Le Ballet national du Canada

Angels’ Atlas

Aperçu

Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite created Angels’ Atlas for The National Ballet of Canada in mars 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 new work from one of the world’s leading contemporary choreographers.

Crystal Pite: Dans le studio

5 Things About Crystal Pite

Cinq choses à savoir

1. 1The 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. 
    
2. 2A 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.”
    
3. 3Pite 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.
    
4. 4Two ethereal choral works bookend Belton’s score: Tchaikovsky’s liturgical Hymn of the Cherubim and Morten Lauridsen’s contemporary work, O Magnum Mysterium. Pite chose vocal works in part because they are tied so irrevocably to the body.
    
5. 5Angels’ Atlas won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2020: Crystal Pite for Outstanding New Choreography and Jay Gower Taylor for Outstanding Achievement in Design.

Voir la galerie

Le chorégraphe

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 Composers

Canadian composer Owen Belton incorporates a range of acoustic and electronic instruments in his music together with found or common sounds. His many scores for dance have been performed by Kidd Pivot, Ballett Frankfurt and Nederlands Dans Theater, among others. Belton also performs as a singer-songwriter with the band Lost Hombre.

Morten Lauridsen is an American composer of choral music, former Composer-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (1994 – 2001) and professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. In 2007, he received the National Medal of Arts for “radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth.”

Le compositeur russe de la fin du XIXe siècle Pyotr Ilyich Tchaïkovski a créé certaines des œuvres les plus populaires du répertoire classique, en particulier ses trois partitions complètes pour le ballet : Lac des cygnes, La Belle au bois dormant et Casse-noisette. Son œuvre comprend des opéras complets, plusieurs symphonies et des concertos.

En savoir plus

A Note from Crystal Pite

Five Things About Crystal Pite

Critiques

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

“A glimpse into the infinite... Angels’ Atlas explores the human condition to rapturous choral music and ingenious lighting design.” — The Globe and Mail

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

Sérénade

Aperçu

Created in 1934, Serenade was George Balanchine’s first original ballet created in the US and one of many he set to the music of his beloved composer Tchaikovsky, in this case the beautiful, mournful Serenade for Strings, Op. 48. Aujourd’hui, Sérénade est une œuvre emblématique de Balanchine, notamment pour sa scène d’ouverture inoubliable – un groupe de femmes se tenant ensemble, têtes tournées avec un bras levé vers le ciel.

Cinq choses à savoir

1. 1George Balanchine created Serenade for students at the School of American Ballet, an institution he co-founded with Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Warburg, and was first performed at the estate of Felix Warburg in White Plains, New York on 10 juin, 1934. Destinée à servir de leçon aux élèves, Sérénade est aujourd’hui une œuvre emblématique du New York City Ballet, la compagnie que Balanchine a dirigée jusqu’à sa mort en 1983.
    
2. 2Balanchine reworked Serenade throughout his career and changed the costumes numerous times before choosing Barbara Karinska’s iconic blue tutus in 1952. Originally the dancers wore tunics and in another design they wore hats.
    
3. 3The National Ballet of Canada first performed Serenade in 1962, introducing the company and its audiences to one of Balanchine’s pivotal works when he was still at the helm of New York City Ballet and very much a modern choreographer.
    
4. 4One of the most striking elements of Serenade as it exists today was not part of the original version. Balanchine a décidé plusieurs années plus tard, tout en travaillant avec celles jouant les rôles féminins principaux, que les femmes devraient danser avec leurs cheveux lâches dans le mouvement final.
    
5. 5Music is everything in a Balanchine ballet and particularly so in Serenade, where Tchaikovsky’s score sets the mood and impels the movement. Balanchine a déclaré : « La seule histoire est celle de la musique, une sérénade, si l’on veut, à la lumière de la lune. »

Voir la galerie

Le chorégraphe

Né à Saint-Pétersbourg, George Balanchine, co-fondateur et directeur du New York City Ballet, est l’un des chorégraphes les plus célèbres et les plus prolifiques du XXe siècle. On lui attribue le mérite d’avoir révolutionné le style du ballet classique pour ouvrir une nouvelle ère dans des œuvres d’une musicalité et d’une esthétique sans précédent.

Le compositeur

The late 19th-century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky created some of the most popular works in the classical repertoire, particularly his three full-length scores for ballet: Lac des cygnes, La Belle au bois dormant et Casse-noisette. Son œuvre comprend des opéras complets, des symphonies et des concertos.

Critiques

« Merveilleusement interprété par le Corps de Ballet, une compagnie majoritairement féminine, qui a démontré à quel point les femmes du Ballet national sont fortes. » – The Globe and Mail

« Toujours aussi bon malgré ses 70 années d’existence… grâce, en grande partie, à la compétence et au dévouement des artistes du Ballet national du Canada » — Toronto Star

« L’un des chefs-d’œuvre du ballet du 20e siècle » – Toronto Star

Tanya Howard and Guillaume Côté in Soul.

Video Interlude: Soul

In lieu of intermission, the National Ballet will screen Soul, a beautiful work created for film by Canadian choreographer Jera Wolfe for the company’s virtual season in 2020/21. Soul explores the insular beauty of personal relationships through two duets set to the same piece of music, All Human Beings by Max Richter. The film, directed by Paul McNulty, was edited to show only half of each six-minute duet, leaving the remainder of the choreography unseen. This reinforces Wolfe’s theme that every relationship is a world unto itself and can never truly be known from the outside. This poetic film features Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté and First Soloist Tanya Howard, and Principal Dancers Harrison James and Ben Rudisin.

Ballet Talk

Crédits

Angels’ Atlas

Chorégraphie :
Crystal Pite

Musique originale :
Owen Belton

Additional Music:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Opus 41, No. 6: Cherubic Hymn
Morten Lauridsen, O Magnum Mysterium

Reflective Light Backdrop Concept:
Jay Gower Taylor

Reflective Light Backdrop Design:
Jay Gower Taylor and Tom Visser

Conception de l’éclairage :
Tom Visser

Conception des costumes :
Nancy Bryant

Adjointe au chorégraphe :
Spencer Dickhaus

Premiere: The National Ballet of Canada, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, 1 mars, 2020

Réalisé et commandé par Le Ballet national du 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.

Le Cercle des producteurs : Gail & Mark Appel, John et 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 et Maxine Granovsky Gluskin, The William & Nona Heaslip Foundation, Anna McCowan Johnson & Donald K. Johnson, O.C., Judy Korthals et Peter Irwin, Mona et Harvey Levenstein, Jerry & Joan Lozinski, The Honourable Margaret Norrie McCain, C.C., Julie Medland, Sandra et Jim Pitblado, C.M., The Harry & Lillian Seymour Family Foundation, Gerald Sheff et Shanitha Kachan et The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation.

Sérénade

Chorégraphie :
George Balanchine

Mise en scène par :
Joysanne Sidimus

Musique :
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings, Op. 48

Conception des costumes :
Barbara Karinska

Conception de l’éclairage :
Ronald Bates

Premiere: American Ballet, Adelphi Theater, New York City, 1 mars, 1935
The National of Canada Ballet Premiere: North Texas State University, Denton, TX, 17 octobre, 1962

The performance of Serenade, a Balanchine^® Ballet, is presented by arrangement with The George Balanchine Trust and has been produced by arrangement with the Balanchine Style^® and Balanchine Technique^® Service standards established and provided by the Trust.

Soul

Chorégraphie :
Jera Wolfe

Musique :
All Human Beings, Performed by Max Richter, Kiki Layne & Mari Samuelsen
Courtesy of Decca Records, under exclusive license from Universal Music Canada Inc.

Conception des costumes :
Wardrobe Department, Stacy Dimitropoulos, Wardrobe Supervisor

Conception de l’éclairage :
Jeff Logue

Répétiteur:
Rex Harrington, O.C.