About the Ballets

New Work by Crystal Pite Overview

Crystal Pite, the Olivier Award-winning choreographer of Emergence, returns to Toronto in March 2020 with a brand new work for The National Ballet of Canada. This highly anticipated world premiere comes as Pite gains international acclaim for riveting work that is both aesthetically inventive and deeply human. Often manipulating large groups of dancers, she is fascinated not only with pattern and space but also with the emotional register of the body and the stories that it holds.

Five Things about this World Premiere

• Crystal Pite created her first work for The National Ballet of Canada, Emergence, in 2009 as part of the Innovation programme featuring all Canadian choreographers. An instant success, Emergence swept the Dora Mavor Moore Awards that year, winning all four dance categories: Production, New Choreography, Sound Design and Performance.
   
• The National Ballet took Emergence on tour to Hamburg, Germany in July 2018 and to Moscow and St. Petersburg in October 2018 as part of the company’s first-ever Russian tour. Emergence is now in the repertoires of Pacific Northwest Ballet, Scottish Ballet and Ballett Zürich.
   
• Pite’s choreographic language balances abstraction with the poetry of human experience, blending classical elements with the freedom of contemporary dance. Emergence was the first piece Pite created for a large ballet company and her first to feature dancers in pointe shoes.
   
• Ensemble work is distinctive feature of Pite’s choreography. In Emergence, dancers pool and expand across the stage like swarming insects in an allusion to social hierarchies. In Flight Pattern, which Pite created for The Royal Ballet, the group conveys the enormity of the international refugee crisis.
   
• In September 2019, The Guardian named Crystal Pite’s Betroffenheit, a co-creation with playwright and actor Jonathan Young, the best dance show of the 21st century, praising it as a powerful study of grief and trauma.

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The Creator

A former dancer with Ballet BC 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 Theatre, London. Her company, Kidd Pivot, performs her original creations around the world.

Read Crystal Pite: More than Movement

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Reviews

“An image-maker of rare distinction.” —The Australian

“Pite structures her work with a thrilling intelligence” —The New York Times

Chroma Overview

The National Ballet of Canada first performed Chroma in 2010 to rapturous response, giving Toronto audiences an unforgettable introduction to Wayne McGregor’s visceral choreography. McGregor’s fascination with the body is front and centre in Chroma, where it assumes a level of architectural beauty against the enormous white space of the stage. Fusing John Pawson’s minimalist sets with startling physicality and an electronic score from Joby Talbot, Chroma is a multi-layered adventure in contemporary dance, thought and design.

Five Things about Chroma

• Renowned English architect John Pawson designed the sets for Chroma, his first for the stage. Wayne McGregor was inspired by Pawson’s book Minimum, which explores elements of minimalist architecture, including space, light and proportion.
   
• “Chroma” is a Greek word for colour or freedom from white. In this ballet, the dancers’ bodies – clothed in flesh-coloured costumes – become “chroma” relative to the stark white sets, where they move without any visual interruption.
   
• Light is an important element in the stage design. Lighting designer Lucy Carter uses variations in light to change our perception of the space, particularly the opening at the back of the stage, which seems to change in size and distance.
   
• English composer Joby Talbot created the score for Chroma by combining original music with orchestrations of songs by indie rock duo, The White Stripes. Talbot also created the scores for two ballets in the National Ballet repertoire by Christopher Wheeldon, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale.
   
• Wayne McGregor often incorporates science, technology and other forms of art in his work and he has pursued collaborations in opera, film, stage, fashion and visual art. He was movement director for the film Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire and he has choreographed music videos for Radiohead (Lotus Flower) and Atoms for Peace (Ingenue).

The Creator

English choreographer Wayne McGregor has gained international recognition for his kinetic, interdisciplinary approach to dance. He is Artistic Director of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Artistic Associate at Sadler's Wells Theatre and since 2006, Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet – the first contemporary choreographer ever to hold this position.

Read Chroma – Inside the Ballet

The Composer

English composer Joby Talbot has written widely for opera and dance. His collaborations include Wayne McGregor’s Chroma and Entity, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, both co-productions between The Royal Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada.

Reviews

“Chroma is a dazzling example of cutting-edge, pushed-to-the-extreme ballet.” —The Toronto Star

“Chroma clearly ranks among the greatest classics of contemporary ballet.” —The Globe and Mail

“Muscular poetry that socks you in the gut” —The Hamilton Spectator

Marguerite and Armand Overview

Sir Frederick Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand is as much a story about ballet as it is about Marguerite, the dying courtesan, and her lover Armand. Ashton created it in 1963 to showcase the legendary dance partnership of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev and it has been associated with them ever since. After 30 years with The National Ballet of Canada, Greta Hodgkinson will mark her retirement as Principal Dancer performing this storied ballet.

The Story

Dying from tuberculosis, Marguerite Gautier, a Parisian courtesan, reminisces on her love affair with the young man Armand. In a series of dreamlike flashbacks, she remembers falling in love with Armand and then abandoning him against her will, at the request of his father, who disapproves of the relationship. When Armand’s father reveals the true cause of their separation, Armand returns to Marguerite’s bedside where she dies in his arms.

Five Things about Marguerite and Armand

• The story is based on the 1848 novel by Alexandre Dumas, La Dame aux camélias, which he adapted for the stage. La Dame aux camélias also inspired Giuseppe Verdi’s 1853 opera, La Traviata.
   
• Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev were the only dancers to perform Marguerite and Armand during their lifetimes. Their debut performance at Covent Garden on March 12, 1963 was rewarded with 21 curtain calls! They performed Marguerite and Armand for the last time in 1977 when Fonteyn was 58.
   
• Marguerite and Armand was revived for the first time in 2003 with Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas Le Riche in the leading roles. Other star duos have followed, including Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin.
   
• The Fonteyn/Nureyev partnership was well-established by the time of Marguerite and Armand. To acknowledge this, set designer Cecil Beaton projected images of Fonteyn and Nureyev against the stage. He later removed them after facing criticism for overpromoting the dancers.
   
• Today, Cecil Beaton’s projections have returned to Marguerite and Armand and depict images of the dancers performing. Beaton is also noted for his golden cage, which serves as a visual reminder of Marguerite’s social imprisonment.

The Creator

Sir Frederick Ashton studied in England with the great dancers Léonide Massine and Marie Rambert. His distinct style has been preserved in his repertoire of cherished ballets, including A Month in the Country and La Fille mal gardée. He was knighted in 1962, made a Companion of Honour in 1970 and received the Order of Merit in 1977.

The Composer

Hungarian composer Franz Liszt was a virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period and he created an extensive repertoire of works for solo piano. He was also an acclaimed conductor, arranger, organist and writer as well as a notable humanitarian and philanthropist.

Reviews

“Lush Romanticism” —The New York Times

“The final pas de deux, as Marguerite lies dying in Armand's arms, is among the most moving in Ashton’s ballets.” —What's Onstage

Credits

New Work by Crystal Pite World Premiere

Choreography:
Crystal Pite

Set Design:
Jay Gower Taylor

Costume Design:
Nancy Bryant

Lighting Design:
Tom Visser

Assistant to the Choreographer:
Spencer Dickhaus

Produced and commissioned by The National Ballet of Canada

A Co-Production of The National Ballet of Canada and Ballett Zürich

Support for the World Premiere by Crystal Pite is generously provided by An Anonymous Donor, Rosamond Ivey, The Producers’ Circle, The Volunteer Committee of The National Ballet of Canada and The Gail Hutchison Fund.

The Producers’ Circle: 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 & 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 & Joan Lozinski, The Honourable Margaret Norrie McCain, C.C., Julie Medland, Sandra Pitblado & Jim Pitblado, C.M., Lynda & Jonas Prince, Susan Scace & Arthur Scace, C.M., Q.C., The Harry & Lillian Seymour Family Foundation, Gerald Sheff & Shanitha Kachan and The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation.

Chroma

Choreography:
Wayne McGregor

Staged by:
Odette Hughes

Music:
Joby Talbot and Jack White, The White Stripes

Set Design:
John Pawson

Costume Design:
Moritz Junge

Lighting Design:
Lucy Carter

Chroma is produced in association with The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

Marguerite and Armand Company Premiere

Choreography:
Frederick Ashton 

Staged by:
Grant Coyle

Music:
Franz Liszt

Orchestrated by:
Dudley Simpson

Set and Costume Design:
Cecil Beaton

Original Lighting Design:
John B. Read

Video Credits: 5 Things About Marguerite and Armand

Featuring: Greta Hodgkinson, Guillaume Côté. Music provided courtesy of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Musicians have been recorded by permission of the Toronto Musicians' Association, Local 149, American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada.