1. NIJINSKY
National Ballet of Canada, March 2 to 8
John Neumeier’s epic about the legendary Ballets Russes dancer haunted by his impresario/lover Diaghilev and the horrors of the First World War was a staggering achievement, fully realized by the National’s strong company, headed by Guillaume Côté in the punishingly difficult title role.
2. THE GOLDEN MEAN (LIVE)
Companie Marie Chouinard/Canadian Stage, May 8 to 12
No one does cheeky sophistication like Chouinard. Her full-length show included a chorus of dancers wearing Stephen Harper masks, her signature animalistic movements and provocative costumes on a stage that jutted out into the orchestra like a fashion runway. One of the most fun nights at the theatre.
3. SEASON 2013
ProArteDanza, October 2 to 5
Despite that title, there was nothing generic about this mixed program, which included the thrilling third movement of Roberto Campanella’s epic dance interpretation of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (can’t wait for the entire work on one bill), Guillaume Côté’s perpetuum mobile stunner Fractals and Robert Glumbek’s graceful Shifting Silence.
4. INNOVATION
National Ballet, November 22 to 28
Not everything worked in this program of world premieres by young upstarts like the 23-year-old Robert Binet and veterans like James Kudelka. But it was full of revelations, like the sequence performed in near dark in José Navas’s Watershed, the easy intimacy of Binet’s Unearth, the allegorical rebirth motif in Kudelka’s …black night’s bright day…, and especially Guillaume Côté’s astonishing solo for fellow company member Greta Hodgkinson, which became a metaphor for all of life’s struggles.
5. ELEVEN ACCORDS
Toronto Dance Theatre, November 6 to 9
Inspired by the rhythms of Steve Reich’s hypnotic Music For 18 Musicians, choreographer Christopher House put his 11 dancers through a literal workout, racing forwards, backwards and grouping together for a series of intriguing solos and group sequences that felt improvisatory in the best way.
Dance MVP
Look above: Guillaume Côté is emerging as the Renaissance man of the performing arts world. (He’s also a composer.) Runner up: Benjamin Kamino, who bared his soul (and sometimes a lot more) in a series of dance and theatre works.
Dance duds
CARMEN Davide Bombana expanded his short “reconceptualization” of the Bizet opera/Mérimée novella into a full-length work and made it even more boring.
A DANCE TRIBUTE TO THE ART OF FOOTBALL Norway’s international hit scored with audiences but made few artistic points.
SPEAK, LOVE Literal navel-gazing while quoting Rumi. A distillation of all that’s wrong with contemporary local dance.
glenns@nowtoronto.com
