Professional dancers will take the stage this weekend as Ballet Edmonton opens its 14th season. This year’s program will start with Siren, performances the ballet company describes as ‘bold and innovative.’ “What we really do at Ballet Edmonton is we’re really about building new work,” said Kirsten Wicklund, the artistic director at Ballet Edmonton. Siren features three works, the first an audience favourite called Night Breath by Ethan Colangelo, the second by an emerging choreographic platform artist Nevan Boyden and a performance called String Theory by Béatrice Larrivée. “She does work a lot with text and voice and it’s something that she does a lot in the solo work that she makes on herself so I think for her, I know she works a lot with writing and things of that nature to start to compose messages that are maybe have a deeper meaning for her but are also coming in an abstract way towards the audience,” Wicklund said. “It’s a really beautiful glimpse into the current day and the mind of the choreographer.” Larrivée spent about four weeks working with dancers to create the work. “One of our own dancers composed a lot of the sound score and the sound design of that work as well. All of the movement, all of the music, was made right here in Edmonton,” said Wicklund. She said the shows are designed to give the audience a unique experience. “We hope that the audience really walks away with a sense that they were able to participate in interpreting the works and we don’t really present work that has a clear linear narrative, you know, there isn’t something that they’re meant to understand,” Wicklund said. Siren performances are being held Oct. 17-19 at Triffo Theatre in Allard Hall at MacEwan University.
