Ballet Kelowna Wows With Timeless Works and Fresh Choreography

The Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Society presents Ballet Kelowna’s Breaking Boundaries on Saturday, November 19^th at 8:00 PM at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre. Breaking Boundaries is the second of five dance shows in the Society’s 2011/2012 Dance Series.

Since 2002 Ballet Kelowna has existed as a professional dance company in the Okanagan, gaining attention across BC and on the national level with its own signature brand of “inno-classical” dance.  This season they bring Breaking Boundaries, a collection of four dances that each focus on capturing a pivotal moment in life.

Heralded as the company’s best work to date, these pieces all centre on universal themes including love, loss, innocence and youth. The production “breaks boundaries” in connecting these human themes through choreography that spans from 1869-2011. Artistic Director David Lahay states that “Breaking Boundaries speaks to the audience in a new voice” one that draws them in and connects the movement to them on a human level. He hopes to relate to the audience, leaving them with something to walk away with.

The pieces range from the classical choreography of Marius Petipa’s  pas de deux from Don Quixote, full of physical grandeur and technical demands,  to the humorous Le Banc, a recent work (2009) by Paul Destrooper, where couples flirt and fall in love around a park bench.

The show also features contemporary work by choreographers D. A. Hoskins and Shawn Hounsell. Hoskin’s work The Lark Ascending, set to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ hauntingly beautiful music proves why Hoskins has a reputation for choreography “that combines intellectual rigour with emotional wallop, resulting in works that engage hearts and minds.”  – Toronto Life Magazine

The show closes with the newest commission, Hounsell’s North Shore which explores its moody and expressive music (which the piece is titled after) to evoke images of the North, barrenness, and the far off horizon all through strong movement vocabulary.

This performance is sure to delight audiences, whether they are dedicated dance patrons or new comers to the world of ballet as Breaking Boundaries takes audiences on a journey through classical, romantic, and abstract works with accessible and technically versatile dancing.

Ballet Kelowna is in Vernon NOV 19 and Salmon Arm NOV 20