We are giving away two pair of tickets to the opening night of Rodin/Claudel on Thursday, March 27. To enter email apartment613@gmail.com with the subject line “NAC Ballet Contest” by noon Monday, March 24. The two winners will be contacted on Monday afternoon.
Auguste Rodin is one of the most famous sculptors of all time. His brilliant body of work includes The Thinker, an iconic piece first unveiled more than 100 years ago, as well as his masterpiece The Gates of Hell, which was inspired by the first part of Dante’s epic poem the Divine Comedy.
The legendary French artist, however, also had a passionate private life, which included his stormy relationship with French sculptress Camille Claudel. This fiery love story has now been brought to life on the stage in Rodin/Claudel, a ballet commissioned by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, and which will be performed at the National Arts Centre from March 27-29.
Premiering in 2011, this neoclassical ballet tells the turbulent story of these two highly talented artists, who become lovers despite being 24-years apart in age. (Claudel was 19 when she first met Rodin, then 43). Claudel was Rodin’s studio assistant, model and inspiration, while the elder artist served as her teacher and mentor.
The artistic duo went on to have a turbulent romance that ended badly, with Rodin refusing to leave his longtime lover Rose Beuret. The younger Claudel eventually descended into a tragic spiral of madness and destitution.
Choreographed by the internationally renowned Peter Quanz, the first Canadian to ever create a ballet for the legendary Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, Rodin/Claudel is set to the music of such French composers as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Hector Berlioz.
Among the innovative aspects of Quanz’s ballet is the use of a 12-member ensemble (six women and six men) who play the role of sculptures, whose shapes and movements represent the artistic minds of the two sculptors. Wearing flesh-coloured body-suites, the ensemble alternate between active dancing, to moments of pure stillness when they appear like Roman statues.
Video images of the ensemble in previous performances gives a taste of this ingenious idea. It is also reminds us that amazing ballet work is being done in Canada by a a group of highly talented artists.
Rodin/Claudel will be performed by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal at the NAC on March 27, 28 and 29. Tickets start at $53 and show time is 8 pm on each night.
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