How We Connect: Lesley Telford’s beguiling obsession
By Tessa Perkins Deneault
“There are certain things we can’t explain and ways we’re connected that don’t have any basis in our regular logic,” says Vancouver-based choreographer Lesley Telford. “We’re connected in so many ways, like the unseen roots of trees.”
Connection across distance, and the relationship between people and how they impact each other, are themes Telford returns to often in her works. The obsession began when her mother had a fall: within the hour Telford received a message from her sister in Sweden asking if their mother was alright. “The way we influence each other is the basis that inspires me to create dance,” she says.
Telford’s Beguile, for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, continues to explore themes of influence and connection. “We function through our network of connections,” says Telford, “through the people who are close to us; we are not stand-alone individuals out there in the world.” The 23-minute work is set to premiere in Montreal as part of a mixed bill, Luna, April 28–May 1.
Beguile was put on hold four days before its intended premiere two years ago. Some of the original dancers are no longer with the company, says Telford, making the rehearsal process almost like an entire remount. “We were looking at the casting list going okay, we can do this shuffle, we can bring this person in, but it’s like re-teaching the work.”
Returning to Beguile with COVID in mind involves sensitivity around physical contact. “When we first thought about bringing the work back, everyone was still masked in the studio, and I was thinking there’s no way we can do it. Beguile is hands on faces and clusters of bodies.”
In addition to Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Telford has received commissions from Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet BC, Spain’s Compañia Nacional de Danza 2, and Germany’s Ballet Vorpommern. She is also busy as artistic director of her own company, Inverso Productions, which emphasizes collaboration with other disciplines, including visual arts, literature, theatre, film, music, and science.
Telford established Inverso in 2012 while completing her master’s degree in cultural production at Salzburg University. Getting a degree, she says, “helped me take the reins and redirect my path in a more independent way with greater awareness of what’s out there. I used Inverso as a prototype for some projects within the master’s and it later became a reality.”
Inverso provides the framework for interdisciplinary projects, and allows Telford to frame dance in a new context. The company’s first piece, Brittle Failure, a collaboration with visual artist Yoko Seyama, brought dance into a gallery space and visual art into a theatre space — a concept that was central to Telford’s master’s thesis.
Before creating her own company, Telford had a long dance career that began in Vancouver. As a four-year-old, she had one very turned-in foot. A doctor recommended dance as an option to correct it, and she ended up in Betty Caplette’s ballet class. From there, she trained at Goh Ballet and Kirkwood Academy before moving to Montreal to join L’École supérieure de ballet du Québec. Her first professional job was with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens under artistic director Lawrence Rhodes, from 1992 to 1995, where she danced in works by choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Nacho Duato, and Jiří Kylián.
Telford was eager to continue exploring contemporary ballet but was tired of wearing pointe shoes. Searching for companies that didn’t dance on pointe but whose works were not far removed from the physicality of contemporary ballet, she contacted Duato to ask if there might be a job for her with his company in Madrid. “I’d never been to Europe, I had no idea what I was asking to get into,” she laughs. “I realized it would take all my savings to even get over to Spain.” Duato said he had a position open for one woman, but Telford would have to come to Spain to audition. She moved there the next month and spent six years with Compañía Nacional de Danza.
In 2001, Telford joined Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) just after Kylián had stepped down as artistic director, but was still present as an artistic advisor and chief choreographer. “I really liked the philosophy and inner world of Kylián particularly, but also the energy and creativity of the company, and the chance we had to do creations with such mature and thoughtful artists.”
At NDT, where she spent ten years, each company member was allocated seven minutes per year to present their original work. “I had always been afraid of creating, but curiosity won over the fear of vulnerability,” she says. “You would do a piece in maybe five hours and put it out on stage. The irreverence and momentum of the process made choreographing feel possible. We didn’t have much time and that gave us a sense of freedom within the creation.”
Eventually, though, after the birth of her daughter, Telford felt it was time for a change of pace. “It got to the point that I thought, ‘I don’t have enough energy to keep doing this,’ so I took a step in the direction of teaching and choreography.” A return to Vancouver followed.
Inverso’s next show is a double bill: a new piece, Gem-like, and a film of Spooky Action, May 25–28 at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, just outside Vancouver, where the company is in residence. Created in 2019, Spooky Action is inspired by and takes its name from Einstein’s concept of particles that are linked so closely they share the same existence.
She also has a piece in development that explores her current interest in neurology and differences in perception. It was inspired by her mother’s confusion during video calls, when she often perceives the person she’s talking to as being physically present. “We’ll be on FaceTime and she’ll say something like, ‘Oh, you didn’t offer me a cookie,’” says Telford. “I was curious about why that occurs.”
After witnessing the impact of isolation on her mother in long-term care, Lesley Telford is even more committed to exploring the importance of human connection, whether in close contact or across a distance. As she prepares Beguile for its Montreal premiere, the work has taken on new relevance in showcasing the importance of our relationships with each other. “I think as artists we really need to bring the perspective that connection is important — that’s what we live for.”
