Kitty McNamee, Shining a Light
It’s not every contemporary choreographer who is able to cross over into directing large-scale opera. But that’s precisely what Kitty McNamee has done.
PlusWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
In the ballet world, female choreographers remain, unfortunately and infuriatingly, the exception rather than the norm. Ballet British Columbia artistic director Emily Molnar shines a spotlight on this imbalance with a new bill of ballets from Crystal Pite, Sharon Eyal and herself—a welcome redress to a centuries-old deficit, made even more so by its cool absence of progressive intent. The programme champions women not by specifying feminist themes but by simply making space for female dancemakers to present their choreography—a resounding statement in itself.
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Artists of Ballet British Columbia in Crystal Pite's “Solo Echo.” Photograph by Michael Slobodian
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It’s not every contemporary choreographer who is able to cross over into directing large-scale opera. But that’s precisely what Kitty McNamee has done.
PlusDuring opening night of Ballet West’s performance of Val Caniparoli’s “Jekyll & Hyde,” my dad turned to me and said, “I remember you once told me that dancers are telling stories with their bodies.
PlusIn a small white studio space, the line between performers and audience is being blurred. Choreographer Meytal Blanaru, born in Israel but now Brussels based, has devised this piece along with the dancers, and it’s multifaceted indeed, a study in hope and community spirit, with many playful detours along the way.
PlusStaging the biographical details of someone’s life is by no means an easy task; doing so for a figure who was complex and controversial amplifies this charge to a new level.
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