner, a star on the international dance scene. islands was named a triumph when it premiered with Norwegian National Ballet in 2020, prompting an invitation to tour with the prestigious Dialogues festival alongside choreographic luminaries such as Crystal Pite and Jiří Kylián. An acclaimed work from a genre-breaking choreographer, islands is set to an eclectic compilation of music by contemporary artists Brambles, Guillaume Ferran & David Spinelli, Forest Swords, Lily Konigsberg and Bing & Ruth.

Fast Facts

• Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Portner trained at The Ailey School in New York City. She was already attracting attention as a choreographer before she was 20 years old and was named American Dance Award’s “Young Choreographer of the Year” in 2013.
   
• Portner is in high demand internationally. She creates for Netflix, late night television, professional dance and musicians, working on everything from Justin Bieber’s Purpose World Tour to music videos for Maggie Rogers.
   
• Portner is the youngest woman in history to choreograph a musical on London’s West End: Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, based on the album by Meat Loaf. It premiered in 2017, when Portner was 23 years old.

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Emma Portner's islands: Transforming the Story

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The Creator

Ottawa-born Emma Portner is an exciting voice in choreography today. She trained at The Ailey School in New York City, spent summers at Canada’s National Ballet School and is now Artist-in-Residence with Benjamin Millepied’s Los Angeles Dance Project. Portner also produces, manages and directs her own short films and dance company.

The Score

islands is set to a collection of existing music ranging from electronica to classical, eclectic pop and ambient sound for a mesmerizing and decidedly contemporary experience. Featuring musical selections by Brambles, Guillaume Ferran, Forest Swords / Matthew Barnes, Lily Konigsberg and Bing & Ruth.

Reviews

“islands is nothing short of a sensational introduction to Portner’s language of movement... More Emma Portner, please!” – Dagens Nyheter

“In islands, Emma Portner invents her version of the pas de deux, with two conjoined twins joined together by the belt who discover each other and combine their bodies.” – Le Figaro

Angels’ Atlas

Overview

Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite created the Dora Award-winning Angels’ Atlas for The National Ballet of Canada in February 2020 to rapturous reviews. The ballet unfolds against a morphing wall of light that carries the illusion of depth and a sense of the natural world. Here, the dancing body becomes a sign of humanity’s impermanence and – equally – its vitality within a vast, unknowable world.

Set to original music by Owen Belton and choral pieces by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Morten Lauridsen, Angels’ Atlas is a profound work from one of the world’s leading contemporary choreographers.

Angels’ Atlas Trailer

Fast Facts

• The impetus for Angels’ Atlas came from Crystal Pite’s partner and set designer Jay Gower Taylor who worked with lighting designer Tom Visser to develop an analog method of manipulating reflective light to create complex, painterly images. 
   
• A quote from writer and critic Max Wyman about dance greatly inspired Pite: “No other artform speaks so directly about the fragile, temporary quality of life, or about the human instinct to transcend those bonds and aim for that perfect moment of self-realization.”
   
• Pite wanted Angels’ Atlas to evoke “a fierce pulse of life.” She achieves this in part through the score, which includes electronic music by her longtime collaborator Owen Belton featuring samples of clicking sounds, voices, bells and a heartbeat.

Watch and Learn 

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The Creator

A former dancer with Ballet British Columbia and Ballett Frankfurt under William Forsythe, Crystal Pite is now a leading contemporary choreographer. She is Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells, London. Her company, Kidd Pivot, performs her original creations around the world. 

The Score

The ethereal score for Angels’ Atlas incorporates original music by Canada’s Owen Belton with two liturgical choral works composed more than 100 years apart: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Opus 41, No. 6: Cherubic Hymn and Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, which dates to 1994. The mystical quality of these works and their connection to the body through the voice makes Angels’ Atlas what one reviewer called “a religious experience

Reviews

“Human yearning is evoked powerfully onstage… Crystal Pite has a gift for bringing out the very best in dancers.” – Toronto Star

“Pite’s [Angels’ Atlas] seemed not only genius in its craftsmanship, but prophetic – a brilliant tragedy that defines a moment in history through music, lighting and movement” – The Globe and Mail

“Mind-blowingly good” – CP24

“Pite has created another masterpiece.” – Ludwig van Toronto 

“Angels’ Atlas ventures higher, into the celestial realm, to make us question the limits of knowledge and our own fleeting existence.” – Fjord Review

Credits

Passion

Choreography:
James Kudelka

Music:
Ludwig van Beethoven, Concerto for Piano in D, Op. 61A, First Movement

Costume Design:
Denis Lavoie

Lighting Design:
Michael Mazzola

Premiere: Houston Ballet, Houston, Texas, September 5, 2013

The National Ballet of Canada Premiere: Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, November 10, 2023

Passion is generously supported by The Gail Hutchison Fund.

islands

Choreography:
Emma Portner

Staged by:
Whitney Jensen, Samantha Lynch & Darlyn Perez

*Music:
Brambles, Guillaume Ferran, Forest Swords, Lily Konigsberg and Bing & Ruth

Costume Design:
Martin Dauchez

Lighting Design:
Paul Vidar Sævarang

Rehearsal Director:
Stephanie Hutchison

*Deep Corridor, from the album Charcoal (2012), Written by Mira Dawson
Performed by Brambles and under license from Xtra Sensory

George V
Performed by Guillaume Ferran & David Spinelli
Courtesy of SME France SAS 
By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment (Canada)
and Concord Music Group, Inc., www.concord.com. All Rights Reserved.

islands 1
Written and composed by Matthew Barnes and Performed by Forest Swords
Published by Just Isn’t Music Ltd (PRS), administered by Third Side Music

Rock and Sin, from the album 4 Picture Tear (2018)
Written and Recorded by Lily Konigsberg
Under license from Wharf Cat Records

Starwood Choker, as performed by Bing and Ruth
Written by David Moore
from the album No Home of The Mind (2017)
Licensed courtesy of 4ad LTD & By Arrangement of Beggars Group Media

World Premiere: The Norwegian Opera & Ballet, Oslo, Norway, March 7, 2020

The National Ballet of Canada Premiere: Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, March 20, 2024

Lead philanthropic support for islands is provided by The Catherine & Maxwell Meighen Foundation.

Angels’ Atlas

Choreography:
Crystal Pite

Original Music:
Owen Belton

Additional Music:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Opus 41, No. 6:  
Cherubic Hymn
Performed by Valery Polyansky and the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir. Courtesy of Firma Melodia Music Ltd.
Morten Lauridsen, O Magnum Mysterium
Used by Arrangement with Southern Music Pub. Co, Inc., Publisher and Copyright Holder
Performed by Polyphony conducted by Stephen Layton. Courtesy of Hyperion Records Ltd, London 

Reflective Light Backdrop Concept:
Jay Gower Taylor  

Reflective Light Backdrop Design:
Jay Gower Taylor and Tom Visser 

Lighting Design:
Tom Visser  

Costume Design:
Nancy Bryant  

Assistant to the Choreographer:
Spencer Dickhaus 

Premiere: The National Ballet of Canada, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, February 29, 2020 

Produced and commissioned by The National Ballet of Canada. 

A co-production of The National Ballet of Canada and Ballett Zürich. 

Philanthropic support for Angels’ Atlas is generously provided by An Anonymous Donor, Rosamond Ivey, Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin, The Producers’ Circle, The Volunteer Committee of The National Ballet of Canada and The Gail Hutchison Fund.  

The Producers’ Circle (2020): Gail & Mark Appel, John & Claudine Bailey, Inger Bartlett & Marshal Stearns, Laura Dinner & Richard Rooney, Gail Drummond & Bob Dorrance, The Thor E. and Nicole Eaton Family Charitable Foundation, Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan, Kevin Garland & Roger Garland, C.M., Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin, The William & Nona Heaslip Foundation, Anna McCowan-Johnson & Donald K. Johnson, O.C., Judy Korthals & Peter Irwin, Mona & Harvey Levenstein, Jerry Lozinski, O.C. & Joan Lozinski, O.C., The Honourable Margaret Norrie McCain, C.C., Julie Medland, Sandra Pitblado, C.M. & Jim Pitblado, C.M., The Harry & Lillian Seymour Family Foundation, Gerald Sheff & Shanitha Kachan and The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation.