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UN/A, Ballet BC’s final production of the 2013/14 season, features three world premieres by gifted international choreographers.

“Gioconda, Cayetano and Gustavo are three innovative choreographers, who promise exhilarating works that will captivate our audiences,” according to Ballet BC’s Artistic Director Emily Molnar. “They all have had international success, creating and staging works for major dance companies around the world. We are thrilled to include these new works as part of Ballet BC’s repertoire.”

Montreal choreographer Gioconda Barbuto, winner of the Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award in 1996, returns to Ballet BC with the world premiere of a full-company commission with music by Gabriel Prokofiev.

[Ballet BC dancer Gilbert Small]

The success of TOUCH in 2011 for the company’s 25th anniversary program showcased her choreographic style, characterized by a physicality paired with a sense of wit and theatricality. Her dances are in the repertoire of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Alberta Ballet, and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, among others.

The Chicago Sun Times calls Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, a new choreographic voice from Spain, “…highly original, starkly expressionistic…emotionally fierce, sensual…riveting from start to finish.” A rising star in the international dance world, Sansano served as Artistic Director of Chicago-based Luna Negra Dance Theater and has received numerous choreographic awards. Ballet BC is delighted to be the first dance company in Canada to commission a work by Sansano.

Spanish-born choreographer Cayetano Soto is another vibrant new voice in 21st century contemporary ballet with “an abundance of originality” according to Dance Europe. Describing his unique dance vocabulary, Soto says, “To make choreography you have to be like an architect. I think you have to have a very strong structure [and know] what you want to talk about … What I feel, more and more, is that whatever is happening in my pieces is related to me … and what is happening in the moment.”

Soto’s work is in the repertoire of major companies around the world, including Royal Ballet of Flanders, Stuttgart Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and Ballet Theater Munich.

Ballet BC Presents UN/A

Dates: April 24 to 26, 8 pm
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 649 Cambie Street, Vancouver
Tickets: $22.25 to $70.00 (plus service charges); available online and via phoning Ticketmaster at 1.855.985.2787 (855.985.ARTS)

Photos by Michael Slobodian.