The 2024/25 season for the National Ballet of Canada launches this weekend with the Canadian premiere of Silent Screen. Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s Silent Screen takes the stage November 9 to 16 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
Also on the program is Sir Frederick Ashton’s Rhapsody (another Canadian premiere), and Guillaume Côté’s Body of Work, a work that will mark the start of the latter’s last season as a Principal Dancer with the company.
Creators & Program
Paul Lightfoot is a native of the UK, who joined the Nederlands dans Theater (NDT) shortly after graduating from the Royal Ballet School in London. He spent years as a dancer, and debuted as a choreographer in 1989. Sol León is from Córdoba, Spain. He joined NDT in 1987, after graduating from the Madrid Ballet School. She began collaborating with Lightfoot in 1991, creating stage designs and costumes. Together, the duo were appointed NDT’s house choreographers in 2002.
Silent Screen is set to the music of Philip Glass, and blurs the lines between the dancers and a silent film that is projected on screens that shift as the dance progresses.
Sir Frederick Ashton’s one-act ballet Rhapsody is choreographed to Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. It premiered in 1980, created for the occasion of both Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s 80th birthday, and Mikhail Baryshnikov’s guest appearance with the Royal Ballet. Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM CH CBE (1904 – 1988) was an icon of British dance, starting as a dancer, then choreographer, along with roles as a director and choreographer in film and opera.
Hope Muir, Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, acquired the Canadian premiere of Rhapsody for Ashton Worldwide, a five-year festival that pays tribute to the British choreographer’s legacy.
Guillaume Côté’s Body of Work is the first of the dancer/choreographer’s special performances that will pepper this, his final season with the National Ballet as a Principal Dancer. His solo work is set to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No.7, and dives into his own legacy in dance.
- Find tickets and more information about the performances November 9 to 16 [HERE].
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