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.