The NAC Dance season opens with Out of Context - for Pina by Alain Platel and les ballets C de la B, which was recently named 2010 Production of the Year by a jury of 29 European critics for the German dance magazine Tanz.

Founded in 1984 in Ghent, Belgium by Alain Platel, les ballets C de la B has established itself as one of the world's most influential dance theatre companies. Over the years it has evolved into a collective artistic platform for such leading choreographers as Alain Platel, Christine De Smedt and Koen Augustijnen, and formerly Hans Van de Broeck and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Out of Context – for Pina is a rare opportunity in North America to experience the work of les ballets C de la B’s trailblazing founder/choreographer Alain Platel. Provocative, arresting and remarkable, nine exquisitely skilled dancers perform on a bare stage with basic lighting, contorting their bodies and testing the limits of physical expression. Using their bodies as the raw material they create living art to explore themes of hysteria and madness, the beauty of the malformed and the emotional power of the misshapen.

In Out of Context – for Pina, director Alain Platel continues his search for a language of movement connected to the unconscious, the arbitrary, the uncontrolled. The choreography covers the entire range of spasms, convulsions and tics. Small mouth quivers, teeth chattering, silly walks – the movement is restless, penetrating the space between the synchronization of traditional choreography and the uncontrolled gestures of the unconscious in a piece that permeates the essence of humanity.

"This could be the best production of the season. Nine contorted bodies conjure up a new, moving world through dance. Ultimately, Out of Context lets you wander around for more than an hour in an intimate, hysterical world and with its austerity of image and content it succeeds in knocking us off our feet."  
-          De Standaard, Belgium (February, 2010)

Out of Context - for Pina
Created and performed by:  Elie Tass, Emile Josse, Hyo Seung Ye, Kaori Ito, Mathieu Desseigne Ravel, Mélanie Lomoff, Romeu Runa, Rosalba Torres Guerrero, Ross McCormack
Concept and direction: Alain Platel
Dramaturgy: Hildegard De Vuyst
Assistant director: Sara Vanderieck
Lighting design: Carlo Bourguignon
Sound design and electronic music: Sam Serruys
Costume design: Dorine Demuynck

Co-produced by: Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Le Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, TorinoDanza, Sadler’s Wells (London/Londres), Stadsschouwburg Groningen, Tanzkongress 2009/Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Kaaitheater (Brussels/Bruxelles), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna/Vienne)

Out of Context - for Pina is performed in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Tuesday, October 5 and Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $37.67, $46.28, and $50.58 for adults and $20.18, $24.49, and $26.64 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card).

Duration: 85 minutes (no intermission)

Groups of 10 or more save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices; to reserve your seats, call 613-947-7000, ext. 634 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.

Tickets are available for purchase:

• In person at the NAC Box Office
• At all Ticketmaster outlets
• By telephone from Ticketmaster, 613-755-1111
• Online through the Ticketmaster link on the NAC’s website (www.nac-cna.ca)
• A service charge applies on all purchases made through Ticketmaster

This production is eligible for the Live Rush program. Full-time students aged 13-29 with a valid Live Rush membership may buy up to two tickets per performance at the discounted price of only $12 per ticket. Live Rush tickets are available from 10 a.m. on the day before the performance until 6 p.m. on the day of the performance. This includes all available seats, including the best seats in the house. Check out liverush.ca for information on the Live Rush program.

For more information, please call:
Eleri Evans
Marketing and Communications Officer, Dance
National Arts Centre
613-947-7000 ext. 379; e-mail: eevans@nac-cna.ca
or visit the NAC website at www.nac-cna.ca