CRITICAL ACCOLADES

For more information, please contact:

Ken Mazer, Publicist
604.732.5003, ext. 212
kmazer@balletbc.com
Fax: (604) 732-4417

CARMEN
Deborah Meyers, Vancouver Sun – February, 2007
Stephana Arnold gives Carmen its center

“…Alleyne has, in dancer Stephana Arnold, a Carmen made in heaven. Her carelessly tragic protagonist is exquisitely musical, bringing to life Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite…This is a musical made to be danced to and Arnold does, commanding the stage with complete authority and providing a thinly choreographed ballet with an essential centre. Edmond Kilpatrick, who is called upon to interpret so many of Alleyne’s tall, hulking heroes, is dry tinder to Arnold’s match: they burn the stage up.”

PETITE MORT
Janet Smith, Georgia Straight - Jan, 2007
Magic Moments

“In Jiri Kylian’s surreal ode to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 250th birthday, the corps of female dancers suddenly shoved off the stiff, hoop-skirted black ballgowns they were wearing, leaving the dresses, on wheels to roll around the stage like headless performers. It was a real coup for artistic director John Alleyne to bring in the piece by the head of renowned Nederlands Dans Theater and an exciting taste of theatrical Euro-style avante-garde.”

RODEO
Janet Smith, Georgia Straight - Nov, 2006
Crowd-rousing Rodeo raises the barn roof

“Ballet British Columbia threw itself into the slapsticky cowgirl story Rodeo with such enthusiasm it left its normally staid crowd hooting and hollering like a bunch of ranch hands at a bull-riding contest. Agnes de Mille’s 60-year-old ode to Americans is a cornball crowd pleaser, but it allowed the company to show its comedic side and have some fun. That fun was contagious, largely due to the pitch-perfect leads who were willing to ham it up and forego pirouettes and plies for lasso-, horse-riding-, and square-dance-inspired movement.”

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Paula Citron, The Globe & Mail – Apr, 2006
“Alleyne is a choreographer of cool elegance. Even when he is breaking his classical line with flexed feet and bent knees, there is still a grace and favour about his movement…Alleyne has also created vigorous choreography for the corps de ballet representing the pulsating energy of New Orleans, while his gentle airs for the Mississippi debutantes capture an age of innocence. Stoke’s score runs from progressive jazz riffs, to slinky strumming, to hot Dixieland…The opening night audience gave the ballet an enthusiastic response, and it is an impressive achievement.”

COMPANY B
Janet Smith, Georgia Straight, Publish Date: 23-Feb-2006
 “Company BBC” really knows how to swing

"The hooting and hollering were just one sign of the big appeal of a program that seemed to cover every aspect of what's made ballet hot over the past 10 or 15 years. Melding angular abstract movement, lyrical surrealism, and pop-culture nostalgia, the combo was also an education in the range of our own "Company BBC". The troupe looked bold and confident as it switched easily from pointe slippers to bare feet to jazz shoes over the course of the three works... This kind of range is what's keeping ballet alive today-and what will keep audiences coming back for more."
Link: http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=16176

 

CARMINA BURANA
Janet Smith, Georgia Straight - April 2004
"The finale of Ballet BC's new Carmina Burana is incredibly primal and almost biblical in its intensity [and] lives up to the bombast and scale of Carl Orff's famous score."

Deborah Meyers, The Vancouver Sun - April 2004
"Unlike most other dance versions, Alleyne has not placed the chorus or vocal soloists on stage, but down below with the instrumentalists. The visual imprint is therefore not that of a massed medieval pageant, but of the sparest and most delicate of morality tales as played out by 12 dancers."

THE RITE OF SPRING
Laura Murray, Georgia Straight - April 2005
"...an evening of artistic splendour and astounding success...The Rite of Spring closed to thunderous applause...Ballet BC at it's finest."

RETURN TO THE STRANGE LAND
Gail Johnson, Georgia Straight - May 2003
"Jiri Kylian's Return to the Strange Land is technically brutal, the dancers executed the excruciatingly complicated vocabulary with perfection."

ORPHEUS’ HUNGER FOR LOVE ALLEYNE’S CALL TO ARMS
Michael Scott, The Vancouver Sun – May 2002
[Orpheus] "is far and away Alleyne’s most mature and consoling work, with its images of desire and loss. To anyone who has ever pursued love against all odds only to find it unaccountably fled, Alleyne offers heartfelt recognition."

ORPHEUS MODERNIZED
Gail Johnson, The Georgia Straight – May 2002
"Alleyne’s choreography was typically fresh and demanding, his gestures full of meaning, and his vocabulary grew more complex as the piece developed. The company as a whole looked remarkably strong and sophisticated."

FAERIE MAGIC CASTS A SPELL OVER DANCE LOVERS
Michael Scott, The Vancouver Sun – November 2000
"In The Faerie Queen, Alleyne has created a ballet of such unparalleled newness and beauty that it erases any previous standard of balletic excellence in Vancouver. Great troupes have come and gone here…but we have never seen so ample, so startling an expression of our own life and place."

BALLET BC BEWITCHES WITH FAERIE QUEEN
Louise Phillips, The Vancouver Courier – November 2000
"Like Ballet BC, classically grounded yet wildly contemporary, this major new work is full of tantalizing dichotomies…the women are robust…the men share equal weight with the women…The ensemble has never been better.”

BALLET BC WORK HAS FAERIE-TALE BEGINNING
Gail Johnson, The Georgia Straight -- November 2000
"With its exquisite sets, fresh choreography, and innovative score, Alleyne’s first story ballet is nothing short of a triumph…The two-act Faerie Queen follows its Shakespearean original fairly closely. Alleyne centres his version on the devilish spirit Puck—here cast as a woman—who takes pure pleasure in playing tricks on a number of star-crossed lovers…Alleyne strikes a perfect balance between the delicacy of classical ballet and the full-bodied gestures of modern dance."

A RIVETING PERFORMANCE BY BALLET BC
Michael Scott, The Vancouver Sun -- November 1999
[The Vile Parody of Address] "It is unlikely that even Forsythe’s own company in Frankfurt could have given it a deeper or more riveting performance than it received Thursday night."

VANCOUVER BALLET COMPANY STAGES PROVOCATIVE WORKS
Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail -- February 1998
[Sex is My Religion] "...sit back and let the performance by the excellent dancers stimulate your imagination."

SWIFT, INTRICATE, AND IMAGINATIVE WORK
Gail Johnson, The Georgia Straight -- February 1998
[15 Heterosexual Duets] "... is a lovely, spirited enchantment of dances...the fluidity - and surprises - of Duets left me feeling giddily satisfied."

FRESH AND ABSORBING
Gail Johnson, The Georgia Straight -- January 1998
[In the Course of Sleeping] "...the piece was lush, airy, and dreamlike...The dancers moved with light, delicate steps, executing far-reaching arabesques in a succession of pas de deux that floated fluidly from one to the next."

THIS BOY’S A WONDER
Shannon Rupp, The Georgia Straight -- April 1997
[Boy Wonder] "Ballet British Columbia proved that despite it’s size - just 14 dancers - it can produce full-length ballets beautiful enough to compete with anything the big troupes have to offer while still delivering the excitement that goes with originality...a world that’s as haunting and lovely as anything 19th century ballets can offer. [Alleyne’s] smooth, elegant choreography looks effortless and is danced with surprising precision."

A WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENT
Shannon Rupp, The Georgia Straight -- November 1996
[Conversation Piece] "...an ideal addition to BBC's repertoire, in that it draws equally on the company's classical and modern-dance techniques to create an emotionally stirring work. This is one of those rare ballets that manages to be accessible to audiences who resist the cool angles of contemporary work, while offering the depth and originality that more and more balletomanes are demanding."

DON JUAN'S REFORMATION
Chris Dafoe, The Globe and Mail -- April 1995
John Alleyne "is as brilliant as ever... but with [The Don Juan Variations], he reveals something new; a generous, wise and passionate heart that fills the stage with real love. A complex, sexy, funny and moving marriage of dance and theatre. The genius of the piece lies in its choreography. The dancing is at once erotic and unnerving, exploring the matrix of love and power as gestures of affection melt into gestures of control and back again."

FOR GREAT LOVERS OF DANCE: THE DON JUAN VARIATIONS
Michael Scott, The Vancouver Sun -- April 1995
"John Alleyne has moved us out of normal times with his new ballet, The Don Juan Variations. This extraordinary work of art dips so deeply into life as to defy words to easily follow... a work pure enough and deep enough to deserve the accolade of Genius...What you feel in the presence of The Don Juan Variations is your very body growing young again, heating up with desire, with the risks and rewards of courtship... a universe of tendrilling, sensual movement...Alleyne conjures up with masterful spareness, the erotic charge of a new lover's touch."

A CANADIAN COMPANY THAT SPEAKS OF EUROPE
Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times -- March 1994
"A handsome group of 16 classical dancers whose bold demeanor evokes the tough, frank manner of contemporary ballet troupes in Europe... Ballet British Columbia from Vancouver is indeed a company with a refreshing difference, as its New York debut demonstrated... Even the work of familiar choreographers looked transformed under the amazingly strong stylistic imprint of this eight-year-old company...Who would have thought that a country that was considered a choreographic backwater even 10 years ago could field so much experimental talent?"

A REFRESHING BLAST FROM THE NORTH
Pamela Squires, The Washington Post -- March 1994
"Ballet British Columbia stresses the creative and innovative. At its Washington debut, this excellent 16 member company from Vancouver was true to its mandate. Artistic Director John Alleyne filled the company's one local performance with four knock-'em-dead modern works...the company's dancing is uniformly high, there's no single outstanding dancer. The company's artistic personality lies in the sum of its dancers, and in its choice of repertoire."