LES BALLETS JAZZ DE MONTREAL with choreography by Benjamin Millepied, Barak Marshall and Andonis Foniadakis. At the Sony Centre (1 Front East), Saturday (May 23), 8 pm. $55-$95. 1-855-872-7669, sonycentre.ca.
It’s been a decade since Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, now more popularly known as BJM, has been to Toronto.
The company’s name is a legacy of origins stretching back to the 70s, when “ballets jazz,” a synthesis of technique and style and a term coined by founders Eva von Gencsy, Genevieve Salbaing and Eddy Toussaint, was a fresh concept. Ballets jazz as a genre didn’t really catch on, but the youthful musicality and exuberance of BJM did it’s popular with audiences worldwide. Subsequent re-branding has happened around a name that no longer means what it once did.
“It’s funny,” says artistic director Louis Robitaille, who’s been running the company for 15 years. “Today, everywhere we go people have memory and recognition of that name, so changing it is a really sensitive subject.”
Whatever the name, this rose is as fresh and sexy as ever. Constant touring and collaborations with acclaimed choreographers have kept the company nimble and exciting to watch. For its overdue Toronto return, Robitaille has put together a program that highlights its range and depth of talent.
Closer, a duet by in-demand choreographer and new Paris Opera Ballet director Benjamin Millepied addresses the classical ballet end of the company’s astonishing range. Robitaille, who was a principal dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens for seven years, speaks yearningly of it as a work “I wish I could dance.” Elegant and severe, the piece is very different from the hyperkinetic contemporary ensemble works on the bill.
“Bestial” is how Robitaille describes the movement in Kosmos, an abstract work by Cretan choreographer Andonis Foniadakis.
“It’s not trashy, but it’s borderline,” he says. “It’s an all-out expression of animalistic physicality.”
The program closes with Harry, by Israel-based American choreographer Barak Marshall.
“It’s a bit more dance theatre,” says Robitaille, “so the dancers are challenged not only with the gestures and the movement, but with the characterizations as well.”
Forty years is a long time for a contemporary dance company to persevere and flourish. With more diversity and competition for funding dollars within the dance milieu, it’s probably just as difficult these days as it was in the 70s when Canadian culture was wet behind the ears.
“It’s challenging, but we travel a lot and see different kinds of reality in the world, and I think we are still very lucky,” says Robitaille.
“The world has changed. There is so much on offer culturally that we really have to be great if we want to survive in this environment. And I think we are.”
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