Summer in Vancouver is a many-splendoured thing, where the long, indulgent days make it feel like almost anything is possible. Want to go for a paddleboard, check out the Picasso exhibition at the VAG, and then hit up a craft brewery all before sundown? Totally doable. Meeting friends for brunch on a sunny patio, burning off those eggs Benedict on the Grouse Grind, and then catching a sunset movie at Stanley Park? Not the plans of a crazy person.
It’s in this stretch between Canada Day and Labour Day that the city truly emerges from its shell, seeking social encounters and community events en masse. And the city responds with fireworks, parades, days at the races and more!
Until now, though, one summertime activity that has been decidedly not possible is catching a performance of Ballet BC.
You see, summer is traditionally the time of year when the award-winning contemporary dance company takes a break from its whirlwind schedule of internationally acclaimed programming and touring engagements, and then regroups to dive into the broad strokes of the coming season.
It is not a time when they invite the public into their home at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to watch excerpts from new work; and it’s certainly not a time when they perform said new work outdoors, on a custom-built stage as their audience sips cocktails under the stars.
In fact, that’s never happened, ever before.
So this weekend’s Babylon event is special – something new for Ballet BC artistic director Emily Molnar, who was just named to the Order of Canada for her ever-growing contributions to national dance, and something new for bespoke event agency and Babylon co-organizer The Social Concierge.
“It kind of started that, one, we wanted to create an event that we could have as more of a ‘friendraiser’,” says Molnar, of the partnership. “And then we wanted to build more community around what we do, and community around the arts in general. So not just Ballet BC or dance [specifically], but about our city engaging with each other around artistic endeavours.”
It was also a chance to pay respect to the QE and Vancouver’s other hardworking civic theatres, while enticing a new audience – hooked on the idea of an intimate event in a unique setting – into the fold.
“Social Concierge – this is what they do, and they do it so well,” says Molnar, of the Dîner en Blanc and Deighton Cup producers. “And they’re a really important organization in the city, [because] they think creatively first – they put alternative projects, experiential projects like this together. So they are the perfect people to be collaborating with on this idea.”
And so, the two cultural ambassadors have combined forces to transform the lobby and courtyard of the Queen Elizabeth into a floral wonderland. Meant to invoke the ancient and infamously lush Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Social Concierge has recruited both local and world-renowned floral designers to create installations throughout the two-storey venue, and then dancers from Ballet BC will perform site-specific improvisational routines amidst the crowd. All the while, the audience (expected to be between 500-600 people) can mingle and move about freely, cocktail and canapé in hand.
From there, the evening will culminate outside on the plaza with a performance of an excerpt from Ballet BC’s upcoming season – a new piece by Spanish choreographer Cayetano Soto that won’t be fully revealed until Program 1 in November.
“There was this idea of activating the lobby of the Queen Elizabeth, which is obviously a house for a lot of different performing arts organizations” says Molnar. “So isn’t it neat that we can – not repurpose it, but make it a slightly different occasion? That people come to it, and it becomes a home in a different way; and maybe they take that with them into the next experience they have with the performing arts.”
• Babylon takes place Aug. 6 from 6-10pm at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton). Tickets are $55 and include a welcome cocktail; available at TheSocialConcierge.com
