From Darkness into Light

It was with great misgivings that I went to the last programme this season by the Royal Danish Ballet.  If you have read previous blogs, you know why.  However, I was determined to go to see Wayne McGregor’s ‘Chroma’ on stage rather than on You Tube (if you want to see it, there is a wonderful film of The Royal Ballet performing it).  It was also nice to go to Skuespilhuset down by the water and opposite the Opera House as a change of venue.

‘Chroma’, first performed in 2006, opened the evening.  It is a piece for ten dancers and, for a bit of trivia, is McGregor’s only piece for the Royal Ballet which is performed completely off pointe and was put together in 3 weeks (thanks  http://www.theballetbag.com/ for that!).  The wonderful, minimalist set is designed by the architect John Pawson and resembles a frame or square box through which dancers enter the stage. The music is by Joby Talbot, which includes some tracks by Jack White.  

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the performance.  It truly is a wonderful piece, full of fantastic shapes and wonderful choreography the jolts you out of complacency and reminds you just how wonderful dance can be.  I can say in all honesty that it is the best piece I have seen this year, and I know it will stick in my mind for a long time.  The set, music and movement all came together in perfect harmony.
In terms of the dancing, all credit to relative newcomer Sebastian Haynes, who has the makings of a fine dancer.  Alban Lendorf was also performing.  I know I go on about him, and while I cannot fault his technique as I have said before, he is far from graceful and looks, as my companion said ‘too much like a boxer’ in his physique.  However, he is bound to have a long and successful career, and I read somewhere that he is someone who could get snapped up by another company.

                                  Edward Watson and Alina Cojocaruin of The Royal Ballet in 'Chroma'


The second piece of the evening was ‘DEW’, a new piece (premiered during this season) by Danish choreographer Tina Tarpgaard.  Her pieces often involve fantastic use of light, with motion tracking cameras and software that monitors the movements of the dancers and responds with video that corresponds to the movement.  Her piece ‘Frost’, created for Dansk Danseteater, used this to great effect.  As a piece of theatre, it was really good, with interesting shapes, textures and colours appearing and blending into each other.  As a piece of choreography, it was dull, unimaginative and made far too much use of those old contemporary standbys, waving arms about and crossing the stage not really doing anything (there was a lot of floor rolling about as well, but that was to make use of the light effects).  

After the second interval (there were three!), we were treated to my second favourite piece of the evening, ‘Impénétrable songe’.  The choreography was by Patrick Delcroix, a former dancer and choreographer with Nederlands Dans Teater.  This was also a brand new piece.  The back-drop was a flowing curtain, sometimes moved by the dancers and incorporated into the movement to great effect.  I will say, it did remind me quite a bit of Nederlands Dans Teater’s style, which was probably why I liked it so much.  There were some wonderful shapes and movements that kept you interested and captivated.  The dancers were also in good form for this (I saw Gudrun Bojesen, Gitte Lindstrøm, Alba Nadal, Amy Watson, Ulrik Birkkjær, Jonathon Chmelensky and Tim Matiakis).

                                  Amy Watson and Jonathon Chmelensky in 'Impénétrable songe'


The final piece of the evening was ‘ergo ubi NARCISSUM per devia rura vagantem’ (yes – that is the title – I have not made some typos!).  Choreography was by Yuri Possokov (ex Bolshoi, ex Royal Danish Ballet, now San Francisco Ballet where he has been chief choreographer since 2006).  The music was various bits of Handel, and sung by Andrea Pellegrini, who was also present on the stage.  The scenery was composed of a large ball that reflected the dancers and formed, like the sets with the other three pieces, an integral part of the piece.  This was my least favourite of the evening, partly because of the singer on the stage (always far too much of a distraction) and partly because I found it rather pedestrian and unoriginal, though it certainly strived to be so.  There was just too much going on and, if I may say so, struck me as being just a little pretentious. 

Still, overall it was a good evening and at least I feel I have finished the season with something enjoyable and well worth seeing.  There seem to be some new dancers coming up that will be worth watching in seasons to come, and perhaps we will see some good things in the future.  I have looked at the programme for the coming season, and see the truly dreadful production of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is being resurrected along with the natural quota of Bournonville.  Thomas Lund is due to retire next season, so I really hope I can get to see him one more time.  In the meantime, over the summer I hope to catch some bits and pieces of dance, read a biography of Balanchine and reflect over some issues that I think interesting when going to see a dance performance.  

PS – Linguistic note for those of you interested.  The evening was called ‘Sidste skrig’ which literally means ‘last shout’, but which also means ‘cutting edge’, both meanings in fact make perfect sense!