CAELESTIS
In 2017, along with Ballet BC and the National Ballet of Canada, The Alberta Ballet was commissioned to create an original work for a mixed program called Encount3rs, by the National Arts Centre, in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. Caelestis was choreographed by Jean Grand-Maitre, with an original score (nominated for a Juno) by Andrew Staniland. In the theme of technology vs. nature, we created projections for the floor and back wall, making a box which the dancers never left in the course of the half hour piece.
It was remounted in Alberta in 2019.
There’s nothing like the wonder of live performance, and the thrill of working with amazing collaborators.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Yukichi Hattori choreographed Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins for the Alberta Ballet in 2010. We created the projections which served to set the scene and to provide simple translations for the dense and interesting text by Bertolt Brecht. Yukichi's choreography, the amazing dancers, the Calgary Philharmonic, The Edmonton Opera, and Kurt Weill's music made it a wonderful experience.
The video below is a tiny sample of our translation 'surtitles'. (A dancer would be standing under one arrow, on the left, the singer under the arrow on the right. They are two sisters, both named Anna. I guess they had very careless parents.)
MOZART’S REQUIEM
In 2008 Jean Grand-Maitre of the Alberta Ballet created a dance to Mozart's Requiem. In addition to dancers up front, the back of the stage was occupied by over one hundred singers, veiled by a black screen. We were asked to create the projections that would play on that screen.
The image at the top of the page is a collage of the imagery we used for each movement. The video gives some idea of the Benedictus movement, without benefit of dancers or singers. Because the images were projected onto a black screen they did not photograph well, and as a result we don't have a document of the final incredible result.