The National Ballet of Canada 2022-2023 Season

Hope Muir, who became Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada at the beginning of this year, has announced the 2022-2023 season, her first full season with the company.

Highlights include:

• World Premiere of MADDADDAM by Wayne McGregor and Margaret Atwood
• World Premiere by Rena Butler
• Canadian Premieres by David Dawson and Alonzo King

Muir said,

It's my great pleasure to introduce the 2022-23 season. The season ahead shows the strengths of the entire company, balancing virtuosic classical pieces with new work and acquisitions that introduce unique choreographic voices to our repertoire. Working with the artists of the company in my new role as Artistic Director has been incredibly rewarding. I'm honoured to be leading The National Ballet of Canada into its next chapter with work that reflects the extraordinary versatility of our artists and builds relationships with influential dance creators.

The 2022-2023 season will open with Sharing the Stage at Harbourfront Centre with free outdoor performances and free dance classes and interactive conversations, from 16-20 August 2022. The National Ballet will perform two mixed programmes.

In November, the National Ballet returns to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with the Canadian premiere of The Collective Agreement, the company's first acquisition from the American choreographer Alonzo King. The Collective Agreement was created for San Francisco Ballet in 2018 to a commissioned score by jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran and has ‘image technology' by Jim Campbell, a creator of cinematic LED installations. The Collective Agreement will be presented with Crepuscular by Vanesa G. R. Montoya and Kenneth MacMillan's Concerto, from 9-13 November 2022.

MADDADDAM by Wayne McGregor will receive its world premiere on 23 November 23 with performances until 30 November 2022. McGregor will create the new ballet triptych with Margaret Atwood. The work is a co-production with the Royal Ballet, based on Atwood's novel trilogy, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam. MADDADDAM will have an original score by Max Richter who wrote the music for McGregor's Woolf Works inspired by three novels by Virginia Woolf.

James Kudelka's The Nutcracker returns from 10-31 December 2022.

In the Winter Season, the National Ballet presents the Canadian premiere of Anima Animus by David Dawson, the choreographer's debut with the company. It was created in 2018 for the Unbound Festival, and has since toured throughout the UK and US. A ‘high octane work favouring speed and precision', Anima Animus is set to music by Ezio Bosso. In the same programme will be a new work from Rena Butler, a contemporary piece to celebrate the music of John Adams for his 75th birthday. The programme is onstage from 3-23 March 2023  and also features George Balanchine's Symphony in C.

James Kudelka's Cinderella returns from 10-19 March 2023 in which Cinderella discards the rags-to-riches scenario to put the heroine on equal footing with Prince Charming.

The International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize, an evening of dance showcasing young talent, will take place on 25 March 2023. The competition was first held in 1988. Erik Bruhn was the company's Artistic Director from 1983 until his death in 1986.

The Summer Season opens on 2 June 2023 until 10 June with Frame by Frame, directed by the Québécois playwright, actor, film and stage director, Robert Lepage, and choreographed by Principal Dancer and Choreographic Associate Guillaume Côté. Frame by Frame pays homage to Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren, whose pioneering advancements in animation led to a prolific career with the National Film Board of Canada and influenced filmmakers the world over.

The 2022-2023 season will conclude with Alexei Ratmansky's Romeo and Juliet from 15-25 June 2023. It was created in 2011 to celebrate the National Ballet's 60th anniversary season is pure Ratmansky, a thoughtful and visually striking revival of one of ballet's great narrative works.

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Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.