"When will someone make a story ballet set in the twenty-first century?"

[Ian Macmillan]

Quite so, as part of their 'Flanders Fields' commemoration:

 

http://www.balletvlaanderen.be/?page_id=5027〈=en

[Angela]

If you‘re looking for ballets set in the 20th century, then John Neumeier is a good source: his Nijinsky, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death in Venice and Liliom play in the 20th century, even his Othello and his new Tatiana (=Onegin) are set in modern/contemporary times.

[toursenlair]

Still haven't made it into the 21st c., though, which is the original topic of this thread.

[Jan McNulty]

David Nixon did "A Sleeping Beauty Tale" for Northern Ballet which, I think, was set in 25th Century!

[chrischris]

It's not modern, but I've always thought the film The Piano would make an excellent ballet, with that amazing Michael Nyman score and a story that is, essentially, about a woman caught between a man she loves and a husband she doesn't (pretty standard ballet storyline). Not sure how you would translate the lead characters silence on to a silent artform, but the imagery in that film is so striking, I can see it working well on stage.

[Jan McNulty]

Christopher Bruce made a work called Quicksilver to the Nyman score.  I believe it was to celebrate Rambert's 70th birthday.  Although abstract I remember the truly magnificent Patricia Hines in a red dress who was perhaps an imagining of Marie Rambert.

[alison]

Just out of interest, I wonder, back in 1914, how many ballets had been set in the 20th century by then?  Probably not that many, I would have thought.

[toursenlair]

Just out of interest, I wonder, back in 1914, how many ballets had been set in the 20th century by then?  Probably not that many, I would have thought.

Nijinsky made quite a stir with Jeux (1913 if I remember right) which was set in contemporary times. But otherwise the Ballets Russes at that point were very much into ancient Egypt/Greece, prehistoric (Rite of Spring) and "olden-days" (Petruskha) Russia.

[alison]

Yes, plus I was assuming that Ms Winship was focusing on fairly long, and possibly "full-length" ballets, with "proper" plots

[Sim]

My hubby has always thought that the story of Ruth Ellis would make a good contemporary ballet.

[Beryl H]

The Judas Tree was set in the time it was created, in London Docklands, this is the most contemporary ballet I can think of.

[aileen]

Sim, it could be MacMillanesque or it could be done more along the lines of Cathy Marston's Witch Girl.

[toursenlair]

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet (them again) will be premiering this ballet this fall:

Commissioned by Artistic Director André Lewis, Going Home Star – A Story of Truth and Reconciliation explores the world of Annie, a young, urban First Nations woman adrift in a contemporary life of youthful excess. But when she meets Gordon, a longhaired trickster disguised as a homeless man, she’s propelled into a world she’s always sensed but never seen. Not only do they travel the streets of this place but also the roads of their ancestors, learning to accept the other’s burdens as the two walk through the past and toward the future. Together, both Annie and Gordon learn that without truth, there is no reconciliation.

 

The story is by Canadian novelist Joseph Boyden, whose novels Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce I recommend highly.

(In case you're unfamiliar with Canadian terminology, "First Nations" is what we used to call "Indian" (ie North American Indian). There is a short trailer on the RWB site:

http://www.rwb.org/75thseason/lineup

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a commission of inquiry into the residential schools which many Aboriginal children were forced to attend.

[aileen]

Well, that sounds an interesting idea for a ballet. Will you be seeing it Katherine?

[toursenlair]

I'm in Toronto and Winnipeg is a  2 1/2 hr flight away so probably not. Though I expect they'll bring it on tour to Ottawa next year and I might be able to catch it then.