The National Ballet of Canada will present a mixed program that includes the world premiere of Jera Wolfe’s Kismet with Helen Pickett’s Emma Bovary. The show takes the stage from May 29 to June 4 at The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
Wolfe is an award-winning performer and choreographer, known for works of emotional depth and athleticism. Jera previously worked with the NBC on a piece for Soul, which was produced as a video during the pandemic, and later presented on stage at Harbourfront.
LV caught up with Wolfe to talk about Kismet.
Jera Wolfe
Jera Wolfe was born in Toronto, and he’s a performer and choreographer of Métis heritage. He’s a graduate of Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, and returns there each year since 2016 to create a new work for the company.
As a dancer, he’s performed with Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and as part of the Holland Dance Festival.
His work is influenced by classical ballet, contemporary movement and Indigenous expression.
As a choreographer, he’s collaborated with a number of prominent dance companies and organizations, including Fall for Dance North, Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur, Danse Danse, Canadian Stage, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Jacob’s Pillow. He was the official Canadian choreographer for the National Ballet School’s Sharing Dance Day in 2020, and the Ontario Ambassador for International Dance Day 2020. He won the 2019 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Original Choreography for Trace, a collaboration with Red Sky Performance.
Recent works include Bare for Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Arise for Canada’s National Ballet School, Embers for Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, and Reliance for School of Performance and Toronto Metropolitan University.
Jera Wolfe: The Interview
Kismet revolves around the idea of fate, a theme he’s explored in other works, an our relationship with the natural world. It follows one central character on a journey that has both a darker and a lighter side.
It’s set to the first two movements of Ezio Bosso’s Symphony No.2 “Under the Trees Voices”. Ezio Bosso (1971 to 2020) was an Italian composer, pianist, double bass player, and conductor. His work includes film as well as ballet scores.
Wolfe first heard the online recording which was captured live at a festival in a forested region near the alps.
“Just hearing the wind and the children outside, there’s something so beautiful about that natural recording,” Jera says.
Bosso’s music is evocative. “It’s very virtuosic, it’s cinematic, it’s showy. It’s complex to play, but easy to hear,” Wolfe says. “It’s something that you would see in a blockbuster movie. It’s got something knowing about it,” he explains.
“It starts out with violin solo.” He cites the work’s big dynamic range, which mirrors the ballet — which begins with two dancers, and eventually includes 35 people on stage.
He’s working with a live orchestra for the performance, which adds a different element to the mix.
“Dancers are very good at consistency,” Wolfe explains. “When you have live music, that goes out the door. It becomes more a relationship that you’re watching,” he adds. “It’s quite beautiful watching them navigate that space.”
He’s excited to add the dimension of live music to the performance. “I think magic lives there. You can tap into some kind of magic that is not as easy when it’s a recording. It’s something very human.”
The orchestra isn’t present at rehearsals. “We have [Music Director and Principal Conductor] David Briskin in the studio with us. He’s building a very strong relationship with the work.”
That includes considering when tempos may change, or other details. The reality of working with a large company like the NBC is, the dancers and musicians are all involved in multiple projects simultaneously. He’ll get an hour an a half with the orchestra before the dress rehearsal.
Right now, his job is communication, among other things.
“We are making sure that everyone knows as much as possible, so that when we are in the moment, […] we have already done our homework, so that we can just run.”
Working With A Larger Company
The same situation is true of working with lighting designer Simon Rossiter. “He’s mapped it out,” says Wolfe. “He’s got a plan A and a plan B. My hope is that I don’t get in his way.”
It underscores the team approach.
“I’ve got a very strong team, and I’m dong my very best to make sure that everyone is on the same page. The reality is that we don’t have a few days in the theatre, we have a few hours to put it on stage.”
It’s a challenge he looks forward to.
“It makes it exciting. It’s where you really hope that people around you know what they’re doing,” he laughs. His job is making sure he can clearly convey the overall aesthetic, the emotion, and the atmosphere.
“I’m learning a lot,” Wolfe says. “It’s my first commission with a big company.”
The dancers, as he notes, are working on two productions at the same time. “When we go into the studio, it’s very fast paced.” The key is to stay calm, and keep going.
The Ballet
“The piece is magical. It lives more in the world of fantasy than the world of pedestrian or urban,” Jera says. “It’s pulling from nature and working from fantasy.”
The costumes turn the dancers into fairy-like, fungi creatures. “It’s not tech. It’s not sci-fi. There are no straight lines or lasers,” he explains of the production design.
“For me, it’s magical. It’s almost like going on a walk in the forest, and you’re not sure whether it’s reality or not.”
The main character is a woman who’s pursuing something, even though she can see that pursuit has become a destructive force.
“I think thematically it’s both simple and complex. It’s a piece that’s taking a look at someone’s journey, and their destiny,” he explains. “[It’s the way] things in their life fall apart, and then them being left at the end with nothing,” he adds.
“But — they realize they don’t have nothing. They have a partner that’s been around for it all,” he says.
“I think as humans we can be very dramatic about loss. And in those heightened moments of loss, we forget that we have these people around us.”
The piece works with the context of nature as symbolism. “The tree that they’re building, they’re being pulled into it. But, the tree starts to fall apart, it’s getting pulled apart,” Wolfe explains.
“We indulge relationships, and we can create toxic relationships because we want them to work so badly. We indulge our addictions.” That’s true whether it’s about food, alcohol, people, or substances. “Everything that’s good in life, I feel like sometimes we abuse it. It can be through anything. We’re always trying to chase these highs, and own everything.”
That tendency affects how we treat people, whether it’s in terms of sexuality or money and greed.
“Recognizing when things go wrong it the world, if we take a dive deeper into it, when you think of these mega corporations and these powers that be that guide the world […] some of them are just living the dream. They fully believe in it,” he says.
“When you meet a narcissist, you think, oh wow, they really believe. They really believe their special place in the world.”
That’s the kind of thinking that fuels the central character in the dance work. She’s on a journey, and she’s driven to continue even as it’s falling apart. “What a crazy person to keep going for something when everything’s falling apart,” he says. But, it’s also very much human nature, as he points out.
Final Thoughts
“I feel like it’s a reflection of of all of us. It’s so very easy to relate to this,” he says.
“For me, I always catch myself, viewing, but also being inside of that.” It’s easy to become that driven person who’s pushing the people close to them out of the way.
“There’s this supportive character who’s with this [woman] the whole time, and they dance with them from the beginning.” In the end, he’s still waiting for her when her quest has turned to dust.
“When you think the whole world is falling apart, really you have to be grateful for these people who are always there,” Wolfe says.
“I’m just inspired by those people.”
Performances: A Double Bill
Kismet shares a double bill with Helen Pickett’s Emma Bovary. Emma Bovary premiered with the NBC in 2023, and the work returns this time with additional scenes, and a deeper exploration of its story.
The work was inspired by Gustave Flaubert’s classic novel Madame Bovary. Co-directed by James Bonas, Pickett’s work explores Emma’s restless spirit, and craving for a life beyond the ordinary confines of her marriage. It delves into the nature of desire and betrayal, and the meaning of its search for personal gratification with a compassionate lens.
- Find tickets and show details for the National Ballet of Canada’s presentation of Kismet and Emma Bovary [HERE].
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