Telling The Handmaid's Tale at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is preparing to debut its latest world premiere: a ballet based on Margaret Atwood's dystopian bestselling classic,The Handmaid's Tale.

It's quite a coup for the RWB and artistic director Andr Lewis to persuade one of the world's most successful writers to allow acclaimed New York-based choreographer Lila York to adapt her novel for ballet.

All of the elements come together on stage this week.

"It's actually one of the most fun times," saysexecutive director Jeff Herd, who has been shepherding this ballet along since the beginning."I think this will be an iconic piece."

Herd saidLewis and York have been discussing this work for around 10years.

"Lila, as the creative vision behind the ballet itself, gavea wonderful explanation of what she'd like to achieve and it seems to fit what we want to be doing.To create a new work to resonate with a large audience is something exciting," he said.

"But the fact that it's Margaret, it's Canadian, it's a story that's relevant still todayLila's interpretation,moving a book from that incredible narration into three-dimensional movement which has emotional impact she convinced us really easily. She's a brilliant thinker and a brilliant creator."

Herd saidunlike with film, where imagery is constantly changing, ballet is able to goto the emotional core of the story.

"This is what dance does very well," he said.

The RWB has been on a literary bent in recent years with balletic adaptations of Wonderland, Svengali and Princess and the Goblin.

"The world of dance can transform any story,and we do like the contemporary stories," Herd said.

"I think to actually handle new stories, to handle current stories, to handleawareness of the environmentwe currently live in issomething that we can do very well in ballet."

Herd agrees that the ideas in The Handmaid's Tale are still very current in contemporary life in North America.

"Both happily and sadly, it's a time of intense change throughout the world," he said.

"We can see that. But some of the issues that we have been facing certainly in my lifetime are still relevant and still valuable.I think we're not necessarily making any kind of political statement, but we are reflecting the reality thatwe all see on a day-to-day basis."

The Handmaid's Tale makesits world premiere in Winnipeg on Oct.16 with Margaret Atwood in attendance. Terry MacLeod, host of CBC Radio'sWeekend Morning Show, will interview Atwood at McNally Robinson on Oct. 16 at 2:00 p.m.