If your idea of ballet involves tightly regimented routines featuring women in tutus pirouetting across the stage to the sounds of classical music into the eager and waiting arms of their overdressed (supposedly) hetero love interests for the delight of starched and stuffy theatergoers, you can be forgiven for being less than excited for yet another new ballet show. But don’t nod off or pack away your opera glasses just yet.
Ballet is about to get a much-needed boost in energy and attitude when Dance Affiliates brings BalletBoyz, the critically acclaimed U.K. dance company, to Philadelphia for the launch of the company’s first North American tour through Oct. 25 at the Zellerbach Theatre.
Dancers and company members Edward Pearce and Matthew Sandiford said the group is excited to perform all over North America.
“We’ve been to New York before, two years ago, but this is the first time that we are traveling around and seeing the West Coast and the East Coast,” Pearce said.
“I’m looking forward to exploring America in general,” Sandiford added. “It’s my second time coming to America and my first time ever going to Canada. So I’m looking forward to seeing the world.”
Led by former Royal Ballet dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, the all-male dance troupe combines the energy and grace of classical and modern dance with music and film as the dancers perform two pieces created by internationally celebrated choreographers Russell Maliphant and Liam Scarlett.
Nunn and Trevitt left the Royal Ballet Company so they could collaborate with a wider range of talent and explore more modern influences.
“The reason they left the Royal Ballet is because they enjoyed mostly working with choreographers,” Pearce said. “That only happened maybe once or twice a year, if that. So it’s the real collaboration between choreographer and dancer that interested them. When they went off on their own and did their own shows, they created several new pieces every year. That was their main task, creating with a choreographer. They wanted to carry on with us guys, a new generation of dancers to really get that collaboration.”
If their popularity in the U.K. is any indication, their vision for the group is working very well, selling out theaters and garnering all kinds of praise for their distinctive blend of styles.
“That’s the interesting thing about BalletBoyz,” Pearce said. “We’ve all got very different and eclectic training. I’m kind of both — classically trained and contemporary trained. Some of us, especially one guy, hasn’t had any formal training at all. So he’s kind of picked it up as he’s gone along. The first piece you will see, classical training would help with that one. The second one is more about the natural flow of the body and getting down into the ground, which is quite unlike classical training.”
“I started dancing when I was 18 and I was specifically trained in contemporary dance,” Sandiford added. “I suppose we have certain classes in classical techniques but the main focus is the contemporary techniques. The beauty of BalletBoyz is that it just appeals to so many different audiences and so many genres of people. It doesn’t matter where in the world we would perform, there will always be an audience and a collection of people that would be interested in the work. BalletBoyz is very clever at appealing to so many different people and audiences with the use of multimedia, the difference in choreography that we perform and the versatility of us as dancers.”
Pearce said the show’s elaborate production further adds to the company’s modern edge.
“What it shows you is the creation of the dance, which you don’t get with other dance companies,” Pearce said about the multimedia aspect of BalletBoyz. “What we wanted to show is how we came to these ideas and what you will see on the stage that evening. We wanted to show ourselves, the dancers, so the audience has a personal relationship with each one of us — get to know our names, get to know a little bit about us so we’re not just bodies on the stage. We’re all individuals working together to create something quite epic.”
BalletBoyz always has the added edge of being an all-male ballet company.
“The company is very clever with how they select their dancers,” Sandiford said. “We all have completely different backgrounds and I think that works with the whole image and the way we perform the choreography. It’s really exciting. If I was watching the company — and I have done that previous to joining the company — that’s one of the things that attracted me and pulled me in, the fact that you see such individual dancers, yet they are able to come together and work as an ensemble.”
“I think it’s just how different we are to any other company out there,” Pearce added about BalletBoyz’ appeal. “We have males dancing together and it doesn’t necessarily have to be homoerotic. It’s kind of showing a tenderness that other male dancers in other companies don’t really show. It’s using the multimedia aspect that hasn’t really been done before. That adds to the whole production.”
Even though Pearce said the show isn’t necessarily homoerotic, he knows that the BalletBoyz (which has a considerable number of gay dancers in their ranks) appeals to, and will attract, a significant following of gay fans.
“We welcome that,” he said. “We make it accessible. Being 10 males really draws in the audiences, but when they come, hopefully the quality of the dancing is up there with other top contemporary dance companies. It’s not just selling out, just to show our bodies. We hope you think the same.”
Dance Celebration and Dance Affiliates presents Ballet Boyz through Oct. 25 at ZellerbachTheatre, 3680 Walnut St. For more information or tickets, call 215-898-3900 or visit www.balletboyz.com.