Ballet British Columbia

Creating a new, full-length ballet is what most choreographers live for. John Alleyne has had the luxury in the last several years of doing exactly that with The Faerie Queen, Orpheus, Carmina Burana and now Streetcar.

The potential of creating work that resonates with contemporary audiences is key to the vigor and excitement he still has about dance. "Stories like Streetcar are relevant to the public because they deal with the nature of the common man," he says. "This story helped me understand the inter-connectedness of music, time and the difficult cultural issues of sexuality, race and being an outsider.

"With the death of her husband, Blanche has lost the man in her life and her ability to succeed as a woman. Stanley, like Blanche, is an outsider trying to find a way into the American mainstream. Stella is in fact the only character with a solid sense of place, as wife, mother, daughter and sister."

For both Stanley and Blanche, Stella is their ticket to an ideal life they don't have but want, and they fight to possess her. "Blanche is so tragic, fighting what is virtually a losing battle," he says. "The reality is that her life, given the times, is already over. For Simone [Orlando], dancing the role of Blanche is extraordinarily difficult because of the emotional component of the role. This will be as much a personal exploration for her as it is an opportunity to stretch herself as a dancer.

"Technically I am using the classical vocabulary in this ballet more than I have in the past. Because I'm dealing with real people not the mythical figures of traditional ballet, it has to have a modern feel to it. I hope that ultimately the choreography reflects the collision of opposites: old versus new, fantasy versus illusion, desire versus loneliness." Using classical dance with its huge range of movement but refined through a post-modern sensibility will perhaps make this the most accessible of John's ballets and one that a contemporary audience can relate to on a primal level.

See some of the video clips on this site for examples of how he uses classic form with a contemporary twist to tell the tragic story Williams imagined.

Sample 3

Sample 4