By Robin J. Miller For decades, ballet companies, especially in North America, have depended on The Nutcracker for their bread-and-butter, knowing it would draw vast crowds every Christmas and make it possible to present other, often more challenging fare the rest of the year. Thanks to pandemic restrictions, many companies cancelled their 2020 Nutcrackers months
By Robin J. Miller March 12, 2020: Dance Victoria was one day away from presenting Ballet BC’s Romeo and Juliet at Victoria’s Royal Theatre. Thirty-two dancers had just arrived by ferry. Then BC’s public health chief, Dr. Bonnie Henry, made her fateful announcement. “We thought the shuttering of theatres wouldn’t happen until the next week,
Dancers fall slowly, defying gravity; props move as if they have a mind of their own; walls of light slice through the haze, dividing the stage. In this fantasy world created by Out Innerspace co-artistic directors Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond, the boundaries are constantly shifting and the laws of physics don’t seem to apply.