Led by artistic director Gradimir Pankov, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens debuts Monday at Arlington Theatre with a reimagined version of Ohad Naharin’s ‘Minus One’
Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 6, 2007 9:52 AM
‘If a dance is good, then it will be appreciated,” says Gradimir Pankov, artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. “It’s that simple.”
After 50 years in the dance world, Pankov has returned to the most basic of philosophies. But it’s a thought he says he shares with Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, whose “Minus One” comes to the Arlington on Monday.
“I’m 68 now, and since 1966 I’ve worked without rest,” Pankov says in a still-thick accent that speaks of his birthplace in Macedonia and his years in Europe before coming to North America. For 10 years he danced for companies in the former Yugoslavia and Germany, then retired to take over the artistic directorship of Nederlands Dans Theatre II, the National Ballet of Finland in Helsinki, Sweden’s Cullberg Ballet and Ballet du Grand Théatre de Genéve in Switzerland.
Now, and for the foreseeable future, he says, he is the director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, a position he has held since 1999.
“I first visited Montreal in 1985,” Pankov says. “I turned to my wife and said ‘I could live here.’ ” Many years later, Pankov was set to leave his Geneva company and move into teaching. But he was invited to direct in Montreal. “My wife remembered what I had said. You see how destiny is?”
Destiny might have also had a hand in Pankov’s first meeting with Naharin. In 1986, they met at a dance festival in Holland, where Naharin’s work was being performed by a small New York company.
“We talked over dinner,” he says. “Ohad and I shared similar ideas about dance. It shouldn’t be about (putting forth) an intellectual idea. It should be about the relationships between the dancers and each other, or about their own selves.”
This relationship led to Naharin creating the work “Perpetuum” in 1992 for Pankov’s Geneva company. It was set to waltzes by Johann Strauss, but was full of Naharin’s flamboyant good humor. Fast forward a few years, and Pankov asked Naharin for a work for his Montreal company. Pankov could name many highlights from Naharin’s body of work — why not a show of highlights? “Minus One” was born. The title doesn’t allude to the fact that anything is missing, however.
“It could be ‘Minus 30,’ ” he jokes. “Honestly, I don’t know what it means. Ohad knows what it means to him.”
Not that “Minus One” means an artist is recycling and resting on his laurels. Each piece has been revamped and reimagined and works the company’s range more than many contemporary choreographers.
“Ohad’s choreography is very physical,” says Callye Robinson, an Arizona-born dancer who has been with Les Grands since 2003. “You use every part of your body. Ohad makes you question your intentions. He wants you to know where your movement is coming from, what is initiating a movement. He’s not interested in pictures or poses.”
And when Naharin is rehearsing, Pankov is usually nearby, ready to collaborate on the lighting and stage design, or making sure his dancers are OK.
“(Pankov) has a very definite direction for the company,” Robinson says. “He knows the types of things we should be doing.”
“Look on the Internet,” Pankov says, “and you won’t find a similar company with as vast a repertoire, from classic to contemporary, from ballet shoes to bare feet.”
Apart from Naharin, Les Grandes Ballet has premiered works by Jifií Kilián (one of Pankov’s longest collaborators), Christopher Wheeldon and Les Ballet’s own homegrown artists, whom Pankov has been cultivating.
Like the rest of the company, Pankov works nine-to-five, Monday through Friday; sometimes later. But, he says, Montrealians are generally strong workers who love to achieve.
“I love Montreal,” he says. “It’s dynamic like NYC. There are so many companies here. Quebec has a very European mentality. It’s a very open-minded, cosmopolitan city. I feel like I haven’t left Europe.”
[SIDEBAR]
A grand class
When Les Grands Ballets Canadiens arrives for its first Santa Barbara appearance, dancers will have a chance to attend a masterclass hosted by the company’s ballet master, Pierre Lapointe.
Hailing from a small farming town in Quebec, Lapointe started dance in college, which is considered late. He spent his first professional years at Pacific Ballet Theater, now known as Ballet British Columbia, then joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.
Lapointe has spent 24 years with the company, the first four as a dancer. “I don’t miss performing,” he says. “My last appearance onstage was on a Friday, and on the following Monday I was rehearsing the dancers as ballet master. I haven’t had the time to miss dancing since.”
The masterclass is open to all intermediate and advanced dancers in the community, though co-sponsors Santa Barbara Dance Alliance and UCSB’s Arts and Lectures invite the general public to sit in and observe.
Lapointe’s teachings are based on his Royal Academy of Dance training, along with years of experience. “It’s about developing musicality and muscle length, about moving through space,” he says.
Dancers will work on the mind-body connection. “When there’s a level of difficulty, the apprehension goes up,” he says. “When there’s more enjoyment, the freer the dance gets. The mind controls the body. You have to convince yourself to succeed.”
And beyond that?
“Dance is not something outside of reality,” Lapointe says. “It’s about inner truth and sincerity.”
LES GRANDS BALLETS CANADIENS
When: 8 p.m. Monday
Where: Arlington Theatre, 01317 State St.
Hours: $42.50 to $52.50 general, $27.50 UCSB students
Information: 893-3535 or www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu
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PIERRE LAPOINTE MASTERCLASS
When: 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Gustafson Dance School, 322 State St.
Cost: $15 dancers, $5 observers
Info: 966-6950 or www.sbdancealliance.org
PHOTOS COURTESY OF UCSB ARTS & LECTURE