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Holly Small
James Kudelka is the first choreographer to serve as Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada. Since 1996 he has steered the company through the tortured depths and ecstatic heights of his choreographic vision. Renowned as a prodigious creator of works that challenge both dancer and audience, works of devilish complexity and audacious musicality, his distinctive view of the nature and future of ballet is re-shaping the aesthetic of the company that initially shaped him.
Kudelka's talent was evident in childhood. During his National Ballet School days, while performing various children's roles with the company, he could often be found standing in the wings asking precocious questions about the choreography, staging, lighting, even offering corrections to the company dancers. He created a stir with his first original work at age fourteen and joined the company at age sixteen. His performing career spanned fifteen years, first as soloist with the National Ballet of Canada, and later as principal dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. He was an articulate, refined and highly musical dancer.
A major turning point was his participation in the National Choreographic Seminar at Banff in 1980. Kudelka's experiences as the seminar's lone ballet choreographer caused him to rethink his notions of subject matter and movement vocabulary. Behind him were works such as Washington Square, a narrative ballet reminiscent of the works of Sir Frederick Ashton. Ahead of him was his first masterpiece, the soaring, mystical In Paradisum, as well as a cornucopia of stunning dances such as Pastorale, for the National Ballet of Canada, Désir, for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and Fifteen Heterosexual Duets, for the Toronto Dance Theatre.
Kudelka has been awarded both the Jean A. Chalmers Award for Choreography and the Dora Mavor Moore Award, and has created works for an international array of companies including American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Houston Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet. His reach beyond the ballet world encompasses such diverse artists as Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Toronto Dance Theatre, Dancemakers, Montréal Danse, Fortier Danse Création, Susan Macpherson, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Patricia Fraser and Hubbard Street Dance.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Crabb, Michael. " James Kudelka, " 101 from the Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada, Dance Collection Danse Press/es: Toronto, 1997.
"James Kudelka," Dance Collection Danse, The Magazine No. 49, 2000, articles by Carol Anderson, Paula Citron, Michael Crabb.
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Photo: James Kudelka
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