Fourth-year students from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) were invited by the National Ballet to create a campaign around the North American premiere of The Seagull. The campaign revolves around a mobile contest with instructions printed on origami seagull flyers.
On October 20, students and volunteers took part in OCAD’s fold-a-thon and created more than 2,000 of these seagulls. They were added to the 8,000 existing flyers and strategically placed around Toronto for people to find. The origami flyers give instructions to text “SEAGULL” to 777888 on a mobile device for a chance to win tickets to The Seagull. The mobile video that appears shows how to re-fold the origami flyer. Contest closes November 7, 2008.
When Leo Burnett was given the opportunity to create buzz for In The Upper Room, we had to pinch ourselves. The fact that we’d never heard of the ballet didn’t stop us from getting seriously excited about developing a campaign for something so unconventional and creative.
We started by asking “What happens In The Upper Room?” Any ballet preconceptions were immediately smashed. Running shoes? Pajamas? No sign of a storyline? Perfect. Twyla Tharp’s creation is powerful, mysterious and sensory, and we felt that our campaign should be too.
“What happens In The Upper Room?” became the cornerstone of the campaign. This curious line was teamed with visuals inspired by the red, white and black of the dancers’ costumes. Stripes and patterns from the era were added to the mix, creating designs full of movement. These became posters that were splashed throughout the city, accompanied by print and transit shelter ads. But the untraditional nature of the ballet was really captured through guerilla advertising. 100 pairs of pointe shoes were hand-painted and patterned, then flung across lampposts and wires on Queen Street West. Red doors sporting door hanger brochures also dominated the area and sidewalk chalk art brought the red, white and black colour scheme and geometric visuals to life in 3D. The performance details could even be viewed via telescope pointed at the window of an upper room. All of these intriguing elements lead people to intheupperroom.ca for answers. The website took the campaign aesthetics and created a virtual upper room where people could learn more and buy tickets.
Our aim was to get people thinking about ballet beyond the traditional and, with the help of an amazing team from SMAK, we did just that. Thanks to the National Ballet for the opportunity to turn advertising into art.
The 2008/09 Souvenir Book is underway and will available for purchase starting this November at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Go behind the scenes at a photo shoot with Canadian photographer Sian Richards as she shoots beautiful new images of The National Ballet of Canada.
The National Ballet’s Nuit Blanche installation A Window on Ballet last weekend was a success. Groups of people tried out the steps in the interactive dance class all night long. Here is a selection of images from the evening:
5:30 pm - Chalk artist Victor Fraser begins his work near the installation site.
6:00 pm - The barre is set up outside the Four Seasons Centre box office.
7:00 pm - The setup is complete.
10:00 pm - Corps de Ballet member Jenna Savella stops by to see herself in the video.
2:00 am - Groups try out the steps for themselves. (To see more images or to upload your own, visit our Flickr group)
This Saturday is Nuit Blanche, an all-night interactive series of installments around Toronto. Wandering the streets of Toronto in the middle of the night can always be interesting but on October 4, Toronto will become an entirely different city.
I attended the inaugural Nuit Blanche two years ago but last year the company was touring Western Canada so, unfortunately, we all missed this city-wide event.
There are a few installations that caught my eye on the program, including Dance Ontario’s Distillery District performance, “Stereoscope” at Toronto City Hall and the mass of rubber ducks at Ryerson’s “Light up the Night”. I will definitely pass by the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The National Ballet is displaying an interactive installation called A Window on Ballet which I was fortunate to be a part of. It is a video showing a few exercises at the barre demonstrated by myself and new Corps de Ballet member Wei Chen. It was a lot of fun to work on this video with New Media Coordinator Johnny Vong and Ballet Master Lindsay Fischer.
This year’s project is a little more interactive as there will be a barre set up along the window so that people can actually take part in the class. It will be exciting but a little nerve-wracking to see myself larger than life for for all of Toronto to see. But I am also really looking forward to seeing how this whole project will come together!
[Photos: Jenna Savella and Wei Chen by Johnny Vong]
