“The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude”,
“Approximate Sonata 2016”, “Petite Mort”,
and Shostakovich “Piano Concerto #1”
The National Ballet of Canada
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
January 28, 2020
by George Jackson
copyright 2020 by George Jackson
Naoya Ebe and Harrison James in William Forsythe's "The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude."
The emphasis throughout this quadruple bill was dance movement for movement’s sake and to probe the potentials of the human body. In “Exactitude”, Forsythe keeps two men and three women busy across the stage. There is haste but also a concern for elegance of motion. These men (Naoya Ebe, Harrison James) and women (Hannah Galway, Chelsy Meiss, Calley Skalnik) dance by themselves and with each other, displaying the richness of balletic technique (posture, propulsion, balance, leaps and leg beats, turns, flexings and foldings, etc.). The choreography alludes to the inventiveness of previous choreographers, particulalty Marius Petipa and George Balanchine, but there is more speed and less langor. Relations between and among the five figures are potentials that remain undetailed. The music by Franz Schubert, although from the 19th Century, is terse – allegro vivace. In contrast, the dancing in Forsythe’s “Approximate Sonata” seems more casual and sometimes more contorted. There are, in sequence, four male/female couples (Sonia Rodriguez and Spencer Hack; Hannah Fischer and Christopher Gerty; Elena Lobsanova and Ben Rudisin; Tanya Howard and Kota Sato) accompanied by Thom Willems’ sound and noise score. These pairs seem to be exercising, rehearsing, practicing more than dancing for themselves or for each other or for an audience. In the 4th Sonata, Howard’s chartreuse tights make her legs seem especially elongated. Wouldn’t reversing the order of Forsythe’s “Exactitude” and “Approximate” make sense – rehearsal before performance?
“Petite Morte” or “The Little Death” is how the French describe orgasm. Kylian’s ballet by that name shows a cadre of sportive men (Joe Chapman, Skylar Campbell, Donald Thom, Spencer Hack, Brendan Saye, Guillaume Cote). The men swordplay and then each pairs with a different woman (Miyoko Koyasu, Hannah Galway, Jillian Vanstone, Tina Pereira, Hannah Fischer, Greta Hodgkinson). Devising so many pairings in sequence strains Kylian’s imagination and yet, especially the plie postures use ballet technique distinctively. Kylian is very specific where Forsyth allowed only allusions.
Even without seeing The National Ballet of Canada’s “Sleeping Beauty”, I feel confident in thinking that this a major company. Some dancers, such as Guillaume Cote, are Canadian trained. Others come from elsewhere, for example: Svetlana Lunkina was trained in Russia and danced with the Bolshoi Ballet before joining National of Canada. The company’s director, Karen Kain and such members of the coaching team as Magdalena Popa, Christopher Stowell, Lindsay Fischer, and Peter Ottmann keep the dancing clean, even, unmannered and lively. I wish there had been more opportunities to see this display of contemporary choreography.
Photo above: Koto Ishihara and Naoya Ebe in Alexei Ratmansky's “Piano Concerto #1”