A New Audience for Rhapsody

Sir Frederick Ashton’s Rhapsody is having its Canadian premiere more than 40 years after the ballet’s creation in 1980, kicking off The National Ballet of Canada’s 2024/25 season as part of an electric mixed programme. Rhapsody joins enduring classics such as The Dream and La Fille mal gardée in the National Ballet repertoire, as the company honours its relationship with one of the most lauded choreographers of the 20th century.

Artistic Director Hope Muir has acquired Rhapsody for Ashton Worldwide, an international festival celebrating Ashton from the 120th anniversary of his birth in 2024 to the 40th anniversary of his death in 2028. The National Ballet is one of 24 companies around the world programming Ashton’s work in their upcoming seasons, either as revivals or for the first time, with the goal of sharing his influence and legacy.

Ashton was a leading choreographer of his era with a distinctive poetic style preserved in more than one hundred ballets, including his unforgettable Sylvia, A Month in the Country and The Two Pigeons. Many were created for The Royal Ballet, where Ashton was Founder Choreographer. The National Ballet of Canada has a particularly long history with Ashton, having acquired a first ballet, Les Rendezvous, in 1956, just five years after the company was founded. Most recently, in 2020, the National Ballet acquired Marguerite and Armand to honour Greta Hodgkinson as she retired from her role as Principal Dancer.

Rhapsody extends this lineage and shows Ashton at his most virtuosic. Fast and chic, with dazzling footwork and luminous musicality, it was one of Ashton’s last ballets and among his most challenging. Not surprising, given Ashton created it for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lesley Collier. The bravura jumps and turns for the male lead were an ode to Baryshnikov’s legendary athleticism, while the clarity and control of the female lead played to Collier’s razor-sharp technique. In the absence of a story, the brilliant dancing takes the spotlight, married to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s music, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Principal Dancer Siphesihle November will follow in Baryshnikov’s footsteps as the National Ballet presents Rhapsody for the first time this fall. Siphe, who is performing with fellow Principal Dancer Tirion Law, points to a pas de deux he finds especially powerful. “There’s a moment toward the end of the ballet when the couple connects for the first time,” he says. “The music is so emotional. It’s a high point in the ballet and something to really look forward to.”

As for the ballet’s pedigree, Siphe says he is thrilled by it. “Dancing a role that was created for Baryshnikov and has been performed by many of my favourite dancers is exciting and a challenge that I embrace. I’m looking forward to sharing my technical abilities at this point in my career – to sharing the joy of dance. I hope the audience comes away feeling that.”

Rhapsody is onstage with Silent Screen & Body of Work November 9 – 16

Top Photo: Siphesihle November. Photo by Paul McNulty.