The

CONTRACT (The Pied Piper)

BALLETN o t e s

BALLETN o t e s

Choreography: James Kudelka

Libretto: Robert Sirman

Original Score: Michael Torke

Set Design: Michael Levine

Assistant Set Designer: Kip Marsh

Costume Design: Denis Lavoie

Lighting Design: Kevin Lamotte

Narration: Tom McCamus, excerpts from ThePied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning

Sound Designer for the play The Pied Piper:John Oswald

Generously supported by Sandra and JimPitblado and the Catherine & Maxwell

Meighen Foundation.

Presenting Sponsor: BMO Financial Group

ABOVE: MARTINE LAMY AS EVA WITH ARTISTS OF THE BALLET. PHOTOGRAPHER: ANDREW OXENHAM

COVER: MARTINE LAMY AS EVA . PHOTOGRAPHER: CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN

The

CONTRACT(The Pied Piper)

A NOTE ON THE BALLETSo, Willy, let you and me be wipers

Of scores out with all men - especially pipers:

And, whether they pipe us free, from rats or from mice,

If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise.

from The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning

James Kudelka's The Contract (The Pied Piper) was created to celebrate The National Ballet of Canada's 50thanniversary season in 2002. The ballet proved an instantsensation with both audiences and critics. The chargedand emotionally compelling choreography combinedwith Michael Torke's rich score and Michael Levine'sstriking sets create an utterly unique theatrical experience.

Taking as its inspiration the story of the Pied Piper ofHamelin, The Contract (The Pied Piper) weaves its narra-tive around the central character of Eva, a charismaticfaith healer who is contracted to rid a small communityof a mysterious illness that is afflicting the town's youngpeople. She succeeds in her task, but when the town'selders find reason to disapprove of her private conduct,they refuse to honour the contract, precipitating an evengreater tragedy. A mesmerizing parable of faith and tol-erance, of innocence and experience, The Contract (ThePied Piper) is a ballet of unforgettable power.

In May 2003, The National Ballet of Canada Orchestrarecorded a CD of Michael Torke's original music for TheContract (The Pied Piper).

SYNOPSIS By Robert Sirman

Preparations are underway for a children’s performancein a community hall. Four age groups are present: chil-dren, young adults of courting age, parents, and elders.The children’s performance, recognizable as The PiedPiper of Hamelin, takes place on a small stage. At itsconclusion, the adults clear away a space in the hall tohold a celebratory party, where the young people dance.

The dancing is interrupted by the entrance of Will, ayoung man returning to the community after someabsence. Will is reunited with his fiancée, Dot. Theyoung people return to their dancing, but when they arejoined by Will, they are infected one by one with a move-ment disorder Will has carried in from the outside. Soonall the young people are infected. As the adults look onwith growing anxiety, Dot’s Mother enters the dance toput an end to the aberration, and is herself stricken. Thedancing stops.

The adults argue amongst themselves, but no one has asolution. Eva, a stranger to the community, enters thehall and claims healing powers. The elders are skeptical,but are outnumbered by the parents, led by Dot’sdespairing Father. A contract is made with Eva to ridthem of the disease.

Eva overcomes the affliction through the laying-on ofhands. Exhausted, Eva collapses as the others celebrate. The community returns to normal, and themen and women retreat to separate curtained-off areason either side of the hall to sleep.

Eva emerges from the shadows and dances through herexhaustion in the space between the two sleeping areas. She is soon joined by Will, and herstrength returns as they yield to physical passion.

An elder steps forward, following the gaze of a child. Thechild has witnessed the seduction, and the elder isenraged. He separates the two lovers, striking Will to theground and calling on the community to nullify Eva’scontract. Only Dot’s Mother defends Eva.

Eva fights back, but the contract is broken. The children,silent observers, weigh the arguments being acted outand cast Eva in the role of the wronged Pied Piper.

As the community struggles to restore order, Eva leadsthe children away.

JENNIFER FOURNIER AS EVA WITH ARTISTS OF THE BALLET PHOTOGRAPHER: CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN

COLLABORATIVE ALCHEMY: THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONTRACT (THE PIED PIPER)

By Penelope Reed Doob

“Please your honours,” said he, “I’m able,By means of a secret charm, to drawAll creatures living beneath the sunThat creep or swim or fly or runAfter me so as you never saw!”

from The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning

The mysterious power of the Pied Piper to lure othercreatures to follow him has its analogue in the seduc-tive power of great art, whose sources andmanifestations are often as incomprehensible as the ori-gins and bizarre appearance of that nameless musician.The mystery of artistic creation in dance is particularlycomplex and fragile, because there is never only onepiper. Dance is a collaboration among many artists, asthe following glimpses into the creative process of TheContract (The Pied Piper) illustrate.

Collaborations must begin somewhere, and they oftenhave a lengthy gestation period. The Contract (The PiedPiper) began even before choreographer James Kudelkareturned to The National Ballet of Canada as Artist inResidence in 1992. The Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakkerscandal had caught his imagination, and at one point heasked the late dramaturge Urjo Kareda whether theremight be a ballet in it. Kareda was discouraging: whywould anybody want to see a ballet about evangelistswhen sane Canadians knew such folk were out of theirminds? Kudelka was a little puzzled at this reaction: had-n’t evangelist/glamour girl/healer Aimee SempleMacPherson, one of the inspirations of Sinclair Lewis’famous novel Elmer Gantry, been Canadian herself?

A few years later, then Artistic Director Reid Andersonasked Kudelka to create a new Nutcracker. Kudelka wasreluctant. Would Anderson be interested in somethingon Aimee instead? Anderson replied that the companyreally needed Nutcracker, so Kudelka complied, creat-ing what many think is the best version of that workanywhere.

Meanwhile, with the serendipity that often nurturesartistic endeavour, Robert Sirman had been appointedAdministrative Director of the National Ballet School,and the two men went out for a drink one night to getto know each other. Kudelka started talking aboutAimee. “He began to use me as a sounding board,”Sirman recalls. Enter (unobtrusively) the first collabora-tor. Kudelka had been musing over another idea for aballet, Browning’s story of The Pied Piper, which he hadpuzzled over ever since he was a child listening to anold LP of Boris Karloff’s reading. Could they somehowput Aimee Semple MacPherson’s story together withThe Pied Piper?

Lesser folk would have been alarmed, but Sirman andKudelka began to think about it, and the connectionsKudelka had felt instinctively became clearer. Both sto-ries, after all, were about charismatic healers and strongleaders, so combining the stories would be “a naturalalignment,” not “a forced marriage.” In addition, thesomewhat shadowed history of the evangelist/pipershed some light on the question that had always vexedKudelka as a child (and that would give the ballet itstitle, The Contract): “Why didn’t the people of Hamelinpay the piper? Didn’t they know you’re supposed tokeep your promises?”

After finishing The Nutcracker, Sirman recalls, Kudelkawas interested in using the resources he had just drawnupon for something more demanding intellectually.These elements–a multi - generational cast, a fullorchestral score, impressive sets and costumes–wouldfeed into The Contract (The Pied Piper). Once he wasappointed Artistic Director of the National Ballet,Kudelka began to believe the ballet might actually cometo be, but first he had other, more immediately impor-tant, works to do, including The Four Seasons andSwan Lake. But The Contract (The Pied Piper) startedto appear on the company’s three-year plans, usuallystaying in Year 3 as the years rolled over.

More collaborators had to be found. One– rising youngcomposer Michael Torke–had written the music used inKudelka’s Terra Firma, created for the San FranciscoBallet. Another–designer Michael Levine–had long heldKudelka’s admiration, but Levine was reluctant. Enteranother serendipitous conversation:

UPPER RIGHT: JAMES KUDELKA ON THE SET OF THE CONTRACT (THE PIED PIPER) PHOTOGRAPHER: CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN

LOWER LEFT: MICHAEL TORKE AND JAMES KUDELKA RECORDING THE CD FOR THE MUSIC OF THE CONTRACT (THE PIED PIPER) PHOTOGRAPHER: JAMES AYLESWORTH

Levine: I hate wings–I don’t want to design for ballet because you have to have wings.Kudelka: Okay, we’ll close the wings. Levine: Would you really do that? Kudelka: Why not?

And so there are no wings, which contributes heavilyto the hermetically sealed atmosphere Kudelka andSirman wanted for a ballet whose themes include thetensions between any strong traditional communityand the outsiders who may trespass on its thresholds.

The final slot was filled by Denis Lavoie, costumedesigner for The Four Seasons. Meetings then began,with as many of the collaborators as possible presentso that “everyone got to hear everyone else riffing oneverything,” in Sirman’s words. The scenario cametogether when Kudelka brought green post-its andthe collaborators rattled off and then arranged thescenes in logical order, sticking them on the wall.“There has to be a scene where Will returns to thecommunity and his infection spreads to the children;and there has to be a scene where the contract isdrawn up; and there has to be a healing; and wewrote all that down until we had about nineteenimportant scenes,” according to Kudelka. “Weagreed that dramatic necessity should determineeverything,” Sirman recalls.

At the same time, Sirman, inexperienced as a libret-tist, was having self-doubts. “What is my role? Am Ireally bringing value? Am I right to rein them in?”Sirman wondered, more than once. At one particu-larly energetic meeting, most of the collaboratorsdecided it would be a great idea to kill off Will’sMother and have a funeral. Sirman, seeing no dra-matic necessity for this admittedly stage-worthy

event, and certain that he needed Dot’s Mother alivelater in the ballet as the only defender of the evange-list Eva, was chagrined. A few weeks later, he asked,“Do we have to kill off the mother? Isn’t that rathersensationalistic?” This time, the others agreed thatthe mother could survive.

Kudelka notes that the ballet’s narrative logic is muchstronger because of Sirman’s contributions:“Librettists push you into areas you wouldn’t other-wise go. Bob would tell me why he thought certainthings happened, and I’d realize I wouldn’t havethought of that myself. I had to trust him a lot!”

Meanwhile, the music was coming steadily, thanks tothe miracles of composing software and CD-burners.Torke shared early versions and ideas, scoring thepiece for the National Ballet’s core touring orchestra, afew other instruments, and–for the evangelist Eva’smusic–a soprano. Kudelka and Sirman suggestedchanges in length and tempo here and there, and bySeptember 2001, the score was virtually complete.Generously, the Orchestra of the National Ballet volun-teered to do two recorded readings of the score lastfall, so in Music Director Ormsby Wilkins’ words, “theprocess has been luxurious.”

Kudelka is greatly admired for his willingness to useyoung people–National Ballet School students–inworks like Pastorale and The Nutcracker. TheContract (The Pied Piper) was attractive in partbecause of the obvious importance of children: theballet begins with a school play in which the childrenact the story of The Pied Piper for their parents.

MARTINE LAMY AND JAMES KUDELKA IN REHEARSAL FOR THE CONTRACT (THE PIED PIPER) PHOTOGRAPHER: BRUCE ZINGER

The Walter Carsen Centre for The National Ballet of Canada

470 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3K4

Phone: (416) 345-9686 Fax: (416) 345-8323

Email:info@national.ballet.ca

www.national.ballet.ca

MARTINE LAMY AND GUILLAUME CÔTÉ WITH STUDENTS OF THE NATIONAL BALLET SCHOOLPHOTOGRAPHER: CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN

The theme of perspective–audiences watching audi-ences watching performances, children watching theirparents failing to grasp the lesson of the play–is central tothe ballet, but Kudelka has gone beyond casting children.In addition, he uses them as creative collaborators.During the creative process, Kudelka and several collabo-rators spent a week at the school, asking the children tocreate scary sounds for approaching rats, role-play thetown council meetings, draw backdrops and createscenery for what Hamelin ought to look like, and buildcostumes from paper and towels. These ideas wereincluded in The Pied Piper play performed by the childrenin the ballet, bringing a truly child’s-eye view to the work.

Kudelka notes that the days at the school helped in otherways, too: “The work at the school taught me a lot aboutwhat The Contract (The Pied Piper) meant. Spatially, it’sabout leaders. I began in a circle, because the people area community. When the Mayor comes, he leads and peo-ple follow him; and when the Piper suddenly comes, theyfollow him. It’s very graphic.”

What, finally, is The Contract (The Pied Piper) about?There’s the fear of outsiders, on one hand, and of evilfrom within, on the other: the plagues that worried us in

the ‘90's, from Ebola and flesh-eating bacteria toHIV/AIDS and anthrax. There’s the toll that genderinequalities took in MacPherson’s day (Will’s girlfriendDot is so named because she is negligible, to the com-munity’s male elite, and the contract with the healer Evamay more easily be broken because she is a woman, andperhaps a flawed one at that). There’s rebellion againstparents and elders whose children perceive them as hyp-ocritical. There’s the combat between the traditional andthe new, neither path having complete moral authority.The rats that plagued Hamelin, transformed into visibleillness in the ballet may symbolize the sexual awakeningof children, so terrifying to parents, especially when–aswith Will and Eva–an adult is involved. Above all, theballet is about the breaking of contracts, why we think itjustifiable to break some contracts, and the terrible con-sequences that follow.

The audience, too, are collaborators who create individualmeanings for this ballet. As Kudelka says, “Ambiguity isessential. There’d be no reason to do a narrative ballet ifthere wasn’t something ambiguous about it.”

To see a virtual exhibit about The Contract (The Pied Piper)

visit www.national.ballet.ca/exhibit