Atlantic Ballet Theatre team up with Tourism NB and a slew of musicians for new video series.
Matt Carter
A unique collaboration between Atlantic Ballet Theatre, Hemmings House Productions, Shivering Songs and Tourism New Brunswick has led to the creation of an exciting eight-part video series that pairs dancers and musicians with some of the province’s most beautiful destinations.
Launched on May 10, The Ballet Sessions includes musical performances by Emily Kennedy, Thomé Young, Elephant Skeletons, Tim Walker, Izabelle, Adyn Townes, La Virée and Les Improbables together with Atlantic Ballet Theatre dancers Stéphanie Audet, Thomas Badrock, Yuriko Diyanova, Thomas Badrock, Sergiy Diyano, Olga Petiteau, Mia Byrnes and Eldiyar Daniyarov.
“We started going back and forth on the idea and it really connected to my earlier passions about finding a way to showcase this province that I love so much with music, film and art,” said Greg Hemmings, owner of Hemmings House Productions and executive producer of this video series.
Filmed in eight locations over two days, each performance included in The Ballet Sessions was directly inspired by the artists involved and the locations visited.
“Our process in this project was so special because we took all of the creative minds on the project, drove around for two days and actually went to every single one of the locations, and the ideas were only formed on the spot in the location,” said Adam Lordon, who directed the project. “We were inspired by our surroundings, we were inspired by what was there, not just the physical landscapes but also by the culture and the history of the places.
“The idea of tourism content is not new so to bring your place, or in this case our place, being New Brunswick, to the top of the pile you have to break through the noise,” he said. “We’re really excited. I think it’s going to grab the attention of outsiders but also New Brunswickers, to give us an appreciation of what we have here.”
The Ballet Sessions will be part of the Province’s 2019 tourism campaign profiling New Brunswick in a completely new way.
“This is a celebration of everything New Brunswick,” said Hemmings. “How many people really know what the Atlantic Ballet company is doing? How many New Brunswickers actually know all the physical locations we’re going to be exposing? How many people know the musicians? The most important objective is for New Brunswickers to see this and become even more proud of where they’re from.”
Watch the complete series HERE.
