Notes on the Ballets
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Pavillon d’Armide (2009)
- Les Ballets de Monte Carlo
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Scanner (commissioned score)
- Costumes: Jean-Michel Lainé
- Set and Lighting: Dominique Drillot
- Premiere: July 23rd 2009, Monte Carlo
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"When Jean-Christophe Maillot asked me to create a new work for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, one of the first things he asked me was whether I might let myself be inspired by Diahilev and the Ballets Russes, whose anniversary the company will be celebrating this upcoming season. For some time I’d been toying with the idea of indulging my love for Baroque opera, so I tried to find a way for these two inspirations to intersect. The story of the sorceress Armide is told in Handel’s opera Rinaldo, and also plays a part in Michel Fokine’s ballet, Pavillon d’Armide, which the Ballets Russes performed in their first Paris season. Eschewing that ballet’s score by Tcherpenin, I asked London-based composer Scanner to create music for this work based on selections from Handel’s opera. My ballet follows Armide’s reminiscence of her great conquest, love, and eventual abandonment by her lover."
Bringing The Tiger Down From The Mountain (2009)
- National Arts Centre 40th Anniversary
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Alexina Louie
- Costumes: Lori Trez Endes
- Lighting: Rebecca Miller
- Premiere: June 2nd 2009, Ottawa
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"The National Arts Centre commissioned this duet for the gala celebration of their 40th anniversary. The evening was a showcase of music, dance and theatre performances by a variety of Canadian artists. I was asked to choreograph to Alexina Louie’s visceral and haunting music, which provided the title for the piece. It was a great thrill and privilege for Jesse Robb and I to perform this duet with cellist Amanda Forsyth and The NAC Orchestra behind us on stage, under the baton of Pinchas Zuckerman."
30-Minute Beauty Makeover (2009)
- National Ballet School
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Valerie Calam (commissioned score)
- Costumes: Nathalie Leung
- Lighting: Aisling Sampson
- Premiere: May 19th 2009, Toronto
- "For my first ballet for NBS in 6 years, I knew early on that I wanted to choreograph a playful and contemporary work for a large ensemble that examined The Sleeping Beauty, that quintessential classical ballet. At the time I thought this would involve a series of short vignettes that might explore different characters, events and elements of the classic. Because of the wealth of material (it's in three acts with prologue, after all!) I decided early-on to impose a chronological structure of the ballet, which lent it a more narrative edge than I had originally intended. I included both cherished and iconic elements (albeit reshaped); I also tried to create new moments and work with more obscure musical passages. Ultimately, this ballet isn’t an attempt to update the classic, nor is it an attempt to tell its story in 30 minutes, even though at times it feels like it is! I tried to create a light yet challenging work for the students, with equal parts reverence and mischief."
My Love (2009)
- Tulsa Ballet
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Osvaldo Golijov
- Costumes: Jo Wimer
- Lighting: Les Dickert
- Premiere: April 30th 2009, Tulsa
- "When Tulsa Ballet artistic director, Marcello Angelini asked me to consider a work inspired by the Mediterranean, my thoughts ran to Andalusia in the 15th century when the Muslims, Jews and Christians co-existed relatively peacefully. Shortly afterwards I came across composer Osvaldo Golijov's Ayre, and the inspiration for his beautiful music was this exact time and place. Set in a variety of languages and musical styles, the songs I used run the gamut of themes, secular as well as religious. There's something intensely sensual about the music, but at the same time it's very spiritual. I liked exploring that duality: the life of the body and the life of the soul."
Dénouement (2009)
- National Ballet of Canada (Eighth Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize)
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Paul Tortelier
- Costumes: Christopher Read
- Lighting: Christopher Dennis
- Premiere: March 18th 2009, Toronto
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"I was asked by Karen Kain to create this duet for Noah Long and Elena Lobsanova, who were representing The National Ballet of Canada at the Eighth International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize. Unlike the previous years’ competitions, all of the contemporary works would be new, and a Choreographic Prize would be awarded. The challenge for me was to create something that first and foremost showed off Elena and Noah’s talents, but which also reflected my voice and aesthetic as a choreographer. I used the beautiful solo cello music of Paul Tortelier, and explored the idea of a Baroque intricacy and ornamentation as a metaphor for a complicated relationship. The title comes from the French – unknotting – and as the pas de deux unfolds, the dancers slowly unwind themselves from one another. Happily, my duet won the choreographic award, and Elena took home the female prize."
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Semele (2008)
- AUSTRALIAN BALLET
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Gerard Brophy (commissioned score)
- Sets and Costumes: Adam Gardnir
- Lighting: Brad Fields
- Premiere: August 28th 2008, Melbourne
- “For my first work with The Australian Ballet, I knew right away that I wanted to use a small group of dancers to tell a story, which is something I've never done before. Various literary and musical inspirations led me to settle on the myth of Semele, which I thought would be a great vehicle for dance. There are only three characters in this ballet: the god Jupiter, his mortal lover Semele, and his jealous wife Juno.”
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Agitator (2008)
- ROYAL BALLET
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Owen Belton (commissioned score)
- Costumes: Claire Durbridge
- Lighting: John B. Read
- Premiere: May 22nd 2008, London
- “When Monica Mason asked me to create something for the New Works bill, I was excited to be able to team up with artists I’ve enjoyed collaborating with in the past: composer Owen Belton and lighting designer John B. Read, but especially dancers Isabel McMeekan and Tom Whitehead. My goal was to create a technically challenging and emotionally involved duet for them. I used the sometimes- destabilizing nature of relationships as our departure point.”
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Chevalier/Chopper (2007)
- PROARTEDANZA
- Choreography and Costumes: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Girolamo Frescobaldi
- Lighting: Aisling Sampson
- Premiere: October 3rd 2007, Toronto
- “I created two works with widely differing musical styles for ProArteDanza’s 2007 fall season at Premiere Dance Theatre, and it was wonderful to have these pieces performed live. David Lang’s intense and exhilarating ‘The Anvil Chorus’ (played by percussionist Graham Hargrove) provided the backdrop for Chopper, a duet for Heather Ogden and Guillaume Cote of The National Ballet of Canada. Chevalier, choreographed to the harpsichord music of Frescobaldi was performed onstage by Paul Jenkins. I also performed in the work, alongside 5 wonderful dancers from Toronto’s independent dance community. This was my first time onstage in about 5 years.”
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Wolf’s Court (2007)
- NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Alexina Louie (commissioned score)
- Set and Costumes: Yannik Larivee
- Lighting: Christopher Dennis
- Premiere: June 2nd 2007, Toronto
- "Wolf’s Court was my first opportunity to choreograph to a commissioned orchestral score. For this 30 minute ballet, I worked with composer Alexina Louie and designers Yannik Larivee and Christopher Dennis to create a ballet that, as Penelope Reed Doob suggested, could have been subtitled, “A Fantasia on Empire". Yannik and I had wanted to use a floor cloth in a ballet for quite some time; putting a map on the floor, and having a huge cast of uniformly dressed dancers trample all over it, marking it with steel pins (as if plotting a battle) worked well with the theme of conquest and imperialism. Quite some time before the creation of the work, I’d read J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, and two characters in the book loosely inspired the final duet.”
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Mrs. Black (2007)
- TORONTO DANCE THEATRE
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Lali Puna
- Costume: Matjash Mrozewski
- Lighting: Gabriel Cropley
- Premiere: May 24th 2007, Toronto
- “This solo was created for Alana Elmer to be part of TDT’s 12 Solos show. Alana wanted to dance something that was dark and little bit dramatic. I also found a way to use the Ikea tea lights that had been sitting in storage for too long.”
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Lovers Speak (2007)
- WASHINGTON BALLET
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Henry Purcell
- Lighting: Joshua Michaels
- Premiere: May 1st 2007, Washington DC
- “Lovers Speak was part of a series of works inspired by Shakespeare for Washington Ballet’s 7x7: Shakespeare performances. Originally I planned to create a group piece set to a sound collage I created myself, using snippets of conversations I recorded with friends talking about the playwright. I realized I wouldn’t have enough time to pull the concept off, so at the last minute I decided to create a sensual duet to Purcell’s gorgeous music, loosely inspired by the idea of Romeo Juliet, just before parting in Act III.”
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Concordia (2007)
- SAN FRANCISCO BALLET
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Matthew Hindson
- Costumes: Christopher Read
- Lighting: Christopher Dennis
- Premiere: April 11th 2007, San Francisco
- “As a young choreographer I sometimes feel torn between my classical background and pursuing a more contemporary aesthetic and approach in my work. I stumbled across Matthew Hindson’s great piece for strings, Rave and the Nightingale that echoes this tension, using a Schubert string quartet excerpt as a departure point. Christopher Read had the idea of dressing the dancers in abstracted variations of an 18th century hunting jacket for this energetic and movement-packed work.”
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Planet Wonderful (2007)
- ROYAL DANISH BALLET
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: LazyB/Soren Nystrom Rasted (commissioned score)
- Set and Costumes: Morgan Large
- Lighting: Brad Fields
- Premiere: March 17th 2007, Copenhagen
- “Soren Rasted’s music for this ballet, taken from his album “Facts of Life” is filled with voices – reciting non-stop, random facts, ranting about the state of the world and the United States, people on the streets of New York talking about love…. It’s by turns cynical, hopeful, despairing and humorous. Designer Morgan Large and I thought it would be fun and appropriate to set the action around a TV in a drab apartment. It would also a bit of a challenge compositionally.”
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Editrix (2007)
- Solo for Kate Franklin
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Valerie Calam/Vice Versa
- Costume: Lori Trez-Endes
- Lighting: Rebecca Picherak
- Premiere: January 10th 2007, Toronto
- “I’d worked with Kate a few times and we decided to really test her chops with this solo, drawing on her classical ballet background and her experience as a modern and contemporary dancer. Kate and I have also developed our own little system of choreographing together. Editrix refers to the process of creation for the solo: we made up endless material and then kept mixing and matching over the course of a year. Also Valerie Calam’s music is a quirky collage of bits of everything from classical, Musak-like ballroom, dancehall and hip hop music samples.”
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C.V. (2006)
- NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Owen Belton
- Costumes: Matjash Mrozewski
- Lighting: Christopher Dennis
- Premiere: May 13th 2006, Toronto
- “Karen Kain asked me to create this work for a small group of National Ballet dancers who would perform the work in the Linbury Theatre of the Royal Opera House in London, in a series of performances celebrating the Royal Ballet’s 75th anniversary. I wanted to showcase some of the NBOCs amazing women and Christopher Body’s exceptional partnering skills. Composer Owen Belton and I worked loosely with the idea of the three Fates or Moirae, who spin, measure and cut the thread of a man’s life.”
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Castle Nowhere (2006)
- ROYAL BALLET
- Choreography: Matjash Mrozewski
- Music: Arvo Pärt
- Costumes: Caroline O’Brien
- Set: Yannik Larivée
- Lighting: John B. Read
- Premiere: March 25th 2006, London
- “For a few years I’d been reading the novels of Henry James. When Monica Mason commissioned this work, and asked for a dramatic context to the ballet, I thought exploring his work and life would be a great departure point. Though there is no specific narrative to the work, I was inspired by James’ relationship with the author Constance Fenimore Cooper, as well as some of the triangular relationships that occurred in his life and writing.”
