Dawn, Ballet Kelowna’s latest performance to launch their new season, mixes contemporary styles and even features a celebrity guest appearance.
Three works — Ion by Heather Dotto; Bolero, by Guillaume Côté; and Doppeling by Simone Orlando, executive director and CEO of Ballet Kelowna — will make up the mixed program.
“We’ll begin with Ion, which is a world premiere,” said Orlando.
“That is exploring the idea of electricity and the impact that electricity has on our lives as well as our body.
“There’s also Bolero by Guillaume Côté,” Orlando continued, “and this is a very exciting work that is created to bolero by Maurice Ravel, which is a very famous piece of music, a melody that is very familiar to people.”
Featured in Bolero will be an internationally-acclaimed ballerina, Greta Hodgkinson, who will be retiring as a principal dancer from The National Ballet of Canada in 2020 after a 30-year dance career.
“Then we will round out the program with Doppeling that I created,” said Orlando.
“It’s an ensemble piece, a very fun piece that talks a bit about conformity as well as individuality and we are really looking at seeing how all the dancers look the same, but then one of them breaks free.”
Dawn won’t only be the launch of Ballet Kelowna’s new season. It will also be one Regina ballerina’s Canadian debut.
“Previous to this I was in Ballet Palm Beach in South Florida and before that, I spent a year abroad in France dancing at an opera house in the northeast and I also had a little stint with Disneyland Paris,” said McKeely Borger, professional dancer.
The work she is most excited to perform in is Doppeling.
The mixed program will be performed at the Kelowna Community Theatre Nov. 1 and 2.