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In the Wake of Diaghilev

"100 Years Ballets Russes"
Mikhail Fokine, "Shéhérazade”, Bronislava Nijinska, “Les Biches”, Terence Kohler, “Once Upon An Ever After”
Bavarian State Ballet
National Theatre
Munich, Germany
December 11, 2008

by Horst Koegler
copyright @2008 by Horst Koegler

 Of the four opera-house based German Ivy League ballet-companies in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart, the Bavarian State Ballet, for ten years now led by Ivan Liska as artistic director, ranks as the most traditionally minded one. No wonder as it boasts no less than seven full-length Petipas (the three Tchaikovskys plus “La Bayadère”, “Don Q”,  “Raymonda” and “Le Corsaire” –  maybe even eight, if one adds the Petipa-derived “Giselle”).  Thus solidly anchored, Liska decided to celebrate the Diaghilev anniversary by a programme entitled “100 Years Ballets Russes”, offering Fokine´s “Shéhérazade” and Nijinska´s “Les Biches” – both in new productions, plus, in the best of Diaghilev tradition, a creation, “Once Upon An Ever After” by the 24 years old Australian newcomer Terence Kohler.  It turned out a huge success, showing the company in festive fettle, with all performances sold out.

Speak, Memory

Trying Times 1982 (remembered)
David Gordon Pick Up Performance Co(S.)
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY
December 17, 2008

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel

I’m a trained you-know-what and he makes me talk, talk, talk!

David Gordon’s “Trying Times,” had a great deal of talk, talk, talk in it, much of it very witty. At its best, his wordplay has more fun in it than Gertrude Stein’s and more impressive for a choreographer, is so integral to what he’s doing that the whole thing makes perfect, white-hot sense both as spoken word and as a dance.

Gay Deceivers

“Giselle Act II,” “Le Corsaire Pas de Deux,” “Go for Barocco,” “The Dying Swan,” “Paquita”
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
December 20, 2008

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel

We’re all balletomanes here. We love ballet and find it moving.  We also understand that you have to see it to understand it; on paper it’s ridiculous.  The zone between that exquisite experience and the unintelligible-except-to-the-initiated conventions that go with it is the territory the Trocks inhabit with such skill.  Their production of Act II of “Giselle” nails the absurdity and the affection exactly.

Where genius and crime meet

Mauro Bigonzetti, “Caravaggio”
State Ballet Berlin
Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Berlin
December 9, 2008

by Horst Koegler
copyright @ 2008 by Horst Koegler

From the ancient friezes of the Grotte de Lascaux through the paintings of contemporary abstract expressionists there runs an uninterrupted chain of art objects, paintings, sculptures and engravings that have inspired choreographers through the centuries. And since Diaghilev, just about one hundred years ago, visual artists of all kinds – including even architects – have become creative collaborators of dance-makers all over the world – to think only of  Bakst, Picassso or Matisse as far as ballet is concerned or of Schlemmer and his Bauhaus colleagues through Rauschenberg, Warhol and Stella among the avantgardists. But while composers have occasionally been portrayed in ballets – most often this has happened to Tchaikovsky, but there have also been biographical ballets on Mozart and even Wagner – I remember hardly a danced portrait of one of the great painters – no Dürer, no Rembrandt, no Raphael – only those who have themselves concentrated on dance studies have occasionally been treated as subjects of ballets: Degas, of course, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Matching the Architectural Splendours of the House

Dresden SemperOper Ballett
Semper Oper
Dresden, Germany
“La Bayadère”

by Horst Koegler
copyright@2008 by Horst Koegler

 Dresden, former residence of the Saxon electors and part time kings of Poland, now capital of the State of Saxony, is considered  the Florence of the Elbe because of its lovely geographical situation in the valley of one of Germany´s legendary rivers, and its architecture and art treasures. Completely devastated by Allied bombing during the Second World War, the city is still in the process of rebuilding, but its famous silhouette has been restored and attracts now thousands of tourists from all over the world – among them the famous Semperoper, the theatre where Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner reigned as music directors and many operas by Richard Strauss had their first performance. In many ways it could also be called the St. Petersburg on the banks of the Elbe river – in that case the Semperoper might be compared to the Mariinsky Theatre, matching its splendour as one of the most beautiful and tenderly loved theatres of the world. Alas, there the comparison ends, for it is opera which reigns as number one, while the ballet has always played second fiddle.

The Artistic Tourist

Bamboo Blues
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, NY
December 11, 2008

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel

There’s usually some glorious, wildly expensive bit of excess in a Pina Bausch piece; carnations, dirt, or a pool of water in the middle of the stage as in “Nefés,” her last go-round at BAM two years ago.  If the title gave any clue, you’d expect “Bamboo Blues” to have a stage overflowing with bamboo, but there’s none.  The work feels almost austere. There’s just fabric; huge swags of sheer white fabric draped on a large framework at the back.

New Dancers in Old Roles

"The Nutcracker"
San Francisco Ballet
December 12, 2008
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, California

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2008

In its fifth season, Helgi Tomasson’s visually stunning “The Nutcracker” is as elegant as it was when it replaced Lew Christensen’s warm but by then dowdy looking 1986 version. There is a cool beauty to its fog shrouded Victorian exteriors that works its way into the gentle formality of the Christmas party where Edwardian ladies and gents stroll and gesture to each other as if on an outing in a public garden. It’s also a place where children are allowed to be children but manners matter. The second act’s setting is inspired by the glass-enclosed conservatories so fashionable at the time; it also looks like a translucent bauble taken from the Stahlbaum’s perfectly decorated and—a novelty at the time—electric-lit Christmas tree.

Master of the Glass Bead Game

New "eyeSpace", "Crises", "Xover"
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Eisenhower Theater
The  John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
December 12, 2008

by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson

A series that proceeds from less to more abstract might be: Merce Cunningham choreography, chess, calculus. Which of the following would be more abstract: the Cunningham choreography or a Cecchetti ballet class, chess or go or the glass bead game? What is very actual and unabstract about all three of the Cunningham dances on this program are the dancers - their bodies, their minds and their off-ballet training. Cunningham, though, is the Magister Ludi. He plays with the dancers' attributes. His world becomes a game board as he arranges positions on stage and plans moves in-place or into space. His world becomes the anatomy theater as he dissects bodies bloodlessly to demonstrate surfaces and expose hinges. His world is the laboratory in which he tests resilience, velocity and equipoise. Much of the work is clear, efficient, elegant. Even the occasional doodle looks deliberate and pristine. What, then, in the choreography or dancing makes "eyeSpace" be itself and not "Xover"? Or are the different Cunningham titles all part of one immense, open-ended opus? Is it possible to like one title more than another apart from its sound, gear or particular dancers? Yes, but just barely.

Labors

"Clytemnestra"
Martha Graham Dance Company
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
December 9, 2008

by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson

Not easy! Taking in Martha Graham’s “Clytemnestra” is work. The latest reconstruction of Graham’s epic manifesto has been outfitted with super-titles to help navigate its fracted story, many characters and not unambiguous meaning. Still, some of the audience opted to “just watch the movement”. That’s one approach and, indeed, immediate pleasures are to be had during the two plus hours spent in the theater. Graham, the choreographer, compressed human action and individual expression into moments as memorable as any Phidias marble yet as pliant as flesh. Graham, the costume designer, knew how to dress and undress the sculpted bodies she wanted her dancers to display. Several of the current dancers seem stellar beyond their role fit and sex appeal. Halim El-Dabh’s music and Isamu Noguchi’s stage objects are striking, besides serving Graham’s intent. If you do, though, make the effort to keep track, sort and interpret, then sitting through “Clytemnestra” becomes an event singularly worthwhile.

Dancing Nuns at Joe's Pub

"Fraulein Maria"
Choreographed by Doug Elkins
Music by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, New York
December 11, 2008

by Tom Phillips
copyright 2008 by Tom Phillips

“When you know the notes to sing ….You can sing most an-y-thing!” Thus does Fraulein Maria instruct the seven von Trapp children in the original “The Sound of Music,” laying down the basis for an enchanting tale in which music, along with dance, are the keys to love and life. Nearly 50 years later, in “Fraulein Maria,” Doug Elkins uses the same analytic method to deconstruct the tale, but re-affirm its essence – this time with dance on top. “Fraulein Maria” is a joke and a tribute, and among the New York downtown dance set, it promises to become as beloved a staple as the original is for the rest of the world.