Relive The Dreamers Ever Leave You

Heralded by The Globe and Mail as “a remarkable and moving experience”, The Dreamers Ever Leave You was captured on film by Canadian director Ben Shirinian as part of The National Ballet of Canada’s virtual Spotlight Series, now on view. This immersive ballet inspired by the art of Lawren Harris, one of Canada’s preeminent modernist painters and a Group of Seven member,  made its debut at the AGO in August 2016. 

Choreographed by National Ballet Choreographic Associate Robert Binet, with a score composed by Lubomyr Melnyk, the ballet  evokes Harris’s visions of land, light and sky. With fluid choreography designed to mimic the changeability of nature, no two performances are ever the same as the dancers respond uniquely to the shifting alchemy of set, lighting, music and audience. 

Binet sees an inherent spirituality in dance and thh artwork of Lawren Harris. He said, “Harris abstracts natural forms to show their transcendent power, and that is what we do with the human body in ballet.” The two art forms come together with synergy to create an engaging piece that perfectly compliments one another. 

Genevieve Penn Nabity and Christopher Gerty in The Dreamers Ever Leave You. Photo by Karolina Kuras courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada.

Wondering where the title The Dreamers Ever Leave You comes from? None other than Lawren Harris himself, in a poem written in 1922 titled Little Houses:

The dreamers ever leave you –
They hear a vague, far cry,
Perhaps the call of some vacant, high place,
So often only the wailing of a beckoning pain,
But the dreamers ever leave you.

Join us in reliving The Dreamers Ever Leave You and tune into The National Ballet of Canada’s Spotlight Series for more exciting digital premieres and reimaginings of existing works.