Black choreographers, often neglected in the ballet world, are celebrated by Ballet Jörgen

Canada’s Ballet Jörgen is doing its part to make the art form more diverse and representative. It’s no secret that the ballet world, whether by design or careless neglect, has been less than hospitable to people of colour. The talent that is out there often does not get the attention or support it deserves.

It explains why Bengt Jörgen, company co-founder and artistic director/CEO, was motivated to present a triple bill of works exclusively made by Black Canadian choreographers.

“The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and what followed brought things to a head and made it a broad societal issue,” said Jörgen. “It forced ballet companies to take a look at themselves more closely but, in fact, the issue has been long-standing.”

That September of 2020, Ballet Jörgen responded by partnering with the talk show “Turn Out Radio” to host a webinar titled “Racial Diversity in Ballet: A Panel Discussion on Racial Disparities and How to Implement Change.” It pinpointed many of the existing inequities as well as suggesting possible solutions. It’s still available for viewing online.

Ballet Jörgen is continuously commissioning new work. It has worked before with José Angel Carret, founder and director of Toronto’s Danza Corpus, and Mafa Makhubalo, artistic director of Mafa Dance Village: two of the contributors to “Celebration of Black Canadian Choreographers,” opening this week at the Young Centre.

In “Dialogue,” South African-born Makhubalo pushes his 18-member cast beyond their conventional comfort zones with more ground-rooted movement from his own cultural tradition. The work explores the concept of memory and its connection to our sense of reality.

While the style is African-contemporary with its own distinct rhythmic patterns and bodily gestures, Makhubalo explained that he didn’t want Ballet Jörgen’s dancers to imitate an unfamiliar style or culture but to interpret it through their own bodies.

“Canada is place where people from many different cultures can come together, and share and borrow from one another,” said Makhubalo. “Dance historically has always borrowed from other cultures.”

Cuban-born Carret is delving into the mysterious realm of dreams for his smaller-scale “Dream Talker,” which features two women and four men.

“The music I chose, from the Nexus album ‘Drumtalker,’ has sound effects that remind me of different phases and moments that I have experienced while dreaming,” Carret explained. “The choreography is about emotions that we experience during different phases of sleep, from eyes open to eyes completely closed. During our dreams we see images that are inexplicable when we wake up, and sometimes we see and face different experiences.”

For Toronto-born Katlyn Addison, her inclusion in the upcoming program is an important homecoming. It’s not only the first time she’s worked with Ballet Jörgen; it marks her Canadian debut as a choreographer.

Although she received early training at Canada’s National Ballet School and later at Quinte Ballet School in Belleville, Ont., the entirety of Addison’s professional career has been pursued south of the border, first in 2007 with Houston Ballet and since 2011 with Salt Lake City’s Ballet West.

There, Addison has risen through the ranks to become the 60-year-old company’s first Black principal ballerina. Last fall she achieved the notable milestone of becoming the first Black dancer anywhere to perform the leading role of Tatiana in John Cranko’s “Onegin,” a widely performed dramatic work that is also a mainstay of the National Ballet of Canada’s repertoire.

Apart from being a very active advocate for Black dancers and performing artists generally, Addison has also emerged as a talented choreographer. “There Were TWO,” her new work for Ballet Jörgen, is Addison’s eighth to date, five of her previous works having been made for Ballet West.

The 23-minute work has a commissioned score by Los Angeles-based Black composer and saxophonist Jonathan Sanford. Following the composer’s own inspiration, Addison’s ballet evokes aspects of the life of Hercules. The work, for the full company with the women all “en pointe,” features two couples representing the ancient mythical hero’s mortal and divine relationships.

Working with a company for the first time is always a challenge for a choreographer, but Addison has found Ballet Jörgen’s dancers very receptive.

“They were quick and willing to be vulnerable and try whatever,” she said.

Interestingly, Jörgen’s decision to present a program of new works by three Black Canadian choreographers has not met with universal approval.

“We’ve had quite a bit of blowback and nasty comments on social media,” said Jörgen. Whether they’re accusations of virtue signalling or tokenism, the criticisms took Jörgen by surprise.

“We didn’t set out to commission these works so we could have a Black choreographers’ evening. It was more happenstance than planning. Some of these works were in process or had only been seen in excerpts,” he said.

“Because of the timing, we felt it was an opportunity to celebrate their work and also acknowledge that there’s been an imbalance. Believe me, we had a lot of internal conversation about it and it would not have happened without the choreographers’ approval. We’re doing this program because they are all talented artists and perhaps have not been recognized as much as they should have.”

Nor is the initiative something out of the blue. The company was founded in 1987 with a mandate to commission and present the work of Canadian choreographers. Its entire repertoire of 229 works, including Jörgen’s popular adaptations of classic story ballets, is original to the company. Of the 94 choreographers involved, more than 20 per cent have been BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour).

Said Addison: “Bengt is taking the initiative of highlighting us to allow other people locally and across Canada to see and perhaps say, ‘Oh, there are these three choreographers I didn’t know about,’ I just hope it won’t be a one-time thing.”

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