Two debuts plus George Balanchine equal National Ballet mixed program

Artistic directors often turn to the people they know well when it comes to choosing what to present, which is the case with the mixed bill being presented by the National Ballet of Canada this month.

British-born David Dawson is a big name in European ballet circles but little known this side of the Atlantic. Hope Muir, the National Ballet’s new artistic director, worked with him closely in 2016 on his streamlined version of “Swan Lake” for Scottish Ballet during her time as the company’s assistant artistic director.

Dawson’s “Anima Aminus” is an abstract work set to Italian composer Ezio Bosso’s “Violin Concerto No. 1.” A ballet of contrasts, the work loosely riffs on Jungian concepts of archetypal male-female duality and marks Dawson’s first time in Canada.

In another National Ballet debut, Chicago-born Rena Butler has made a new work of choreographic vignettes built in dialogue with American composer John Adams’ 1994 Kronos Quartet commission “John’s Book of Alleged Dances.”

The set of 10 “dances” for string quartet and recorded prepared piano have such catchy titles as “Dogjam,” “Rag the Bone” and “Toot Nipple,” and can be played in any order.

Muir became aware of Butler’s rising choreographic star through her ongoing connection with Chicago’s Hubbard Street Dance where both performed in different periods. Muir later commissioned a work from Butler for Charlotte Ballet, the company she directed before signing with the National Ballet.

As a nod to the past, and a very welcome nod, Muir is reviving revered Russian-American choreographer George Balanchine’s dazzling “Symphony in C,” originally made in 1947 for Paris Opera Ballet to Georges Bizet’s score of the same name.

With a cast of 50, the women resplendent in toe shoes, tutus and tiaras, this is red meat for classical ballet carnivores.

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