Preview
DANGEROUS LIAISONS
Alberta Ballet
Choreographed by Jean Grand-Maître
Runs October 20 to 30
Vertigo Playhouse (Tower Centre)
One can only imagine the pressure on Alberta Ballet’s dancers this season as they move from the Jubilee Auditorium’s grandiosity to the intimate setting of the Vertigo Playhouse: more performances, more spotlights on solos, more pas de deux, and a touring schedule that has already seen them take Dangerous Liaisons and other works through the Prairies.
"It’s harder on our bodies, that’s for sure," says Edmonton native Kelley McKinlay, who plays the innocent, duped young Chevalier de Danceny in Dangerous Liaisons. "We just make sure we regularly recoup."
As both McKinley and co-dancer Leigh Allardyce point out, busier schedules mean simply shifting daily routines. And having been masterfully accommodated to a smaller stage by choreographer Jean Grand-Maître, they’re actually thrilled to be taking a break from dancing over the Jubilee’s concrete floors – one of the features that will be changed during this year’s extensive renovations.
"In the end," says Allardyce, "the only difference is the size of the stage, and it’s a treat for us and the audience because Jean pushes the emotion and the acting so much (and) you can really see it here in a more intimate setting."
Allardyce, as the chaste Présidente de Tourvel, is as duped as anyone in Dangerous Liaisons, a victim of the devious trickery of the Viscomte de Valmont and the vengeful Marquise de Merteuil. Grand-Maître’s ballet is, of course, based on Choderlos de Laclos’s classic tale of betrayal, where 18th-century corsets loosen up for a tale of lust, seduction and deceit. And, while there’s no nudity in this version of the much-filmed novel, there’s enough naughtiness to keep things adult, including rape, orgies and worse – heartbreak.
"Jean doesn’t really skirt the issue," says McKinlay. "This is sexual warfare."
Re-working his production after its 2000 première at the National Norwegian Ballet, Grand-Maître has added a pantomimed costume drama upstage of the dancers, who ride the emotional peaks of the story in their movement as the lovers’ chips fall where they may. For Allardyce, McKinlay and others, it means alternating their roles nightly, some nights dancing the roles, other nights becoming actors in the play-within-the-ballet.
"It was a challenge going in and doing theatre," says McKinlay. "It’s funny to hear, but you are so used to moving through a story as a dancer that it becomes difficult to suddenly be asked to move like a normal person."
"I think there’s a lot of acting in dance already," adds Allardyce, "but Jean’s been really innovative in bringing in this aspect here. The stories focus around characters rather than the big core scenes we’re used to. When we get onstage and we’re under this microscope, we can dive into character."
The foray into theatre meant the cast had to take a week’s acting intensive and, as Allardyce mentions, several breakthroughs occurred. In a venue where audiences are significantly closer to the action, the training helped add to the characters‘ introspection and delicacy in movement, next-to-impossible to see on a stage like the Jubilee’s.
Employing a dramatic lighting design by Pierre Lavoie and Claude Lemelin’s haunting soundscape (a blend of Arvo Pärt, Gavin Bryars, Giya Kancheli and other composers), Alberta Ballet’s production also includes a few spoken lines from the novel.
It’s yet another interpretation of a three-centuries-old story that never seems to lose its fascination as we watch its lovers cruelly manipulate one another. "I don’t think any character comes out of this ballet unscathed," says Allardyce. |
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