Canadian Content

This October, the Canada National Ballet returned to London for the first time since 2013 with a series of performances at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. The programme, which included three short works—James Kudelka’s “Passion,” Emma Portner’s “Islands,” and Crystal Pite’s “Angels’ Atlas”—afforded Londoners the opportunity to view a world-class company and celebrate a cast of all-Canadian choreographers. However, the highlight of the company’s visit was the chance to catch sight of a famed prima ballerina at the height of both her artistic and technical powers: Heather Ogden.

Performance

The National Ballet of Canada: “Passion” by James Kudelka / “Islands” by Emma Portner / “Angels' Atlas” by Crystal Pite

Place

Sadlers Wells, London, UK, October 2024

Words

Phoebe Roberts

Larkin Miller and Genevieve Penn Nabity in “Passion” by James Kudelka. Photograph by Bruce Zinger

Ogden, who has danced with the company since 1998 and as a principal since 2005, performed in two out of three of the ballets on the evening I attended; in each, her presence deepened the work’s emotional resonance and granted the choreography a far greater complexity than originally offered. Ogden has that rare gift of achieving drama without having to do very much; her body—its tendons and its contortions—carry the sum of her experiences, allowing the audience into her world by way of movement. When she steps onstage, the story is already there.

This quality was especially appreciated in “Passion,” the first ballet on the programme. Choreographed in 2013 by James Kudelka, who served as the Canada National Ballet artistic director from 1996 to 2005, the work centres around two couples: one contemporary and one classical. Appearing simultaneously onstage, each couple dances unaware of the other and of the corps de ballet who weave in and out of their pairings. Their relationship to each other is not immediately clear; at first, it seems as though the contemporary couple has done time travel gone wrong and become lost sometime a century earlier.

As the ballet progresses, we understand the contemporary couple not to be a random intrusion so much as a future vision of the classical duo. Dancing at opposite corners of the stage, each couple performs steps appropriate to their time but seemingly related to the other; the controlled passion of the classical pair is fully unleashed in the wild flailing of their contemporary counterpart. Unfortunately, here the latter duo’s choreography becomes reduced to melodramatic cliches, with the woman’s angst conveyed primarily through thrashes of the feet, executed as the man lifts her overhead or to the side.

Ogden, in the role of the contemporary woman, manages to save these moments and indeed, the ballet as a whole, by suffusing it with her trademark interiority. As she pushes against her partner’s chest with one hand, fleeing his embrace for what seems the hundredth time, her leg unfolds in such a desperate and hankering développé that we nearly expect it to rip off. It doesn’t, and instead Ogden travels with it, rushing off to some other destiny.

Genevieve Penn Nabity and Heather Ogden in “Islands” by Emma Portner. Photograph by Karolina Kuras

The second ballet of the evening, Emma Portner’s “Islands,” features a duet between Ogden and Genevieve Penn Nabity, a young principal with the company. “Islands,” premiered by the Norwegian National Ballet when Portner was only 25, is a thought-provoking work made all the more impressive by the age of its choreographer. Set to original music by Forest Swords, the piece begins with Ogden and Penn Nabity standing one in front of the other. Soon, they are off, their movements mirroring each other save for the odd gesture or off beat, as though something in this reflection has become distorted.

With their identical blonde buns and ballerina physiques, Ogden and Penn Nabity could be sisters; this possibility adds yet another layer of intrigue to the ballet. At times, their dance is markedly erotic; a repeated step sees each force the legs of the other open by pushing their heel against their partner’s, thrusting the limbs into a wide split. At other moments, Ogden seems almost maternal towards Penn Nabity, as though she is guiding her through the choreography. Are they friends, lovers, twins? We don’t know and ultimately, it doesn’t matter: we feel their love regardless.

Hannah Galway and Siphesihle November in “Angels’ Atlas” by Crystal Pite. Photograph by Karolina Kuras

The final ballet of the programme, Crystal Pite’s “Angels’ Atlas,” was created for the company in March 2020. Set to original music by Owen Belton and choral pieces by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Morten Lauridsen, the work features a full cast of corps de ballet and soloist dancers. The piece begins impressively, with the entire cast laying on their backs and facing upstage, as if in the final resting pose of a yoga class. However, yoga this is not, and the dancers soon spring to life, arching their backs and lifting their hearts off the floor in unison.

The effect is that of some supernatural force deciding to rouse them, the same force that condemns them to dance wildly for the next thirty or so minutes. Throughout, the reference that most frequently came to mind was Pina Bausch’s 1975 piece “Rite of Spring,” in which a young woman is chosen as a sacrificial victim and is condemned to dance herself to death. Something similar seems to be happening here, with one couple—Hannah Galway and Siphesihle November—appearing to take on the role of the victims. Writhing across the stage with full-bodied desperation, they hint at something sinister lurking just around the corner.

Unfortunately, the audience never discovers the full extent of whatever danger is being alluded to, as the piece fails to build enough momentum to explode into true mayhem. On the evening I attended, this lack of excitement was perhaps aided by the fact that everyone onstage was engaging different levels of plié so that each dancer’s centre of gravity was positioned at dissimilar heights. At other moments, it was unclear if movements were meant to be executed in unison or as part of a wave effect. It ruined any sense of real risk and lessened the overall thrill.

Despite these struggles, the evening was a joy, and Ogden’s artistry will remain etched in my memory for weeks to come. Whether in Toronto or London, the Canada National Ballet—and its all-Canadian line-up of choreographers—is worth the ticket.

Phoebe Roberts

Phoebe Roberts is originally from New York where she trained with American Ballet Theatre and Leslie Browne. She danced with Béjart Ballet Lausanne before studying Russian at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. She is currently pursuing a master’s in Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her writing has previously appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Good Press, Glasgow, and Spectra Poets.

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