National Ballet unveils new work, favourites for 2014-2015
Contemporary creations plus a new work from superstar choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, road trips to Los Angeles and Ottawa plus returning favourites such as The Nutcracker are on the slate for the National Ballet of Canada's upcoming season.
Artistic director Karen Kain unveiled a wide-ranging 2014-2015 program late Monday morning, outlining upcoming productions and sharing tidbits of a few works-in-progress.
The Toronto-based company has worked with former Bolshoi star Ratmansky on ballets in the past few years. The troupe will bring his Romeo and Juliet to Los Angeles in July 2014 and host the Canadian premiere of his adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest in summer 2015.
Former prima ballerina Kain continues her support of new ballets by presenting several modern creations, including black night's bright day by James Kudelka and Being and Nothingness by current principal dancer and choreographic associate Guillaume Côt é. Both works were part of the company's Innovation program in 2013.
Popular ballets coming back for 2014-2015 include:
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (which the troupe will also bring to Ottawa's National Arts Centre).
- Manon.
- Nijinsky.
- The Nutcracker.
- Chroma.
- The Sleeping Beauty.
Kain also shed light on two longer term, full-length ballets the company is working on: Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale (a new co-production with the U.K.'s The Royal Ballet) and an adaptation of the classic French novella Le Petit Prince, choreographed by Côté, slated to make its world premiere in 2015.