Enlarge Image

Peter Quanz’ In Tandem. (RICHARD TERMINE)

RWB’s season closer Bright Lights, Big City was an electrifying night of dance that won’t soon be forgotten

Bright Lights, Big City — the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s season closer and sassy trip to the urban jungle — showed both the highs and lows of city life.

The five-show run held May 4 to 8 featured three contemporary works, including a farewell performance by principal dancer Tara Birtwhistle who retires this year after 20 seasons with the company. Balletomanes will fondly remember their beloved ballerina for her dramatic portrayals of Lucy in Dracula, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and, most recently, her over-the-top Queen of Hearts in the RWB’s production of Wonderland.

Birtwhistle specially chose Norbert Vesak’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe for her final performance. Premiered by the RWB in 1971, the heart-rending ballet tells the story of a young Aboriginal girl ravaged by the city, and the painful loss of her roots still has relevance today.

The extraordinary ballet set to Ann Mortifee’s songs proved to be a dramatic choice for the principal. But then, Birtwhistle has carved out an entire career fueled by her remarkable theatricality and ability to seize command of the stage.

Every clenched fist, every desperate glare as she faces the magistrate (represented as a voiceover) on charges of prostitution showed Birtwhistle’s ability to get to the very heart of her character. When she playfully poked at her lover, corps de ballet member Eric Nipp as the rugged Jamie Paul, her innocence was palpable in a gripping performance that will not soon be forgotten.

Internationally renowned choreographer Peter Quanz’ In Tandem is quickly becoming a modern-day classic. Commissioned by New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2009, the hyperkinetic work, set to American composer Steve Reich’s Pulitzer prize-winning Double Sextet, teems with life.

Performed by Vanessa Lawson, Jo-Ann Sundermeier, Amanda Green, Maureya Lebowitz, Alexander Gamayunov and Yosuke Mino (with alternating cast), the contemporary work fuses classical technique with modernistic flair while displaying Quanz’ own unique choreographic voice.

The program also included American dance giant Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, set to a driving score by Philip Glass. The masterful 1986 piece is a non-stop combustion of pure movement that scarcely misses a beat. Thirteen dancers divided as ‘Stompers’ clad in sneakers and ‘Ballet’ (including two women in bright red pointe shoes) magically emerge through billows of smoke throughout the relentlessly athletic piece. As the 40-minute, kaleidoscopic work progresses, pieces of red costumes are gradually revealed with the company morphing into a sea of red by the dazzling, full-out finale. Kudos to the dancers for their sheer stamina and well-controlled precision in bringing this work to life.

BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY
Royal Winnipeg Ballet
May 4 - 8, Centennial Concert Hall