Love Lies Bleeding @AlbertaBallet presented by @BalletBC at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (review)

Given my background in dance and theatre, I always look forward to having an opportunity to check out new, improved variations on a theme that sometimes is hard to sell to a Vancouver audience: ballet (and I have produced ballet performance review rather extensively). Well, much to my surprise, the Alberta Ballet production of Love Lies Bleeding (presented by Ballet BC) opened to a full, packed house (that included the incomparable and always lovely Sarah McLachlan). I’m glad it did, because it was a spectacle worth watching.

I will fully confess that I did not see the trailer nor did I read the preview, simply because I wanted to come into the show completely and utterly with a clean slate. I was there to enjoy the music, the dance and more importantly, to see whether or not Alberta Ballet succeeded in popularizing ballet and contemporary dance to some of the less-well-known songs of Elton John. Verdict: Jean Grand-Maitre (the choreographer and libretto creator) is a genius.

Love Lies Bleeding is not your traditional ballet performance, so if you are a more traditional dancer, you probably will find yourself missing some of the more technically-complex elements of ballet. But what I really loved about Alberta Ballet’s rendition of Love Lies Bleeding was the fact that some of the pieces were technically complicated, with strong, superbly-executed lifts, beautiful arabesques and battements. There were simpler (technically-speaking) but nonetheless captivating executions to songs like Bennie, Teenage Idol and Honky.

Full disclosure: if you are homophobic and/or have any problem with shirtless men with perfect bodies and outstanding dance skills, this is probably not the show for you. Playing off around the theme of Sir Elton John’s life (including a beautiful rendition of Believe where it’s almost impossible not to shed a tear at the beauty of the performance by two of the male dancers, who by the way, had amazing chemistry), Love Lies Bleeding is a fantastic storytelling device: it shares with us (the audience) the evolution of Sir Elton John, as a human, as a musician, and (finally) as an openly gay man.

Once the pace picked up with Rocket Man, I felt that the level of technical sophistication in the choreographies performed by the dance troupe skyrocketed. Act II came back with an extraordinary set of multi-dancer, high-energy, fast-pace dances to songs like 60 Years, Thinking Must Die and the closing song that made everyone clap and stand in full ovation mode at the end, Saturday Night’s Alright.

In a completely different style to other dance-popularizing-ballet shows I’ve seen and reviewed, including the Winnipeg Royal Ballet’s Moulin Rouge or the more classic Goh Ballet The Nutcracker, Alberta Ballet and Ballet BC exceed expectations with a very strong dance performance where audiences can completely appreciate the technical skill without detriment of having fun to the music of Sir Elton John.

Featuring 14 of the classic songs of Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Loves Lies Bleeding is a contemporary ballet that takes audiences through a series of theatrically dynamic tableaux, into the wild, dangerous and powerful world of pop music. The non-stop parade of dazzling costumes by Martine Bertrand rivals Las Vegas for sheer spectacle with eye-popping projections by New York-based Adam Larsen providing the backdrop for the dancers.

Although rooted in the life and career of the iconic British knight, Love Lies Bleeding is not a simple biographical narrative. The main character is an obsessive Elton John fan and the ballet itself a fantasy in which he experiences the highs and lows of his idol’s roller-coaster career. Set in a vast, dark theatre littered with mementos, artifacts and the remembrances of past glories, the ballet poetically depicts the dramatic landscapes of a monumental cycle of compositions which has deeply inspired billions of music lovers around the world.

This performance contains scenes that include sexual innuendo which may not be suitable for younger children

I would completely and entirely endorse Love Lies Bleeding and strongly recommend you that you see it because it’s a VERY SHORT RUN (Oct 13th through 15th). So, go ahead, buy tickets and go see it!

Disclosure: I attended the opening night of Alberta Ballet’s Love Lies Bleeding presented by Ballet BC on media tickets. A review is not required, nor a favorable review expected. As with any review I post on this site, I retain editorial control at all times.