Ballet BC Brings World-Class Talent to Vancouver

Ballet BC returns to Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre with ZENITH on March 6 to 8. The triple bill features three exciting works: a world premiere from acclaimed Spanish choreographer Fernando Hernando Magadan, the large-scale PASSING from Swedish choreographer and longtime Ballet BC collaborator Johan Inger, and a world premiere from a rising star, Montreal-based Andrea Peña.

“A core aspect of Ballet BC’s artistic vision is to support and foster the growth of emerging talent,” says Ballet BC artistic director Medhi Walerski. “We are thrilled to commission a new creation from Andrea Peña as the winner of the Emerging Choreographer Award — it’s talents like hers that will take dance to new and exciting places.

“Since its premiere in 2023, Johan’s PASSING has had an incredible run with the company, being performed around the world to rave reviews. It’s a remarkable piece that speaks to the power of our relationships with each other. And while Ballet BC audiences are familiar with Fernando’s work, they will see a new side with this creation — it’s something very special and I can’t wait to share it.”

Though this will be her choreographic debut with the company, Colombia-born multidisciplinary artist Andrea Peña was a dancer with Ballet BC early in her career. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial design, and is known for exploring the intersection of choreography, design and new media. Her creation for Ballet BC will continue to explore this crossroads, incorporating bold, surprising elements of scenic and costume design.

In addition to receiving the 2024 Ballet BC Emily Molnar Emerging Choreographer Award, Peña was the first international choreographer to be awarded the prestigious La Biennale di Venezia’s call for new choreographic work by an artist under age 35. She is also the recipient of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s 2018 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award and the 2018 Hong Kong International Choreography Award.

Spanish choreographer Fernando Hernando Magadan is a freelance choreographer, teacher and stager with roots in professional gymnastics. As a choreographer, Magadan’s movement vocabulary is highly physical, inventive and musical.

He has created and presented works with companies worldwide, including NDT 1 and NDT 2, Cross Connection Ballet Company in Copenhagen, Ballet Mainz and Ballet Saarländisches Staatstheater in Germany, Satore Studio in London, Compañía Lava in Tenerife, Luzerner Theater in Switzerland, Korzo Theater in The Hague, BodyTraffic in Los Angeles, and Ballet BC, where in 2015 he premiered the widely acclaimed White Act. His latest creation for the company explores the immensity of space and our relationship with physics and gravity, as well as the fragility and vulnerability of being human.

Johan Inger is one of Europe’s most in-demand choreographers, following a long career as a dancer with Nederlands Dans Theater, which began in 1990. Inger left NDT to take on the artistic leadership of Stockholm’s Cullberg Ballet in 2003. From 2009 and 2016, he held the position of associate choreographer with Nederlands Dans Theater, creating for NDT 1 and NDT 2 regularly, while continuing to collaborate with other companies.

Following its commission and world premiere with Ballet BC in 2023, PASSING has quickly become one of the company’s most beloved pieces of repertoire. Traversing a vast landscape of human emotion, PASSING takes audiences on an epic, theatrical, often touching ride. The 50-minute piece is, in part, inspired by natural catastrophe, and explores relationships from the intimate to the societal.

Set to an original score by Amos Ben-Tal as well as selections from Erik Enocksson and Louis T. Hardin (a.k.a. Moondog), the sonic journey is as beautifully complex and captivating as the movement language throughout. PASSING was most recently performed on tour in Los Angeles, Italy and Luxembourg, and a professionally produced film version of the work is currently being streamed on ARTE TV in Europe.

Ballet BC presents ZENITH at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver March 6 to 8 at 8 p.m., with pre-show artist talks each evening at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $19 and are on sale now at Ballet BC’s website. Mini-subscriptions for 24/25 are also available, with a savings of 20 per cent off single ticket prices for its March and May programs.

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