About the Ballets

Etudes Overview

Set to piano exercises by Carl Czerny, Harald Lander’s Etudes turns the spotlight on ballet class as the foundation for brilliant performances. Over the course of one act, the dancers progress from simple barre exercises through increasingly challenging steps and variations to a thrilling finale. Created in 1948 for The Royal Danish Ballet, Etudes is Lander’s most popular work, a showstopping celebration of ballet technique.

Five Things About Etudes

• Etudes features 36 ensemble dancers and three soloists, one female and two male. Artistic Director Karen Kain performed the soloist role alongside former Principal Dancer David Nixon and Principal Character Artist Tomas Schramek when The National Ballet of Canada first performed Etudes on February 27, 1980.
   
• The ensemble dancers form the heart and soul of Etudes and part of the ballet’s power comes from their ability to move cleanly, quickly and in unison.
   
• There is no room for error in Etudes. Every dancer’s technique is on full display not only as the content of the piece, but also by virtue of the ballet’s design. In the opening scene, for example, only the dancers’ legs are illuminated. There is nothing to distract from the movement.
   
• The female soloist embodies different qualities of dance, including the lyricism of the sylph, a figure from the Romantic ballet La Sylphide, originally choreographed by Danish choreographer August Bournonville.
   
• Bournonville developed his own ballet style featuring quick footwork, rounded arms and a quality of lightness. Companies performing Etudes adopt elements of the Bournonville style, which is still the foundation of Danish ballet today.

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The Choreographer

Harald Lander was a dancer, choreographer and former Artistic Director of The Royal Danish Ballet, for whom he created more than 30 ballets. He was particularly interested in preserving the style and repertoire of August Bournonville, notably La Sylphide. Etudes is his most popular work.

The Composer

Carl Czerny was an Austrian composer and pianist of the early 19th century with an oeuvre totaling more than 1,000 works. He is best known for his piano studies, which are still in use for both piano teaching and ballet class today.

Reviews

“A quintessential homage to a dancer’s classical training.” —The Hamilton Spectator

Piano Concerto #1 Overview

Alexei Ratmansky’s Piano Concerto #1 is the third part of his Shostakovich Trilogy, which pays tribute to the embattled Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Each part evokes the drama of Shostakovich’s life under Stalinism as he struggled to reconcile his desire for artistic freedom with the demands of the state. Piano Concerto #1 contains some of the most abstract choreography in the trilogy and it stands alone as a work of great beauty and power.

Five Things About Piano Concerto #1

• Piano Concerto #1 had its world premiere at American Ballet Theatre on May 31, 2013 featuring Diana Vishneva, Cory Stearns, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in the leading roles. Artistic Director Karen Kain acquired it for The National Ballet of Canada in 2015.
   
• Alexei Ratmansky has admired the music of Shostakovich since he was a child and has set nearly 12 ballets to his scores, including two revivals of Shostakovich’s ballets, The Bolt and The Bright Stream.
   
• An acclaimed 20th century composer, Dmitri Shostakovich nonetheless fell in and out of favour within the Soviet Union. At times he was celebrated as the artistic voice of the people and, at others, he was vilified as an enemy of the state.
   
• Each part of The Shostakovich Trilogy is set to a seminal work from the composer, starting with his Symphony No. 9 and moving through the Chamber Symphony to the final piece, Concerto No.1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings.
   
• Rather than tell the story of Shostakovich’s life, Alexei Ratmansky evokes the qualities of conflict, fear, joy and repose that dominated the composer’s experience. Ratmansky is aided by George Tsypin’s spare designs, which feature images from Soviet ideology, such as hammers, stars and bolts.

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The Choreographer

Born in St. Petersburg, Alexei Ratmansky is a choreographer and former ballet dancer. He is Artist-in-Residence at American Ballet Theatre and former Artistic Director of Bolshoi Ballet. He has created new work for ballet companies around the world, including Romeo and Juliet for The National Ballet of Canada in 2011.

The Composer

Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. His body of work includes ballets, musical comedies and film scores in addition to classical chamber music. He endured periods of censorship and criticism in totalitarian Russia despite his success.

Reviews

“Fascinating, poetic, enigmatic and bittersweet… powerfully charged” —The New York Times

“Extraordinary... Ratmansky is so fluent in the language of ballet that he makes us understand it better” —The Globe and Mail

Petite Mort Overview

Petite Mort is a dynamic short ballet from the acclaimed Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián. Playing on sexual inuendo in the phrase “petite mort” or “little death”, a cast of six male and six female dancers move and spar with another in beautiful and unexpected ways, sometimes using fencing foils in allusion to the sexual dual. This is a ballet of couplings, a witty exploration of sensuality that blends modern and classical sensibilities.

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Five Things About Petite Mort

• Petite Mort premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 1991 on the second centenary of Mozart’s death. Jiří Kylián created it for Nederlands Dans Theater, where he served as Artistic Director from 1976 to 1999, and it has been a favourite for artists and audiences ever since.
   
• Petite Mort is set to the slow movements from two of Mozart’s most beautiful piano concertos, Nos. 21 and 23. They are of a different quality to some of the more exuberant choreography and for this reason they emphasize the ballet’s physicality.
   
• The dual reference to sex and death in the phrase “little death” – a euphemism for orgasm – appears frequently throughout literary history, from Chaucer to Shakespeare, the Romantic poets and beyond.
   
• Costume Designer Joke Visser created elaborate black gowns for Petite Mort that assume lives of their own. Visser is head of the costume department at Nederlands Dans Theater and, since 1989, has designed almost all of the costumes for Kylián’s ballets.
   
• Artistic Director Karen Kain worked with Jiří Kylián while she was a dancer with The National Ballet of Canada. He first visited the company in 1988 to set Forgotten Land, followed by Dream Dances in 1989 and Soldiers’ Mass in 1995.

The Choreographer

Jiří Kylián was Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans Theater for nearly 25 years. In 1991, he founded NDT 3, a company devoted to senior dancers. After his retirement in 1999, he served as Resident Choreographer until 2009. He has created more than 100 ballets for companies around the world.

The Composer

Born in Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most influential and popular composers of the 18th century classical period. His diverse body of work includes symphonies, choral music and his ever popular operas.

Reviews

“Petite Mort posits sex and death as metaphysical equivalents, with the steel-etched duets. …Kylián’s choreography merges a quivering, slicing ferocity with a baroque vocabulary of entwining, coiling seduction” —The Guardian

“It’s short, sweet, and funny, a real crowd pleaser.” —Critical Dance

Credits

Etudes

Choreography:
Harald Lander

Staged by:
Thomas Lund

Music:
Carl Czerny, arranged and orchestrated by Knudäge Riisager

Set Design:
Georg Schlogl

Lighting Design:
Harald Lander

Artistic Advisor:
Lise Lander

Etudes is a gift from The Volunteer Committee, The National Ballet of Canada.

Piano Concerto #1

Choreography:
Alexei Ratmansky

Staged by:
Felipe Diaz

Music:
Dmitri Shostakovich

Set Design:
George Tsypin

Costume Design:
Keso Dekker

Lighting Design:
Jennifer Tipton

Lead philanthropic support for Piano Concerto #1 is provided by an anonymous friend of the National Ballet and The Producers’ Circle.

The Producers’ Circle: John & Claudine Bailey, Susanne Boyce & Brendan Mullen, Gail Drummond & Bob Dorrance, Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan, Kevin & Roger Garland, C.M., Emmanuelle Gattuso, C.M. and Allan Slaight, C.M., The William & Nona Heaslip Foundation, Rosamond Ivey, Hal Jackman Foundation, Anna McCowan-Johnson & Donald K. Johnson, O.C., Judy Korthals & Peter Irwin, Judith & Robert Lawrie, 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., Sandra Simpson and Noreen Taylor, C.M. & David Staines, C.M., O.Ont.

Petite Mort Company Premiere

Choreography:
Jiří Kylián

Staged by:
Roslyn Anderson

Music:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Set Design:
Jiří Kylián

Costume Design:
Joke Visser

Lighting Design:
Jiří Kylián, Joop Caboort (Realisation)

Technical Consultant:
Joost Biegelaar

Video Credits: 5 Things About Etudes

Featuring: Heather Ogden, Guillaume Côté, Naoya Ebe, Harrison James, Koto Ishihara, Chelsy Meiss, Tina Pereira, Jenna Savella Kathryn Hosier, Jeannine Haller, Miyoko Koyasu, Tiffany Mosher, Calley Skalnik, Artists of the Ballet , Xiao Nan Yu, Guest Rehearsal Assistant, The Musicians of The National Ballet of Canada Orchestra.

Video Credits: Piano Concerto #1 Trailer

Featuring: Harrison James, Svetlana Lunkina, Artists of the Ballet.

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