BalletMet brings tai chi, ‘swirling energy’ and an ode to the seasons to the Northrop

As they prepare for their upcoming performance at Northrop, the dancers of BalletMet have added an extra practice that’s at once fluid and muscular after their regular ballet warmups.

Called the FoCo technique, the dance style is both organic and grounded. With its wide stances, undulating arms and musicality, the technique’s way of moving is quite different from the formal lines and angles of ballet.

It’s “very much rooted in my cultural background, training background and my time in China,” said Yue Yin, who developed the style. Yue’s new choreographic work, “Timeless Tide,” was commissioned by the University of Minnesota’s Northrop auditorium. BalletMet premiered it last March in Columbus, Ohio, and will be performing it as part its program Friday in Minneapolis.

Born in Shanghai, Yue’s first training was in Chinese classical dance, which uses some adapted ballet technique as well as elements of Beijing Opera, tai chi and working with props. Later, she studied folk dances, and felt particularly drawn to Mongolian and Tibetan styles. In college, Yue learned modern dance, and fuses all of these styles into her FoCo movement.

“Timeless Tide” has a “swirling, spiraling energy,” Yue said. “It feels like waves crashing and pulling back, then regenerating and coming back. It’s a very energetic approach of the physical movement.”

While the dancers aren’t characters, Yue noted that they still have “humane energy generated by the body.”

BalletMet artistic director Remi Wörtmeyer said the incorporation of FoCo in the dancers’ day is fairly unique. Normally, dancers participate in a ballet technique class in the morning, followed by rehearsal in the afternoon. FoCo is an additional practice that the company has added as dancers work with Yue’s choreography.

“They prepare their bodies to be ready to facilitate the choreography,” Wörtmeyer said in a recent interview via Zoom.

Every time he sees the dancers practice FoCo, the former principal dancer with the Dutch National Ballet said, “Oh, my gosh, I wish I was dancing.”

It’s been about three years since he retired from stage to focus on his choreography work. As he described Yue’s dance style, he circled his neck and snaked his arms, showing with his body the essence of the movement. He said the audience will similarly feel an impulse to move when they experience the work.

Wörtmeyer wasn’t artistic director yet when the Northrop commissioned Yue to create the work. It was done when Edwaard Liang, who now serves as artistic director for Washington Ballet, held the title at BalletMet.

Both companies were featured at Northrop’s “10,000 Dreams: A Celebration of Asian Choreography” performance last year. That performance evolved out of a conversation with Phil Chan, co-founder of Final Bow for Yellow Face, a movement aimed at ending stereotypical portrayals of Asian Americans on dance stages.

“10,000 Dreams” highlighted Asian American choreographers and pushed to get their voices heard. Through conversations building up to that show, Kristen Brogdon, director of programming at Northrop, said Chan introduced her to Liang.

“Edwaard was really interested in working with Yue Yin, and so that’s how the conversation began,” Brogdon said.

In the time leading up to Northrop’s “10,000 Dreams” program, Liang moved from BalletMet to Washington Ballet. Both companies were already in the program, and Brogdon called that serendipitous.

In their early talks, Northrop and BalletMet planned for Yue’s “Timeless Tide” to be a part of the “10,000 Dreams program.” But that didn’t work out. So, they sought to do it over “a longer time frame and over a longer arc” that involved the entire company.

BalletMet’s program Friday now will feature works by former artistic director Liang, new artistic director Wörtmeyer, plus Yue’s piece.

Wörtmeyer’s “Miroirs,” which he choreographed for Australia’s Queensland Ballet in 2023, will be performed by BalletMet for the first time. The work is set to a five-movement suite for solo piano written by French composer Maurice Ravel, and draws on Wörtmeyer’s own background as a visual artist. In particular, a necklace that Wörtmeyer designed acts as a motif throughout the non-narrative work about relationships where people see themselves reflected in the other person.

When Wörtmeyer creates a new work for a company, it’s often a quick process, taking about three or four weeks to create.

“You’re learning about the dancers as you create,” he said.

He said the experience with BalletMet has been different because he has gotten to work with the dancers intensively for six months. “I’ve actually found it interesting to add and change and adapt and play to the strengths of these dances and elevate different sections of the ballet,” Wörtmeyer said.

At Northrop, BalletMet will also perform Liang’s “Seasons,” performed to composer Max Richter’s recomposition of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”

“It was one of Edwaard’s favorite pieces that he made for BalletMet, so that’s why we have it on our program,” Brogdon said. She noted that the audience will be seeing the work in a time when the seasons are changing in Minnesota. “The fact that it will be on our stage at a time when we will all be very ready to move from winter into spring will give people some energy and hope.”

When: 7:30 p.m. Fri.

Where: Northrop, 84 SE. Church St., Mpls.

Tickets: $45-$82. 612-624-2345, northrop.umn.edu