Ballet BC presents Alberta Ballet's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Nov. 14-16, 8 p.m. at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tickets start at $60, available at ticketmaster.ca.
Opening night is always a nerve-racking experience for those in the performing arts.
But it was an especially anxiety-ridden evening for Alberta Ballet's artistic director and choreographer Jean Grand-Maître when Fumbling Towards Ecstasy premiered in Calgary two years ago. He was sitting right next to the show's muse, singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan, who was watching Alberta Ballet's dance-based tribute to her life's work for the first time.
"She had this very emotional reaction. She was in tears and she was just very touched by what the dancers did," Grand-Maître recalls. "She was tremendously proud."
An immediate hit with both McLachlan and the critics, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is currently touring B.C. and is making its Vancouver debut Nov. 14-16 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Presented by Ballet BC, the show features more than 30 dancers from Alberta Ballet moving to McLachlan's songbook. The narrative traces the spiritual journey of one woman through adolescence, first romantic encounter, betrayal, mature love and loss.
"It's a very simple narrative, but we depend on the songs and the lyrics to give it more profundity," Grand-Maître says.
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is one of several "pop ballets" Alberta Ballet has produced over the years. The company has also paid homage to the music of Joni Mitchell, Elton John and k.d. lang. These contemporary productions attract new patrons, Grand-Maître says, many of whom are ballet first-timers.
"We've noticed that at least 30 per cent of our audiences have never been to a dance show, and they will keep coming back after that," says the Hull, Quebec native.
The company continues to stage classical ballets each season and fans of the traditional works have been very receptive to the pop tributes, Grand-Maître says.
More than a dozen McLachlan songs are featured in Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, including such radio hits as "Building a Mystery," "Into the Fire" and "Ice Cream."
"What we try to do is select songs from the beginning of their career to the last album and we try to use sometimes even unknown recordings," Grand-Maître explains. "In that way, audiences not only discover the artist from the beginning of their career to the last album, but also their different styles. They discover songs that they may never have heard."
"At the end of the performance what we're hoping is that the audience is a bit closer to the singer/songwriter."
The dancers at Alberta Ballet also relish the opportunity to perform to modern music.
"In a way that's the future. Young dancers, they want to do the (classical) ballets, but they also want to do the contemporary work. They're very eclectic in their own tastes, much more than my generation was anyway," he says. "The dancers enjoy it because they understand the lyrics that (McLachlan is) singing. When they're dancing to Mozart's Requiem in Latin they don't always understand what they're dancing to."
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was conceived in 2010 when Grand-Maître was on the West Coast serving as director of choreography for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. It was then he connected with McLachlan, who performed at the opening ceremony. Known for her emotionally charged ballads, the threetime Grammy winner was a natural subject for an Alberta Ballet pop portrait, Grand-Maître felt. And like Alberta Ballet's other modern muses, McLachlan had staying power.
"These singers, they've lasted the decades. They're not like those sex bombs they invent every 20 minutes that disappear the next Tuesday."
After pitching the idea to an agreeable McLachlan, Grand-Maître visited her North Shore home where the pair spent an entire afternoon chatting about anything and everything.
"It's based on this discussion that we created the entire ballet."
Themes of sisterhood and female empowerment run throughout the ballet, and McLachlan's love of the ocean and foreign culture is reflected in the set and costume design.
Meanwhile, the title of the show is drawn from McLachlan's 1993 album of the same name. The words also succinctly describe the personal dance vernacular of Grand-Maître, who strives to display the grace, elegance and ultra-control of ballet, "but I also like to show the contraction in the body and the effort to become graceful."
Grand-Maître is already brainstorming ideas for future pop ballets and rattles off a long list of Canadian and international artists he'd love to collaborate with.
"Meeting the singers and getting to talk with them about the concepts and their music and their lives, it helps us try to create a more truthful portrait of some facet of that artist," he says. "The last thing I want is to disappoint them."
Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet.
"So far it's been very successful."
