Guillaume Côté is at once strong and graceful. The principal dancer in this week's production of
Nijinksy by the National Ballet of Canada is no stranger to the centre stage. He's been a principal ballet dancer with the company since 2004, the highest ranking and most prestigious position a ballet dancer can hold. He has wooed the crowd with dramatic and dreamy renditions of Romeo, Prince Charming, and Hamlet, and held principal roles in various classics such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and the Nutcracker.
Now he stars as the daring Nijinsky, a provocative role portraying one of the most famous male ballet dancers of the 20th century. It's a darker ballet, one that captures Nijinsky's descent into madness and subsequent institutionalization. The premiere performance this past weekend received a 10-minute standing ovation.
As a child, Côté's schoolteacher parents invited Montreal ballet teacher France Proulx to establish a ballet school in his hometown of Lac St-Jean, Quebec. Côté was only three at the time, but by age 10 he had moved to Toronto to attend the National School of Ballet. He's since travelled the world performing on stages across seas from New York to Berlin. A coveted composer, he has won both a Gemini Award and the Galileo prize for Moving to His Music: The Two Muses of Guillaumo Côté.
But there's another side to Côté: he's also quite innovative. He's become a face of male ballet dancing in no small part to his short film Lost In Motion, which screened at last year's Toronto International Film Festival among others and has received almost one million views online. The short uses cutting edge technology to emulate slow motion sports, showcasing the strength and power behind ballet moves.
Côté took time out of his busy schedule to tell Yonge Street more about this film and its upcoming sequel, as well as to shed light on his role as Nijinsky where he plays on stage lovers with his off stage wife, principal dancer Heather Ogden.
Why were you drawn to the role of Nijinksy?
Nijinsky is someone who has marked most dancers lives. He's created some of the most remarkable ballet repertoire in the 21st century. It was quite an experience to research him as a person, dancer and artist, and try to dive into this role with John Neumeier, the choreographer. I wouldn't say the ballet is a biography, but one thing the ballet does is it gives you a glimpse of his life. He changed the world of dance and art. He was a ballet dancer until he was 28 and then he was institutionalized. You read journals and put together a portrayal of how the person was. Then you work with the choreographer. It was incredible experience and now that we're rehearsing it's getting deeper and deeper.
Why was it important for Nijinsky to come to Toronto?
John Neumeier is probably one of the most sought after choreographers in the entire world, head of his own company for 40 years. Nijinsky is definitely his masterpiece.
Whenever [Nijinksy] performs, it seems like it has a true impact on whoever sees it. You don't need to be a ballet fan to be moved by the story. There's also a beautiful love story where this woman enters his life at a certain point and he ends up marrying her. After going insane, she took care of him. She was his caretaker. There are elements to the story that anyone can draw from. I was down in San Francisco and did my debut down there. It was also amazing to be part of the audience. There's a moment of silence where everyone is amazed by what they just witnessed.
People just want to please audiences, but this ballet isn't about wooing. It's about moving. It's about taking the audience to a different place on a journey with you. Art is not meant to be only entertainment. It needs to be an observation on human society in general as well and it needs to be something that touches people on a deeper level.
You play the title role in Nijinsky alongside your real-life wife Heather Ogden. What has this been like and was this a casting that happened organically?
There were many people in the room dancing, but John decided to put us together. There's a beautiful unspoken trust and relationship between Heather and I. I fell in love with her the first time we did Romeo and Juliet. It was a long time ago when I was 19. We danced together a lot then. At a certain point we started dancing with other people as well, but we didn't start dating until a couple times later when we did Romeo and Juliet again, when we were both at different stages in our lives. The music of Romeo and Juliet always reminds me of us.
We usually do beautiful romantic roles together but this one is tougher and requires us to dig deeper into our artists' sides because I'm not mentally ill and she's not a caretaker.
You've performed as a guest dancer around the world--from Berlin to South Africa--what is special or unique about The National Ballet of Canada that keeps you in Toronto?
Canada and dance in general in Canada is at a really good time. I think people are getting curious about it. Canadians are very well educated and highly cultured especially now, with the Internet, people have more access to everything. [Artistic Director] Karen Kain was the number one reason why I decided to stay. She's a wonderful director, just as special a director as she is a dancer. She gives me a freedom to dance around the world and do what I need to do and is also generous when I came home. Also, working with Alexei Ratmansky, the choreographer of Romeo and Juliet. Those experiences are why I decided to stay with the National Ballet of Canada. We've also started touring a lot more now with the national ballet. People have been asking questions all the time. All of a sudden now everyone knows what we're doing. Believe it or not, it's not happening in most companies around the world.
Where do opportunities for innovation lay in the world of ballet? What's the most innovative role you've ever been a part of?
I created a film called Lost in Motion [above]. Film director Ben Shirinian and I wanted to use some of the most cutting edge technologies and try to--in the same way you watch a hockey player with its nice slow motion and high production value that makes the guy look like a god--make an experiment with a film with me just moving around in space getting ready for a ballet. We did it on green screen. We started fundraising and put a lot of money of our own into the project, obviously a lot of favours from his end as he works in the commercial world. Two years later, we ended up finishing the piece. We got a Bravofact grant as well, $25,000 to help us finish the project. They linked it online and the next thing we knew if had exploded.
We ended up registering it in a couple film festivals. One of the best parts in this particular film and as far as new innovations are concerned is the easy spreading power of it. It was so incredible to see how much it spread. When I go to dance in London or New York, when I showed up after the film everybody suddenly knew who I was. It was weird because I have been performing there on and off throughout my life. Our generation has more of a relationship with the computer screen than it does with human connection. It can be a good thing and if you use it to your advantage it's wonderful.
We're now working on Lost In Motion 2, a counterpoint to the film with a female figure. Obviously the choreography makes things more interesting and cutting edge. I'm doing the film with Heather, my wife. It should be released [online] at the end of April. That's much more impactful for me [than small screenings at a festival]. I just want it to have a good life online, spread and do the exact the same thing so people can enjoy it.
Guillaume Côté will dance the lead in Nijinsky, which runs at the National Ballet of Canada located at the Four Seasons Centre from March 2-8. From there, he will play Romeo in the return of Romeo and Juliet from March 12-17, before dancing in The Four Seasons and Emergence from March 20-24.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Sheena Lyonnais is Yonge Street's managing editor. If you know of an outstanding young Torontonian who is making the city a better place, email Sheena to nominate them for the ongoing Yonge Interviews series.