The ballet is coming to Yorkton. Ballet Jörgen is bringing Bouffonia to the city as part of the Yorkton Arts Council’s Stars for Saskatchewan series. It will be in town on March 11 at the Anne Portnuff Theatre.
Bouffonia is a contemporary Canadian ballet by Robert Desrosiers. Ayva Rousseau-Holland is one of the dancers in the show, playing several roles over the performance, including as a conductor, a short Italian man dancing with a bearded lady and a canary bird, with a giant feathered mask.
“It’s kind of got a circus feel to it.”
Jumping between roles is not difficult for her, Rousseau-Holland says, she gets into the right head space for each character and builds her dancing off of how she imagines the character would move.
“I basically imagine what I would be like if I was an angry little Italian man, take it from there and improvise in terms of my personality. For the bird, I picture myself and how I would do it if I was a bird, all the head twitches and that kind of thing.”
It’s a fun ballet for the audience and the dancers on stage, but it’s not an easy one for the dancers, and Rousseau-Holland notes that it’s a dance that pushes the performers.
“It’s very physical. I think everyone would agree that it’s physically quite demanding as work, it’s full of steps and not a lot of in between steps to take a breather. Everyone’s constantly moving and it’s high energy.”
The evening is more than just Bouffonia itself. There will also be the white swan scene from Swan Lake, an excerpt from Sleeping Beauty and other contemporary pieces.
“You get a little taste of each thing, which is nice.”
Dancing professionally has been a dream of Roussau-Holland, but she joined the company almost by chance. While visiting a friend in Toronto, she found out that the company was holding auditions. After looking up what they do, she decided to take the plunge and try out. That lead to her starting with the company, and she has been working with the company since.
“I never trained full time in a professional school... It just goes to show that you don’t always have to go that route to get a job, there are alternative ways to pursue a career.”
The company’s tour of Saskatchewan is another thing Roussau-Holland is proud to participate in.
“Ballet Jörgen always travels to communities that wouldn’t normally get to see classical ballet or professional contemporary work. Being able to show this work to people who wouldn’t always get the opportunity is really fulfilling and a lot of fun. We get to see a lot different landscapes, different places and different people, and it’s really enriching.”
