Ballet BC

Vancouver-based Ballet BC has, since its formation in 1986, become Canada's leading contemporary dance company. Led by Artistic Director Medhi Walerski, their work is always though-provoking, is always pushing boundaries, and their productions are both beautifully choreographed and visually stunning. This is only their second tour of the UK, and they had never visited Norwich before. Until tonight, when Norwich Theatre Royal became the last stop on their seven-theatre 2025 UK tour, presented by Dance Consortium.

The evening gave us a chance to enjoy two pieces, beginning with 'Frontier', a dark and monochromatic piece in which all but two of the dancers perform in faceless black costumes, and is performed against a dark background and on a starkly-lit stage. And yet, in a work inspired by science and the very nature of matter, this exploration of space and emptiness becomes almost spiritual, guided by just two white-clad dancers as they strive to explore a shadowy unknown. The piece, choreographed by Crystal Pite and performed to original music composed by Owen Belton, was first performed in 2008, and received its Ballet BC premiere last November. Its overall mood, and the presence of this amorphic mass of anonymous bodies moving as one, is both beautiful and menacing, whilst the two solo dancers, performing in such a cathedralic space, cause us to feel isolated, and strangely alone.

After the interval, the company perform 'Passing', a much lighter, energetic, and even comedic, look at the ever-repeating circle of life as seen through the eyes of Swedish choreographer John Inger. As the dancers are 'born' they emerge the same, only to grow and create their own tribes, fashions and rituals as the world, and society, tries to mould and develop them. This is a piece with plenty of colour, music and movement, and both precision and athleticism from the dancers. The music takes us on a journey that includes folk, jazz and country in its soundtrack, and the twenty dancers are forced to become more and more aware of their surroundings as the dances become more crowded, more energy-filled, and more expressive. Ultimately, all is stripped bare as the dancers discard their colourful attire and revert to nude coloured body suits for the piece's closing moments. It is a performance that is beautiful and life-affirming.

Thanks to Norwich Theatre's Creative Director and Chief Executive Stephen Crocker being so wonderfully supportive of contemporary dance (as well as also being a co-chair of Dance Consortium), Norwich audiences have, this year, already been able to enjoy Matthew Bourne's New Adventures revival of 'Swan Lake', and Northern Ballet's dance adaptation of 'Jane Eyre'. Later this month, Ballet Rambert return with 'Peaky Blinders:The Redemption of Thomas Shelby'. If, like me, you love contemporary dance, where else (outside of London) would you need to be?