High-tech production Frame by Frame lights up National Ballet

Director Robert Lepagefirst saw Norman McLaren'sshort animated films asa child, when they aired as part of Hockey Night in Canada. He was moved by theirsimplicity and emotional impact.

"There is something very pure about his vocabulary and very accessible and very universal," saysLepage.

"I've always related to that because I am desperately looking for simple things, resources, ideas that can speak to a universal or international audience."

Lepage has returnedto McLarenfor his latest projectFrame by Frame, teaming up with the National Ballet of Canada and the National Film Board to create a multimedia dance production that marries ballet and abstract film animation in hopes of pushingthe boundaries of ballet for our technological era.

The ballet took four years to make and cost $1.4 million.

When Lepagemetdancer and choreographerGuillaumeCtseven years ago, the two vowed they would find a way to work together.

Frame by Frame is the result: acollaboration that paystribute to McLaren, the Canadian film and animation pioneer famous for hisexperimentation, includinghis award-winning1968 filmPas de deux.

Get a peek of a recent rehearsal,with Ctand Lepagein attendance,in this video.

Take a peek at the National Ballet's new production Frame by Frame

6 years ago

Duration 1:31

The National Ballet rehearses for the production's upcoming world premiere under the watchful eyes of Robert Lepage and Guillaume Ct.

For a truehomage to the "visual poetry"of McLaren'sanalog storytelling techniques,Lepagesays it wasimportant for them tofully embrace the tools ofthe digital age.

"Classical ballet is a wonderful craft, and I respect it a lot. It's just that it also needs to be reinvented in a certain way if we want the craft to survive," he says.

Five projectors shine abstract images onto all surfaces ofthe stage, includingthe dancers. But, according toCt, Frame by Frame putsthe dancersfirst, not the technology.

"Everything comes from the dance and movement, and the idea of the multimedia is an enhancement of the choreography and an enhancement of the movement."

Martha Schabas, ballet critic for the Globe and Mail, says it's an important way for ballet to stay relevant.

"The fact that this particular production is drawing on technology seems very much of the time. We are a technologically obsessed world," she says.

"And in a way if ballet is going to be an art form, which means that it's in a real dialogue with the 21st century, then it's going to going to need to reflect that."

Frame by Frame is on stage at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto from June 1 to 10.