National Ballet of Canada | The Dream & Being and Nothingness

Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is one of the most universally admired and artistically satisfying of all ballet adaptations of the playwright’s work. Using Felix Mendelssohn’s beloved music, arranged by John Lanchbery, Ashton’s version of the play is a miracle of dramatic concision, giving us the familiar characters of Titania and Oberon, the four confused lovers, Puck and the rude mechanicals in a taut but lyrical one-act re-imagining of the story set in Victorian times. Ashton’s vibrant, moonlit choreography is seamlessly integrated with every magical shift in the narrative’s mood.

National Ballet Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté has always brought to the many roles he has performed an unstinting spirit of passionate exploration and emotional honesty. As a Choreographic Associate with the company, those same principles apply. In Being and Nothingness from 2015, he finds in his source material, Jean-Paul Sartre’s landmark philosophical work of the same name, questions of freedom, the nature of selfhood and the meaning of existence and illuminates those abstract ideas in his highly expressive, richly physical choreographic style.

Tickets, here.

Casting

The Dream

Titania
Jillian Vanstone (November 21, 23, 24 at 7:30 pm/November 25 at 2:00 pm)
Aya Okumura (November 22 at 2:00 pm/November 22 at 7:30 pm)
Alexandra MacDonald (November 24 at 2:00 pm)

Oberon
Harrison James (November 21, 24 at 7:30 pm)
Evan McKie (November 22 at 2:00 pm)
Naoya Ebe (November 22 at 7:30 pm)
Guillaume Côté (November 23 at 7:30 pm/November 25 at 2:00 pm)
Brendan Saye (November 24 at 2:00 pm)

Puck
Skylar Campbell (November 21, 23, 24 at 7:30 pm)
Donald Thom (November 22 at 2:00 pm)
Siphesihle November (November 22 at 7:30 pm/November 25 at 2:00 pm)
Naoya Ebe (November 24 at 2:00 pm)

Being and Nothingness

Part 1 – The Light
Greta Hodgkinson and Ben Rudisin (November 21, 22, 23 at 7:30 pm)
Tanya Howard and Guillaume Côté (November 22 at 2:00 pm/November 24 at 7:30 pm)
Jenna Savella and Ben Rudisin (November 24, 25 at 2:00 pm)

Part 2 – The Bedroom
Kathryn Hosier and Félix Paquet (November 21, 22, 24 at 7:30 pm/November 24 at 2:00 pm)
Miyoko Koyasu and Nan Wang (November 22, 25 at 2:00 pm/November 23 at 7:30 pm)

Part 3 – The Door
Chelsy Meiss and Jack Bertinshaw (November 21, 23, 24 at 7:30 pm)
Meghan Pugh and Skylar Campbell (November 22 at 2:00 pm/November 22 at 7:30 pm)
Aya Okumura and Jack Bertinshaw (November 24, 25 at 2:00 pm)

Part 4 – The Sink
Siphesihle November (November 21, 23, 24 at 7:30 pm)
Kota Sato (November 22 at 2:00 pm/November 22 at 7:30 pm)
Spencer Hack (November 24, 25 at 2:00 pm)

Part 5 – The Living Room
Svetlana Lunkina and Brendan Saye (November 21, 23, 24 at 7:30 pm)
Hannah Fischer and Christopher Gerty (November 22, 24 at 2:00 pm)
Heather Ogden and Brendan Saye (November 22 at 7:30 pm/ November 25 at 2:00 pm)

Part 6 – The Street
Joe Chapman, Jimmy Coleman, Trygve Cumpston, Giorgio Galli, Christopher Gertyor Peng-Fei Jiang, Spencer Hack or Alexander Skinner, Teagan Richman-Taylor, Kota Sato or Larkin Miller, Donald Thom, Nan Wang or Nicholas Rose, Ethan Watts

Part 7 – The Call
Greta Hodgkinson and Ben Rudisin (November 21, 22, 23 at 7:30 pm)
Tanya Howard and Guillaume Côté (November 22 at 2:00 pm/November 24 at 7:30 pm)
Jenna Savella and Piotr Stanczyk (November 24, 25 at 2:00 pm)

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