With two world premieres by Jorma Elo and Emily Molnar and a remount of Johan Inger’s Walking Mad, Tilt is an evening of three distinct contemporary ballets.
Walking Mad had its Canadian premiere with Ballet BC in March 2012, and they decided to remount it based on the audience’s response: “It’s a very successful work that has won awards,” explained artistic director Emily Molnar. “It received such a good response and this is a good opportunity to revisit the work and go that much deeper.”
When the audience watches the piece this time around, they’ll have the chance to see many other layers and experience something new. “There’s always a fine line with how many times you can do it again,” says Molnar. Not every work can be remounted, but some deserve to be.
Walking Mad deals with humanity; Inger began with the Socratic idea that “our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness.” The piece transitions through the three points of a relationship: from first love, to uncertainty, to knowing someone so well and nothing ever changing. Set to Ravel’s “Boléro”, Molnar said the work is “full of deep emotion.”
“The artists have grown and matured [since the first staging],” said Molnar. This time around, they have a chance to delve even deeper into the subtleties and idiosyncrasies of the choreography.
It’s about our relationship to space and ourselves.” Emily Molnar, artistic director of BC Ballet
Molnar’s new work, as yet untitled, is a full company piece set to the music of German composer Dirk Halbrich. Molnar met Halbrich when she was dancing at Frankfurt Ballet, and she describes his work as interesting, experimental electronic soundscapes: “His music has created an environment for the work.”
During the creative process, a few pieces of literature were brought into the studio for inspiration, including some Emily Dickinson poetry and Art Objects by Jeanette Winterson. “This piece is also about relationships . .. it’s about our relationship to space and ourselves,” Molnar explained. She turned 40 this year, so the work is about aging, as well as liberation. It is also simultaneously about collapse and growth, and she tried to approach this in a philosophical way.
As a collaborative effort with the dancers, the final piece retains elements of their own improvisation encouraging deeper engagement — they have a personal stake in it. Molnar said that she is proud her company has matured enough to be able to pull something like that off.
All three works in Tilt deal with relationships in some way, but each from a very different starting point and in a unique way. All the choreographers have similarities and overlap in their histories (for example Molnar and Inger were at the National Ballet of Canada together), but they have all moved from their classical lineage to contemporary ballet, and they have their own ways of expressing ideas.
When the audience walks out of Tilt, Molnar said she wants them to feel like they experienced something meaningful, whatever that may be. “I want them to find meaning and feel welcomed to feel whatever they’re feeling. The only thing they need to bring is themselves and an openness to the work.”
Show dates: Oct 17-19
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Link: http://www.balletbc.com/
