Mad Hot Ballet gala, SMASH party celebrate dance and ceramic art in Toronto | Canada Voices

The National Ballet of Canada’s Mad Hot Ballet, June 2, Toronto

The National Ballet of Canada held its annual Mad Hot Ballet gala on June 2, this year under the dreamy theme of Reverie.

The evening opened with an hour-long program at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, consisting of a sampling of familiar and brand-new works.

The program began with excerpts from Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc from 1943, followed by the North American debut of Gush by Alyssa Martin. Later, Canadian choreographer and Ballet West principal dancer Katlyn Addison presented her first work for the company, titled Distorted Familiarity.

Closing things out was an excerpt from Procession by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, which premiered last fall to great acclaim.

Drinks for the evening’s key supporters followed in the Jackman Lounge, while a few hundred of the city’s most enthusiastic balletomanes gathered in the lobby for post-performance refreshments.

Later, dinner was held in the main hall. Between courses, this year’s co-chairs, Trish Del Sorbo and Amanda Riva, spoke to the power of ballet and announced the impressive sum of $1.1-million raised.

Since its inception in 2007, the gala has raised more than $17-million for the company, with funds going toward education and community engagement activities. To my right at dinner was Canadian designer Jordan Hyatt of RVNG Couture, who designed costumes for Distorted Familiarity; and to my left was photographer Karolina Kuras, who has long captured the National Ballet’s members.

Across the table was Canadian ice dancing duo and Olympic medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, along with actor and model Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova of Heated Rivalry fame.

Also in attendance: Nicolas Mulroney and his wife, Katy Mulroney; honourary event chair Nicholas Mellamphy; and committee members Rochelle de Goias-Jackman, Nichole Anderson Bergeron, Natasha Penzo, Dimitri Chris and Candice Sinclair; fashion designer Kirk Pickersgill; chair of the National Ballet’s board of directors, Raghunath Davloor; Wittington Investments president (and past board chair) Cornell Wright and his wife, Sarah McEvoy; dance patron and longtime supporter Joan Lozinski; and Hope Muir, the National Ballet of Canada’s artistic director.

The Gardiner Museum’s SMASH June 10, Toronto

The following week, SMASH, the Gardiner Museum’s yearly summer party for young artists and patrons, took over Toronto’s ceramics museum with immersive installations.

Illustrator Beckie DiLeo Ross set up an ink on paper portrait studio near the newly unveiled Rosalie Sharp Gallery, a wall on the museum’s third floor that features a display of more than 500 blue-and-white ceramics assembled by Sharp.

Down on the recently renovated first floor, entrepreneur and artist Alan Gertner installed a vintage Canada Dry machine in the lobby, where soda cans he rendered in ceramic shot out in exchange for a quarter.

Elsewhere, works by artists Natalie King, Jess Riva Cooper, Shellie Zhang and Arnie Guha mingled with the Gardiner’s permanent collection.

Contributing to the evening’s soundscape and keeping guests on the dance floor was DJ Dre Ngozi.

Some 400 attendees gathered for the event, helmed by co-chairs Charlotte Howe and Liam Randhawa.

The SMASH party supports the Gardiner’s Community Access Fund, which works to make hands-on art experiences with clay more widely available.