A French virtuoso makes Ballet B.C. sweat in Volo

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      The fast-rising young choreographic star that Ballet British Columbia has brought in from Europe doesn’t look like a taskmaster. But Medhi Walerski, who’s made buzz-creating work for Netherlands Dance Theater, Bern Ballet, and Gí¶teborg Opera, gently admits he likes pushing dancers to their brink.

      “I love to see the dancers die, to sweat,” the curly-haired, French-born dance artist admits with a smile that doesn’t bear a trace of sadism. He looks laid-back as he relaxes at the Dance Centre on a rare break from the busy rehearsal schedule. “You reach a certain point of tiredness that you can’t lie. So when the piece finishes, I’m quite happy to see their faces all red.”

      What probably makes his approach tolerable to the dancers, however, is that Walerski is one of them. He’s still a dancer at NDT. The esteemed contemporary company has granted him two months off to create Petite Cérémonie, his first work for a North American troupe. And when he’s on-stage, he loves to push himself to the same lengths as his performers.

      Walerski is exactly the sort of new European talent Ballet B.C. artistic director Emily Molnar has talked about bringing in to her freshly reimagined company. In demand, with a busy dancing schedule, Walerski can’t accept every offer for new projects that comes his way. At home in Europe, he’s scheduled to create a premiere to open NDT’s next season and a major new work in 2012, complete with a live orchestra (though he’s not allowed to give more details yet). But Molnar’s own connection with the company—she hooked up with the Euro scene when she danced for William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet—and a video viewing of the troupe’s recent pieces drew him here to stage an upcoming premiere at the Volo mixed program at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. As an added bonus, we’ll get to see Walerski perform, with fellow NDT member Lesley Telford, in Jiri Kylian’s Toss of a Dice. (Elsewhere on the program are a world premiere by Canadian choreographer Shawn Hounsell and Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo’s 1st Flash.)

      It’s interesting to view our own scene from the outside: Walerski has heard about what Molnar is doing with the company, has danced for Vancouver’s Crystal Pite, and follows Canadian dance. “We watch YouTube and you have great dancers in Canada, great choreographers,” he says.

      Walerski’s own background somewhat mirrors those of the dancers at Ballet B.C., in that he has a classical base but has chosen to work with a contemporary company. Having danced for the likes of the Paris Opera Ballet and the Nice Opera Ballet, he found his way to the more cutting-edge NDT.

      He says he loves Ballet B.C.’s strong base in classical technique, but he came in wanting to challenge the company. “The work I wanted to do here was totally different. I thought, ”˜I want them to move in a totally different way that’s more earthy and more grounded.’

      “In Europe, dancers move from one extreme to the next. That’s one of the challenges I wanted to achieve here: to be able to watch a company that can be so good in ballet work, in theatrical work, and in grounded, flow work.”

      The other way he aimed to push the Vancouver dancers was to try to get them to reveal their “authentic” selves on-stage, instead of presenting a dancerly persona. “I wanted them to break from that,” he explains. “At one moment, I wanted them to stand and do nothing, to listen to each other”¦.It’s so interesting to see how I can pull this out of them.”

      And don’t expect a classically beautiful piece, either, even though Walerski has been praised for the dazzling virtuosity of his work and even though it has the delicate title of Petite Cérémonie. “If it’s too pretty, I try to break it,” the artist says, wrenching his hands like he’s snapping a twig.

      The result is a departure for Walerski as well: whereas he normally favours contemporary composers at NDT, here he’s set his pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Vivaldi, with a few signature electronic touches thrown in.

      The overall experience has left Walerski impressed with our troupe and its commitment to new commissions. Though its approach is different from NDT, he sees similarities.

      “What I feel is the same is the love of what we do,” he enthuses. And it turns out, from his viewpoint anyway, that the dancers—far from suffering—are enjoying being pushed. “They are saying it’s very challenging for them,” he admits, then adds: “But they are telling me they are very happy.”

      Ballet B.C.’s Volo is at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from next Thursday to Saturday (February 17 to 19).

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