Unearth – Owen Pallett fansite

Robert Binet → Unearth

Performances

Nov 22, 2013
Nov 23, 2013
Nov 24, 2013
Nov 27, 2013
Nov 28, 2013
National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre
Toronto, ON

GIFs

Composition

Owen Pallett was commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada to score a 28-minute ballet titled Unearth by choreographer Robert Binet. It is one of four ballets in the Innovation series running from November 22 to 28, 2013.

Program note

Photo by Bruce Zinger

“When we began our collaboration, composer Owen Pallett and I explored the idea that when a civilization reaches a certain level of advancement, it can lose its curiosity and become inert. Unearth looks at how this inertia is created and maintained and, more importantly, how we can push past it. Inertia is not stillness; it takes as much or more energy to keep things the way they are than to allow something new to be created. To move past it we need to find ways to listen to one another, to trust, to question, to push, to support, to exchange, and these ideas can be explored naturally through dance. These ideas inform the structure of the work as well as how the dancers relate to one another, so that tension and energy build in both natural and surprising ways. The piece is populated with 14 dancers, very human and therefore flawed characters - imperfect heroes - who align and interact in various ways and in the end are able to build something exciting together.”
—Robert Binet

Interviews

The Dance Current (November/December 2013) printed a dialogue between Robert Binet and Owen Pallett
blogTO
The Grid TO
NOW Magazine
Toronto Star