Ballet gets rowdy
On their toes - Ballet dancers Emily Bridge (left) and Aubrey Osborne of Onedance Creative Art Centre are getting the chance take part in a dance workshop with members of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
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Updated: November 18, 2009 11:39 AM
Forget what you know about the ballet. Think bawdy costumes, lusty women. Think rouge – Moulin Rouge.
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s production about the most notorious cabaret of all time comes to Vancouver this week, bringing with it the “lurid rowdiness” of turn-of-the-century France.
“It used to be that ballet was done for the king,” says Susan Heimsoth, artistic director at North Van’s OneDance creative. “Now ballet is so much more contemporary and most ballet companies are moving forward – they’re taking chances.”
This week Heimsoth and two of her students will attend a workshop with RWB’s principal dancer, Vanessa Lawson. But instead of practicing grand battements, 25 students from Whistler to Langley will learn the high-kicking can-can moves in pointe shoes that characterize the hybrid show, choreographed by Jorden Morris and artistic director Andre Lewis.
“You basically jump the whole time,” laughs Aubry Osborne, 22. “It’s (can-can) like the old style of flirting . . . I think it was considered very risque at the time.”
That more flamboyant, lusty energy of Moulin Rouge – The Ballet, which reportedly grossed $700,000 at the October premier, making RWB history – demonstrates an effort to reach out to younger audiences, Morris has said.
“Plus men are traditionally not interested in ballet,” laughs Osborne. She thinks the RWB’s busty, lusty promotional posters in rich colors are making men say “wait? A ballet set in a brothel? That might be interesting?”
Emily Bridge, 17, one other OneDance student attending
the can-can workshop, says she’s excited to learn from watching ballerina Lawson in action. “To meet someone who’s made it is going to be really, really great for me,” said Bridge. “Just to meet someone like that (Lawson) I’d be really, really excited.”
Moulin Rouge – The Ballet runs at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts (777 Homer St.), Nov. 19-21 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 21 and 22 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $30-$79 at ticketmaster.ca.
