Medieval Pageant Serves Up True Spirit Of Season

By Paula Citron, Special to The Star, 12/13/1985

“It’s wonderful to do something at this time of year that allows people to be moved by the spirit of generosity.”

— David Earle

"This is a good show that accents the things about Christmas that should be accented and presented a nice alternative for children. Every year, my father brings my nieces and nephews, who are transfixed by the spectacle.”

— James Kudelka

The Christmas season brings a glut of productions aimed at children,but few actually deal with the real meaning of the holiday.

Now in its third year, David Earle’s Toronto Dance Theatre’s Court Of Miracles, at Premiere Dance Theatre Tuesday to Dec 21, is a rarity among kiddie-market offerings because the performance is moral tale depicting the true spirit of giving.

Using the idiom of modern dance, Court Of Miracles recreates life in Medieval Paris. The first act abounds with vignettes showing the pageantry and spectacles of Middle Ages ritual. It focuses on the city’s beggars, who cheat the public by pretending to be infirm while hustling handouts.

“In researching the period,” says TDT’s David Earle, who conceived the work, “I realized that the beggars were really the performing artists of their day, who did street theatre by fooling and astounding the public.

“At home they would shed their “infirmities’ and thatis how the tenement area of Paris came to be called the Court Of Miracles – because of the miraculous ‘curves’ that would happen there every night.”

In the second act, the beggars use their fraudulent gains to bring some happiness to the unfortunate inmates of a mad house. They provide a feast and perform the Navity Play, which is the true heart of Christmas.

“In Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame De Paris, the beggars are really unsavory characters,” Earle notes. “But we decided to have them exploiting the public not for their own ends, but to give to the others.

“It’s wonderful to do something at this time of year that allows people to be moved by the spirit of generosity.”

Court Of Miracles is a collaboration by several TDT choreographers, including Earle, Christopher House, Peter Randazzo and artistic director Kenny Pearl. Another colleague is James Kudelka, former resident National Ballet choreographer, now with Les Grands Ballet Canadiens in Montreal.

“The work has been special,” says Earle, “because the collaboration has worked. We are able to take directions and suggestions from each other. Each year, we have made changes together that have clarified the piece. Last year, we rearranged the order of Act One; this year we are tightening Act Two.”

Adds Kudelka: “Being able to fiddle with the production means that it won’t become an albatross.”

“Also, I’m glad to get away from The Nutcracker world. This is a good show that accents the things about Christmas that should be accented and presented a nice alternative for children. Every year, my father brings my nieces and nephews, who are transfixed by the spectacle.”

Another fan of Court Of Miracles is Veronica Tennant, National Ballet prima ballerina, who will dance the role of The Bride for the second straight year.

Last year, she says, “I was shown a tape and thought the piece was beautiful, both for its depth and the creative way it painstakingly recreates a medieval pageant.