Upstairs, Downstairs

I was at The NAC on Friday to watch a 3-piece recital from BC Ballet. Ballet companies usually don't tour Toronto with the exception of some well-known Russian or American troupes. Possibly deterred by the presence of The National Ballet? So this was my first time seeing another Canadian ballet company. It turned out to be mostly underwhelming.

The most exciting piece was a new work from Crystal Pite titled The Statement. This was the main reason I was in attendance. It seemed perfect for the Nation's Capital since Ottawa is synonymous with politics and machinations. Set around a boardroom desk, a company has discovered that their attempt to extract financial profit in an area mired in regional conflict has back-fired. Now the business unit involved need to do spin control and the higher-ups were also there to make sure they said the right things or, failing that, somebody will take the fall.

I saw a post online that made things retrospectively obvious to a non-dancer like myself. Some people dance to the beat and some dance to the lyrics. Pite's choreography had the four performers moved to the speeches and inner thoughts of the protagonists. At first, these steps that gave expression to every word and phrase seemed almost cartoonish or parodic: tiktok dance memes taken to extreme causing the audience to laugh good-naturedly. But as both the dancing and the situation got more and more dire, we became engrossed with the work. Its theme was timely and the choreography was exciting and provocative. The standing ovation when it finished was well-deserved.

The book-end pieces were less interesting. Artistic Director Waleski's GARDEN was anemic and for me, hit all the tropes of contemporary ballet: an "evocative" classical score (Saint-Saens' Op. 14), various pas de deux and trois, people standing around or running on stage and then running off, and dramatic lighting. I also noticed more sloppiness in the dancing compared to The National Ballet. Their closing signature piece Bedroom Folk was also a let-down from The Statement. It was almost entirely unison dancing with a "ballet-meets-Fosse" choreography set to EDM-esque music. Ironic since despite her quartet piece tonight, Pite is the one known for using unison and formation dancing in large ensemble to overwhelming effect. There was no such awe with Bedroom, which dragged on for too long, except perhaps that these dancers can dance on-beat for 20 minutes.