SWAN SONG | Fall For Dance North

Overview

SWAN SONG follows Karen Kain and a group of dancers drawn from across the company’s ranks, weaving the ballet’s dramatic creation process with intimate scenes from the subjects’ personal lives, as they push toward one of the most significant opening nights in their company’s history. Enjoy an exclusive sneak preview during Fall for Dance North's 9th annual festival before the four-part series airs in November 2023 on CBC and CBC Gem.

An FFDN Special Event
Programme order:

Screening of SWAN SONG Documentary Series, Episode 1

Artist Chat on stage with Karen Kain (Swan Lake Director/Choreographer), Jurgita Dronina (National Ballet Principal Dancer), Siphesihle November (National Ballet Principal Dancer), Arielle Miralles (National Ballet Corps de Ballet Member), Chelsea McMullan (SWAN SONG Co-Creator), Sean O'Neill (SWAN SONG Co-Creator) - moderated by Seika Boye.

Live Performance
Act III Pas de Deux, excerpted from Swan Lake, performed by The National Ballet of Canada Principal Dancers Genevieve Penn Nabity as Odile and Christopher Gerty as Prince Siegfried. Accompanied by live pianist Zhenya Vitort.

Choreography by Karen Kain, Christopher Stowell and Robert Binet after Erik Bruhn, Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa. Casting to be announced.

Total running time: Approx. 90 mins.

Kain and The National Ballet of Canada granted unrestricted access to Swan Lake’s creation process and the filmmakers followed the series’ subjects for nearly two years through creative challenges, injuries, personal setbacks, a global pandemic that locked the company down, and a pointed push for equity and change from within the company's ranks.
SWAN SONG’s intimate, character-driven approach invites viewers to consider the impacts of the culture of ballet on its artists—the series’ subjects, in various ways, challenge traditional ideals of race, gender, class and body type as they navigate a tradition that has historically valued compliance and perfection.
At the same time, the series captures the sincere love of ballet that drives Kain and the dancers alike as they face extraordinary physical and mental challenges and make deep personal sacrifices in an effort to create something meaningful, beautiful and lasting.

View the playbill for this event.

Chelsea McMullan

Co-Creator, Director, Executive Producer

Chelsea McMullan is a director, writer and producer. Their work in documentary, experimental narrative, and hybrid films have explored the work of leading international artists through the cinematic frame. Their most recent feature Ever Deadly (TIFF 2022), created in collaboration with the Inuk artist, writer and musician Tanya Tagaq, explores Tanya's incandescent and unforgettable artistic voice through the frame of a live performance captured in a single take. The film, which will be released by Kino Lorber in 2023, is punctuated by documentary elements and animations by the internationally renowned Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona.

Their previous features include My Prairie Home, a musical documentary about the transgender musician Rae Spoon and the feature documentary Crystal Pite: Angels’ Atlas about the world-renowned choreographer. Their films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, True/False, and other leading festivals and venues internationally. Chelsea has made numerous acclaimed short films about and in collaboration with artists such as Eileen Myles, Zhang Huan, Isabelle Marant and Ken Lum.

They have also directed for television, including episodes of the documentary series This is Pop (Netflix/Crave) and In the Making (CBC). In 2023, they will premiere Swan Song, a verité-driven feature documentary that captures the world of a leading ballet company as it mounts a new production of Swan Lake. The film is being sold by Dogwoof internationally and will be distributed by Blue Ice Docs in Canada.

Sean O'Neill

Co-Creator, Writer, Executive Producer

Sean is a producer, director, showrunner, and the founder of Visitor Media. Since the company’s launch in 2020, Visitor has produced the feature documentary Crystal Pite: Angels’ Atlas (2022), which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival and won the festival’s Showcase Audience Award; and LIDO TV (2022), a CBC Gem digital variety show created and hosted by the Grammy-nominated artist and musician Lido Pimienta, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards, a Canadian Cinema Editor’s Award, and a Rockie Award.

In 2023, Visitor will premiere Swan Song, a four-part documentary series and feature film following the creation of a new production of Swan Lake at the National Ballet of Canada, which Sean produced, co-created and co-wrote with director Chelsea McMullan. The series will premiere on CBC in the fall of 2023; both the series and the feature version are represented by Dogwoof internationally.

From 2017 to 2020, Sean co-created, executive produced and hosted the award-winning CBC arts documentary series In the Making, a primetime show that took viewers inside the lives and work of notable artists at pivotal moments of creation. Over two seasons, the Canadian Screen Award-winning series screened at MoMA PS1, the National Gallery of Canada, the Remai Modern, VIFF Cinema, and other festivals and museums across Canada. NOW Magazine called the series one of the year’s best upon its debut, and CBC Radio’s q described it as one of their “favourite shows on television.”

Prior to transitioning to film, Sean worked in various roles for a decade at the Art Gallery of Ontario, beginning as a waiter in the museum’s restaurant and ultimately serving as Director of Public Programs & Cultural Partnerships.