Spencer Hack, Genevieve Penn Nabity and Ben Rudisin in Anima Animus.Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada
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- Title: Anima Animus, Alleged Dances and Symphony in C
- Choreographer: David Dawson, Rena Butler
- Dancers: Genevieve Penn Nabity, Ben Rudisin, Naoya Ebe, Siphesihle November, Calley Skalnik, Spencer Hack
- Company: National Ballet of Canada
- Venue: Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West
- City: Toronto
- Year: March 22-23
What is black and white, with a bright splash of red in the middle, and luminous all over?
The triple bill in the National Ballet of Canada’s winter season, which opened Friday at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre. Three cerebral dances offer a study in contrast, not only when it comes to the costume colours, but in choreography, and in the chameleon-like ability of National Ballet’s dancers to change styles.
The curtain rises at the peak of 20th century neo-classicism: George Balanchine’s Symphony in C. The women are in white tutus, the men in black tights. It’s easy to forget now that when Symphony in C premiered at the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947, it was avant garde to see dancers onstage in tulle without a fancy set or a ball to attend. Instead, 50 talented humans create elaborate formations while the orchestra plays Georges Bizet.
National Ballet’s corps deserves an “A” for precise geometry, thanks to teacher Joysanne Sidimus, who has been staging Balanchine’s works since 1968, and with National Ballet for 38 years. Symphony in C is Sidimus’s swan song, the company says. It will be curious to see how many works by New York City Ballet’s founding choreographer stay in the company’s repertoire, and how good they are, now that the woman who learned them from Balanchine is retiring. (Jewels is on the schedule for 2024).
For now, the standards remain high. Spacing is crucial in Symphony in C, with so many entrances and exits on a crowded stage; not a dancer was out of place, maintaining the diagonal lines that became a hallmark of the work. Standouts among the 12 principal couples included Genevieve Penn Nabity and Ben Rudisin in the adagio, with her swoony trust falls into his arms, and Naoya Ebe’s gallant leaps in the allegro vivace.
All the pointe shoes came out for the premiere of Alleged Dances, the first major ballet commission awarded to young American choreographer Rena Butler. She was tasked with choreographing a 1994 suite that composer John Adams wrote for the Kronos Quartet. Many choreographers have since taken a stab at some or all 10 of the Alleged Dances; Butler leans into the weirdness of the looped percussion track recorded on a prepared piano. Imagine that four musicians landed on a red planet inhabited by nine sexy aliens, and you might have the idea.
Resident lighting designer Jeff Logue creatively varied his lighting cues, and Hogan McLaughlin’s exotic leotards resemble minimalist togas, with swaths of scarlet covering crucial body parts and nude fabric over everything else. Two-foot long (fake) braids swing from each woman’s bun, and occasionally serve as an extra appendage to tug.
Butler’s movement is an eclectic collection of athletic tumbling, random extensions, crouched turns and even playful butt-bumping. There’s no through line, but she must have vibed so hard in the studio with the nine dancers in her opening night cast. Principal dancer Siphesihle November throws down a few caterpillars in his solo, and corps standout Emma Ouellet gets a grand battement moment in a spotlight behind a scrim with the musicians, who perform on a moving platform.
Occasionally the dancers break the fourth wall and gawk at the players like skittish moths near a flame. These flighty creatures never embrace their virtuosic visitors, which would have been a logical progression for the piece: to gradually move to Adams’s music rather than treating it like an otherworldly soundtrack. Instead, the curtain comes down with the dancers’ backs turned to the audience – a better beginning than an end.
Artists of the Ballet in Symphony in C.Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada
The program closer, however, is a perfectly crafted tour de force. Artistic director Hope Muir imported a mid-career masterpiece by English choreographer David Dawson. His Anima Animus for six women and four men may be inspired by Carl Jung’s theory of gender dualities, but no psychology textbooks are necessary to appreciate Dawson’s perfect alignment of pulsing music, chromatic aesthetic and never-before-seen movement.
Out come Calley Skalnik and Genevieve Penn Nabity, leaping onto a brilliantly lit stage framed by a black proscenium, performing some bravura jumps typically assigned to men. Concertmaster Aaron Schwebel’s speedy dexterity matched the dancers as he tore through Ezio Bosso’s Violin Concerto, and David Briskin kept the orchestra together like a crash-free Formula 1 race all evening.
Both the black and white unitards (with single stripes down each dancer’s spine) evoke later Balanchine works like The Unanswered Question, for a woman in white and five attending men. But whereas Balanchine put women on heteronormative pedestals, Anima Animus is a nonstop parade of creative partnering.
The adagio pas de trois for Rudisin, Penn Nabity and newly promoted principal Spencer Hack is particularly spine-tingling. Rudisin starts Penn Nabity spinning on one foot, steps away and trusts Hack to finish the rotation. The final movement finds the dancers switching partners as frequently as every 16 counts. There’s tension in both the people-pleasing crescendos and realizing that if one dancer is half a second late, they’ll all fall like dominoes.
There is a drawback to combining this trio of ballets, which is that technical brilliance and cerebral choreography trump any emotional arc. Audiences who crave joy, sadness and romance will have to wait for the winter season’s second program, when Cinderella starts tugging at heartstrings March 10.
Anima Animus with Alleged Dances and Symphony in C continues at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto until March 23.
In the interest of consistency across all critics’ reviews, The Globe has eliminated its star-rating system in film and theatre to align with coverage of music, books, visual arts and dance. Instead, works of excellence will be noted with a critic’s pick designation across all coverage. (Television reviews, typically based on an incomplete season, are exempt.)