≈ 2 hours and 10 minutes · With intermission
Last updated: March 9, 2023
A Note From NAC's Executive Producer, Dance
Ballet Edmonton is emerging as one of Canada’s finest contemporary ballet troupes, and I’m thrilled to be welcoming them to the National Arts Centre for the first time! Wen Wei Wang took on the role of Artistic Director in 2018 and has been dedicated to building an original repertoire representing strong choreographic voices from Canada and beyond. Wen Wei moved from China to Canada in the early 90s where he continued his professional dancing career with the likes of Les Grands Ballets and Ballet BC before forming his own company, and, before long, was creating numerous commissions for other artists and companies. His extensive experience ideally places him to lead the transformation of Ballet Edmonton and to attract a diverse group of collaborating performers and choreographers. Wen Wei has curated a special program for this debut on the Southam Hall stage, featuring two of his original pieces as well as works by Diego Ramalho and rising Canadian star Dorotea Saykaly. We are in for a treat.
Enjoy!
A Note From Ballet Edmonton's Artistic Director
I am thrilled to bring Ballet Edmonton to the glorious Southam Hall Stage; this invitation is an honour for our company. This year we will visit theatres in six Canadian cities in our first national tour. In the spring, we bring the music of Métis composer Ian Cusson to life at Victoria’s Royal Theatre in collaboration with Dance Victoria and the Victoria Symphony. This tour ends with a final stop in Vernon, BC.
Tonight, we bring you a mixed program of four works, including two of my own and two by exciting new voices in contemporary ballet: Dorotea Saykaly and Diego Ramalho. I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone attending this evening. We are very happy to be sharing our work with you.
Program
Swan by Wen Wei Wang (18 min.)
(short pause)
Valei-me by Diego Ramalho (24 min.)
(Intermission-20 min.)
BLACK MOON by Dorotea Saykaly (24 min.)
(Intermission-20 min.)
Persistence of Memory by Wen Wei Wang (22 min.)
Program Notes
Swan
Choreography: Wen Wei Wang
Lighting Design: Dorrie Deutschendorf
Original Music: Sammy Chien
Costumes: Kate Burrows
Premiered at Ballet BC, 2017
Performers: Connor McLeary, Paula Cobo Botello, Adrian de Leeuw, Yoko Kanomata, Diego Ramalho, Matthew Wyllie
Swan by Ballet Edmonton Artistic Director Wen Wei Wang is a remount of the choreographer’s masterful piece, which first debuted with Ballet BC in 2017. Inspired by the iconic characters in Swan Lake, this breathtaking work highlights Wang’s capacity to move dancers in ways that exemplify the poise and grace of the balletic dancer while expanding the vocabulary of movement to tell a familiar story through a new lens.
“SWAN, choreographed by Wen Wei Wang, proved itself as a stunning, flawless endeavor that had its audience breathless by the time the curtain closed…” Lord of Dogwood - Review
Valei-me
Choreography: Diego Ramalho
Lighting Design: Dorrie Deutschendorf
Performers: Full Company
Valei-me contemplates how we are influenced by where we first “belonged.” The work explores how music lives in the nervous system and reflects an unconscious sense of identity connected to place. Brazilian music drives the narrative structure of this work.
“I want the audience to be free to bring their own ideas about what I am saying and imagine their own sense of place and belonging.” — Diego Ramalho.
BLACK MOON
Choreography: Dorotea Saykaly
Original Music: Riku Mätinen
Costume Design: Carla Romagnoli
Dramaturg: Emil Dam Seidel
Rehearsal Director: Yoko Kanomata
Lighting Design: Dorrie Deutschendorf
Performers: Full Company
BLACK MOON explores our complex relationship to faith by utilizing an archaic sci-fi approach to storytelling and strange image-making. On a search for light while having to accept comfort in darkness, the work is fueled by the contrasts between ease and desperation, gravity and weightlessness, brokenness and fluidity.
Persistence of Memory
Choreography: Wen Wei Wang in collaboration with the Ballet Edmonton dancers
Lighting Design: Dorrie Deutschendorf
Performers: Full Company
Persistence of Memory was created amid the 2020 pandemic when access to family, friends or audiences was not possible. Ballet Edmonton company members formed a closed cohort and our studio became a place of safety and sanctuary where we explored the idea of our need for human contact. This work was initially created as a film and reimagined for the stage.
“As the pandemic stretched to the whole world, billions of people were separated from each other, isolated in their own spaces. Art has kept us connected; it shortens the distance between us and provides comfort, encouragement and hope.”— Wen Wei Wang
Artists
Wen Wei Wang has presented his work across Canada, South America and Italy, as well as in China at the Beijing National Performing Arts Center and with the Beijing Modern Dance Company at the Shanghai Grand Theater. Wen Wei has choreographed twelve original works for his Vancouver-based company, Wen Wei Dance, as well as for Alberta Ballet, Canada’s Ballet Jörgen, Ballet BC, Ballet Kelowna, NW Dance Project, Les Ballets Jazz Montréal, Arts Umbrella and Simon Fraser University. He has also choreographed dance sections for the Vancouver Opera and the San Francisco Opera for their piece, Nixon in China. In 2013, Wen Wei was awarded the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award. In 2018 Wen Wei was invited to be a choreographer with the China National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing for its production of Hamlet.
Born in Mococa SP, Brazil, Diego was invited to be a member of Coastal City Ballet Company in Vancouver in 2013, where he performed in ballets such as Swan Lake, Giselle, Cinderella, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as working with contemporary choreographers such as Wen Wei Wang, Joshua Beamish, and Erica Trivet. He joined Ballet Edmonton in 2018 and has danced the work of Joshua Beamish, Rachel Meyer, Gioconda Barbuto, Shay Kuebler, Serge Bennathan, Karissa Barry, and Andrea Peña and has been exploring his choreographic voice under the mentorship of Wen Wei Wang. His work was recently featured at the Magpie Festival and the Kaleido festival in 2022.
Originally from Montreal, Canada Dorotea Saykaly is the inaugural recipient of the Emily Molnar Emerging Choreographer Award and created the work RELIC for Ballet BC (2022). Her first solo, UNraveling, was awarded at the Warsaw Zawirowania Competition in 2016 and since then she has created works such as: Rosy Retrospection (2018) for SkanesDansteater as the inaugural choreographer of the 3D National Collab; her second solo, SHE (2019); and SUNKEN (2022) for the OPART youth company in Portugal. Dorotea’s work moves fluidly from the stage to film to visual arts. Her most recent film SHE (2021), co-created with Emil Dam Seidel, has been awarded Best Choreography at DanceOnScreen Film Festival and Best Experimental film with SIFF. Dorotea danced with Compagnie Marie Chouinard from 2006-2014 and the Goteborg Danskompani from 2014-2019 where she worked with renowned choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, Marcos Morau and Sharon Eyal. Dorotea has appeared in the films Cyrano by Joe Wright with choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and ANIMA by Paul Thomas Anderson with choreography by Damien Jalet and was the lead role in CHANGE for the #Girlsinvest campaign also choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
Ballet Edmonton is a contemporary ballet ensemble of company dancers under the leadership of celebrated choreographer and Artistic Director Wen Wei Wang. The company creates and commissions original work each season from a variety of choreographic voices. Ballet Edmonton’s vision is driven by a passion and curiosity to explore new ideas. We offer audiences original, inspired contemporary dance that reflects our Artistic Director's adventurous, curatorial vision. Our repertoire features new creations by nationally and internationally recognized and emerging choreographers with distinctive styles. Ballet Edmonton is committed to advancing the work of female and diverse creators to ensure our artistic product reflects the world in which we live. We contribute to the evolution of ballet in Canada by expressing the unique narratives of the artists whose creations we help bring to life.
Ballet Edmonton has commissioned new creations by Canadian and international choreographers, including Andrea Peña, Serge Bennathan, Shay Kuebler, Gioconda Barbuto, Rachel Meyer, Joshua Beamish, Diego Ramalho, and Karissa Barry.
Credits
Ballet Edmonton
THE COMPANY
Ariana Barr
Chloe Bennett
Paula Cobo Botello
Adrian de Leeuw
Yoko Kanomata
Devon McLean
Connor McLeary
Diego Ramlaho
Samuel Ramos
Matthew Wyllie
Ballet Edmonton Production and Executive Team
Artistic Director
Wen Wei Wang
Lighting Designer/Technical Director
Dorrie Deutschendorf
Assistant Stage Manager
Morgan Franche
Rehearsal Director
Yoko Kanomata
Executive Director
Sheri Somerville
Managing Director
Jennifer Hinnell
This tour was made possible in part with support from the Edmonton Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
NAC Dance Team
Executive Producer
Cathy Levy
Senior Producer
Tina Legari
Special Projects Coordinator and Assistant to the Executive Producer
Mireille Nicholas
Company Manager
Sophie Anka
Education Associate and Teaching Artist
Siôned Watkins
Technical Director
Brian Britton
Communications Strategist
Julie Gunville
Marketing Strategist
Marie-Chantale Labbé-Jacques
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