Internationally trained Ballet BC dancers harness their power in Zenith program
Taiwan-born Pei Lun Lai and Costa Rican-born Eduardo Jiménez Cabrera negotiate new challenges in the studio—and in their adopted Vancouver hometown
Pei Lun Lai at Ballet BC rehearsal. Photo by Duy Le
Ballet BC dancers rehearse Andrea Peña’s new work. Photo by Duy Le
Ballet BC presents Zenith from March 6 to 8 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre
IN BALLET BC’s Granville Island studio, paired-up dancers are attached at the hips by harnesses and a long rope. They’re yanking each other forward, releasing each other violently backward, and finding a tension that puts them in tenuous balance again.
They’re rehearsing Colombian-born, Montreal-based choreographer Andrea Peña’s new work—one that is taking all of the performers into unfamiliar physical realms.
The harnesses are brand new to dancers Pei Lun Lai and Eduardo Jiménez Cabrera, but the two artists are used to negotiating new challenges. Both have journeyed long distances and navigated a new culture to follow their dreams to Ballet BC.
The company draws its dancers from all over the world—but what is it like crossing the planet to join the famously forward-thinking troupe?
Stir took that question to Lai and Jiménez Cabrera, who are taking standout roles in all three of the cutting-edge pieces on Ballet BC’s upcoming Zenith program. Both joined in 2023-24 as emerging artists and stepped into positions as full company members this season.
Lai came all the way from the port city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, while Jiménez Cabrera headed north from the city of Cartago in the mountains of Costa Rica, via Philadelphia.
“Life just will surprise you,” Lai reflects. “I never thought I would be here. I never thought I would move my whole life to Vancouver.”
Fresh off graduation from Taipei National University of the Arts, she scored a spot in the company after an audition in Europe. At the time, she embraced the Ballet BC opportunity as a new adventure—but the reality of mastering English and settling in a new country was a struggle at first.
“Moving here was, definitely, a big shock. I didn't know anything. I didn't know anybody,” she reflects. “I didn't have any friends, I didn't have any family here, and everything starts from zero to build, which is really challenging, but also exciting. There were so many difficulties that I went through the first year; I missed home so much because I feel like everything in Taiwan just comes so easily, with my friends and my family there.”
Learning English was the first big hurdle; she had never spoken it outside a classroom in Taiwan. But the integration into Ballet BC’s choreography came more naturally. Dance became a way to instantly communicate with others in the rehearsal room. The repertoire spoke directly to her physicality, Lai starring in work last season by international innovators like Imre and Marne van Opstal and William Forsythe. This season she cut a languid, liquid silhouette as shadow figures hoisted her in Crystal Pite’s Frontier.
At first, Lai put a lot of pressure on herself to learn English quickly, she says. “Now I know there's no need to rush, and I will eventually get there with the English.”
Language wasn’t a problem for Jiménez Cabrera, who had previously moved to pursue his dance education at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts in 2020. Before that, developing as a dancer had meant long days, attending high school from the early hours of the morning then driving the hourlong route into San Jose to train. “Then my mom picked me up at like, 10 pm, and we were getting home super late,” he relates. “She is the best. She made everything happen.”
Ballet BC’s Pei Lun Lai. Photo by Peter Smida
Ballet BC’s Eduardo Jiminez Cabrera. Photo by Peter Smida
Jiménez Cabrera arrived here in the summer as an emerging artist—and was struck by the weather.
“It was so beautiful. The sun was setting super late and there was so much nature here, so many parks, and the beach is right there,” says the dancer, who grew up near a volcano and national park in his home country. “I loved it. It did take me a little bit to get used to the cold and the rain, though—but I feel like I just let it be now, and when I'm here in the studio, it's almost like it doesn't even matter. Today I'm working with the harness and there's no space for that!”
Like Lai, Jiménez Cabrera made an immediate impression on the Queen Elizabeth stage; a rapturous duet with Sidney Chuckas, a year ago in Micaela Taylor’s Salt Conscious, was just one of many memorable appearances.
They’ve already had a rush of experiences working with diverse choreographers, but even so, the Zenith program poses unique challenges.
Andrea Peña’s harness piece alone has taken Lai into new territory. “This process taught me so much about how to trust your body instinct, and that if you trust the unknown that will bring you to somewhere,” she explains. “I'm kind of tiny, and I'm always the one being lifted in the air. I know how to smoothly give the weight out to somebody, to give the trust to somebody. But I feel like in this process, we use harnesses to connect people's weights; there’s so much equal weight sharing. You need lots of trust—not only that you give another person, but to trust yourself to be able to receive weight.”
For his part, Jiménez Cabrera says: “It’s so challenging in terms of how physical it is. It's really hard. It requires so much attention and listening to your partner, because you're not right there with them. You're very far apart, but you still hold their weight, and you have so much power and agency over what their body does, and they have that much power over you. So there’s this very interesting dynamic where both partners are constantly trying to negotiate and communicate with each other.”
In Zenith, the troupe will move from Peña’s grounded harness work to Spanish choreographer Fernando Hernando Magadan’s flowing, whirling musicality. The latter is a world premiere for all 20 dancers with a score by Ben Waters.
“It feels like a ritual for me,” Jiménez Cabrera offers. “It reminds me of these things that would happen in Costa Rica, or any country in Latin America for that matter: these parties where a group of people would go in and do their dance, and then they would get interrupted by another group of people who would go in and do their dance.”
The dancers will also have to switch moods for the return of legendary Swedish choreographer Johan Inger’s eclectic, full-company dance-theatre piece Passing, a surreal exploration of climate catastrophe and community.
Take a roster of choreographers from around the world and dancers like Jiménez Cabrera and Lai and you’ve got a company that feels diverse and authentically international.
And at least for this show, with a Latin American and a Spanish choreographer on the program, Jiménez Cabrera is able to ease back into his own language and culture—for a while, at least. As he puts it: “Outside of rehearsal, or at lunch, we'll talk in Spanish, and it’s just a nice little break to have that familiarity and relax.” 
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