Val Caniparoli’s ballet Jekyll & Hyde has been met with rave-reviews in Helsinki, Colorado, Salt Lake City and Kanas City, with superlatives like “stunning,” “a two-act tour de force” and “one of, if not the best, live dance performances I have ever seen” being commonplace for this bold, darkly work.
“I did not anticipate that response, but in Finland we heard that roar [when the curtain came down] and we were like, ‘Wow, okay,’” said Caniparoli, the celebrated San Francisco-based dancer and choreographer, recalling the production’s world-premiere at The Finnish National Opera and Ballet in 2020.
“And then bringing it here [to North America], versus European tastes, we thought, ‘How is this going to work in the United States, in these huge venues?’ Because of the subject matter, as it touches on a lot of lot of things that you don't normally see in ballet.”
“I was like, ‘Oh, well, they're going to hate this.’ But then, again, it ends and the audience –– explosive!’ said Caniparoli, as we interviewed him during a behind-the-scenes Royal Winnipeg Ballet tour.
Caniparoli has enjoyed a storied, award-winning 52-year career in dance, with more than 100 productions across ballet, opera and theatre as a choreographer and performer to his credit. He's worked with the RWB several times before, including when his A Cinderella Story made its world premiere here in October 2004.
He’s currently back in Winnipeg prepping Jekyll & Hyde for its Canadian premiere, where it will be staged at the Centennial Concert Hall from March 6-9.
In the behind-the-scenes interview below, we cover what Winnipeg audiences can expect from the Canadian premiere, how cinema and literature played such a huge role in the ballet’s inception, and what continues to inspire him after half a century in the business.
Could you tell us a little bit about your background in dance?
VP: I’ve been with the San Francisco Ballet for 52 years as a full-time dancer. This is the first time I’ve gone to part time, as I just did Nutcracker too, and I think that’s it. That company [the San Francisco Ballet] is 92 years old and I’ve danced with all five directors of the company. You’d think I’d be 200 years old!
Can you tell us about the history of your Jekyll & Hyde?
This ballet was originally created for the Finnish National Ballet, and what’s interesting about it was that it premiered in 2020, in the middle of COVID. It was supposed to be produced before COVID happened, and we did video workshops, but their government didn’t shut it down. Finland and New Zealand were the only two countries in the world producing at the time.
So, the government of Finland with my team had to offer the idea that arts are essential – that we need them. And it was difficult to even get us there from the United States as the government said, ‘arts aren’t essential.’ But then it became this two-page article in The New York Times on how arts are essential. And that article was on the whole making of this ballet, and the difficulties of it during COVID. It was really the only new full-length being produced in the world at the time I still can’t believe it happened, that this ballet even survived.
How did you come up with this ballet?
It’s based on Robert Louis Stevenson [the Victorian-ear Scottish author of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde] and he's an actual character on stage. He's writing the story as the ballet is forming around him in his mind. It's very internal, very cerebral. It's autobiographical in many ways, because Roger Stevenson was a very ill and as a child he had a nurse, Allison Cunningham [who is depicted in the ballet], who would read stories that would terrify him, and she would give him drugs for his disease.
And then there’s Deacon Brodie [in the ballet], who was a real person too. He was a friend of the Stevenson family... and he was not a nice man. He would steal from them. He went out, got drunk and went to brothels and stuff, and he befriended Robert Stevenson. And Robert Stevenson loved the idea of being a bad boy, but then he got ill, and he ended up in the hospital on lots of drugs. And lo and behold, the story says that he wrote this story [Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde] in six days and six nights in the hospital.
A lot of it is drug related, with hallucinations and stuff.
So, in truth, Jekyll and Hyde and Stevenson in this ballet are the same person. And it's done by three different dancers. So, imagine trying to figure that one!
What inspired you to translate this book into a ballet? And how have you adapted it?
Ever since I was a child, I was always inspired by film noir. I was obsessed with Frankenstein (1931), The Werewolf (1956), and Boris Karloff – all those films.
I’ve always thought –– and originally this had nothing to do with Jekyll and Hyde –– ‘wouldn’t it be great to have two dancers dancing together, but they are the same person?’ So that was the first thing.
And then, I wanted two scenes: one to be inside of Jekyll’s head, and the other inside of Hyde’s, both hallucinating. They're changing so the audience will see colourful things, what's in their head. And I got that idea from the movie Altered States. Then the other aspect of it was this company of 85 dancers from Finland –– because the novel is just all men –– as the artistic director said I can’t do a full-length without using their female contingent.
I don’t know if you know about the movie Mary Riley, Julie Roberts plays the maid, and it's her perspective in the house of Jekyll and Hyde, who is played by John Malkovich. So, I put that in. And then there’s the Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde (1990), that has a lead female who is a prostitute. So, we put her in, and a fiancée. So, there’s all these all these twists and turns with these female characters.
Can you tell us a bit about the ballet’s themes?
Everyone knows Jekyll Hyde. That it’s good and evil, and the good and evil in all of us. But in most films, the transition is into something ugly.
In my storyline, we're using two dancers, Jekyll and Hyde, and that Hyde character, the evil character, turns into someone very attractive, very suave.
To me in the world, it's more frightening when you see in the news the people that will murder you or take you in the alleys, that they are very attractive people. You least expect it. To me, that's more frightening.
So, I based it on that, and a lot of it is based on duality. There's a duality of London, the good side, the wealthy side; then the bad part of London, where all the brothels are. There's that, and then there's the colour red, which in the novel depicts evil. So that use of color is very symbolic of when something's turning into evil.
How has the production changed in the last 4 years, since it first ran in 2020 in Finland during the pandemic?
In Finland, at first, we were just thinking, ‘how are we going to get this on?’ as there were so many things you couldn’t do [because of the pandemic]. Like the orchestra, there could only be half the orchestra in the pit, so we had to record a lot of it [the score]. Here we're doing the full orchestration, which is only the second time it's ever been done that way, which is great. It's amazing.
Since Finland, probably 20 minutes have been shortened, and that’s normal. I made a ballet called Lady of the Camellias (1994) that’s now 35 years old, and it’s 45 minutes shorter now. People’s attention spans are different, and two acts are now the way to go instead of three.
So that’s part of it, but also the characters have gotten stronger. We found that the dancers here [at RWB] have been great, asking, ‘what can I do here, can I do something different?’ And I’m watching then saying, ‘wow, that’s so much better’ and now that character is stronger for it.
So, we’re get the best version yet?
Haha, you are! I’m learning more and more.
Balanchine tinkered with his masterpieces up until his death. It’s just the way it is. It’s a continuing art form. I think the best compliment I've gotten with this ballet, whether people like or not, they often say, ‘I've never seen anything like it.’ And in my mind, that's hard to do.
It seems like everything's been done. So, for me, that was the biggest compliment: ‘I've never seen anything like it.’
Jekyll & Hyde has its Canadian premiere from March 6-9 at the Centennial Concert Hall. Here's the link for tickets and showtimes. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
***
Production facts from the behind-the-scenes tour:
-The wardrobe department at the RWB has 11 full-time staff, including seamstresses, coordinators and backstage assistants responsible for so many things –– including the shoes.
-For this production of Jekyll & Hyde, they received 150 outfits, around 98 of which will be used on stage.
-Dancers often change costumes quickly, with eight dressers assisting for this performance. A few dancers will have under 20 minutes to do a full costume, makeup and hair change/addition for this production, so backstage is always bustling.
-The department maintains detailed costume “Bibles” (these ones came directly from the Finland production) with pictures and descriptions.
-Fittings began four weeks before the show, with multiple sessions for the main dancers.
