Way back in the spring I was taking publicity photos of Quinte Ballet of Canada. Now as the school year approaches and the website is near completion, I thought it was a good time to post some images. I have to say this one of the most enjoyable assignments I have ever had. There will always be something special about hanging in the green room putting the make up on, stretching the muscles and getting ready for the show. And now it is a treat to watch it unfold from the other side….. A little back story on Quinte:

The Quinte Ballet School was started as a series of classes offered by National Ballet of Canada soloist, Brian Scott in 1972. The Quinte Ballet Guild was set up to facilitate the National Ballet’s presence in Belleville through classes and training. This project was so well received that Brian Scott was asked to become the Artistic Director of a new school that would be called the Quinte Dance Centre.  Mr. Scott maintained his contacts with the National Ballet of Canada through friends he had with the National Ballet as well as through his own brother, David Scott who had become the Senior Ballet Master of the company. Over the years, David Scott travelled with his Ballet Mistress wife, Joanne Nisbet, to Belleville to assist with mounting ballets on the students of the school.  Guest teachers from the company also made trips to Belleville to offer classes and a thrilling experience for students. In the past many years, several students of the Quinte Ballet School have gone on to dance with the National Ballet of Canada, among many other Canadian and International companies.  Most recently, graduate Julie Hay danced the lead role in Toronto’s production of Dirty Dancing and graduate Riyo Mori who became Miss Universe 2007! The schools most recent acquisition is Artistic Director, John Ottmann who brings a new age of dance to the school.  Ballet remains the basis, but new opportunities with new and emerging choreographers will also become a staple of life at Quinte Ballet School. The face of QBSC has been changing and evolving over the years, never more so than now when the school is entering a new era by offering classical as well as contemporary dance training to their students.

All images © Dean Buscher 2009

Solo 30×30
Using a daring approach, Solo 30×30, offers an original concept proposed as an event/performance. Designed as a site-specific 30-minute performance, the solo piece is presented outside each day at the same place and at the same time for 30 days. The venue is an unusual place for a show. Although transitory, it is part of the city and its activities and allows for a privileged encounter between the artist, his surroundings and the public.

This piece has been performed 270 times since 2006 and has been seen by thousands of people in nine different cities around the world (Ottawa and Montreal in Canada, Yamaguchi in Japan, Nancy and Lyon in France, Newcastle and London in U.K. , Bolzano and Rome in Italy).

900 minutes of intimacy between a man and a city. A unique environmental encounter with a dancing man. Paul-André Fortier proposes a controlled drifting-off into the urban landscape where his dance is part of the street, exposing itself to good or bad weather. This dance plays no tricks and does not compromise; it simply appeals to the gaze of passers-by who then decide if they should stop or carry on. This man is dancing where one least expects it. His impertinent body reveals itself to your gaze and dares your secret desires of transgression and freedom; he is both you and himself redefining his place within the urban fabric. He expects you but is not waiting for you; you will find him without looking for him. A chance meeting with a celestial tramp. All images © Dean Buscher

A LITTLE VISUAL BACK STORY on some dark matters…..

Created by Vancouyver’s own Crystal Pite, Dark Matters assembles six extraordinairy performers for a moving exploration of human significance in the wake of catastrophe and planetary frailty. This new work grapples with the question of individual impact versus the crushing reality of numbers and distance.

In developing Dark Matters, Pite has divined a specific set of rules, including a requirment for chaos, and the theme of disaster: natural, personal, theatrical or global. Applying systems of order to space and scale requires a distortion, a flattening, and the sacrifice fo reality for meaning that is easily cummunicable, even if it is a diminuitive version. In this type of translation the human body becomes a microcosm of the larger forces at play; a portal that transmutes external and enormous pressures into soemthing comprehensible and tangible. The body renders the scale meaningful.

For more gallery stills: http://www.dbphotoandfilm.com/film-stills/kidd-pivot/

All images © Dean Buscher.