Many of the most respected and cutting edge choreographers working today have had their beginning during the Noverre series of the Stuttgart Ballet and Ms. Matthews’ success will bid well for her future career as a dance creator in Europe.

 

Among the four pas de deux of the evening, the most acclaimed one was by Sabrina Matthews from Canada who has already earned choreographic merits in her native country. She really knows how to make the dancers look good: Alicia Amatriain's extreme flexibility and Evan McKie’s intensity as a partner are shown in the best of lights in the slow piece "Soles"

 

The chosen 10 choreographies served a broad taste pallet… Still, two pieces stood out beyond all others conceptually as well as in pure dance format. Both were (accidentally?) at the end of each of the two parts of the program. The Canadian Sabrina Matthews belongs to those contemporaries for whom dance and music harmonize, and which want to give the audience the feelings of being abducted into a world elevated from the grounds of reality. Soles was the name of her abstract and at the same time expressive Pas de Deux, whose religious as well as spiritual essence is transported by Alicia Amatriain and Evan McKie in an endless soft flow and at the same time accentuated figures, such as split positions in the air, broad arabesques, and several flying circles and lifts of the female partner, in synchrony with the lamenting music by Tomas Luis de Victoria. The piece continues a series of renowned concert pas de deux, due to its high demand which only be fulfilled by experienced dancers, and should therefore have great chances in any Gala program…

 

The exceptional ballerina Alicia Amatriain is partnered by Evan McKie in Sabrina Matthew's piece "Soles" set to spiritual vocal music by Tomas Luis de Victoria. This pas de deux of continuous movement conveys an impression of eternity. Pain, suffering and longing are expressed as a fulfillment.

 

Former Alberta Ballet dancer and choreographer Sabrina Matthews premiered her new work for the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany, May 19-20, 2006.

 

Matthews’ soles is a pas de deux set to spiritual vocal music by Tomas Luis de Victoria. It was well received by Stuttgart Ballet audiences, and Stuttgart Ballet Artistic Director Reid Anderson, also Canadian-born, expects to restage soles as part of the company’s main season.

 

Montreal-based Sabrina Matthews has scored a huge triumph in Europe with her new work, soles. The debut took place as part of Stuttgart Ballet’s Noverre Society’s Young Choreographers evening and was commissioned by the company’s Canadian-born artistic director Reid Anderson.

 

The performances took place May 19 and 20, and the duet was performed by Alicia Amatriain and Evan McKie. Matthews’s piece was singled out by German critics as being the most accomplished of the evening, and Anderson is expected to mount the work as part of Stuttgart’s main repertoire. Set to music of the Spanish Renaissance, the work was praised for its poignant depiction of pain, loss and joy of suffering. Matthews, a graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School, is a former dancer with Alberta Ballet and cut her choreographic teeth in her 10 years with that company. She left AB in 2005 to become an independent choreographer and was the winner of the 2005 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award from the Banff Centre.