Courtesy of Ben Leggatt
Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maître hopes the company’s current production The Three Musketeers will inspire little boys to want to become dancers.
“As children most of us have read The Three Musketeers. People can watch an art that may be new to them but with a story that is familiar to them” says Grand-Maître adding that it’s a family-friendly ballet that shows off the entire company. “It’s good to find ballets where men dancers are featured as much as the women.”
David Nixon who is artistic director of Northern Ballet in Leeds England choreographed the work which premiered in 2006. Grand-Maître describes Nixon “as one of most awarded celebrated choreographers and artistic directors in Europe.” In fact he was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2010.
This is the first time Alberta Ballet will stage a production by Nixon a Canadian whose works have rarely been seen in this country. Grand-Maître says it’s not only advantageous for the dancers to be working with one of the world’s “top-notch” choreographers but for him as well. “It’s like rediscovering the dancers. It enables me to see dancers in completely new ways” he explains adding that he has been working with some members of the company for nearly a dozen years.
Grand-Maître describes The Three Musketeers as “stunningly beautiful” from the sets and costumes that have been brought over from Europe to the music courtesy of British composer Sir Malcolm Arnold which will be played by a live orchestra.
“The first comment the technical director made when we saw the scenery was ‘You can tell this was built in Europe’” says Grand-Maître noting the quality of the craftsmanship involved. “The set is like a magic box with sliding walls. They take on 20 different aesthetics.”
The set combined with the rich and colourful fabrics takes the audience back to 17th century France where the classic story takes place. The production even incorporates some silhouette puppetry to depict men riding horses through the French countryside.
“Audiences like big productions. They like to see the full company onstage” says Grand-Maître. “Our company has come of age in the last 10 years so we can now perform the classics and the large-scale productions.”
Nixon has a lot of experience with narrative ballets including the likes of Cinderella Beauty and the Beast and The Great Gatsby. As such Grand-Maître says Nixon has “kept pretty close” to the story penned by Alexandre Dumas in the mid-19th century which follows the journey of d’Artagnan and his friends the titular “three musketeers.”
“You have the intrigues of court love religion politics betrayals…. It’s such a legendary story. Dumas captured something that’s still relevant today.”
And what would The Three Musketeers be without the requisite fight scenes? Although fencing influenced ballet’s early beginnings as many balletic positions find their origins in the sport that does not extend to swordfighting. In fact the production employed not one but two fight-scene choreographers to make the fight scenes exciting and lyrical yet still believable.
“Ballet dancers are not natural swordfighters” says Grand-Maître adding that despite what some may think the swords used onstage are not safe. “The dancers have to do very rigourous training. Once they understand the basic techniques then starts the choreography process.”
Despite the sumptuous production elements Grand-Maître says the most beautiful aspect of Nixon’s The Three Musketeers is how he has developed the love stories. “The duets are breathtaking. David knows not only how to create this spectacular show but also how to inject humanity in it. You leave the theatre not just blown away by the visuals but by the emotions.”
The Three Musketeers runs October 23 to 25 at the Jubilee.
