MOULIN ROUGE – THE BALLET choreographed by Jorden Morris. Presented by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet at the Sony Centre (1 Front East). Tonight through Saturday (February 10-12) at 8 pm. $44-$138, $200 opening gala. 416-872-2262. Also Monday (February 14) at 8 pm at the Living Arts Centre (4141 Living Arts). $70-$110. 905-306-6000. rwb.org. See listing.
You can’t just put on a show and call it Moulin Rouge. You need approval from the actual Parisian institution. Otherwise, some French lawyer will come and shut you down.
“We had a long process of working with them,” says Jorden Morris, whose full-length ballet named after the legendary cabaret arrives at the Sony Centre this week, then travels to several other spots in southern Ontario.
“They had to approve my storyboard, the script and the soundtrack. They also wanted to know which historical characters I was using and what I’d be doing with them.”
Mon dieu.
All that work has paid off. Moulin Rouge – The Ballet, created to launch the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s 70th anniversary season in 2009, has been the company’s most successful work to date.
For Morris, the fabled venue, known for its high-energy kicks and sultry dancers, lends itself to ballet. But it wasn’t until he began researching early 20th century French composers like Debussy, Ravel and Ibert that the story fell into place.
He came up with a narrative about a young painter – taken under the wing of artist Toulouse-Lautrec – and a laundry woman/dancer who meet at the Moulin Rouge, fall in love… and then?
“Bad things happen,” laughs Morris, a former principal dancer with the Royal.
After studying every available show at the Moulin Rouge, live or captured on DVD, Morris wondered how he could capture the spirit of the movement in classical dance. Specifically, how could ballerinas in pointe shoes evoke that cancan vocabulary?
“We experimented a lot, and the movement became a sort of hybrid. The dancers at the Moulin Rouge are in these high-heeled boots. What you get with the pointe shoe is a little extra elevation in the lower leg and a longer, straighter line. It makes the kicks look a little more dynamic.”
Interview Clips
Morris on the ballet’s narrative arc and the concept of artist Toulouse-Lautrec. (“Andre” is the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s artistic director Andre Lewis)
On Moulin Rouge – The Ballet’s critical and box office success:
On reality TV dance shows and the popularity of movies like Black Swan:
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