Spending several hours in the ethereal, rarefied presence of the National Ballet at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto is always a joy. On June 4^th, 2010 three stellar ballets were presented – two non-narrative and one narrative - including the world premiere of Jorma Elo’s Pur ti Miro.

Jorma Elo, the Resident Choreographer of the Boston Ballet, created Pur ti Miro for the National Ballet of Canada. He likes to work with the dancers and create the dance with them in the studio. Many dancers are nervous about collaborating with Jorma but he loves the impromptu process, describing it as an adventure which he feels brings out the best in everyone.

 Although the dancers wore traditional tutus and tights, the choreography is very modern. The frantic speed of the steps barely allowed time for the dancers to finish one movement before leaping into the next one, and every so often the extreme effort of attempting to arrive on time for the next step was a little too evident. Elo combines classical movement, lifts and jumps with angular, sometimes awkward arm movements, injecting humorous thrusts and parries between men and women, who often have to duck – all part of the choreography - to avoid being hit by a partner’s arm or leg.

One particularly fascinating moment featured a male dancer who was standing by the wings. Although the music had stopped, and you could hear the intense silence, he started to perform some steps – but one arm wouldn’t cooperate and kept falling limply in front of his body. He tried lifting it with the other arm into various positions but couldn’t engage it, until a female dancer danced in from stage right, picked up his arm and wound it up to get it going.

The music by Beethoven and Monteverdi included two lovely vocalists who harmonized onstage. Sonia Rodriguez, Heather Ogden, Elena Lobsanova, Patrick Lavoie, Keiichi Hirano and many others performed for a full house. Rick Mercer, Veronica Tennant and other local luminaries attended this world premiere.

The next two dances were both choreographed by Jerome Robbins, who spent the second half of his career at New York City Ballet under the direction of Balanchine. A great American choreographer who incorporated jazz and modern dance into classical ballet, Robbins was frustrated and depressed until the end of his life that Balanchine, with his Russian roots, continued to attract more kudos and press then he did. Seeing Opus 10/The Dreamer and West Side Story together really awakens you to his talent and you can begin to appreciate his struggles for equal recognition with the legendary Balanchine.

Opus 19/The Dreamer and West Side Story both featured a Czech dancer, Zdenek Konvalina, who brought Eastern European flair to the ballets – effortless, high jumps that suspend in the air before landing and a certain inborn grace that can’t be learned in class. Between steps his Michelangelo poses allowed the audience to appreciate the beauty of the male body – and there was at least one lift where a male lifted him, a type of lift that’s becoming seen more and more often. Konvalina’s acting ability, just another aspect of his triple threat talent, illuminated his role as Tony in West Side Story. Sonia Rodriguez made a wonderful partner for him, with her beautiful lines, precise technique and Modigliani neck. Opus 19/The Dreamer was purportedly about Baryshnikov, who joined New York City Ballet when he defected from Russia, and felt very much the outsider. The music by Prokofiev was played by violin soloist Benjamin Bowman.

West Side Story, also choreographed by Jerome Robbins, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is a real departure for the company. Ballet dancers use their bodies and mime to communicate, but in this ballet, they laugh, gossip, threaten and sing – and being perfectionists, they sing very well. It always amazes me to compare the Robbins choreography performed by the National Ballet today, with the dancing in the 1960’s movie, for which it was created. The movie dancers are not particularly athletic: the jumps seem clumsy, the group dances are often out of synch. Yet when you see the same choreography performed 50 years later, you can really see how the strength, flexibility and endurance of dancers trained today seem breathtakingly limitless. And you can really appreciate the brilliance of Robbins’ ingenious steps, which bring teenage street gangs’ individual, angry, testosterone-laden and explosive personalities to life, simply through the art of dance.

Guillaume Cote, Pitor Stanczyk, Elena Lobsanova and Stephanie Hutchison rounded out the talented ensemble cast of principal-dancer Jets and Sharks in this very enjoyable ballet.

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