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Erik Bruhn's regard for young dancers lives on in friendly competition
For 11th time, 10 young dancers from five major international companies compete at home of the National Ballet of Canada for the Erik Bruhn Prize.
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LEX PANHUYZEN / COURTESY NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA
Erik Bruhn in rehearsal with Mikhail Baryshnikov for La Sylphide.
Erik Bruhn, often acclaimed as the greatest classical male dancer of his generation, directed the National Ballet of Canada for an all-too-brief three years, but almost three decades after his death Bruhn’s benevolent influence continues.
On Tuesday, 10 talented young dancers from five major international companies, including National Ballet corps members Hannah Fischer and Ethan Watts, will compete in Toronto for the Erik Bruhn Prize, an event launched in 1988 in fulfilment of a bequest from Bruhn’s estate.
Bruhn, whose association with Canada as guest artist, teacher, producer and ultimately director began in the mid-1960s, was passionately committed to fostering artistry among young dancers. For him, technical proficiency was only a starting point. The competition he envisaged upholds Bruhn’s artistic values and allegiances.
Bruhn intended it as a friendly invitational gathering of emerging talent from companies with which he’d been closely associated: the National Ballet, Britain’s Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and his own alma mater, the Royal Danish Ballet. The National Ballet remains the event’s host organization and, with additional sponsorships, pays all the costs.
This year company principals Heather Ogden and Guillaume Côté, Bruhn competitors in 2002, will be co-emcees.
Bruhn likely did not anticipate the practical realities of convening a competition when companies are often heavily preoccupied with their regular seasons. This year, for example, neither American Ballet Theatre nor the Royal Ballet is sending dancers. So, over 11 competitions, the invitational net has widened to include such estimable troupes as San Francisco, Hamburg and Stuttgart Ballet. Boston joins the club this year.
“We do our best to stay true to what Erik wanted the competition to be,” says National Ballet artistic director Karen Kain.
Each company fields a couple although the two $7,500 prizes are awarded individually to the man and woman the judging panel of participating company artistic directors deems most worthy.
The dancers perform a classical pas de deux in the first round but may compete either as a couple or individually in the second contemporary round. Since 2009, the contemporary round features specially commissioned choreography, for which there is also an award. Côté took that prize in 2012. This year. National Ballet choreographic associate Robert Binet is in the running.
The big, international ballet competitions go on for days and only the final round holds any real excitement for an audience. The Bruhn competition, by contrast, is compact, swift moving and a pleasure to watch.
“The experience in itself is precious,” says Côté. “The level is already very high.”
It’s worth noting that just as many nonwinners, Côté included, have gone on to internationally stellar careers as those who took home a prize.
“To have been selected by your artistic director to compete is a huge vote of confidence,” adds Ogden.
Competitions invariably deliver suspense and, occasionally, high drama. The Bruhn is no exception.
The suspense is concentrated in those few minutes at the end of the evening when the competitors line up onstage to await the opening of the envelopes. Those few moments can be intense, as in 1995 when 18-year-old National Ballet corps member Jaimie Tapper was named winner of the women’s prize.
Tapper had been a standout. So had her 23-year-old partner and husband-to-be, Johan Persson, but was it conceivable the jury might establish a precedent and hand both prizes to dancers from the same company?
Tapper recalls her only thought at that moment: “Please God, let Johan win too.”
Persson did and the audience erupted with delight.
As for drama, nothing surpasses the moment in 2007 when National Ballet first soloist Keiichi Hirano snapped his left Achilles tendon midperformance. This was when the upper age limit had briefly been raised to 26, the age Hirano reached on the very day of the competition. By then he was already one of the troupe’s leading virtuosi and the odds-on favourite to win — until the coda of the Le Corsaire pas de deux when fortune dealt him a devastating card.
The drama only intensified as the band played on and Hirano’s partner, Tina Pereira, urged on by the audience’s rhythmic clapping, whipped off a round of fouetté turns and brought the pas de deux to a dazzling solo conclusion.
There was still another round to go and it was agreed Pereira could dance a pas de deux she knew from Romeo and Juliet. Côté was unexpectedly dragooned into action and costumed with borrowings from other competitors.
“At that point I felt I was no longer in the running,” says Pereira, who was replacing the company’s first-choice entrant, an injured Bridgett Zehr.
Audience, judges and competitors alike enthusiastically greeted the announcement that Pereira had won the prize, a tribute both to her artistry and the-show-must-go-on courage.
“I was in shock,” recalls Pereira, now a company first soloist. “I was so worried about Keiichi. I never imagined I could win. So many people pulled together to make that happen.”
The collegiality Pereira refers to is an unusual characteristic of the Bruhn competition. It’s not just the team effort within participating companies that prepares each couple. It’s also the camaraderie among competing dancers and the friendships that are often launched.
“Looking back,” says Tapper, “it felt like a forum for celebrating potential. I think winning probably did give me a boost in terms of opportunities, but just the focused attention and preparation can accelerate your artistic development greatly.”
“It’s become a wonderful tradition,” says Kain. “It allows us to highlight young talent and honour a great artist we loved and admired. I think it makes for a really exciting evening.”
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