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James Kudelka, Canada's Marvelous Maverick
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# : |
11672 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1994 |
1,978 Words |
| Author
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Leland Windreich
Leland Windreich is a dance writer and historian living in
Vancouver, Canada. |
He makes bold, sweeping ballets to the symphonic music of Brahms, Beethoven, and Schumann; troubled, cryptic dance essays to Prokofiev concertos. His creations are frequently laced with a dark thread, and even the most abstract pieces abound with allusions to human concerns. The issues that involve him inspire works that range from the sublime to the ridiculous: from In Paradisum, a heart-wrenching communal dance of bereavement, to a spoof on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Less successfully, he turns to dance drama. Washington Square, his first major creation for the National Ballet of Canada, was a literal translation of a Henry James novel to ballet terms. Shakespeare and Ibsen inspired short-lived ballets; more recently he has imposed his own narrative ideas on established programmatic ballets by Bartok and Stravinsky.
James Kudelka is the sole Canadian choreographer of his generation to reach broad audiences both at home and in the United States and the first to thrive strictly as a maker of dances; predecessors Brian Macdonald and Norbert Vesak both combined creative activity with managing companies. Kudelka hesitates to take on the grassroots activities of his profession; at present he enjoys both the security of a contract position as artist in residence at the National Ballet of Canada and the freedom to consider creative assignments in the world's dance centers on a pick and choose basis.
Retreat to Banff
A graduate of Toronto's revered National Ballet School, Kudelka turned from his ballet involvements in 1980 to immerse himself in the craft of contemporary dance at the Banff Centre's choreographic workshop under the guidance of Robert Cohan, Grant Strate, and Todd Bolender. The digression not only provided him with a unique and distinctive crossover style but has enabled him to work successfully in both dance genres.
Today he is in constant demand, composing solo dances and duets for performers in both contemporary and ballet media, small-scale ensemble works for Canadian and American chamber dance groups, and major works for the Joffrey Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, and Canadian ballet troupes in Montreal and Toronto. During American Ballet Theatre's recent search for a new artistic director, Kudelka was approached by the recruitment committee; the result of their discussions may be a new ballet for the company in the near future. A commitment to create a work for the Martha Graham Dance Company was made early in 1993; a few months later Kudelka declined to enter a work in New York City Ballet's second Diamond Project,
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