The Royal Winnipeg Ballet will travel to Northern Manitoba this month with a group of company dancers for a mixed repertoire tour that includes stops in Thompson, Flin Flon and The Pas. The ballet will be here May 27 at the Letkemann Theatre at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the City of Thompson’s recreation office.

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet first travelled to Northern Manitoba to premiere Brian Macdonald’s Les Whoops-de-Doo in Flin Flon in 1959, says Hayley Brigg, publicity manager for the ballet company. They are returning to Flin Flon May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the R.H. Channing Auditorium in the Flin Flon Community Hall to perform Peter Quanz’s In Tandem, Jorden Morris’ The Doorway: Scenes from Leonard Cohen, and Brian Macdonald’s Pas D’Action.

The tour kicks off in The Pas on May 25 at 7 p.m. at Kelsey School. Thompson is the final stop on the tour.

“We tour all over the world, in Canada and to Brandon but rarely to other parts of Manitoba. We’re very proud of what our company does here in Winnipeg, and we want to show this to as many places as possible in our home province,” said Jeff Herd, executive director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. 

The tour was made possible, Brigg says, through the generosity of sponsors Vale Limited, Hudbay Minerals and Manitoba Hydro, and with the support of the Flin Flon Arts Council, the City of Thompson, The Pas Arts Council, The Flin Flon Reminder and Clear 590.

“Hudbay is pleased to sponsor the RWB Northern Manitoba tour.  We are excited to welcome the RWB back to entertain our employees, our families and our neighbours,” says Tom Goodman, senior vice-president and chief operating officer of Hudbay Minerals.

“Vale is proud to be a part of bringing this world-class event to Thompson. We saw this event as a way to show our appreciation for the community in which we operate, while reminding people that great things can happen right here at home,” says Ryan Land, manager of corporate affairs for Vale Limited. “The RWB is a long-standing part of the great province of Manitoba – just like Thompson and Vale are.”

Originally commissioned by and performed at the Works & Process Series of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, In Tandem is a choreographic journey that fuses classical ballet vocabulary with contemporary movement.

Choreographed by Royal Winnipeg Ballet School alumnus Peter Quanz, the neo-classical ballet is set to the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet by American composer, Steve Reich. The music carries the dancers swiftly and vibrantly from beginning to end, unmistakably echoing both the darker and lighter moods of the performance.

Set to the music and poetry of Canadian songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen, Jorden Morris’ new ballet The Doorway: Scenes from Leonard Cohen explores the complexities of relationships across the threshold to love and longing.

Featuring Cohen’s "The Letters" and covers of his songs “Hallelujah,” “Bird on the Wire” and “Sisters of Mercy,” the 20-minute ballet is separated into five vignettes that each tells its own story.

Melodrama, parody and satire combine in a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Princess Naissa and her four suitors. Choreographed by Brian Macdonald with music by Franz von Suppé, Pas D’Action is a story ballet with satirization of the posturing and mannerisms of turn-of-the-century classical ballet.