Originally from Kingston, Ontario, Les Grands Ballets dancer Kiara Flavin, joined the company's corps the ballet in 2020. Last October, she adapted Stravinsky's bigger-than-life violin concerto in D for her first creation with the company, which premiered in the CARMEN mixed bill. Titled The Waves, Kiara's choreography carried us all into a world of unpredictability, sailing daringly across Stravinsky's imposing music and Virginia Woolf's writing.
"Choreographing is another way for me to engage with what I love most - dancing, music. Translating feelings, questions and stories into dance language feels as vital as any other communication."
- Kiara Flavin
Les Grands Ballets is excited to feature Kristen Cere's new contemporary piece Delightful Disruption in the Ultraviolet mixed bill this spring. Now based in Montreal, Kristen Cere has close to 20 years of experience dancing, choreographing and teaching in Europe and North America. Her ability to explore the relationship between movement, energy and emotions has led her to develop a very personal style that continues to create space for the artists' individuality, sensitivity and visceral energy that she interconnects through her craft.
"Human beings create in a multitude of ways. For me, it has been essential to a life of curiosity and self-exploration and over the years I have come to the understanding that we can all be creators in our everyday life. Creating is bringing intention and awareness to what we do, whether it be through how we encounter a walk in nature, the way we are present to someone in a conversation or a work of art on stage. It is the expression of our inner landscape and the communion of our innermost existence with life itself."
- Kristen Cere
Since her retirement as a principal dancer with the West Australian Ballet, choreographer Jayne Smeulders works at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts as a unit coordinator, musical theatre choreographer, and teacher/guest choreographer in the Elite Program (classical ballet). In May, she will present an adapted version of her creation Cinderella to the music of Prokofiev with new characters, costumes, as well as new staging.
“My love for choreography stems from listening to music and feeling the need to express what I am hearing through dance. This started as a little girl for me, 12 years old, making up dances in the carpark of my local dance school for my dance friends. Without music, dance and storytelling, life would be very boring.”
-Jayne Smeulders
Lesley Telford, choreographer and director of Inverso Productions, is based in British Columbia and has had a 20-year career in Europe as a choreographer and dancer. Her work has been described as having "a profound way of tapping into deep recesses or our emotional and intellectual landscapes". In April, she will present her piece Beguile in the mixed program Ultraviolet.
“I started creating as a physical sketchbook of ideas. Choreography seemingly crept into my consciousness when I was a dancer at Nederlands Dans Theater. The environment was so charged with creativity and possibility that my curiosity overcame my fear. I often start creations from a very personal perspective and discover so much about myself and the wonderful people I collaborate with along the way. Choreography is relationship building in such an intense exposed way, communicating what sometimes feels impossible and unknown. I feel so privileged to work in this craft that highlights the subtleties of how our lives are shared through movement.”
- Lesley Telford
