Quasimodo Dances in Milwaukee Ballet’s ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’

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Milwaukee Ballet’s rehearsal hall in the Baumgartner Center for Dance was equipped with platforms that mirror the setting for Michael Pink’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, which the company is presenting at the Marcus Center from March 23-26. A video recording of a scene from the company’s 2010 production is playing on a wall screen, its divine orchestral score by Pink’s longtime collaborator Philip Feeney filling the air. I was given a chair.

The scene onscreen shows Quasimodo, the title character of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel on which the work is based, tormented by a crowd of 15th century Parisians because of his physical differences. The dancers Garrett Glassman and Benjamin Simoens, who will alternate as Quasimodo in the current production, and Parker Brasser-Vos, their understudy, are watching the video. Pink stands with them, noting how each move has its own life. The dancers then execute the moves to the video’s musical accompaniment. Pink gives more notes, the video is studied further, and the pattern repeats.

I watch the men savagely fling their bodies onto, around, and sometimes under the platforms, falling, rolling, spinning or springing on hands and knees, beating their fists on the floor, the platforms, the air, or their bodies. It’s what might happen if you let gigantic emotions overtake your body; that is, if your body is that of a highly trained ballet dancer playing a character with an extreme body shape.

Literary Masterpieces

Pink’s Hunchback premiered in 1998 at Northern Ballet Theatre in England where Pink was serving as associate artistic director. After the success of his ballet adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1996, he looked for another literary masterpiece to translate to dance, and chose Hugo’s novel, he says, because “the intense inner struggle between the main characters was so physical, especially the whole physicality of Quasimodo.”

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“But,” he continues, “there was the whole discussion of how authentic to make that character. And we said, in everything we do, we try to be authentic. We’ll need to give the dancer prosthetics. We even had teeth made. With these huge theatres in America, it’s hard to see that level of detail, but it’s there for the dancers. It changes the way they’ll dance.”

Another success, the show toured England, and was soon staged by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Boston Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, and Colorado Ballet. After Pink accepted artistic directorship of Milwaukee Ballet in 2002, he brought the original scenery here and staged the show in 2004, and again in 2010.

I asked Glassman how it was to dance the Quasimodo role. He hadn’t yet had a chance to try the teeth.

“It’s all the thought you need to put into it,” he answers. “How do we carry our body, how do we use our arms, what do our hands look like, what are our mannerisms? And you have to think, at every step, about the story. How does it relate to how he’s carrying his body? When he encounters Esmeralda, the only person in his entire life who shows him compassion, who’s willing to look at him without mocking him, who sees him being whipped and people spitting on him and gives him water and stops them. And later on, when he rescues her from being tortured and hanged, and they form a bond, and he falls in love with her, and wants to protect her because of her kindness. You’re not just a prince who falls in love with a swan and has two emotions. It’s a lot more rewarding, getting to put that extra work into it.”

Dialogue in Motion

Pink outlines the style. “We try to make the movement a total representation of the dialogue that would be taking place. I can’t see a point in having dance steps when you’re telling an emotional story. There isn’t a step where you stand and pose. Every step informs what’s next, and the dynamics of the relationships. But the basis is a strong classical technique because she’s en pointe and there’s lots of things that require great skill and control and a huge amount of trust in your partners.”

“She” is Lahna Vanderbush and Marize Fumero who alternate as Esmeralda, betrayed left and right and forced to make a life and death decision at the close. I asked Vanderbush for thoughts about the show. 

“If you want to know what Milwaukee Ballet is about,” she answers, “this is the production to see. A ballet like this shows the full range of what we can do. It’s choreographed, of course, and we’re working on all the details, but it’s not meant to look like ballet. For Esmeralda, at first it’s about day to day survival, and by the end she’s just fighting for her life and for her freedom. Be prepared to be moved.”

Performances are March 23-26 at the Marcus Performing Arts Center. For tickets, call the Milwaukee Ballet Box Office at 414-902-2103 or visit milwaukeeballet.org.