“I think it’s going to be a very exciting and unique program,” says Kaylin Sturtevant, a dancer with the company. “I’m feeling very excited and confident to show the audience.”

Although all in one program together, each piece is being performed by the dancers at different stages of their creation. The line-up consists of Cloud Poem, a world premiere from French choreographer Pierre Pontvianne, the return of Heart Drive by Dutch choreographic duo Imre and Marne van Opstal, and a rework of Frontier by Crystal Pite. 

Performing a brand new piece is especially exciting, says Sturtevant, yet it does take time. For Cloud Poem, Pontvianne started working with the dancers in August in order to start developing and molding the new piece from ground zero. Unlike many other dance pieces, Cloud Poem doesn’t follow a storyline, but rather evolves based on the connections formed between the dancers as they perform. “It’s about listening, it’s about taking care of one another, it’s about the importance of getting into a flow, and really just moving all together,” Sturtevant says. Different every time on account of its experimental nature, Cloud Poem has each of the dancers performing their own movements, which creates a unified experience. “That process was a lot about letting go of any kind of ego, or any kind of expectation of what’s going to happen.”

Ballet BC dancer Kaylin Sturtevant (Photo:Marcus Eriksson)

Heart Drive, a piece the dancers already toured in Europe, may not be as experimental, but its themes still invite introspection and self-reflection. “We approached the piece with themes of fantasy, of sensuality, of pleasure, [and] of exploration,” says Sturtevant. “The piece is built on those different themes and the relationship of that with yourself, [and] with other people. And so the whole piece is very raw, this very physical movement that really works on exploring your fantasies and sensualities with each other and yourself.” 

Frontier will also be a joy to perform for audiences, says Sturtevant, with additional dancers from Arts Umbrella set to fill the stage. With some of their faces hidden behind masks and others not, the piece explores themes of shadows and dark matter. “[It is] about the play of shadow and the relationship to these bodies that are revealed,” she continues. With each movement, new imagery is uncovered and brought to life.

Working with up-and-coming dancers from Arts Umbrella on Frontier has been a great experience all around, says Sturtevant. “They’ve been doing a wonderful job. It’s been such a joy to have them in the studio with us.”

With only a short time until DAWN is performed live at the time of the interview, Sturtevant reflects on the road the team took together to get here. “Looking back from when we started rehearsals, we’re always so eager the first day, the first week of new creations, of working with new choreographers, and you never know how it’s going to evolve,” she says. “Some of the ideas that we started with, and the movements and the language are not the same at this point as they were when we started. But that’s all part of the whole rehearsal process. And it’s also really wonderful to see how much deeper in quality and intention, the how and the why of each piece has really come into effect.”

Ballet BC’s DAWN runs Nov. 7 to 9 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre | Tickets & Info