The National Ballet of Canada returns to City Center with a program worthy of the fifteen-year wait. The program – which runs from March 30 through April 1, features the US premiere of Crystal Pite’s Angels’ Atlas, the New York premiere of David Dawson’s Anima Animus and Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto.
The last time the Toronto-based company was here was for the 2008 Fall for Dance Festival.
Also on the three-night only program is Alexei Ratmansky’s Songs of Bukovina and Clark Tippet’s Some Assembly Required.
The award-winning Angels’ Atlas was created for the National Ballet in 2020 by internationally acclaimed Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite. A profound work that explores the ephemerality of existence, Angels’ Atlas is set to original music by Owen Belton, choral work by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Morten Lauridsen and unfolds against a morphing wall of light created by designers Jay Gower Taylor and Tom Visser.
Anima Animus is the National Ballet’s first collaboration with British choreographer David Dawson. This high-octane ballet received rave reviews when it made its Canadian premiere in Toronto on March 3, 2023. Anima Animus explores the fluid space between extremes and opposites and Carl Jung’s gendering of the collective unconscious as anima and animus and is set to thrilling music by Ezio Bosso.
Created for Deutsche Oper Ballet in 1966, Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto is full of dazzling ensemble work and its sun-kissed palette channels the exuberance and variation in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major.
The National Ballet of Canada Returns to City Center: Casting
Angels’ Atlas
- Jenna Savella* and Harrison James (March 30, April 1 at 7:30 pm)
Alexandra MacDonald* and Ben Rudisin (March 31 at 7:30 pm/ April 1 at 2:00 pm) - Jordana Daumec and Jack Bertinshaw* (March 30, April 1 at 7:30 pm)
Chelsy Meiss and Teagan Richman-Taylor (March 31 at 7:30 pm/ April 1 at 2:00 pm) - Hannah Galway and Siphesihle November (March 30, 31, April 1 at 7:30 pm/ April 1 at 2:00 pm)
- Genevieve Penn Nabity (March 30, 31, April 1 at 7:30 pm)
Tanya Howard (April 1 at 2:00 pm) - Jack Bertinshaw* and Kota Sato (March 30, 31, April 1 at 7:30 pm/ April 1 at 2:00 pm)
Anima Animus
- Calley Skalnik
- Genevieve Penn Nabity
- Harrison James, Ben Rudisin, Kota Sato, Naoya Ebe
- Jeannine Haller, Koto Ishihara, Monika Haczkiewicz, Clare Peterson
Concerto
- 1st Movement
Koto Ishihara, Siphesihle November (March 30, 31, April 1 at 7:30 pm)
Chelsy Meiss, Naoya Ebe (April 1 at 2:00 pm) - 2nd Movement
Tina Periera and Peng-Fei Jiang (March 30, 31, April 1 at 7:30 pm/ April 1 at 2:00 pm) - 3rd Movement
Jeannine Haller (March 30, 31, April 1 at 7:30 pm)
Jordana Daumec (April 1 at 2:00 pm)
* Debut
All casting is subject to change.
Featured Photo of The National Ballet of Canada‘s Hannah Galway in Crystal Pite’s Angels’ Atlas. Photo by Karolina Kuras.
