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Third show added for Ballets Jazz de Montreal dance inspired by Leonard Cohen

What: Dance Me Where: Royal Theatre (805 Broughton St.) When: Friday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m. (sold out); Saturday, Nov. 17, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (limited tickets still available) Tickets: $29-$90.50 at DanceVictoria.com and rmts.bc.
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Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal dancers in Dance Me, featuring the words and music of Leonard Cohen, at the Royal Theatre Friday and Saturday.

What: Dance Me
Where: Royal Theatre (805 Broughton St.)
When: Friday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m. (sold out); Saturday, Nov. 17, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (limited tickets still available)
Tickets: $29-$90.50 at DanceVictoria.com and rmts.bc.ca, by phone at 250-386-6121, or in person at the Royal McPherson box office (#3 Centennial Sq.)

The most ambitious — and expensive — project in the 46-year history of Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal has caught fire with Victoria audiences, prompting Dance Victoria to add an extra matinée to its pair of evening productions of Dance Me, a contemporary dance piece featuring the music of Leonard Cohen.

Victoria audiences now have three opportunities to see the company’s 2018-19 season opener, a multi-media experience that Dance Victoria producer Stephen White is calling a surefire winner for the city.

“[Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal] has always been a very popular company in Victoria, but the fact this is coupled with Leonard Cohen, I knew it was going to get people excited. I think we probably could have added a fourth show, given how crazy the sales have been.”

Three performances of any production is rare for Dance Victoria, White said, but the popularity of Dance Me speaks to Cohen’s enduring legacy as an artist. Cohen drew a combined 12,000 fans to the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for concerts in 2010 and 2013, which sealed the deal for White.

“We’re very grateful in Victoria because we do very well, in terms of audience turnout,” White said.

“But I’ve been at this gig for 19 years, and I can only remember one other time where we added an extra show — and that was 19 years ago, and back in the days when we were only doing single shows.”

Three acclaimed choreographers from the Netherlands (Annabelle Lopez Ochoa), Greece (Andonis Foniadakis) and Switzerland (Ihsan Rustem) created Dance Me with Louis Robitaille, artistic director of Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal.

The production, which was in motion — with Cohen’s blessing — before the singer’s death in 2016, uses 15 of Cohen’s most popular songs, including Suzanne, First We Take Manhattan, So Long Marianne, Hallelujah and Dance Me to the End of Love, from which the production takes it title.

It took Robitaille several weeks to convince Cohen’s lawyer that the production would do the legendary performer proud. Cohen eventually signed off on a contract that gave the ballet company worldwide exclusive dance and circus art rights for a term of five years.

The company is able to use his image, name, music and visual literary works in the production; Cohen’s only addendum to the contract was that producers could not delve into his personal life.

That suited Robitaille just fine.

“I wanted something that looked and felt like Montreal, because he was born in Montreal,” he said in a recent interview with The Calgary Herald.

“I wanted something we could offer to the Canadian people, not only to hear but to see his songs, and of course, everywhere we tour, he rings a bell, both to the dance community and to a musical audience.”

Dance Me is not laid out with a narrative detailing Cohen’s life and times. Instead, the choreography is housed within five seasons meant to reflect five stages in Cohen’s life. At a cost of $500,000 to create, a huge sum for Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, the production was written for 14 dancers, who will have 17 of Cohen’s songs as a backdrop for the 80-minute performance.

Care and attention was paid to every aspect of the show, Robitaille told the Herald. “From the beginning, it was a very sensitive thing to design, because everybody who knows Mr. Cohen’s work has some memories or an interpretation of some songs. But I think we’ve been able to make his music live and feel and hear again in the choreographer’s language. It was important to pay respect, but we also wanted somehow to have him with us on stage, to feel that emotional warmth.”

With Cohen, there is no greatest hit, no single song that ties up his career with a nice bow on top. Robitaille had to choose a range of music that fit not only his own artistic vision, but also what messages and emotions he wanted the dancers to communicate.

“I didn’t want a recital. I wanted very physical, athletic dancers, but I wanted something on a human level, too. The three choreographers helped us avoid anything monochromatic. Then I did my homework. I listened to all of his work and some other artists’ recordings, too, and somehow came up with the songs, but it was really heartbreaking. I started with over 30 songs and we were still changing and cutting right up to the première.”

mdevlin@timescolonist.com