[Originally published on Opera Atleier’s blog by Co-Artistic Director Marshall Pynkoski in December 2009.]

Yesterday evening we had a photo shoot (something I adore) with the incomparable photographer – Bruce Zinger. The opera, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, will open Opera Atelier’s 25th anniversary season.

First of all, we needed a significant body of water in addition to a tenor and a female dancer who did not mind getting very wet. We began shooting at 10:00 pm and finished just before 1 o’clock in the morning. It was without a doubt of OA’s most challenging and hilarious endeavours and we were left with some images of incredible beauty.

Our job was certainly made easier by the fact that we had the ravishing dancer Juri Hiraoka (a member of The National Ballet of Canada who has performed as an Artist of Atelier Ballet on numerous occasions) and the ridiculously handsome tenor Thomas Macleay (who created such a sensation in our recent production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride) disporting themselves in the water.

Suffice it to say that they bravely agreed to immerse themselves in the luxurious hot tub of the SoHo Metropolitan while wearing a variety of pieces of 18th Century costume all the while balancing on a collection of milk crates!

[Photos by Bruce Zinger.]

I performed in my first opera in the fall of 2002 after I had moved to Toronto to start my new job as an apprentice with The National Ballet of Canada. Opera Atelier needed someone to fill in and Nathaniel Kozlow, a fellow apprentice at the National Ballet, suggested me.

I’ve always had this picture of supreme divas when I think about opera, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! Co-Artistic Director Marshall Pynkoski has a knack for choosing singers who are very grounded. These singers would come up to me after singing a beautiful aria to tell me how well I walked around the stage. They would commend me for the smallest things.

I’ve performed in six more operas since then. Despite the extra work, it is always a pleasure to work with Marshall, because he is always so positive. Sometimes as dancers, we forget that even the smallest things can make a big difference in a performance. We are so critical of ourselves that we sometimes overlook the beauty that exists in the simplest steps if done well. I find this experience makes me a more complete dancer.

This April and early May I will dance in the Opera Atelier performance of The Marriage of Figaro before opening the National Ballet’s Summer Season at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. I look forward to every second.

[Photos: Top and centre, James Leja. Photos by Sian Richards. Above, Piotr Stanczyk, Jonathan Renna and James Leja in rehearsal for West Side Story Suite. Photo by Bruce Zinger.]

In James Kudelka’s version of Swan Lake, is Odette/Odile an actual Swan, a woman trapped in a Swan’s body or something else entirely?

Jennifer Fournier, former Principal Dancer: “The Swan is an allegory to the ballerina… The black Swan is deception, the white Swan is honesty… James sees the Swan in a slightly more literal way: she is a Swan. And the Prince actually is falling in love with a Swan, which helped me with physicality.”
– Watch Jennifer’s complete analysis in her Ballet Talk

Xiao Nan Yu, Principal Dancer: “The Prince is escaping an imperfect world and the White Swan is perfection. As a bird, she represents the purity of the non-human world. In the third act, he is confused. Is Odile the human side of the bird?” – The Globe and Mail, 2010

Heather Ogden, Principal Dancer: “Odette is the symbol of hope because Siegfried can only find comfort in nature. Odile is a woman playing the bird.”
– The Globe and Mail, 2010

Gary Smith, Dance Reviewer: “Kudelka may still insist that this Swan is simply a bird. But in Yu’s defining interpretation she is certainly not. She is ultimately sorceress, Swan, and vulnerable woman, rolled into one. Brilliant!”
– The Hamilton Spectator, 2001

What is your interpretation? Visit us on Twitter or Facebook to start the discussion.

Swan Lake runs until Sunday, March 21 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

[Photos: Top, Jiří Jelinek and Xiao Nan Yu. Photo by Aleksandar Antonijevic. Above, Heather Ogden and Guillaume Côté. Photo by David Cooper.]

When we started rehearsing the Winter Season, I was originally cast as an understudy for A Man in The Four Seasons but was still given private rehearsals with Artist-in-Residence Rex Harrington. After James Kudelka, choreographer of The Four Seasons and Swan Lake, came to rehearse the company I was told that I would get one performance in the role. My heart started racing so fast as this was one of the roles I’ve always wanted to dance.

Rex gave me all the little tricks of the trade, especially with the tricky partnering. He also helped me pace myself so I wasn’t actually dead by the end of Winter.

My debut last week couldn’t have gone better. All my partners were excellent, the music was amazing to dance to and the whole experience was so heart warming and exhilarating.

When I learned I was also dancing Rothbart in Swan Lake this season, I was thrilled because I’ve never played a bad guy before. I was delighted to be given this challenge and I got a lot of great feedback from James on this role as well. He helped me really understand how he saw Rothbart and inspired me to try to bring that image to life on stage. James also gave me some room to play with, which was quite generous, so that I could make him my own character as well. Principal Artistic Coach Magdalena Popa also really helped me bring this character to life.

The sections I love the most are when Rothbart joins the ballroom scene in Act III, portraying the Surprise Ambassador. I also enjoy the transition from that to the pure evil in Act IV. Rothbart is such a great acting role and is going to be a lot of fun to dance.

[Photos: Top, Noah Long in The Four Seasons. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann. Above, Artist of the Ballet in Swan Lake. Photo by David Cooper.]

  Spring                                                      Summer                   
  Chelsy Meiss                                   Heather Ogden       
  Corps de Ballet                                Principal Dancer      

 Autumn                                                    Winter
Jenna Savella                                   Stephanie Hutchison
Second Soloist                                  First Soloist

All of your partners are making their debuts in the role of A Man. In this role, you dance with:

Chelsy: First Soloist Patrick Lavoie. We are making our debuts together.
Heather: My fiancé, Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté.
Jenna Savella: Second Soloist Noah Long.
Stephanie Hutchison: First Soloist Patrick Lavoie.

If you could describe the emotion of the season you dance in one word, it would be:

Chelsy: Joyful
Heather: Sexy
Jenna: Compassionate
Stephanie: Melancholic

When I first watched The Four Seasons, the section I loved most was:

Chelsy: If I must choose, the Summer pas de deux was the first section I ever saw of the ballet (online). I found it absolutely electric and afterwards I got the whole ballet on DVD!

Heather: Summer pas de deux for sure. This ballet is full of great moments but when I joined the company and saw The Four Seasons for the first time, I fell in love with Summer immediately. I remember making a quiet promise to myself that I would do that role one day and now I enjoy each time I get to perform it.

Jenna: The 2nd movement of Winter. It feels like the calm before the storm and gives me a sense of nostalgia.

Stephanie: All of it. I think this work, the choreography, lighting and costumes come together in a unique and complete experience. Of course, the music is divine to begin with. 

My favourite aspect of this ballet is:

Chelsy: The collaboration of the music and the choreography, both are so true to each season. The music and movement are so expressive which not only make this ballet enjoyable for one performance but a timeless masterpiece.

Heather: I think one of the reasons The Four Seasons is a masterpiece is because of how all the aspects mesh together. The choreography is so beautiful and it sits on the music with such precision that it makes Vivaldi’s score come to life in a whole new way. The costumes are fresh, fun and lovely to dance in. I think it is everything coming together that helps to give such a nice look into the story of A Man’s life.

Jenna: Every element comes together so perfectly. It is an inspiration to watch and dance time and time again.

Stephanie: The choreography and the music; each one edifies the other. The choreography shows me more aspects in the music and the music drives the choreography. 

The Four Seasons opens tonight with A Suite of Dances and 24 Preludes by Chopin.

[Photos: Chelsy Meiss, Heather Ogden, Jenna Savella and Stephanie Hutchison. Photos by Sian Richards (top row). Artists of the Ballet in The Four Seasons. Photos by Lydia Pawelak (centre) and Bruce Zinger (above).]