The National Ballet of Canada is premiering Justin Peck’s Paz de la Jolla, and presenting James Kudelka’s The Man in Black and Alexander Ekman’s Cacti (this is one of our favourites and is not to be missed!).
The Summer Mixed Programme concludes the 2017/18 season, June 16 – 22, 2018 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
Created in 2013 by New York City Ballet dancer and Resident Choreographer Justin Peck, Paz de la Jolla is a sun-washed homage to his southern California upbringing. Set to Bohuslav Martinů’s Sinfonietta la Jolla, Paz de la Jolla marks Peck’s debut with the National Ballet.
James Kudelka’s fertile choreographic imagination has never ceased to surprise audiences. Set to six songs sung by the late great Johnny Cash, The Man in Black features four dancers wearing cowboy boots who create moving tableaux that are by turns haunting, funny, anguished and touching.
Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman has a well-earned international reputation for creating genre-breaking ballets that question the nature of dance and the meaning of performance.
Cacti, which premiered with the National Ballet in 2016, is quintessential Ekman. Full of inventive uses of space, sound and physical design, Cacti is a witty, quick-paced, tongue-in-cheek piece satirizing modern dance.
Feature photo by the amazing Karolina Kuras!