Annex choreographer Michael Garcia speaks with Whistler, BC's Pique Newsmagazine
By David Song
According to professional dancer and choreographer Michael Garcia, most locals don’t quite understand how prestigious Ballet BC is.
In other places, it’s viewed as a titan of the ballet industry that commands respect across North America and beyond. Garcia and most of his peers who graduated from New York’s Juilliard School (itself a world-renowned institution) viewed gigs with Ballet BC as one of the best opportunities they could potentially receive, with Garcia auditioning three times before earning a contract five years ago.
“When we go on tour to random places in the States, or even to small towns in Europe, you’d be surprised how many people travel hours to see the company or how many people see the show and then want to tell so many other people,” says Garcia. “As a boy from a small town in Texas, I just wanted to pursue excellence. I wanted to pursue contemporary dance at the highest level I could and Ballet BC has been doing that for 40 years now, whether or not the neighbourhood audience is aware of it so much.”
Whistler is about to get a front-row seat to that exacting degree of artistry, for Ballet BC Annex (a group of pre-professionals training with Vancouver-based Modus Operandi and Arts Umbrella Dance) is headed into town for what is being marketed as “a dynamic contemporary dance triple bill” involving global premieres from Garcia and Canadian choreographer Cameron Fraser-Monroe—although the two did not work together directly.
Artists of Ballet BC Annex in can't carry ghosts by Michael Garcia. Photo by Millissa Martin.
Garcia is passionate about teaching rooms of dancers and has been granted several opportunities to choreograph, starting from a Ballet BC initiative called Take Form which fully funds artists while also challenging them to produce, create, market, budget and perform every aspect of a ballet show. He has also orchestrated programming for the Ballet BC Summer Intensive and Arts Umbrella under the mentorship of company artistic director Medhi Walerski, who concludes his tenure after this season.
‘Very personal, very emotional’
As a creative, Garcia seeks to do away with traditional stereotypes and negative attitudes facing young men in ballet.
Raised by a single mom who exposed him to various sports like tennis, soccer and tee-ball, he instead gravitated towards dance ever since he watched a family VHS recording of the New York City Ballet’s 1993 rendition of The Nutcracker. He began dancing at seven years old and was hooked from the outset.
The Texan opines that misogyny and homophobia play a role in driving boys away from ballet, yet has also witnessed a paradoxical situation in which more adult men than women are hired as choreographers and company directors. He would go as far as to say that men are “graded on a curve” whereas women are not, and he’s encountered more heterosexual than LGBTQ+ males in the industry.
“I would not call myself non-binary, but especially as a dancer, I don’t like being identified or stereotyped into male or female physicalities or movement languages,” elaborates Garcia. “Even as a child I always said I wanted to be the best, not the best boy. As a choreographer, I’m not necessarily interested in always using those stereotypical images, ideas, or relationships to portray things.
“My work tends to be very personal, very emotional and is related to my own life, but…I’m more interested in demonstrating emotions or feelings than storylines. If two dancers happen to be a man and a woman, it doesn’t have to be a husband and a wife. It’s just two people connected in that moment, experiencing whatever feeling they’re having—rather than the audience needing to understand that this man is this age and he’s asking her to be this because she’s a woman.”
Overall, the 28-year-old promises that Whistlerites who attend the upcoming show will enjoy a trio of dance pieces that all utilize the entire cast while delivering nuanced, virtuosic spectacle in very different ways. He hopes that audiences might be able to relate to what is being presented on stage.
Michael Garcia’s can’t carry ghosts is a part of a powerful triple bill of works performed by Ballet BC’s junior ensemble which has reached schools and community stages across BC.
Learn more about Ballet BC AnnexOriginally published in Pique Newsmagazine: “Ballet BC Annex to grace Whistler on Nov. 10” by David Song.
