Ballet British Columbia

Dancers in a rehearsal studio are an enigma. Before they spring into action, they paw at a resin box in the corner to increase their traction, they walk with a swagger, arms hanging loosely, there is the smell of acrid sweat and the remarkable, overwhelming presence of muscled, capable bodies.

At the same time, there is an aura of spirituality in the studio, achieved by their single-minded concentration on the body. They face a wall of mirrors that measures their reflections with inhuman objectivity against an idealized concept to which they have dedicated their lives. The ideal body, when shaped by a choreographer's imagination, becomes art that in some mysterious way conveys an experience that seems both profound and significant.

John Alleyne is, of course, completely attuned to this world, having been a dancer himself for many years before taking on the enormous task of running a multi-million dollar ballet company. He is ready for the challenge of choreography. What George Balanchine, the ultra-famous Russian choreographer who headed New York City Ballet for many years, described best when he said, "First comes the sweat, then comes the beauty."

Visiting the Ballet BC studios while John is choreographing and communicating his ideas to his company of dancers is a unique experience. Regardless of the chaos and hysteria around him--whether it's a dancer's personal problems or the larger issues of his company--he remains assured and focused. If he runs out of ideas, his dancers patiently wait or improvise on the basic theme he is developing. The dancers in this company are almost always directly involved in the creative process.

As much as John may prepare for rehearsal by working out in his mind steps and patterns, ultimately he must do what all choreographers do--get his dancers together, show them what he wants and then work on perfecting and adapting those ideas into something approaching his vision. In the early stages of choreographing Streetcar, John works with only fragments of music since much of it has yet to be written. He has only an idea of what his palette of movement will be and a vague sense of its musical accompaniment.

For all its sophistication, ballet lacks a widely accepted written language. John will have completed his research into the story, the style of the time period and he may even have copious notes filled with ideas. Ultimately though creating ballet relies on improvisation under pressure.

He begins by dancing out the first steps he has conceived, counting aloud each beat of the phrase. The dancers immediately reproduce his movements and echo the counts. In the same way, hour after hour, he produces sequences for all the dancers in a particular scene. Now they begin the endless repetition of the movement until he is satisfied and ready to begin another section. The dancers store these steps away in their muscle memories and move on to the next phrase. If a particular movement proves too difficult or awkward for a dancer, John may restructure the step to fit that dancer's body and style. Ultimately he shapes each section to accommodate what a dancer can dance best. This is one of the things that his company truly appreciates about him.

By the end of each rehearsal, usually two hours, some progress will have been made--perhaps two or three minutes of the finished work. In the weeks preceding the premiere of a new ballet, John spends six or seven hours every day in the rehearsal studio and several hours more at home preparing for the next day's rehearsal.

Throughout the process he works with the dancers on the nuances of performance, striving to get his dancers as close to perfection as possible. "Attack that movement with more clarity," he says in a voice charged with energy. "Like this?" a dancer asks. He dances his response. "More like this," he says. John Alleyne is not a choreographer who sits down. His dancers are acutely responsive in copying the qualities he demonstrates.

On the night of the premiere of his new ballet, still weeks away, John will slip into a seat in the theatre as the lights dim. As the curtain goes down, he will rush backstage and greet his dancers in the wings with comments about the performance. It is not uncommon for him to have notes for them with changes he has in mind, but those can wait until tomorrow.

More on John Alleyne and his vision for A Streetcar Named Desire coming up. In the meantime, have a look at the exclusive video clips available only on this web site.

John Alleyne and the dancers of Ballet British Columbia in early rehearsals for A Streetcar Named Desire.

Sample 1

Sample 2