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CBC
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
Two longtime collaborators on why Guillaume Côté might be the best of Canadian ballet
After 26 years dancing with the National Ballet of Canada, Guillaume Côté will take his final bow tonight. The Quebec-born ballet dancer and choreographer has been lauded over his long career for his unique blend of technical perfection and artistry, and how his charismatic presence shines through even on a stage full of incredibly talented dancers. From portraying Romeo in Romeo and Juliet to Prince Charming in Cinderella and Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, he has made some of the most iconic roles feel fresh. Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud talks with two of his longtime collaborators, dancer Greta Hodgkinson and choreographer Anisa Tejpar, about his legacy and why he just might be the greatest of all time in Canadian ballet. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: Greta, you were 11 years old when you moved to Canada to attend the National Ballet school. That's the same age that Guillaume moved here from Lac-Saint-Jean. You both grew up to become principal dancers with the National Ballet, so you logged a lot of hours together. Tell me, what's he like to dance with? What's the thing that sets him apart? Greta: I would say he's an extremely generous partner. His partnering skills are amazing. But he's also got so much energy. He gives so much onstage, and he gives so much to his partners. It's really wonderful. And you could sort of feed off each other. There's a lot of trust there, obviously, dancing for so many years, but yeah. He's very, very generous. Elamin: What I really enjoyed watching there is the way that both of you are nodding at the same moments. We were talking about this just before we went live, because Anisa finished a sentence with just hand gestures and Greta was like, "Yeah, totally understand what that means." For those of us who have not danced, let alone danced with Guillaume, when you say "fantastic partnering skills," what does that mean to you, Greta? Greta: Well, he understands where the ballerina's weight needs to be. He's strong in lifting. That sort of innate ability to partner is hard to teach. I mean, you can teach the technique, but the feel, if you will, of where the dancer needs to be off balance, on balance — he's very talented in that way. Elamin: Let's talk about the other part of his career for a moment, Anisa, because he's been a choreographer for a while. And he did not start choreography as a transitional step out of dance. He started at the peak of his career, more than a decade ago. When you think about Guillaume as a choreographer, what's the thing that he's trying to do with choreography? Anisa: That's a great question because I think when you've been an interpreter like he has for so many years — he's done the canon of choreography, you know, the Swan Lake s, the Giselle s, the Sleeping Beauty s that have lasted way longer than our lifetimes — he's done them all. Every major choreographer has worked with him around the world. When you are the vessel for someone else's ideas, when you are the interpreter of someone else's concepts, vibes, a weird brain pattern — at some point you think to yourself, what if it was my ideas? What if it was coming from me? What if I was the source of what we were making, and then I had these wonderful artists in front of me interpreting me? Now, the way I put it I think maybe sounds egotistical, but it's not because ultimately the more you interpret, the better you get at creating. And with Guillaume, because he has been able to achieve such milestones in his career as a performer, it felt so logical for those of us who knew him. It was not a surprise when he started creating work. His mind is fast-moving, always inspired; this man doesn't stop…. And it only felt natural for him to, like, put pen to paper, to explode onto other people, and to show what he has. It's vulnerable. It's courageous. It's hard to make work. But I think because of the type of person that he is, the experience that he's had, the wealth of knowledge he has in the medium, he's the ideal candidate to make.
Globe and Mail
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
With Adieu, Guillaume Côté leaves the National Ballet of Canada to make way for new talent
Some loathe goodbyes. Others relish the drama. It seems safe to put Guillaume Côté in the latter camp as he leaves the National Ballet with Adieu, an evening dedicated to his 27-year career with the company. The mixed program, which opened in Toronto on Friday night, culminates in the world premiere of Grand Mirage, a 35-minute ballet that falls somewhere between mini-autobiography, valedictory speech and Côté's ode to himself. You would be right to infer that Côté holds a special place in the company–few artists get a show celebrating their exit. But as the only principal dancer cum choreographer on staff, he's been a long-time cherished Renaissance man who has charmed Canadian audiences for nearly three decades. Charm might be the operative word here; no one would argue that Côté has ever been technically exceptional as a dancer. Instead, he's distinguished himself with his presence, warmth and intensity as a performer. In certain roles–Romeo and Nijinsky for example–he's been absolutely magnetic, bringing depth and vulnerability to formidable characters. Onstage, he's unfailingly watchable, which may sound like faint praise but isn't. Whether the movement is complex or vague, he infuses it with honesty and vigour, transforming sometimes abstruse steps into captivating expressions of feeling. Guillaume Côté says farewell after nearly three decades at the National Ballet of Canada The response to Côté's choreography has been more varied. While his work has been presented at important venues across Canada, it has never been produced or commissioned outside the country–he doesn't rank among our most famous choreographic exports, i.e., Crystal Pite, Emily Molnar, Marie Chouinard, Aszure Barton, Emma Portner. Some of his limitations as a choreographer are evident in his two works on the program. Take Bolero, the 2012 ballet that kick-starts the evening, a tidy crowd pleaser set to Ravel's popular eponymous composition. Architectural and compact, the piece features a woman in white as she is supported and manipulated by a retinue of four men, their movements echoing the patterns and repetition in the melody. Leading the ensemble, principal dancer Genevieve Penn Nabity is the picture of strength and precision, and we're treated to some gravity-defying lifts worthy of a figure-skating rink. But it all feels like gazing on an exquisite platter of food we can't eat; we never go deeper than admiring what we see. Grand Mirage is a knottier work to analyze. It begins with a short film (by Ben Shirinian) that evokes Côté's inner turmoil as he grapples with the doom of impending retirement. Close-ups of Côté's face are interspersed with dreamlike sequences of frenzied dancing, flashes of him standing outside a seedy motel and footage of his appearance on a 70s-era talk show. (For some reason, the world we've been transported to is one of big lapels and bell-bottoms, the aesthetic unerringly Mary Tyler Moore.) When the film screen lifts, we find Côté in a staged version of the same motel room, where he flounders about depressively until he is visited by ghosts from his past. Some of these vignettes feel clichéd to the point of meaninglessness. Former principal dancer Greta Hodgkinson struts into his room in a purple leisure suit, hamming up the diva antics. Nothing about the choreography helps us understand their relationship, until we hear the first chords of Chopin's Nocturne No. 2 in E flat, and the dancers begin a pas de deux I can only describe as bed gymnastics, replete with upside-down lifts that often create an ungainly meeting between Côté's head and Hodgkinson's crotch. A later sequence involving a dancer with horns (David Preciado) is perplexing, and when the set transforms into the wings and lights of a stage, Côté performs a showy pas de deux with a woman in a blue wig (Arielle Miralles). Zigzagging across the stage to Frank Sinatra's crooning, they are wistful for a bygone era, but nothing new or interesting is happening at a choreographic level. Like much of Côté's work in Le Petit Prince and Frame by Frame, it feels there to fill a dramatic moment. You can't help but wish he'd worked the other way, with the drama unfolding from the movement itself. Some moments are more memorable. Soloist Hannah Galway appears on stage like a half-living wraith from a Tim Burton movie, and while her connection to Côté's narrative isn't fully clear, it's hard not to enjoy her haunting expressiveness, the sense that she's made of paper, that every movement carries the risk of a tear. It's not until the work's end that we get something that approximates real feeling from Côté. Thrashing his arms to Peter Gabriel's My Body is a Cage, he becomes angry, frustrated, inconsolable. The lyrics may be a bit on the nose (and the whole conceit a little redolent of James Kudelka's The Man in Black), but it's a relief to finally sense that we're being taken seriously as an audience, and granted access to something visceral. What will happen to Grand Mirage in the years to come? Between the film, the detailed costumes, the beautiful transforming set (all designed by Michael Gianfrancesco) the work clearly cost money to make. But it is so expressly and exclusively an ego-project for Côté, leaving so little space for another dancer's interpretation, that it's hard to imagine how and why the company would present it again. Especially not when the National is hiring the likes of Ethan Coangelo and Jennifer Archibald, the two Toronto-born choreographers who have world premieres sandwiched between Côté's pieces. Coangelo's Reverence is an atmospheric ensemble work, performed in bare feet, that plays with unmannered forms and motion. The dancers assume pedestrian shapes that evolve into flashes of virtuosity; there's a fascinating melding of loose limbs and vigour. Principal dancer Spencer Hack stands out for his expressive suppleness, and while some of the work's nuance is overpowered by its tonal darkness, this is clearly the creation of a choreographer with vision, sensitivity and a theatrical imagination. Archibald's King's Fall gets points for the evening's most novel and experimental piece. A chaos of style that pairs pointe work and pirouettes with classic breakdancing moves, the ballet is a breathless and entertaining whirlwind. Dressed like knights in shiny medieval helmets and chainmail-esque suits, the dancers throw themselves into the collision of genres. King's Fall is most successful when it's playful–there's room for more levity in the work–but Archibald's ambition and creativity are refreshing throughout. We're left with a program of mixed quality and mixed feelings. What's clear at the final tally: one choreographer's Adieu is another's heartening hello.
Globe and Mail
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Guillaume Côté says farewell after three decades at the National Ballet of Canada
After more than three decades with the National Ballet of Canada, the dancer is saying a bittersweet farewell to the stage Aisling MurphyTheatre Photography by Fred Lum The Globe and Mail Published 18 minutes ago Guillaume Côté was named principal dancer for the National Ballet of Canada in 2004, and took on the parallel title of choreographic associate in 2013. Now, he prepares to take his final bow. to view this content.
CBC
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
This ballerina's kiss goodbye to Swan Lake
Behind the scenes with Heather Ogden as she dances ballet classic for last time Principal dancer Heather Ogden, centre, performs in The National Ballet of Canada's Swan Lake with other dancers on March 18. It was one of Ogden's final three performances of the Russian classic at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Lupul/CBC CBC News Mar. 26, 2025 Principal dancer Heather Ogden has performed Swan Lake for the last time in The National Ballet of Canada's production of the Russian classic. The dual role of Odette/Odile was Ogden's first major one with the National Ballet in 2003. She's been with the company since 1998 and danced lead roles in beloved classics, such as Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. But Ogden says she felt it was the right time for her to bid farewell to Swan Lake this month when she danced in three of the sold-out performances. 'One of my coaches told me, 'You have to give it a kiss goodbye,' ' Ogden said. 'And so I kind of thought it was a nice sentiment to just give it a nice farewell.' ADVERTISEMENT Last week, CBC News photographer Alex Lupul was backstage to capture the ballerina's final two performances of Swan Lake at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. Go behind the scenes with Ogden and all her swan friends as they performed to sold-out audiences on March 18 and 21. Getting ready Ogden said she likes to give herself plenty of time to get ready before the show. For this 7:30 p.m. performance, she'll start preparing at 5 p.m., giving herself an hour for hair and makeup — then an hour to warm up. Warming up In the rehearsal hall before the show, Ogden practised her standard series of warm-ups. She says she was trying some moves from Act 2, when she comes on stage as the White Swan. 'I usually try my first entrance, my first balances and a couple pirouettes — things like that,' she said. Taking the stage This production of Swan Lake, which was directed and staged by the National Ballet's then-artistic director Karen Kain, premiered in June 2022. The original Swan Lake dates back to the late 1800s and is based on a German fairy tale, which tells the story of Prince Siegfried and Odette, a princess in a faraway kingdom who is turned into a swan after being cursed by the evil sorcerer Baron von Rothbart. "When the kingdom's eligible royal, Prince Siegfried, falls in love with Odette, Rothbart conjures a trick to keep them apart — Odile, a ravishing imitation of Odette,' the National Ballet said on its website. Something to remember During her final performance, Ogden says she felt excited and tried to soak it all in. She thought the audience was 'incredibly warm' and appreciative. 'It just felt very nice,' she said. 'I felt very showered with love … It was something I'll remember.' Layout and editing by photo editor Showwei Chu Related Stories Footer Links My Account Profile CBC Gem Newsletters Connect with CBC Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Mobile RSS Podcasts Contact CBC Submit Feedback Help Centre Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6 Toll-free (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636 TTY/Teletype writer: 1-866-220-6045 About CBC Corporate Info Sitemap Reuse & Permission Terms of Use Privacy Jobs Our Unions Independent Producers Political Ads Registry AdChoices Services Ombudsman Public Appearances Commercial Services CBC Shop Doing Business with Us Renting Facilities Accessibility It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. About CBC Accessibility Accessibility Feedback © 2025 CBC/Radio-Canada. All rights reserved. Visitez
CBC
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Former prima ballerina surprised with Swan Lake tickets for 94th birthday
One of the original dancers with the National Ballet received a special surprise from her daughter for her 94th birthday: tickets to see 'Swan Lake.' We caught up with Lilian Jarvis and her daughter to find out what sharing the experience meant to them.
