Grand Passion ballet dances into Morinville

There’s a bit of the hot and lush Okanagan coming our way as Ballet Kelowna debuts A Grand Passion at Morinville Community Cultural Centre on Friday.

A young, but thriving professional ballet company, it is on a 10-stop tour across British Columbia and for the first time it will perform in Alberta.

Under the artistic direction of David LeHay, the bold troupe presents a mosaic from the great classical ballet traditions and more contemporary innovative choreographies to the sultry tangos of Argentina.

Founded in 2002, Ballet Kelowna is an extension of the Canadian School of Ballet (CSB). Gweneth Lloyd, founder of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, founded the CSB in 1958. But after some internal disputes, Lloyd parted from the RWB and resettled in Kelowna establishing the CSB.

As a training school for young dancers, the CSB developed a formidable reputation and often sent its dancers to the Banff Centre for advanced training.

LeHay, former principal dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and a respected ballet pedagogue throughout Canada, was teaching in Banff at the time. Teachers from CSB invited him to launch a young company of senior dancers so students wouldn’t have to travel as far.

“I knew there were not enough opportunities in Canada for dancers to take the next step into a professional career,” says LeHay. “I was passionate about the need. I felt I could attract good choreographers. I knew I could train good dancers and right from the beginning we were committed to touring.”

He first took his six-member troupe on mini-tours throughout the Okanagan before venturing into the Kootenays and farther north to Fort St. John and Fort Nelson.

“It was risky because we were self-presenting, but our mandate was to take the arts to small communities. The response was always so positive. We also wanted to inspire. You never know where the next great professional dancer comes from and you just might inspire some dreams.”

The Morinville program encompasses five short dances that exhibit every facet of the versatile troupe. It opens with a fun curtain-raiser, Allegro Per Tre, with music from Russian composer Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Ludmilla.

LeHay describes the tutu-clad choreography as “just dance for the pure love and joy of dance.”

Next in line is the beautifully heart-stopping pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty followed by the LeHay’s seductive choreography Tangazzo.

Commissioned by the Kelowna Symphonic Orchestra, LeHay adopts Astor Piazzola’s moody feel and sets the sexy tango in a smoky bar.

“The tango is a dance of seduction. The males and females are equally strong and aggressive. It’s a match of wits.”

Shifting gears completely, the troupe tackles North Shores, Shawn Hounsell’s contemporary choreography, a deep dark, mesmerizing piece.

And finally the program closes with LeHay’s Romeo and Juliet Appassionata, an 18-minute dance that blends Shakespeare’s text with Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture.

“A Grand Passion is really a passion. A passion of dance. A passion of the dancers. A passion of the audience. Our tag line is ‘be moved’ and I believe our audience will be moved at some time or other.”