Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal

Houston Ballet's Cullen Contemporary Series, created about a decade ago to showcase local choreographic talent, has returned in a new guise -- offering the Wortham Center's small stage to a visiting company. If Friday's show by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal is any indication, the series could become a hot ticket.

Catch the second and final performance Saturday if you can.

This LGB program, which has toured widely, juxtaposes two unique yet sympatico barefoot ballets: Toot , by the Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman, and a radical take on the Diaghilev classic Les Noces by Belgian-born Stijn Celis.

Part of what made Friday's program so fascinating -- aside from the talents of the fab, athletic dancers -- is how these two choreographers have made such completely different dances using such similar movement elements. TooT is quirky but gentle (even when there's a gunfight), and Les Noces is fierce and fast. Yet both employ moments of stylized slow motion, exaggerated expressions on faces painted white, hunched walks, splayed legs and other devices that are a sort of shorthand in contemporary dance for conveying human pathos. The partnering has its similarities too; often, the women freeze when they're lifted, doll-like.

TooT, set to circus music by the Balanescu Quartet and a bit of Dmitri Shostakovitch's Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra, is charming, charming, charming. Although thematically, it sprawls a bit. It's partly about confrontation, partly about individuality vs. conformity, partly about -- and here's where it's really broad -- the human condition.

The dancers are clowns (love those pointy buns and mohawk hairdos) whose get-ups made me think "Punk Pierrot." The ingenious circus ring set breaks into curved sectionals that get stacked to make walls, upended (so they might be buildings swaying in the wind) and turned upside down, where they rock like seesaws.

Among the highlights: a buoyant duet in which a girl's head and shoulders are consumed by red balloons attached to her costume (the effect is so magical, you wouldn't be at all shocked to see her float off) and a mock dance rehearsal in which the captain has trouble getting a few dancers to obey his commands -- until someone begins singing "Volare," and they can't resist the urge to join a quirky line dance.

I was ga-ga for the lighting in Les Noces, which at times looked inspired by Rembrandt. Celis' dance finds the terror and tension in the Igor Stravinsky score better than other versions of this famous ballet envisioning a ritualistic peasant wedding -- including Jiri Kylian's Svadebka, which Houston Ballet performed last year. The score is written for a chorus, and the soprano's high notes read here as screams: This is a dance about forced sex; love is NOT part of the equation.

Celis sets up a whole stageful of brides and grooms, emphasizing foot-poundingly strong, unisonal dances as the men and women confront each other. The women are more aggressive early on -- almost menacing, like zombie brides (and totally cool in their whispy-fluffy-mess o' tulle costumes, each different). But ultimately, they're picked up in those frozen poses and carted off, in slow motion, like mannequins.

To compare a traditional Les Noces to Celis', click here for a glimpse of the Royal Ballet's version, which is about as close as you'll get the the original by Branislava Ninjinska. Then look for an even shorter snippet of an LGB performance here in the middle of a video about their trip to Paris last July.

For ticket information, click to Houston Ballet's Web site or call 713-227-2787.
molly.glentzer@chron.com

Join our team of volunteers and help with fundraising during performances of The Nutcracker! Every volunteer who makes a $10 donation will be invited to attend that day's performance of this great holiday classic. Donors must be age 15 or older to participate.

Don't wait! Sign up today, by contacting Pierre-Marie Colin at 514-849-8681, ext. 255.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!

The auditions will take place at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal’s studios, 4816 Rivard Street, Montréal (Laurier metro), on Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 1 p.m.

Strong in Classical Technique

Experienced in contemporary work

Repertoire is classical, neo-classical and contemporary.

Please bring :

-         A resume*

-         A head shot*

-         A dance photo*

The audition will be a ballet class.

There is no enrollement fee.

PRE-REGISTRATION FORM (in the Careers/Jobs section of our website)

Please register only if you can audition in person

*These documents will not be returned. 

Please send to :

Michelle Proulx

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal

4816, Rivard Street

Montréal, QC H2J 2N6

Canada

For more information, please contact :

Michelle Proulx

Artistic coordinator

514 849-8681 ext. 243

mproulx@grandsballets.com

The auditions will take place at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal’s studios, 4816 Rivard Street, Montréal (Laurier metro), on October 6, at 6 P.M.

The dancers must bring :

• - A resume
• - A head shot
• - A dance photo

The auditions will be held during a class. The dancers must arrive one hour before the auditions to register.

The selected candidates will be notified immediately and will be asked to return the next morning, Tuesday, October 7^th, at 11:00 AM for a line-up with our company dancers.

Length of the contract is six weeks.

For more information, please contact :

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