Norbert Vesak

Norbert Vesak (October 22, 1936 – October 2, 1990), one of Canada's leading choreographers in the 1970s, was a ballet dancer, choreographer, theatrical director, master teacher, dance columnist, lecturer, and opera ballet director, known for his unique, flamboyant style and his multimedia approach to classical and contemporary choreography. He is credited with helping to bring modern dance to Western Canada.
Although Vesak worked internationally as a choreographer, he was frequently referred to as "Canada's finest male dancer." Early in his career, he often choreographed works and then danced in them as well, receiving critical acclaim for both roles. He was described as a "Renaissance Man", well known as a lecturer, dancer, set and costume designer, and teacher, as well as for his choreography and work in the theater. Vesak was born in Port Moody, British Columbia in 1936 to Frank and Nora Vesak, of Czech and Belgian descent. As a child, he was an opera fan who described listening to Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. He studied dance in Edmonton, Alberta with Laine Metz and followed that with study under Josephine Slater, whom he described as having the greatest influence on his career at that time, because in addition to teaching and mentoring him, she introduced him to Ted Shawn who was one of the pioneers of modern dance in the United States. Vesak was given a scholarship to train with Shawn at Jacob's Pillow in Lee, Massachusetts, where he trained and eventually joined the teaching staff. Vesak also studied under Margaret Craske, Merce Cunningham, Geoffrey Holder, Pauline Koner, Madam La Meri, Robert Abramson, Ruth St. Denis, and Vera Volkova, among others. He was classically trained, and was a member of the Royal Academy of Dancing and Ballet in Britain and also studied ethnic dance extensively. Although he wanted to be an actor, at the age of 17, he decided on dance and was awarded a scholarship in 1960 to Jacob's Pillow Dance in Massachusetts, where he studied under the direction of Ted Shawn and other well-known teachers. When Vesak returned to Vancouver, he co-founded the Pacific Dance Theatre in 1964 and later founded the eponymous Norbert Vesak Dancers, which became the Western Dance Theatre in 1970.
In 1964, Norbert Vesak was named resident choreographer for the Vancouver Playhouse Theater. He went to England to perform with Western Theatre Ballet, and then returned to Canada. During the 1960s, he served as the resident choreographer for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Theatre Calgary and the Banff Festival Ballet, and several other companies, doing choreography, teaching, and directorial work.
By the time he founded the Western Dance Theatre, he had already created 60 major works and had been a guest choreographer at several companies. His work with the Western Dance Theater was, by his description, designed to present stories about human relations, with influences from the monumental geography of British Columbia: "We would hope the rugged beauty of the environment of B.C. was evident in Western Dance Theatre's work, and that it is truly a product of a unique area of Canadian topography." Vesak often undertook large, complex projects that attracted critical admiration for their scope, as for example, in June, 1969, when he choreographed Pierrot Lunaire by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, danced to the central part of Schoenberg's 21-part orchestration of poems by Belgian poet Albert Giraud. One of Vesak's major objectives was educating the public about contemporary dance, and his companies often presented free educational programs on contemporary dance in public schools and other public venues. His dance school in Vancouver at one time had an enrollment of more than 700 students.
From 1961 to 1962, he published what has been called the "shortest-lived dance magazine in Canadian history". Called "The Canadian Dance World Magazine", Vesak and Slater published a total of six issues of the free 16-page magazine and distributed it to 300 individuals who were interested in dance. Each issue had its own theme including: men in dance, ethnic dance, religion in dance, symbolism, and leaders of the modern dance movement. He described the magazine as being "dedicated to the furtherance of dance" in Canada and he published it without attribution. Known for choreographing both classical and contemporary work, in 1963, Vesak debuted his choreographic work entitled Parenthesis, at the first Canadian Modern Dance Festival in Toronto. He also created works, such as From Ecstasy to Despair in 1969, that were described as futuristic and emotionally jarring, that provided an important social message. He was director of the San Francisco Opera ballet from 1970 to 1975. He was named official choreographer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1975. Also in 1975, he was named director of the Metropolitan Opera ballet. He became one of the most internationally renowned choreographers of his time, having the rare distinction of being awarded two international gold medals for choreography in a single year, with his broad range of work performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America.
Two notable ballets Vesak created in the 1970s, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe and What To Do 'Till the Messiah Comes, were major successes for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and highlighted important cultural and sociological issues. The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, was commissioned by the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood and debuted as a ballet in 1971. The ballet was based on a controversial play written by George Ryga about a young Aboriginal girl who leaves the reservation to move to the big city, and about the cultural conflicts, poverty, and violence that she experiences. Vesak's ballet was said to surpass the play itself in terms of delivering the intended message to the audience: "Most of the reviews were vehement in their support of the ballet's antiracist message. William Littler in the Toronto Daily Star called it 'perhaps the ballet of 1971, in terms of its social importance to Canadians'. He noted that the ballet is 'less angry, less polemical in tone than Ryga's play, which hammers away at the idea that white justice cannot comprehend the Indian fact.' In 'the abstracting medium of dance,' wrote Littler, the message 'loses some of its soap-box shrillness and gains symbolic power.'" The commissioning of this work by the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood was said to have been a calculated effort by the Brotherhood to bring the message about the effects of racism against indigenous peoples to a larger population through use of a medium, ballet, that was not usually used for inspiring societal understanding. "As a platform for Aboriginal rights, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe was undeniably potent, with people sobbing at the end of the ballet."
The ballet met with equal success when it was performed internationally: “Themes explored in Norbert Vesak’s the Ecstasy of Rita Joe met with resounding acceptance throughout Australia on the spring tour of 1972. Anna Maria de Gorriz, in the title role, brought down the house with curtain calls in Sidney and Melbourne.”
In 1973, What to do Till the Messiah Comes became another of Vesak's most acclaimed works, described as a visionary ballet set to rock music, and in 1980, he won gold medals for his choreography of Belong Pas de Deux from that work at the International Ballet Concours in both Varna, Bulgaria and Osaka, Japan. In addition, Canadian ballerina Evelyn Hart won a gold medal in Varna, Bulgaria for her performance of Belong with David Peregrine in 1980. Hart rose to international stardom, and Vesak's "Belong" became a signature piece for her. Belong Pas de Deux remains one of Vesak's most enduring works, and is in the repertoires of ballet companies worldwide. Performances of it were televised in several countries including Canada, the United States, Scotland, England, Germany, and Israel, and it became the title subject of an IMAX film entitled Heart Land, which was released in 1987 and distributed internationally. In 1989, Norbert Vesak collaborated with director Franco Zeffirelli, choreographing La Traviata for the Metropolitan Opera.
In addition to his choreography work, Norbert Vesak was highly sought after for his skill as a Master Teacher, particularly regarded for the individual attention he gave to dancers. He often co-taught master classes with Joffrey Ballet founder Robert Joffrey. Vesak's commitment to mentoring and providing dance opportunities to young dancers, as well as raising interest in dance, was clear throughout his life.
Vesak was regularly chosen to create new works for international companies, receiving commissions from such institutions as the Metropolitan Opera, the Berlin Ballet, the North Carolina Dance Theatre, the Los Angeles Ballet, the Miami Ballet, the Scottish Ballet, the Joffrey II Dancers, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the National Ballet of Canada, the Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers, The Alberta Ballet, Ballet Florida in Palm Beach, National Association for Regional Ballet, the Marin Ballet in San Rafael, California, and the Deutsche Opera Ballet in Berlin, in addition to many others.
Norbert Vesak's long-time partner and creative collaborator was Robert de La Rose, a costume and set designer who worked on Vesak's productions and was involved in the concept development of many of Vesak's works.
Lady of the Camellias was conceived by Norbert Vesak and Robert de La Rose to be a full-length ballet based on the novel of the same name by Alexander Dumas. Although Vesak worked on the concept, the libretto, selected the music, and even had the costumes designed by de La Rose, Lady of the Camellias was ultimately choreographed by another international choreographer, Val Caniparoli. Vesak died suddenly of a brain aneurysm while on his way to attend the 20th anniversary celebration of North Carolina Dance Theater, where a work that he had designed for that company in 1975, The Gray Goose of Silence, was being performed to commemorate the occasion. After his death, Lady of the Camellias remained in limbo for three years until de La Rose approached Caniparoli about taking it on. Caniparoli had known Vesak well, since Vesak had given Caniparoli his first professional job and was also one of Caniparoli's teachers. Caniparoli agreed to do the project, adapting Vesak's concept and music to his own choreography, with de La Rose providing the costume and partial set design. It was Caniparoli's first full-length work, and debuted by Ballet Florida in 1994. It has since been performed by many companies including: Ballet West, Ballet Florida, Boston Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Diablo Ballet, and Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
"A trained artist can extemporize, but training comes first. You have to be a master of your physical inadequacies, and the only way to do so is to study. No one is born with a dancer's body."