BLANCA LI
Didon et Énée
la Villette
Espace Chapiteaux du 17 au 31 octobre, 2024
Didon et Enée Chorégraphie : Bianca Li Musique : Henry Purcell
Didon et Enée est une histoire d’amour qui se heurte au devoir et à l’illusion maléfique d’une sorcière. Trahison et mort donnent à cette œuvre sa puissance tragique. Avec Bianca Li, le mouvement est l’expression des contorsions de l’âme. « L’orchestre » ouvrant le ballet est saisissant de ressenti. Par la suite, solos et ensembles déployés sur des voix qui s’entremêlent, traduisent la complexité des relations humaines. La mise en scène et les ondulations des corps évoquent les sombres profondeurs de la mer et des êtres. Ce ballet est un tout et le public est happé du début à la fin. Bénédicte O’Hara
LIEU - Espace Chapiteaux Quai de la Charente - La Villette
Review by: Bénédicte O'Hara
Date line: Jeudi 17 octobre 2024
Génération A #3
Jour #4 – Update :
Génération A • Jour #4
Xarito - Amitié / Échogr’Art-Phie
Gaël Kafuma NDécky & El Hadji Malick NDiaye / Agathe Djokam Tamo
Coming from Senegal, Gaël Kafuma NDécky and El Hadji Malick NDiaye and from Cameroun, Agathe Djokam Tamo: are together a true epiphany of masculine and feminine dance movement and deep culture expression. Combining breakdance, hip-hop, contemporary, and Strike wrestling, a specialty of Senegal,Gaël Kafuma NDécky and El Hadji Malick Ndiaye have created, in Xarito – Amitié: an extraordinary male pas de deux, lasting more than one hour. An impressive athletic tour de force, especially considering the age of one of the dancers, forty-four, their performance is a triumphant example for all fellow sportspeople to emulate. Aside from physical prowess: the choreographic movescape combines all the elements of a classic ballet pas de deux with; an andante, adage, grande allegro and coda, all perfectly structured with lifts and gestures of true expressivity: without the often-misplaced pomp rife in the classical world at present. The second part of the evening’s program, dedicated to the feminine half of the program: Agathe Djokam Tamo gives an interpretation, in Échogr’Art-Phie, that addresses everyday femininity and questions true love in a different way through the menstrual phenomenon. Commencing her treatise, outside, in front of the theater, Tamo successfully invites audience participation: thus, leading the bemused, perhaps bewitched adorants in a pied piper odyssey back into the sanctuary of artistic expression, where she begins her solo. She too, an example of physical fitness, equal to her male counterparts, expounds in her movescape: new concepts concerning the ongoing quest in dance the means of expressing complex concepts using the language of movement. In all, the evening is a success: for not resolving the questions the artists have asked and explored in their creations, no on the contrary, the audience is left respectively to resolve at their leisure: Quo Vadimus? PKO
LIEU - théâtre paris-villette.
Review by: Patrick Kevin O'Hara
Date line: Thursday the 13th of June, 2024
Jours #2 & #3 – Update :
La Premiére danse politique
As we go into day 4: here is an update on days 2 and 3! Some good and some bad reviews: first the negative reviews on Voix d’Elle by Lou Véronique, day 2 and Un voyage autour de mon nombril by Julie Iarisoa, day 3, both choreographers and their works, suffer seriously from the Stockholm Syndrome! Véronique from the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, living in Niger, a graduate from l'Ecole des Sables in Senegal, shows little of her roots in African culture in her solo Voix d’Elle: her dance is resolutely earth bound and adamantly feminist in content. The structure of her work is minimalist: committing the cardinal sin of repetitive gestures without meaning, reveling a paucity of content, and her work is ultimately boring. Voix d'Elle Un voyage autour de mon nombril danced by Iarisoa, from Madagascar is just interminably tiring, and shows appalling bad taste in flaunting a fake display of masturbation, mocking the male sex organ. Poor technique and bad staging just add to the sad display. Un voyage autour de mon nombril Now the good news: Day 2: The La première danse politique, by Josué Mugisha from Burundi, is a marvellous work interpreted by Florette Gateka, Lyna Milka Irakoze, Josué Mugisha, and Martial Ntungane. Full of great dancing and solid technique, Mugisha creates a sad image of present-day life in Burundi. Gestures resembling holding a gun, menacing mortal injuries, are repeatedly thrust into spectators eyes with brutal effectiveness. The grand finale of his political oeuvre is the presentation of a gorgeous cake draped with the red, white, and blue of the, you know who gang, to a group of appreciative indigents, who promptly crush the sacred offering with their furious stamping feet. A good start to an effective response to the political reality of the Trojan Horse of neo-colonial generosity. Dag Papa Day 3’s: Dag Papa, by Alioune Diagne from Senegal, is a moving ode to his ancestors and an elegy to his son and the father’s loving task of transmitting to his son, family traditions and cultural heritage. Diagne dances his solo with dignity, grace, and noble serenity, interpreting his time-honored duty to honor his ancestors, while giving a theatrically solid performance. A fine finish to Day 3 of Génération A #3! PKO
Voix d'Elle
Un voyage autour de mon nombril
Dag Papa
Date line: Tuesday the 11th and Wednesday the 12th of June, 2024
Vagabundus
Idio Chichava
Vagabundus is a cultural triumph: deep traditions of intricate, highly developed dance and song forms, rooted in the customs of Mozambican people, are used by Idio Chichava in the creation of this epic poem, dedicated to crossing the frontiers of time and space and achieving a theatrical epiphany uniting all people of all nations in cultural harmony. Thirteen polyvalent artists sing and dance in this creation, elaborating a movescape embraced by a rich vocal soundscape a cappella. The range of vocal interpretation and expression is truly impressive: soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass are all there giving full bodied strength to the compositional structure of Vagabundus. The percussive rhythms, created by the artists, using feet, hands, voice, lips, and teeth, cover a vast range of musical forms: embracing fugue, canon, and counterpoint techniques with marvelous virtuosity. The artists: Açucena Chemane, Arminda Zunguza, Calton Muholove, Cristina Matola, Fernando Machaieie, Judite Novela, Mauro Sigauque, Martins Tuvanji, Nilégio Cossa, Osvaldo Passirivo, Patrick Manuel Sitoe, Stela Matsombe, and Vasco Sitoe, are all to be congratulated for an outstanding evening’s performance! Lighting by: Phayra Baloi is excellent, never obscuring nor ignoring any salient moment, a true pleasure for a decerning aficionado of image and movement. The choice of Chichava to leave the theatre’s stage unadorned was perfect, for the interior of the Théâtre Paris-Villette complemented the action and visual impact of the oeuvre, not obstructing, while giving a majestic textural reminiscent of a roman basilica with outstanding acoustics. A standing ovation cemented the evening’s success! Bravos to all concerned! PKO
Date line: Monday the 10th of June, 2024
Angelin Preljocaj
Requiem(s)
Grande Halle du 23 mai - 06 juin , 2024
Photos of Requiems(s) by: Didier Philispart
The age of wisdom is attended not by reading and leaning but rather from experience. In this respect: Preljocaj claims that he composes his dances starting with his own body, therefore logically experience should tell him that age does not bring increased agility, suppleness, strength, energy et cetera, and wisdom would indicate perhaps he should look further for his sources of inspiration. The latest creation in Preljocaj’s oeuvre, Requiem(s), suffers from his proclivity of using an aging corp rather than seeking another muse: the result is repetitive rehashing of a floor locked repertoire of moves, which are only relieved occasionally with outbursts of elevation and airiness. Requiem(s) is not helped by a stupendous playlist of composers: György Ligeti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, System of a Down, Johann Sebastian Bach, Hildur Guonadóttir, chants medieval (anonymous), Olivier Messiaen, Georg Friedrich Haas, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and 79D. Giving a feeling of a disjointed choreographic composition, obsessed with an unrelenting morbidness. The only thing outstanding in the whole mess is the incredible dancers, who deserve full credit and praise for saving the production from a requiem for a dreary boredom, bravos to: Lucile Boulay, Elliot Bussinet, Araceli Caro Regalon, Leonardo Cremaschi, Lucia Deville, Isabel García López, Mar Gómez Ballester, Paul-David Gonto, Béatrice La Fata, Tommaso Marchignoli, Théa Martin, Víctor Martínez Cáliz, Ygraine Miller-Zahnke, Max Pelillo, Agathe Peluso, Romain Renaud, Mireia Reyes Valenciano, Redi Shtylla, and Micol Taiana! PKO
LIEU - le Villette - Grande Halle.
Date line: Monday the 3rd of June, 2024
COMMITMENT PHOBE
IRA BRAND
Théâtre de la Bastille
Dans le cadre du Paris Globe Festival
Performance Ira Brand et Tiana Hemlock-Yensen
Mercredi 29 mai et Jeudi 30 mai 2024
Comitment - Photo: Bete van Meeuwen
Ira Brand, with her intrepid sidekick Tiana Hemlock-Yensen, embarks on a long didactic on the oxymoron of the certainty of uncertainty: expressed through a minimalist movescape adorned with a maximalist of disparate objects. Brand shows her professorial credentials in her interdidpenary technic of constructing her thesis of the uncertainty of choice through a constructivist approach: on an empty stage she and Hemlock-Yensen assemble an array of more than fifty objects, of no particular interrelationship, in what can be perceived finally as a complex example of the domino effect. The essential aspect of their monumental construct is the uncertainty of its ever working! This is of course the whole object of her creation: making decisions without certainty of their fruition is a daily reality of everyday life. To do or not to do is the question: can we be sure of the result of our decisions and by consequence our actions; a fine existential conjecture. The audience is drawn into Brand’s surreal world, through an interactive discourse, verbale and gestural, backed up with projected translations of her usage of English, and selected snippets of a supporting soundscape. The results are entertaining and bemusing: whether it be dance or minimalist theatrics, is a moot question, given the sincerity of the result: that being the total uncertainty that anything will work out as planed! Indeed, nothing does! Well, done! Bravo! Guaranteed uncertainty is a wonderful corollary of theatre in its truest sense. So be it! A Brand World worth seeing and exploring! PKO
LIEU - Théâtre de la Bastille.
Date line: Thursday the 30th of May, 2024
TENDRE CARCASSE
Arthur Perole
Le CARREAU du TEMPLE
Mercredi 29 et jeudi 30 mai 2024 à 19h30
Quelle place occupe notre corps dans la construction de notre identité ? Comment le regard de l’autre modifie la vision de notre corps ?
Tendre Carcasse has the feel of a flash back to another time, reminiscent of dancers at an audition for A Chorus Line: presenting themselves for the predilection of a bemused jury who are asking themselves: “Who are they and why are they here?”. The confusion starts with the offstage sounds of speakers talking; the audience being treated to tasty bits of ambient sounds, while waiting for the lights to go down. The total effect is a disconcerting surrealism, where the spectators become embroiled in the very personal lives of the onstage protagonists. The raggedy Ann appearance of the dancers: Arthur Bateau, Matthis Laine Silas, Elisabeth Merle, and Agathe Saurel, each divulging salient details of their lives and sexual proclivities, draws the audience into the role of disparaging voyeurs, appraising all aspects of the individuals before them. The candidates slowly back away from the withering gaze of the onlookers, gradually babbling away into obscurity, then rebounding in short stabbing poses revealing more of themselves and their interrelations with each other. The result is a refreshing break with standard contemporary dance. Perole, the choreographer of Tendre Carcasse, is joining ranks with a new wave of creators revitalizing their art with their dancers combining voice and movement, thereby enriching the silent art with their ancestral roots going back to the Greek “orchestra”, which means "a space where a chorus of dancers performs," from orkheisthai, "to dance." The Greek chorus spoke, sang, and by dancing set the cadence for the poetry declaimed by the actors. The performance roars to a frenzied cornucopia, combing soundscape with movescape, resulting in an exhausting pandemonium of organic unity of expression, a veritable English country garden of exuberant artists flaunting their enriched expressive vocabulary. Bravos to the creative team: Artistic collaborator: Alexandre Da Silva Lighting Creation: Anthony Merlaud Costume design: Camille Penager Sound creator: Benoit Martin Lighting department: Nicolas Galland PKO
LIEU - Carreau du Temple.
Date line: Wednesday the 29th of May, 2024
6.58: MANIFESTO
Andrea Peña / Premières dates en France !
Le CARREAU du Temple
Mercredi 24 et jeudi 25 avril 2024 à 19h30
Un triptyque chorégraphique puissant où esthétique plastique, musique électronique et partition dansée s'entremêlent !
6,58 : Manifesto est composé de 3 pièces chorégraphiques.
Première pièce :
Sur une musique que je qualifierai d’industrielle, les danseurs entrent , sortent, s’immobilisent dans des cases numérotées au sol. Des courses parfois sans déplacement, des élévations, des chutes rapides, des gestes forts. La plupart du temps les artistes sont orientés vers le public et semblent ne pas avoir conscience du groupe auquel ils participent. Pourtant des ensembles très coordonnés les font agir communément. Les enchainements, repris et répétés précisément donnent une grande intensité à la pièce.
Seconde pièce :
Ici, la chorégraphie et la musique très rythmée emmènent les danseurs vers des mouvements qui par moment font penser à une danse tribale. Des costumes plastifiés matérialisent l’effort de certains. Une énergie collective et envoutante se dégage de cette pièce. Les danseurs ancrés au sol par leurs appuis, agitent frénétiquement leurs bras et semblent implorer on ne sait qui.
Troisième pièce :
Un nouvel univers s’ouvre. Le chant (Interprété par une soprano) porte cette pièce. La formation de couples aux contacts parfois rudes, parfois réconfortants, évoque un début d’humanité qui laisserait penser que le salut humain est dans son rapport à l’autre. A la fin les interprètes regardent à nouveau le public de manière intense et immobile. Ils semblent être notre miroir psychique.
Conclusion :
Andrea Peña propose une vision pessimiste…ou réaliste …de nos sociétés. Pourtant elle laisse apparaitre comme dans le mythe de la boîte de pandore : l’espérance. Les artistes, impressionnants de force, de mobilité et d’interprétation donnent à cette pièce tout sa puissance.
Rédacteur : Bénédicte O’Hara
Date line: mercredi 24 avril, 2024
L-E-V | Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar
Into the Hairy
Grande Halle du 12 au 14 avril, 2024
Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar
“Into the Hairy” is a dark voyage into a nether world of obscurity and near occult Black Sabbath practices concocted, by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, in the name of dance. It is a times difficult to say something good when the subject matter is essentially bad. In this case the subject is Eyal, known to the cognoscenti as an exponent of Gaga derived moves born in the Batsheva Dance Company, where she worked for eighteen years. Cultivating an image as a bad girl, Eyal has outdone herself in an opus dedicated to black on black. Black costumes, (Maria Grazia Chiuri - Christian Dior Couture) on a black stage, near blackout lighting, (Alon Cohen) render the dancers nearly totally invisible. A repetitive minimalist movescape does little to advance the creative intent of Eyal’s work, until the very end, wherein the audience is treated to a semi sexual union with an overly excited zombie. Considering the excellent postmodern electroacoustic soundscape by Koreless and the potential of the superb dancers: Darren Devaney, Guido Dutilh, Juan Gil, Alice Godfrey, Johnny McMillan, Nitzan Ressler, Frida Dam Siedel, Keren Lurie Pardes, Eyal’s self-indulgence, of ignoring the basic rules of theatricality that dance is made to be seen, just as music is created to be heard, for and by an audience, is inexcusable. What has been created is a complete imbalance, of good music and dancers contrasted with movement mediocrities and bumbling, being palmed off on an audience as contemporary dance. PKO
LIEU - la Villette - Grande Halle
Date line: Friday, the 12th of April, 2024
CHTHULUCÈNE
MARCEL GBEFFA ET CLÉMENT DUTHOIT
Lavoir Moderne Parisien
SAMEDI 30 MARS - 15H
Chthulucène
Marcel Gbeffa and Clément Duthoit presented a choreographic ode to the work of Donna Haraway at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien on the 30th of March 2024. In their work, aided by twelve young dancers, Gbeffa and Duthoit paid tribute to Haraway’s research in the Anthropocene, which is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth until now. Their movescape calls into question the concept of the classification of the character exceptional of humans. In Chthulucéne we are invited to encounter the other forms of life our “comrades”: animals, non-humans, fauna, flora, mushrooms, and bacteria, with whom we share histories of cohabitation and sociability. Gbeffa, divides his movescape into four parts: Observation, Acceptance, Reconstruction, and Appeasement. In each movement his choreography explores a multitude of danse and movement forms, ranging from free form improvisation to highly technical contemporary and classical modes. Backed by a soundscape created by Clément Duthoit, virtuoso of wind instruments, notably saxophone and flute, Gbeffa creates a powerful call to recognize and accept our common bonds with all forms of life and humanity. The cast and crew are to be congratulated in having created a memorable, and emotionally moving work in only nine hours of rehearsal. A remarkable triumph! Bravos to all concerned, with especial thanks to the Lavoir Moderne Parisien for presenting this innovative work in their dance program. PKO
LIEU - Lavoir Moderne Parisien
Date line: Saturday, the 30th of March, 2024
Arno Schuitemaker
30 appearances out of darkness
CENTQUATRE-PARIS,
mercredi 27 et jeudi 28 mars, 21h, 2024
dans le cadre du Festival Séquence Danse Paris
The work, “30 appearances out of darkness” by Arno Schuitemaker, is a phantasmagorical exercise in obscurantism in a movescape draped in black, pierced with painful shafts of light directed at hapless viewers. Hammered by a soundscape, created by Aart Strootman, viewers are submerged in a totally antipathic environment, wherein no discernable action occurs, for an immeasurable period of time, immersed in dark, dark, dark shades of darkness. Finally, from the depths of a bottomless black hole of nothingness, dimly shaped forms are faintly contrasted with black on black. Endlessly, repeated minimalist gesticulations are performed by the dancers: Ivan Ugrin, Ahmed El Gendy, Emilia Saavedra, Frederik Kaijser, Rex Collins, Clotilde Cappelletti, Jim Buskens, and Paolo Yao, who are entrapped in a parallel universe of nonrelational violence. Leading to an irrational final with no discernable objective. Schuitemaker tests an audiences’ capacity to endure a sensorial wasteland with no intention artistically except to pander to prurient interest in dimly visible nudity. PKO
LIEU - CENTQUATRE-PARIS
Date line: Wednesday, the 27th of March, 2024
Golden Stage 2024
Grande Halle du 21 au 23 mars, 2024
The Golden Stage is a program, which presented three diverse groups of hip-hop dances, ranging from rap derived challenge form, passing through lyric story orientated, to multi-media break dance style, at the Grande Halle, La Villette. The first group, La Strukture danced “Buck the World”! Three imposing, massive, body building champions danced a hard-core early style called “Krump” (Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise), where hip-hop was a non-violent from of movement rap meant to insult, intimidate, and resolve turf disputes in the same manner as rap poetry. Lots of muscle flexing, showing superb biceps, and great deltoid development with the intent to remind any potential opponent of what they could expect in any real-world dust-up. Crashing, smashing and bone crunching body contact, evolving into a poetic form revealing divine body control, cementing their credentials as exponents of hip-hop’s early antagonistic character of movement. The following dancers of Karim KH performed “Sales Mômes.” Many interrelated movement combinations telling a cornucopia of street stories, some romantic, others violent, marked the evolution of hip-hop towards a true story orientated art form. Seven dancers displayed solid Hip-Hop New Style technics, rapid group movements, embroidered with complex choreographic structures announcing the approaching maturity of hip-hop as a world phenomenon. The final group, The Ruggeds showed in “Decypher” hip-hop’s potential as a multimedia form of dance, which is evolving into a true complete art form, not only in dance but also as an athletic sport now accepted into the 2024 Olympics here in Paris. The evening lives up to its name as a real Golden Stage revealing hip-hop’s evolution from its harsh beginnings into a universally accepted dance art form. PKO
Date line: Friday, the 22nd of March, 2024
Marco da Silva Ferreira
C A R C A Ç A
14th - 16th, March 2024
Carcaça
Marco da Silva Ferreira has created a work for ten dancers entitled Carcaça calling for social and economic change. The resulting movescape is a mixture of several different dance styles ranging from groove to folk, spiced with singing and vocals, backed with percussion instruments by João Pais Filipe, and grounded with a rich electronic soundscape by Luis Pestana. The Portuguese title of the work “carcaça” has several meanings: carcass, hull, loaf, the meaning of which is only revealed at the ending of the opus. The voyage to this potential epiphany is filled with dances: demanding athletic virtuosity on the part of the dancers in their efforts to crystalize Ferreira’s choreographic neologisms. Ferreira is definitely an activist: his art challenges the status quo. His choreography is an all-embracing medium reflecting of our varied social economic backgrounds. The physical nonconformity of his artists is proof of his demand for equality, and the universal acceptance of our mutuel humanity. The following quote echoes the meaning of his creation’s call for change: “There are risks and dangers, we are prisoners of the guardians of the carcass of the socioeconomic system that governs us, who spend their time telling us that change is not possible.” PÚBLICO, 12 July 2020 The ten dancers all deserve well deserved mention: André Garcia, Fabio Krayze, Leo Ramos, Marc Oliveras Casas, Marco da Silva Ferreira, Maria Antunes, Max Makowski, Mélanie Ferrera, Nelson Teunis, and Nala Revlon. Each and every one of them displays singular differences which enhance the overall unison of the ensemble’s activist intentions for change and the acceptance of new social economic conditions. Despite the serious tendency in Ferreira’s work to propagandize there is no doubt as to his ability to entertain and tantalize the public’s imagination, with gender fluid eroticisms sprinkled throughout his movescape, providing a full evening’s edifying dance enjoyment. PKO
Date line: Friday, the 15th of March, 2024
Mazelfreten
Memento
Grande Halle du 14 au 16 mars, 2024
Mazelfreten’s “Memento” is a fabulous composition for six exceptional dancers, whose performance at La Villette on Thursday the 14th of March 2024 was a true delight! The movescape, starting with a Trance dance form, gradually blending Electro dance performed by Brandon Masele, and Hip-Hop by Laua Defretin, with the addition of the dance artists: Motoko Araki, Maksim Myax Aleshichev, Aisi Joyce Zhou, and Filipe Filfrap Silva, evolved into a Total Fusion composition. Together, the dancers transformed the stage into an ethereal dreamscape of surpassing beauty, wherein an utterly entrancing pas de deux danced to the music of Chopin, played by one of the dancers, gave true depth to the meaning of fusion. The different forms of dance and music united in the choreographic creation of Masele and Defretin is a testimony to their complete commitment to each other and their respective art forms. Music, by KCIV - NiKiT – NGLS, provided a solid ground to the performance, at no times eclipsing the intentions nor the interpretations of the chorographers or dancers. Costumes, by Mathilde Lhomme, were clean, simple, and colorful, easy to wear, letting the dancers full freedom of movement, pleasing to the eye. Lighting, by Judith Leray, served its function of aiding the development of the choreographic intentions, by complementing and enhancing the movements of the dancers, always keeping attention focused cleanly, and never obscuring the action. Mazelfreten is a company to watch and enjoy! PKO
LIEU - La Villette
Date line: Thursday, the 14th of March, 2024
Ensemble chorégraphique du Conservatoire de Danse de Paris
3 pièces : Lucinda Childs / Tamir Golan / Hofesh Shechter
12th - 13th, March 2024 complet
dans le cadre du Festival Séquence Danse Paris hors les murs - à l’Espace 1789, Saint-Ouen
ENSEMBLE CHORÉGRAPHIQUE
The Ensemble Chorégraphique du Conservatoire de Paris is a dynamite group of road warriors ready for any challenge as they proved in their performance of three works by preeminent chorographers at the Espace 1789 on Tuesday the 12th of March 2024. Concerto (1993), by Lucinda Childs brought out the lyrical qualities in the male dancers: they displayed light soft elevation, while also mastering the intricacies of the minimalist repertoire of movements often associated with Childs’ work. Cellophane (2024), by Tamir Golan was devoured by the ensemble without difficulty. The dancers explored convincingly the emotional depths of Golan’s movescape, most exemplified in the passages of the music of Glen Gould’s interpretation of the Cocerto in D minor (after Alessandro Marcello). The evening finished with The Bad (2021), by Hofesh Shechter: the dancers devoured the stage with compact hard core moves to the idiocentric harsh rasping chords of Shecter’s cool disco beat soundscape. All in all, a well-rounded repertoire showcasing the excellent development of the Ensemble’s capacity to adapt to the demands of today’s professional creators! Bravos to: Perre Morillon, Samuel Famechon, Jules Majani, Clara Chasragnac, Elsy Robert, Yu-Hsuan Chang, Kenza Kabisso, Anais Valliéres, Myana Valbert-Van Cuijlenborg, Orlane Javitary-Quinault, and Charlotte Le Bail. PKO
LIEU - espace 1789 PARIS
Date line: Tuesday, the 12th of March, 2024
Gravitropie (a sum of possible disorders)
Gravitropism (also known as geotropism) is a coordinated process of differential growth by a plant in response to gravity pulling on it, with the roots growing down and the stem growing up. Naïf Production uses this Darwinian observation to create “Gravitropie”: a marvellous choreographic challenge for five movement artists to fabricate vertical stability in the face of an overwhelming force, created by a revolving disk fixed in the center of the stage. The centrifugal force of the spinning disk engenders a black hole threatening to absorb the dancers in a vortex inexorably pulling them to destruction. The dancers evolve in an movescape of pure free form movements along the edge of the event horizon, constantly fighting to maintain their equilibrium despite the relentless gravitational pull of the vortex. The result is an allegorical netherworld where the dancers metamorphosize into a society of mutual assistance: finding the force necessary to achieve their existential moral, physical, and mental equilibrium. Congratulations to the great team of creators and performers: ,Sylvain Bouillet, Mathieu Desseigne-Ravel et Lucien Reynès, Noé Chapsal, Marion Castaillet, Alexandre Fournier, Evan Greenaway, Charlotte Louvel, Pia Oliva, Julien Fouché (jiu-jitsu), Music and soundscape: Christophe Ruetsch Lighting: Pauline Guyonnet Costumes : Natacha Costechareire PKO
LIEU - CENT QUATRE#104 PARIS
Date line: Tuesday, the 5th of March, 2024
Aljism
ART MOVE CONCEPT SORIA REM & MEHDI OUACHEK
La Maison des Arts de Créteil - Petite Salle
Aljism, “the bodies” in Arabic, conceived by Mehdi Ouachek and choreographed by Soria Rem and Ouachek, is a marvellous festin of pure moves performed by consummate artists! First, it is difficult to use old vocabulary to describe new moves. This is the case for Rem and Ouachek’s choreographic concept! Aljism is not a ballet nor a piece! It is a movescape populated by denizens executing cool moves, encapsulating esoteric combinatorial juxtapositioned relationships, flashing through time and space, best described as a movecasts burning images into the primordial memories of observers. Second, the perpetrators of these indelible moves are not simple dancing thespians, they are ephemeral moments in time and space, expressed by existential ectoplasms emanating from human beings possessed by divine spirits guiding every image and motion, their names being: Lucie Dubois, Éléonore Dugué, Paco Fortunato, Giovanni Léocadie, Manon Mafrici, Mourad Messouad, Jackson N'Tcham, Maria Pinho, Robin Sallat, Carlos Suarez, and Martina Tondo. Aljism is a wake-up call to all balletomanes hungry to partake in the choreographic new wave percolating throughout the world spectra of new move artists seeking their roots in the eternal language of dance. Lighting design, by Jean-Yves de Saint-Fuschien, is subtle and complements the visual intentions of Ouachek’s scenography, never obscuring the action nor the corporal entities of the dancing genies. The soundscape composed by Cyesm, (aka - Pascal Boutet), achieves his objective of combining, “electronic and acoustic sounds, with the aim of creating image-rich atmospheres!” Solid well-designed work providing strong layers overlapping sensitive groundings. Bravos to all concerned ! PKO
LIEU - La Maison des Arts de Créteil — Petite Salle 16th - 18th of January 2024
Date line: Tuesday, the 16th of January, 2024
KADER ATTOU
LE MURMURE DES SONGES
La Maison des Arts de Créteil
SCOLAIRES LES 12, 14, 18, 21, 22 DÉCEMBRE À 10H & 14H30 LE 19 DÉCEMBRE À 14H30
Kader Attou, the creator of The Whisper of Dreams, deserves a second Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur for this work of magic evoking the world of dreams. The interpreters of his choreography: Jade Janisset, Margaux Senechault, Artem Orlov, and Kevin Mischel are dancing divinities, expounding, and exploring choreographically, throughout the complex scenography, a vast realm of imagination and memories. The music, composted by Régis Baillet, is a perfect handmaiden to Attou’s concept, guiding, and collaborating with the intrepid dancers by creating the soundscape of a surrealistic dream world, complementing the action and intentions of the choreography. The lighting, created by Cécile Giovansili-Vissière, is never overpowering nor underlighting the dancers, and the illustrations and images by Jessie Désolée, are always clear thanks to Giovansili-Vissière’s close collaboration with her and Yves Kuperberg , the creator of the videos. From the first movement to the last mock pillow fight, the choreography of Attou is a pure example of the new wave of choreographers, embracing the vast new rediscoveries of the powerful language of movement, and their collaborating with the purveyors of the multimedia potential of advanced technologies. A work to be seen and enjoyed, again and again! PKO
LIEU - La Maison des Arts de Créteil — Grande SALLE du 12th au 22nd of December 2023
Date line: Wednesday, the 13th of December, 2023
VIVARTA
Danse Kathak
Vivarta Danse Kathak
VIVARTA, presented at the Musée du Quai Branly, as part of the museum’s program of Indian culture, is an iridescent example of contemporary Kathak dance. Created by Kumudini Lakhia, Artistic Director of the KADAMB Centre for Dance in India, Vivarta is a tribute to the ancient tradition of Kathak dance, one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. Lakhia is one of the first to break with the traditional origins of Kathak as a story telling form of dance, opening the path to an abstraction of the traditional forms towards a rhythmic polyphony produced by the dancers and musicians. The result is a pure joy to watch and savor the virtuosity of the eight dancers presented in the oeuvre. The dancers all deserve mention: Aarna Chaitanya Desai, Natasha, Parekh, Mansi Modi Modi, Mitali Dhruva, Parita Kalpesh Patel, Vaishnavi Apurva Vakil, Rupanshi Kashyap Thakrar, Nirzari Vyas, they dance with a zest and enthusiasm that is contagious, the youngest being a mere sixteen years old. Vivarta represents the work of several decades of research and development of Lakhia’s genius. She danced with Ram Gopal, one of the truly greats in Indian classical dance, and has taken his example of innovation and excellence to new outer limits of artistic expression and innovation. Music by Madhup Mudgal provides a delicate tapestry of rhythms and vocalizations binding the dance to the intricate movements intrinsic to Lakhia’s choreography and scenography. Mudgal intersplices and segues his music with entrancing leitmotifs, which anchor the complexity of the emotional counterpoints of the dancer’s interchanging spatial juxtapositions. Lighting by Gyan Dev Singh compliments the divine costumes of Anuvi Desai, both emphasizing the gracious movements of the dancers, who maintain a wonderful calmness to their performance, without ever giving the impression of untoward stress or exertion despite the frenetic tempos of the music, which excels in tempos far beyond traditional western modes. One can only hope that we shall be blessed by future performances of Lakhia’s marvelous creations and dancers. PKO
LIEU - Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss
Date line: Saturday, the 9th of December, 2023
Trajal Harrell
The Romeo
La Villette - Grande Halle
Danse, Création, Festival d'Automne à Paris du 7 au 9 décembre 2023
Trajal Harrell - The Romeo Photo: Orpheas Emirzas
The Romeo created by Trajal Harrell falls far short of the extravagant claims, in the program notes, of it transversing the ages as a dance form with Shakespearian and Roman references and antecedents. Presented at La Villette’s Grande Halle recently, with a cortege of gender fluid dancers: New Kyd, Frances Chiaverini, Vânia Doutel Vaz, Maria Ferreira Silva, Rob Fordeyn, Challenge Gumbodete, Trajal Harrell, Thibault Lac, Christopher Matthews, Nasheeka Nedsreal, Perle Palombe, Norel Amestoy Penck, Stephen Thompson, Songhay Toldon, and Ondrej Vidlar, the work could be categorized as a rampmare, wherein the performers are caught in a nightmarish parody of ramp walking, where they parody the moves of cat walking models, voguing their way through a vast array of styles and persona for the predilection of a privileged few. Harrell’s concept is anchored in the Harlem ballroom cultures that shaped a distinctly African American and Latino LGBTQ culture in Harlem from 1920 to 1935, which included advancements in literature, arts and music and attempted to demonstrate that aspects of identity like race, gender and sexuality were fluid and transcended cultural barriers. Harrell’s intentions are honorable and can be lauded but the result is dull and full of repetitive cliches based on derivatives from works such as: Madonna's Vogue and Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line. Granted that voguing was already the domain of drag queens performing in underground bars indigenous to the New York gay scene, Harrell’s originality stems from his taking the action from the dance floor, where no boundaries exist, and the musical comedy’s identity line, up to the ramp used as a catwalk for top models, and moving it to the contemporary dance world. The soundtrack by Trajal Harrell and Asma Maroof is tepid, and the choreography resembles a tired Hawaiian hello given to passengers staggering off a low-cost jet with the end result committing the ultimate sins for theatre arts that are: being dull and boring. PKO
LIEU - la Villette Grande Halle du 7 au 9 December 2023
Date line: Friday, the 8th of December, 2023
ADSURBE
Oups Dance Company
La Maison des Arts de Créteil — PETITE SALLE
Danse, Création, TOUT PUBLIC : Durée 50' du 28 - 29 novembre 2023
ADSURBE, a co-creation of Emille Joneau and Clémence Juglet, co-artistic directors of the Oups Dance Company, is a smash hit! Zany, crazy, extraterrestrial, and brilliant, Joneau and Juglet do a fifty-minute non-stop exploration of the human potential to move. Forming a binome they begin their Oups dance odyssey in what appears to be a sort of auto birthing ritual: the laying of dark ectoplasmic space eggs of no particular species via acrobatic manipulation of their extremely supple bodies and limbs. They are consummate gymnasts possessing formidable dance technics transversing and melding classical and contemporary vocabularies into the otherworldly dimension of rarely seen moves. The beauty of their work is the interweaving of these technical skills in a clever scenario, which they develop gradually. The first subtle signs of intent come through the dancers’ furtive Mr. Spock style Vulcan salute hand signals familiar to Star Trek and Mork & Mindy fans. Communicating shape changers at work is the superb scenography of Caroline De Pommereau, which complements and augments the otherworldliness of Joneau and Juglet’s concept. The costumes of Clarisse Brillouët illustrate the Zany, Mork and Mindy, “Na-Nu Na-Nu” characterizations of our intrepid gesticulating space cadets, plus providing the essential forms of the Unicorn and Minotaur romantic interests of our dancing devils. Leon Afterbeat provides a sonic soundscape leitmotif style, perfectly adapted to the “Shazbat” of Mork’s backward O.K. speech sounds duplicated by the dancers’ vocalizations, as well as providing and underscoring with insanely intense percussive compliments to the equally insane body and limb crashes of Joneau and Juglet’s choreography. The lighting of Fabrice Sarcy blends perfectly with De Pommereau’s work, augmenting the illusion of shadows not duplicating the dancer’s movements. A spooky effect only resolved at the end. A wonderfully romantic marriage of the Unicorn and the Minotaur finalizes the whole Hellzapoppin' saga underscoring the antiracist message intrinsically linked to the creators’ concept. A performance to be enjoyed by the whole family! PKO
LIEU - La Maison des Arts de Créteil — PETITE SALLE du 28th au 29th November 2023
Date line: Tuesday, the 28th of November, 2023
Poetic fragrances of the nation
Semaine de présentation de l'art théâtral chinois
Au Centre culturel de Chine à Paris
Ramasser le bracelet de jade The Centre culturel de Chine à Paris presented a performance titled Fragrances Poétiques de Chine at their center in Paris with an exceptional performance of three selected excerpts from the Peking opera by performers from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts to celebrate the opening of their Exposition “Art scénographique de splendeur théâtrale.” The Program began with "Lin Chong's Night Escape" : A traditional play featuring a warrior hero, inspired by "At the Water's Edge", depicting the experiences of Lin Chong fleeing to Mount Liang after being persecuted by Gao Qiu. The role of Lin Chong was danced by Wang Hao , who showed impressive technical skills in his interpretation. Fuite nocturne de LinChong The second excerpt on the program was an iconic piece from the Peking Opera: the “Drunken Imperial Concubine” depicting the anxious wait of the imperial concubine Yang in the face of the non-arrival of the Tang Emperor Minghuang, expressing a mixture of shame and anger.” The role of the Concubine was performed by Na Xinyu , who interpreted the role with grace and demonstrated the fine art of manipulating a fan with a delightful delicacy. Concubine The final excerpt was "Pick Up the Jade Bracelet” : A traditional folk comedy play depicting the chance meeting of the young girl Sun Yujiao with Fu Peng. The two fall in love, and Fu Peng deliberately drops a jade bracelet in front of her door, which she picks up to express her acceptance of Fu Peng's feelings. The lovers' wishes are discovered by matchmaker Liu, who works to help them make their love a reality. Zhang Yanhong charmingly danced Sun Yujiao perfectly displaying the coquetry of a not so shy maiden. Fu Peng portrayed by Zhang Wei evokes all the craftiness of a love besotted swain. Liu Meipo danced and sung by Jiao Jingge rounded out the tale of our jade bracelet crossed lovers with consummate matchmaker’s skills. Ramasser le bracelet de jade A delightful evening of rarely seen works of the Pekin Opera outside China. Hopefully, audiences will be treated to further events honoring the great traditions of the Chinese people and culture. PKO
LIEU - Centre culturel de Chine à Paris
Date line: Monday, the 27th of November, 2023
"L'ENTRE DEUX"
Merlin Nyakam CIE LA CALEBASSE
Danse, Création, TOUT PUBLIC : Durée 1H du 17 - 18 novembre 2023
L’ENTRE-DEUX
L’ENTRE-DEUX of Merlin Nyakam, presented at the Maison des Arts Créteil on the 17th of November 2023, is a marvelous choreographic epiphany, of what may be called deep dance that is to say: dance as a means of expression anchored in the roots of the universal needs shared by all living species, and perhaps souls not visible but existing in another dimension. Nyakam explains; that the anodyne existence, of the presence of living beings, beyond our existential reality, is the basis of his new creation L’Entre-deux, which through dance, music, and song, the human being makes the connection between the immensity of an other world with which we coexist. For Nyakam the Baobab represents the link between heaven and earth, between the visible and the invisible, its branches open towards the earth, to welcome, meet, share, give and receive, while its roots remain anchored in the earth. It is the guardian of the village, it symbolizes life, death, that which lasts and that which is ephemeral. The tree is an essential element in the scenography of the show, its autumn leaves cover the ground, and an immense Baobab overlooks the stage. The Baobab was conceived and realized by the team of the Japanese master Satoshi Miyagi, director of the SPAC-Shizuoka Performing Arts Center with which Nyakam has collaborated for more than twelve years. Nyakam uses the Nkul, a talking drum sculpted from a tree trunk, to communicate between heaven and earth. Played by the master musicians: Bachir Sanogo, Dany Seh, and Cyriaque Moaboulou, the Nkul and related percussion and plucked instruments set the irresistible rhythms to which the divine dancers communicate to the beyond. The dancers: Lisa Civico, Mylène Couasnard, Mathilde Plateau, Richard Anegbélé, Serge Tsakap, Joseph Nama Atanaga, and Merlin Nyakam are true polychrome rainbow angels, who by their superlative dancing, communicate not only with the invisible but also the enthusiastic audience. Nyakam’s choreography is a technical marvel of inventiveness always interesting, pulling spectators into the action by sharing the otherworldly, with the terrestrial bound, in a communal dance fest, uniting music, and song in an interweaving confluence of a spiritual fellow awakening to our shared roots. Backed by: Lighting by Vincent Tudoce, Scenography by Rie Suzuki, Eri Fukasawa, Yosuke Sato, and Costumes by Chigusa Sei; the intention of Nyakam, to share via the joy and nonchalance of his creation, that we may accept death, as a passage, a metamorphosis, thus achieving the path to consolation, is for many a triumphant success! PKO
LIEU - La Maison des Arts de Créteil — PETITE SALLE du 17 au 18 November 2023
Date line: Friday, the 17th of November, 2023
Laura Bachman
Ne me touchez pas
la Villette Grande Halle
Danse, Musique, Tout public, Création du 16 au 18 novembre 2023
Ne me touchez pas - Laura Bachman - Photo: Christophe Manquillet
LAURA BACHMAN
« NE ME TOUCHEZ PAS »
A budding choreographer must always start from scratch on the voyager of discovery of their own true choreographic language, and this is what Laura Bachman is indeed doing in her current Opus, “NE ME TOUCHEZ PAS.” Bachman has her binome Marion Barbeau: revealed in the oxymoron of a square pool of light, to the left on a dark stage, beginning after a long silent immobility with the slightest of movements, a twitch and then a scratch touching an intimate part of her anatomy, her thigh! Gasp! Bachman and Barbeau, both dancers with the Ballet of the Paris Opera, have leapt into the public imagination by daring to leave the comfortable nest of the Opera to explore the vast terrain of contemporary dance. Their explorations have included: Barbeau in the film, En corps directed by Cédric Klapisch and choreographed by Hofesh Shechter, and Bachman, first with former artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, Benjamin Millepied, then with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Both therein and thereby achieving success: and now they are together daring the next step of developing their own innate choreographic genius. Thus: Accompanied by the accordionist Vincent Peirani and the percussionist Michele Rabbia, Bachman and Barbeau develop the theme of the sense of touch and its related taboos. The joy of Bachman’s theme is that she explores it and expresses it with pure dance, no extraneous props, or symbols just dance, dance, dance! Bachman is a dancer’s choreographer that is, in the most subtle and deepest sense, by letting the dancer and movement tell their own indelible stories, she achieves a choreographic epiphany. Peirani’s rendering of the accordion’s evocative soundscape provides a sensitive gentle aspect to the touching rituals, whereas Rabbia’s percussive assaults color the more hard-core acrobatic moments of the choreography. All and all an enjoyable performance before an entranced and bemused audience of three hundred or so souls at the intimate theater within the Grande Halle at La Villette, on Thursday the 16th of November 2023. Be sure to mark this date as an historic occasion in contemporary dance. PKO
LIEU - la Villette Grande Halle du 16 au 18 November 2023
Date line: Thursday, the 16th of November, 2023
Compagnie DCA / Philippe Decouflé Stéréo
la Villette Espace Chapiteaux
Danse, Musique, Tout public du 4 au 22 octobre 2023
PHILIPPE DECOUFLE STEREO
STEREO, the present work of Philippe Decouflé, is a marvelous creation using polyvalent artists who dance, sing, and play musical instruments. An ode to the gods of Rock and Roll, Decouflé’s artists shake, rattle, and roll the audience with their prodigious talents, combining: dialogue, song, blatant humour, and pure acrobatic feats of technical virtuosity to seduce an enthusiastic audience. Baptiste Allaert leads the dance ensemble, creating on stage, an eponymous visual clone of a frenetic Mick Jagger, executing moves that Jagger would love to be able to do, while singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments. The other members of the troupe follow Allaert’s example, each displaying solid mastery of the diverse elements demanded by Decouflé’s fertile imagination. Ever since Decouflé burst onto the international scene with his creation of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1992 Albertville Olympics in France, he has never ceased to embellish the contemporary dance spectra with his beguiling eclectic and inventive multimedia creations. Decouflé crosses all lines with his work, never stopping in face of controversy, he has presented his work in diverse venues, including the celebrated Crazy Horse Cabaret in Paris, always reaping success, never stopping to enlarge his creative horizons. Stereo his latest creation is no exception, presented in the Espace Chapiteaux at la Villette, the venue is perfect for the show, ranging from super loud to whispering sweetness, the sound in the Chapiteaux evokes a feeling of intimacy despite its great spacious volume. Backing the dancers, the musicians Arthur Satàn (guitar), Louise Decouflé (bass), and Romain Boutin (drums) provide a solid grounding on which Decouflé’s concept comes to fruition. Costumes by Philippe Guillotel are hilariously funk gorgeous, sequined, and spangled compliments to the epopee of rock pop propelled by the dancers, all of whom deserve mention: including previously mentioned Baptiste Allaert; Pierre Boileau Sanchez, Vladimir Duparc, Eléa Ha Minh Tay, Olivia Lindon, Aurélien Oudot, and Violette Wanty are all superb artists of the highest order! Bravos to all concerned! A must see! PKO
LIEU - la Villette Espace Chapiteaux du 4 au 22 october 2023
Date line: Wednesday, the 4th of October, 2023
PORTRAIT
Mehdi Kerkouche
CCN Créteil et du Val-de-Marne 29 - 30 sept. 2023
Amy Swanson in white, surrounded by dancers
Portrait is a sensitive choreographic work by Mehdi Kerkouche. : drawing a cross generational evocation of an individual’s family and art through transactional movement, innovative cutting-edge music, and impressive lighting, astutely topped with the audacious choice of Amy Swanson as the individual in question. Thus: sociologically, Kerkouche, challenging and breaking the mythical glass ceiling of the dancing age barrier, has dared to go where angels and some choreographers fear to tread by using Swanson. Amy Swanson: a full-bodied dancer, in full blossom of a vigorous third age, who, at an age when most French workers are demanding earlier retirement, dances with effortless grace, displaying a complete mastery of Duncan technique; vindicating Kerkouche’s indelible wisdom of using her and polymorphed and polyaged dancers to provide depth and humanity to his family portrait. Kerkouche is not only a superb choreographer, but also an artistic director activist who is contributing to the advancement of his chosen art, by broadening its emotional vocabulary through the visual oxymoron of contrasting morphologies and movement juxtapositions. Complementing his choreographic leitmotifs is the music of Lucie Antunes. Antunes entrances auditively, by using a passion for rhythmic concoctions plucked from a vast repertoire of percussive sources reminiscent of Steve Riley and Gamelan antecedents, intertwined with her solid classical compositional grounding. Developing the theme of a family portrait, her composition accompanies the movescape with a complimentary soundscape augmenting the points of interest highlighted by the lighting of Judith Leray. Leray’s lighting design illustrates delicately the linear progression of the scenography, gradually building a visual tension, which heightens the dramatic coherence of Kerkouche’s oeuvre. Finally, the dancers are a marvel, each meriting consideration for individual and group work of an impeccably high standard. Bravos to: Micheline Desguin, Matteo Gheza, Jaouen Gouevic, Lisa Ingrand Loustau, Shirwann Jeammes, Sacha Neel, Amy Swanson, Kilian Vernin, and Titouan Wiener Durupt.
LIEU - Maison des Arts de Creteil Grande Salle du 29 au 30 septembre 2023
Date line: Friday, the 29th of September, 2023
Gisèle Vienne
L'Étang
Chaillot théâtre national de la danse
Danse, Tout public, Salle Firmin Gémier du 22 au 29 septembre 2023 à partir de 12€ durée : 1hr25
L'Étang - Gisèle Vienne Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez
The Pond (L'Étang)
The Pond of Gisèle Vienne, based on the short story by Robert Waler, is not a work to be easily digested by even the most avid theater goer. Interpreted by Adéle Haenel and Julie Shanahan, the story delves into the myriad of intrafamilial relationships emerging from the apotheosis of a fake suicide. Vienne has taken this theme, of a fake suicide, by a child seeking reassurance of a mother’s love, to concoct a suffocating polyglot cacophony of schizophrenic howling and mutterings, purporting to explore the intricacies of Waler’s oeuvre. L'Étang - Gisèle Vienne Photo: Estelle Hanania Cloistered in a rectangular white box: the movescape is effected with microminimalist choreography achieving almost imperceptible changes in positions. Vienne uses the work from Waler’s Pencil Zone, also known as Bleistiftgebiet or Microscripts, which he, suffering from catatonic schizophrenia, wrote in a coded, microscopically tiny hand on scraps of paper, to create a parallel universe of almost unbearable tension and pathos. The soundscape, by Adrien Michel with original music by Stephen F. O’Malley and François J. Bonnet, is admirably adapted to the prevailing atmosphere of conflict and hyper shock within the claustrophobic container. Lighting by Yves Godin is subtle and evocative of the changing moods called for by the leitmotifs of death and retribution of the suffering youth. Overall, the work deserves to be seen and heard, despite some reservations on the part of this reviewer. PKO
L'Étang - Gisèle Vienne Photo: Estelle Hanania
LIEU - Chaillot théâtre national de la danse Salle Firmin Gémier du 22 au 29 septembre 2023
Date line: Saturday, the 23rd of September, 2023
Café Müller
Pina Bausch |Tanztheater Wuppertal
Danse, Tout public, Théâtre de la Ville du 6 au 12 juillet 2023 Grande Halle à partir de 26€ durée : 50 min
Cafe Muller Photo: Bettina Stob
Pina Bausch is a choreographer, whose work defies easy decryption. The presentation of her seminal work Café Müller, presented at the Grande Halle of la Villette, on the 6th of June 2023, is no exception. Based on her childhood memories: of hiding under the café tables, in the bar-hotel ran by her parents in Solingen, Germany during World War II, in order to observe and listen to the fears and angers of adults; she herself declared that she “spend (her) life trying to give shape to these buried, vanished emotions.” The rich emotional textures of these childhood memories, multilayered by the mists of time, gave the stenographic structure of her opus, Café Müller, created in 1978, using the music of Henry Purcell: the aria "O Let Me Weep" from his semi-opera, The Fairy Queen, and the aria "When I am Laid in Earth" from his Opera, Dido and Aeneas, were essential to the emotional and the supernatural motifs used in Café Müller. The aria from The Fairy Queen, providing the off-world aspect, and the aria from Dido and Aeneas, setting the heavy bass ground of the saltus duriusculus: Latin for 'somewhat hard leap', which gives a dissonant leap that is used for rhetorical effect. Dido's Lament - Wikipedia The result, Café Müller, was one of the founding works of the Tanztheater movement in contemporary dance. Bausch: was taught by Kurt Jooss, choreographer of The Green Table, and cofounder in 1927 of the Folkwangschule in Essen. She used her acquired skills from Jooss, and the Folkwangschule to develop the Opéra of Wuppertal, of which she was named choreographer by Arno Wüstenhöfer in 1973, and which she rapidly renamed Tanztheater Wuppertal. Bausch uses silence to introduce her dancer’s characters, much in the manner of John Cage’s celebrated 1952 piano composition, 4'33”, John Cage's 4'33" - Video where the ambient sounds heard in the silence were as important as the non-heard music its self. Jerome Robins did a choreographic follow up with his 1956 ballet, The Concert, Jerome Robbins - The Concert - Video a comic spoof of a classical music concert, where the attendees allow their decidedly imaginative minds to wander. This use of silence is pivotal to Bausch’s choreographic motifs. The silence provokes a meditative response in the onlooker, evoking inner queries as to meaning, and intent, a veritable Quo Vadis? The characters in Café Müller are gesturally defined with Bausch’s iconic motifs incorporated in the emotional content of the gestures themselves. Given the multiplicity of the possible interpretations, the best advice is for each spectator to interpret their understanding of Bausch’s choreographic epiphany. by going to see the ballet themselves. A must see is the transcendental beauty of Bausch’s port de bras used by herself in the original presentation, and which have been lovingly preserved in the evening’s presentation. PKO
LIEU - La Villette / Grande Halle 6 - 12 juillet 2023
Date line: Thursday, the 6th of June, 2023
L'Histoire de Manon
Kenneth MacMillan Palais Garnier - from 20 June to 15 July 2023
Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet, Manon, is a wonderful adaptation of the celebrated novel: The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost, published in 1731. Prévost’s story, thinly disguised as a cautionary tale, of the dangers of institutionalized prostitution menacing the sacred institution of marriage, provided the framework upon which MacMillan could create a monument to the art of the romantic ballet. The raison d’être of all romantic ballets is the pas de deux, a form in which MacMillan excelled. The present production of MacMillan’s chef oeuvre, at the Palais Garnier by the Ballet of the Paris Opera, is a faithful restaging of his creation, whose premiere was given on the 7th of March 1974, by the Royal Ballet of London, Covent Garden, with the legendary dancers: Antoninette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, David Wall, and Monica Mason starring in the cast. Sibley’s Manon, danced by Léonore Baulac, and Dowell’s Des Grieux, danced by Mathias Heymann, both étoiles of the Opera Ballet, delightfully fulfilled MacMillan’s romantic inclinations. Although France is a secular republic, the dancers of the Paris Opera are trained and raised in the hothouse aristocratic traditions of The Académie Royale de Danse: the first dance institution established in the Western world, founded by Letters Patent, on the initiative of King Louis XIV of France in March 1661. These traditions enable the dancers to perform the manners and gestures of the aristocratic milieu and decadent tendencies predominant in MacMillan’s creation. To propel the action, MacMillan’s adaptation of Abbé Prévost’s novel, takes liberties with the characters of the original, bringing forth the personage of Manon’s brother, Lescaut, danced by Antoine Kirscher, who brings tragedy to the fate of Manon, by attempting to cheat her benefactor Monsieur de G.M., interpreted by Cyril Chokroun, at cards, resulting in his death, and her subsequent exile, for prostitution, to New Orleans. Manon’s arrival in New Orleans, followed by her besotted lover, Des Grieux, and their flight from justice, caused by Des Grieux’s murder of Manon’s jailer, Arthus Raveau, leads to the finale denouement, and an ultimate elegy to the art of ballet: the pas de deux of Manon and Des Grieux on a bare stage, with only their love and MacMillan’s genius to clothe the tragic end of Manon Lescaut. The pas de deux - video Bravo to all concerned. A must see! PKO LIEU - Palais Garnier du 20 juin au 15 juillet, 2023 Review by: Patrick Kevin O'Hara Date line: Tuesday the 27th of June, 2023
Bravo to all concerned. A must see! PKO
LIEU - Palais Garnier du 20 juin au 15 juillet, 2023
Date line: Tuesday the 27th of June, 2023
FLAMENCO
Gypsy Dynasties
MARIA TERREMOTO
PERRATE
PEPE TORRES AND NAZARET REYES
Maria Terremoto
Maria Terremoto opened the evening’s Gypsy Dynasties Flamenco festivities, at the Grande Halle, la Villette, celebrating the reunion of the descendants of three great Flamenco families from the south of Andalusia in Spain. Terremoto from Jerez: hailed by the Spanish media as “La princesa del cante jondo” lived up to the accolade with her Un sigle de cante program of forty minutes of pure “deep song” (cante jondo). Backed by: Guitar, Nono Jero, Manuel Cantarote and Juan Diego Valencia, Palmas. A mere slip of a girl, at the age of twenty, she burns with Flamenco fire in her blood, which she transforms in a torrent of cante jondo tracing the passage of the echoes of sleepless nights passed with Jerez artists sharing their deepest experiences with her father Fernando. Bust of Fernando Terremoto He drew her on the stage of his Flamenco club to consecrate his (without her knowledge) definitive farewell performance. Since then, Terremoto has carried the torch of the ancestrally shared passion and love forth to the world’s stages. Tomas de Perrate Tomas de Perrate - Tres Golpes - Video Tomas De Perrate from Utrera, (a municipality in south-west Spain. It is in the province of Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia.) in turn, carried the torch with his Tres Golpes (Los tres golpes (the three hits) is the slang name given by Dominicans consisting of fried Dominican-style salami, fried cheese, and fried eggs served alongside mangú.) A hot dish indeed, served with Perrate style, ‘Perrate signifies “pure origin”’ not to be confused with tradition, blood, or lineage but rather “form.” Perrate is a purist in the strictest sense of the term pure. Perrate uses the Fandango style, embellished by his archaic yet modern voice, to proclaim his cante jondo, rough, without ornamentation permeated with a personal imprint, to communicate his interpretation, infused with African music, touched by a rock feel, graced by an innate swing. Guitar and chorus: Paco de Amparo, Percussion, and chorus: Antonio Moreno, Electric keyboard, piano, bass guitar and chorus, Jesus Bascon. Pepe Torres El baile de Pepe Torres - Video Pepe Torres and Nazaret Reyes, from Morón de la Frontera, finished the second half of the evening’s celebration with a superb display of Flamenco fire and restraint in their sensitive interpretations the intricacies of the Zapateado, and Seguiriya technics. Torres opens with a soft, subtly modulated Zapateado display, whilst delicately holding his jacket lapels, which do not serve any functional purpose. Rather, they are used for aesthetic purposes, enabling the flamenco artist to modulate the visual and auditive attributes of his art. Suddenly, Torres deliberately breaks his self-imposed restraint to blast a series of Seguiriya and sensuous port de bras to his consummate display of pure Flamenco dancing. Nazaret Reyes Nazaret Reyes - Video Joined on stage by Nazaret Reyes, they proceed to embark on a challenge fest of pure Flamenco passion, each outperforming the other until finally embracing their common lineage they finish the evening, united by a shared love, appreciated by all! Guitar: Ramon Amador, Voice: Manuel Tañé, El Pechuguita, and Manuel de La Nina, (to be congratulated for outstanding Seguiriya work synchronized and fine-tuned by Torres), Sound: Angel Olalla, Lighting: Alfredo Vique. PKO *************************************************************************************** Post-scriptum: Anthropologists have traced Gypsies back to three migrations from the Sindh region in India, which was southern and central Pakistan, about 1700 years ago; They are: Romani (the western gypsy) from Pakistan and northern India, Lomavren or simply Lom (central gypsy) from eastern Turkey and Armenia, and the Domari (eastern gypsy) from the Middle East and Egypt. They reached Spain in the early 15th century and quickly spread all over the country. Although they were not expelled along with the Moors and Jews during the 16th century, partly because they represented no threat to the supremacy of reunified, Christian Spain, and partly because it was simply too difficult to physically get hold of them all, they were eventually forced to give up their Romaní language (now identified by linguists as a simplified version of Sanskrit), as well as their nomadic ways. Today's Spanish Romani people speak to one another in Castilian Spanish and live in wheel-less homes.
Bust of Fernando Terremoto
Tomas de Perrate
Pepe Torres
Nazaret Reyes
LIEU - La Villette / Grande Halle 24th of June 2023
Date line: Saturday, the 24th of June, 2023
ROSARIO LA TREMENDITA
ALFONSO LOSA
Rosario La Tremendita
Rosario la Tremendita opened the evening’s flamenco program at the Grande Halle of la Villette with Tremenda, a forty-five-minute new wave performance of cante jondo, “deep song.” Deep song was promoted by Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca at the creation in June 1922 of the “Concurso de Cante Jondo” in Granada. This makes Tremendita, a serious artist indeed! Her appearance, accoutrements, and sound: a costume clothing a besequinned adiposity prone endomorph, a voice sounding like a reincarnation of an on key Sid Vicious, and sporting a post Punk half shaved Iroquois haircut, all bunched up in a package of a gender fluid, flamenco music activist; made a very personal statement that left little doubt as to her intentions to launch a renaissance in flamenco singing. Playing a cuatro amplified guitar, Tremendita dominated the soundscape, stretching meaning in the lamentation, and anger ever present in her interpretation of the deep roots of her culture rooted in the ancient dysphoria emanating from the Indian subcontinent, reflecting in her singing Arab and Hebrew leitmotifs ever present in their religious cantos. Supported by bass and keyboard, Juan Pérez, percussion David Sancho, battery and programming, Pablo Martin Jones, with lighting by Alfredo Vique, and sound by Angel Olalla; the whole production left the indelible impression, of a young artist on the rise, who is striving to imbue a distinctive touch to an old flamenco tradition. Alfonso Losa Alfonso Losa - Video The second part of the program was devoted to Alfonso Losa’s Espacio Creativo. Losa is considered to be one of the great representatives of the Madrid style of flamenco today. Losa dances "Flamenco puro" otherwise known as "flamenco por derecho." This style is considered the form of performance flamenco closest to its gitano influences. In this style, the dance is often performed solo, and is based on signals and calls of structural improvisation rather than choreographed. In the improvisational style, castanets are not often used. The best pure flamenco dancers are not always in their first flowing of youth, and Losa is no exception: glowering maturity is reflected in his transmission of the ecstasy, and joy purveyed in his virtuosity of the Romani rites of melancholy, pain, and seduction. His upright virility leaves no doubt as to his romantic potential. Concha Jareño Concha Jareno with Alfonso Losa - Video Joined with him in dance was the divine Concha Jareño, who transported the duo into a world of fecundity, ritualized in her seductive corporal movements, and sinuous port de bras linked to Flamenco’s Indian and Arab traditions. Both artists excelled in the Zapateado, and Seguiriya, both modes synonymous with pure flamenco. The Seguiriya is a somber cante (song) with a tragic character that contains the basic values of what is known today as pure and deep cante. The lyrics are tragic, painful, and reflect the suffering of human relationships, love, and death. The danced form reflects these relationships through the addition of percussive hand clapping (Seguiriya), and often rapid foot, and heel work (Zapateado), with subtle drags and scrapes effected with the flamenco shoe, which is custom made to the demands and needs of the flamenco artist. Losa and Jareño displayed these aspects of pure flamenco dancing and singing with unadulterated artistry, a true pleasure to watch, hear, and enjoy. Completing the ensemble: the singers Sandra Carrasco, and Ismael “El bola,” and guitarist Francisco Vinuesa provided a complementary spell to the entire performance. PKO
Alfonso Losa
Concha Jareño
LIEU - La Villette / Grande Halle 23rd of June 2023
Date line: Friday, the 23rd of June, 2023
RAFAELA CARRASCO
Nocturna
Rafaela Carrasco is an extraordinary visionary choreographer, daring and elegant, who is changing the course of contemporary flamenco with her creation Nocturna: which was presented at the Grande Halle, la Villette on June 21, 2023. Born in Seville in 1972, Carrasco began her voyage of discovery and perfection of flamenco at the age of six at the Matilde Coral Academy: followed by studies with greats such as La Tona, Manolo Marin, Manolete, El Güito, Rafael El Negro, while also exploring the world of classical and contemporary dance. Carrasco’s Nocturna, builds on the shoulders of these giants of flamenco by extending the traditional image of her art in a surreal choreographic dream world replenished with striking images and superlative dancing. A solo piano opens Nocturna, with Bach’s Goldberg Variations, accompanying Carrasco, alone on stage before a black curtain, back to the audience, executing sensuous port de bras, which frame her sharp staccato bursts of Zapateado. Then, the curtain opens before Carrasco, revealing a scrim behind, which can be dimly seen: Eight pale goddesses. setting the atmosphere for a mysterious series of, crepuscule to dawn, Dionysian rites, casting a cloud of short powerful images created by Carrasco and her dancers. Their dancing, in turn, is sequentially compelled and enchanted by the singing of the flamenco artist Gema Caballero. A marvelous example of Carrasco’s choreographic use of contemporary technics is when: a solo dancer extruding from the skirts of a giant infanta, embarks on an amalgam of Graham style floor work with hip-hop overtones, embellished with Radio City Music Hall style high kicks, adorned with classical ballet attitudes, flamenco style heel taps and foot scrapes, plus elaborate Indian mudras, resulting in an exhilarating cornucopia of transcendental dance ecstasy. Her eight dancers form a Greek orchestra, scanning the music and soundscape for rhythms and indications of intent to be expressed in a living movescape. The Historian H. D. F. Kitto argues that the term chorus gives us hints about its function in the plays of ancient Greece: The Greek verb choreuo, 'I am a member of the chorus', has the sense 'I am dancing'. The 'orchestra', in which a chorus had its being, is literally a 'dancing floor'." From this, it can be inferred that the chorus danced and sang poetry. the chorus expressed to the audience what the main characters could not say, such as their hidden fears or secrets. Carrasco has taken this idea of the orchestra chorus to its logical fulfillment in flamenco by combining song, images, scenery, and accoutrements such as: masks, hats, fans, and costumes, worn by the dancers and manipulated with dexterity and elan. The costume designs by Belén de Quintana are breathtaking in their evocative use of leitmotifs from the Spanish culture, recalling religious iconic forms such as a cardinal’s a scarlet galero, or the court portrait of the Infanta Margaret Theresa by Diego Velázquez or Juan Bautista del Mazo. Striking lighting and set design by Gloria Montesinos created perfect synchronization with Carrasco’s choreography, and the dramaturgy and lyrics by Álvaro Tato. Musical Direction and Composition, by Pablo Martín Jones, Pablo Suárez, and Jesús Torres, were excellent, with the soundscape well designed by Pablo Martín Jones. Special appreciation goes to Marta Estal and Pablo Suárez for their rendition of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which were conceived to favor sleep (according to some). Brava to each of the dancers: Carmen Angulo, María Carrasco, Rafaela Carrasco, Carmen Coy, Julia Gimeno, Alejandra Gudí, Blanca Lorente, Magdalena Mannion, and Cristina Soler. A must see! PKO
LIEU - La Villette / Grande Halle 21st & 22nd of June 2023
Date line: Wednesday, the 21st of June, 2023
NEDERLANDS DANS THEATER (NDT 2)
JOHAN INGER NADAV ZELNER
“Out of Breath” “Bedtime Story”
Bedtime Story Photo:Rahi Rezvani
Pure dance! Two thespian choreographers captured the stage and audience, at La Villette, with their movescapes: filled with freshness and zest by the superb dancers of the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT 2).
Out of Breath Photo:Joris Jan Bos
First to step out: “Out of Breath,” Johan Inger’s autobiographical recapitulation and atonement for the traumatizing experience of parenthood: used an astonishingly rich expressive transactional dance vocabulary; to reach the catharsis of a transcendental epiphany, by embracing his experience via a ritual dance ceremonial, thus cleansing the poltergeists of a communal angst, shared by all birthing partners. Inger used a cornucopia of musical exerts to construct his soundscape: notably effective emotional moments were achieved by the violin playing of Lajkó Félix and the Vonósnégyes String Quartet.
Second on the program: Nadav Zelner’s “Bedtime Story” was anything but a lullaby. Pounding dynamic music and dancing celebrate the Israeli choreographer’s polyethnic roots embracing Tunisian antecedents. Unapologetically folk, with a Maghreb rock feel, Zelner squares the Circassian Circle, weaving a web of down to earth and up cadences of foot stomping, and windmill arm salvos, to create a spellbinding vogue of movement themes. Deeply moving and expressive, a fresh new wave look at contemporary dance. Artistic Director: Emily Molnar enriches the international dance scene with her choice of polychrome, polymorph, polyethnic dancers, who bring a strong universal ethic to the work of the Nederlands Dan Theater. Dancers: Demi Bawon, Viola Busi, Conner Chew, Nick Daniels, Barry Gans, Joey De Koning, Zoë Greten, Ricardo Hartley III, Ivo Mateus, Casper Mott, Omani Ormskirk, Gabriele Rolle, Rebecca Speroni, Ursula Urgeles Gonzalez, Nova Valkenhoff, Samuel Van Der Veer, Sophie Whittome, Rui-Ting Yu. Bravos to all concerned! A must see! PKO
LIEU - La Villette / Grande Halle 14 - 17 June 2023
Date line: Wednesday, the 14th of June, 2023
GUDIRR GUDIRR
L’APPEL DE L’OISEAU
Dalisa Pigram presented a superb solo interpretation of her co-creation: GUDIRR GUDIRR, at the Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss, in the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, on the occasion of its Songlines exposition. Pigram is an activist exponent of contemporary Australian dance: aided by her co-creator Koen Augustijnen, stage director and co-choreographer. The Guwayi bird is known to the Australian Yawuru people of Broome as Gudirr Gudirr, whose song is a cry that carries warnings of what’s to come, warning of a tidal turn and the menace of the danger of drowning. Pigram dances, sings, and speaks of her Metis origins: Irish, Aboriginal person, and the cultural shock of the meeting of different peoples, with the ensuing misery and suffering, yet to be resolved. She is not a whimpering, shy, timid wallflower asking to be understood and pitied! Her warning song is a powerful well-articulated FUCK YOU! Her activism includes the necessity to decolonize the spirit of the Aboriginal people, to raise themselves out of the morass of violence, prostitution, drugs, and official indolence. Pigram uses polyvalent forms to transmit her concept: martial arts, dance, and breathtaking aerial work, on a suspended fishing net, carrying her high over the stage and out dangerously close to over the heads of the audience. Backed up by video projections, simultaneous language projections, and the music compositions and sound designs of Stephen Pigram, with fine lighting design by Matthew Marshall, the entire production is a welcome addition to the contemporary dance world. PKO
LIEU - Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss, in the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, 9,10,11 June 2023
Date line: Friday, the 9th of June, 2023
GöteborgsOperans Danskompani / Damien Jalet/ Imre et Marne van Opstal
Kites / To Kingdom Come
Kites and To Kingdom Comme “Kites” by Damien Jalet and “To Kingdom Comme” by Imre and Marne van Opstal: are two marvelous groundbreaking contemporary dance works presented by the Gothenburg Opera Dance Company at la Villette in Paris. The company has recently transitioned from classical repertoire to a new focus on contemporary work. Led by Artistic Director Katrin Hall the company attracts leading choreographers to Gothenburg and these works are fine examples of her erudite leadership. First on the evenings program Kites is an allegorical exercise in an extracorporeal flight of the spirit through the choreography of Jalet. His website remarks that his work Kites is: “An extremely physical reflection on the fleeting, fragile yet powerful nature of life, hanging on a thread like a kite surfing unpredictable currents.” The dancers fulfill these remarks admirably forming innumerable birdlike images, individually and in clouds. One remarkable image was that of flight leader trailing in its slip stream a covey of acolytes. The scenography with sets by: Jim Hodges, Carlos Marques da Cruz, is evocative of a skateboarding paradise, where the dancers perform on the sets in a dazzling display of polytechnical virtuosity, as if on an adrenaline fix, determined to escape terrestrial restraints. Hodges, a New York-based installation artist, known for his mixed-media sculptures and collages that involve delicate artificial flowers, mirrors, chains as spiderwebs, and cut-up jeans, has sculptured a design ideal for Jalet’s choreographic concept. Kites’ music, composed by Mark Pritchard, sound design by Dorian Concept, has drawn on an eclectic variety of sources including modal and free jazz, funk, hip-hop, electronic, ambient, to produce a soundscape that drives the dancers to the outer limits of sustainable movement embodied in Jalet’s movescape. Kites - Video Second on the program, To Kingdom Comme uses: “a landscape as a metaphor for both our internal world and external triggers that lie beyond, the work hopes to explore how trauma can take hold in different ways, showing its potential reach and the moment our masks are put to rest.” As quoted, the opus is reminiscent of an exercise in a meta religious ceremony, anchored in antiquity wherein a conflict, in a sand covered space, was enacted honoring departed heroes. The brother sister binome, Imre and Marne, have created a choreographic rite of passage between worlds of existence and beyond in a kinetic catharsis enacted to the music of Amos Ben-Tal and Ry Cuming (RY X). The dancers work within and around an oval shaped area, filled with a granular sand like substance, where they: slide, jump, kick, fall, and cavort, transferring their corporal essence through all manners of space, in a mutuel voyage of discovery, taking them to another transcendental state. In all the Gothenburg company has produced an effervescent evening of avant-garde contemporary dance and is indeed a Must See! To Kingdom Comme - Video PKO
LIEU - La Villette / Grande Halle 7 - 10 June 2023
Date line: Wednesday, the 7th of June, 2023
Batsheva Dance Company / Ohad Naharin
MOMO
Batsheva MOMO Photo: Ascaf MOMO: choreography by Ohad Naharin, presented in the form of a co-creation by the dancers of the Batsheva Dance Company and Ariel Cohen, is a transcendental revelation of identity, in gender fluidity, using a terpsichorean interpretation brilliantly underscored using Naharin’s GAGA technic. Four wayfarers advance in silent lockstep, quadrating the stage in search of an unknown. Their quest is graced by the appearance of the first of seven souls, gender cast in an interdimensional dialectical metamorphous towards complimentary stasis. Naharin is a wizard in the construction of contemporary dance philosophy, using a climbing wall to add a celestial observation post for his four wayfaring dancers to observe the metamorphically developed progression of the soul-searching dancing genies. Naharin uses his GAGA vocabulary to develop his choreographic concept: “MOMO has two souls. One sends long roots to the depths of the earth – a soul that embodies archetypes and myths of hardened, raw masculinity, and the other is in a constant search for an individual and distinct DNA; one moves within its own autonomous and independent force field and the other is a constellation of elements that spin around the same nucleus – alternately drifting away and towards it, making room for necessary tenderness and catharsis.” Visually, Naharin has taken his MOMO concept further to include more than two souls. The wayfarers have encountered seven errant soul genders: showing, searching for a gregarious assimilation, reaching beyond the tradition five senses, used to understand our universe, to include the unknowable, whereby enabling an understanding of the Egyptian concept, wherein each Gaia entity has seven souls. Just as four blind men try to describe an elephant, so the four wayfarers endeavor to interrelate with an existential world, where each potential transitional gender is revealed by its actions. A grounding sound scape by Maxim Waratt, renders the conceptual content audible, through an impressive musical cross referencing, using exerts from: the Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet album “Landfall,” Philip Glass’s “Metamorphosis II” and, Arca “Madre Acapella” by Maxim Waratt. Lighting by Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi) avoids the mistake of submerging the action in obscurity. Artfully illuminating never over lighting the living wall friezes nor underlighting the effervescent action. His design is faithful to Naharin’s GAGA choreographic language and vocabulary. The cast chosen from the company members: Chen Agron, Yarden Bareket, Billy Barry, Yael Ben Ezer, Matan Cohen, Guy Davidson, Ben Green, Chiaki Horita, Li-En Hsu, Sean Howe, Londiwe Khoza, Adrienne Lipson, Ohad Mazor, Eri Nakamura, Gianni Notarnicola, Danai Porat, Igor Ptashenchuk, Yoni (Yonatan) Simon, were marvelous with a well-developed virtuosity, used but never abused by overriding the concept’s objectives. The result is a glorious romp through many possible worlds, indelibly articulated by the magnificent dancers, who are an epiphany to be seen! PKO
LIEU - La Villette / Grande Halle 24 May - 3 June 2023
Date line: Friday the 2nd of June, 2023
Necesito, pièce pour Grenade
There’s the wonderful phenomenon, of young pre-professional artists appearing with top professional companies and venues before the general public: such as we have been privileged to see recently, and The Dante Project at Palais Garnier, with dancers from the École de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris, and NECESITO, pièce pour Grenade in the Salle Firmin Gemier at Chaillot Théâtre National de la Danse, are fine examples of this phenomenon. NECESITO, pièce pour Grenade: danced by nine young artists from the L’Ensemble chorégraphique du Conservatoire de Paris, presented, Dominique Bagouet’s iconic ballet, before an enthusiastic audience on Wednesday the 24th of May 2003. Bagouet’s opus was first created and performed at the Avignon Festival in July 1991. The choreographic reconstruction of the work for the young ensemble of dancers was effectuated by Rita Cioffi, who, between 1995 and 2003, danced under the direction of Dominique Bagouet. As with all reconstructions there are variations, additions and at times lapses, which do not always bode well with the result. This is not the case with Cioffi’s rendition of the dancing: the dancers were effectively coached and distributed. Their youth and effervescence were contagious, and they acquitted themselves with due address and aplomb. The problem was not with the result but rather with the content: the choreography appears stuffy and stilted, dated to be sure. Dance has moved on and some choreographer’s work, fresh and spontaneous at their creation, now has the quality of appearing contrived and superficial. Bagouet does not seem to be able to embrace human interrelations in his work, there is a curious distance between his choreography and the dancers, an autistic incapacity to evidence a close emotion relationship. This distancing renders his work trite and cute, a pity to be sure, being as he is not with us to dispute the question. It is said that one should not speak ill of the dead, if this be the case, all due apologies are herein given, nevertheless personal honesty is the best policy. Despite, any negativizes being expressed, there is no reason to snub the work! The dancing is excellent and Cioffi is to be congratulated on her faithful reconstruction. Bravo, Brava, Brave, and Bravi to the dancers: Arthur Bordage, Lou Chaleix, Pierrick Claudel, Danaé Durand, Adam Fontaine, Sarah Garnaud, Tom Guilbaud, Suzanne Henry, and Margot Jude. PKO
Date line: Wednesday the 24th of May, 2023
VAN GOGH, UN DERNIER ÉTÉ
The final work on the program of La Semaine de la Danse at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien was Van Gogh, un dernier été, choreographed by Simhamed Benhalima, Artistic Director of COMPAGNIE DRIVE. Dancers : Simhamed Benhalima, Florent Gosserez, Éléonore Dugué, Lucie Dubois, and Damiens Bourletsis. Music by Alexandre Dai Castaing, Painting by Alain Mischel, and Lighting by Bertrand Perez. COMPAGNIE DRIVE is Total Danse Theatre at its best: adorned with Crown Jewels from the world of HipHop and Contemporary dance in a style of interpretive dance embracing innovation, blending techniques from various genres, including classical ballet, jazz, modern dance, and lyrical dance, a true masterpiece. Vincent Van Gogh observed nature seeking its essence until he detected its movement, he said: "people are the root of everything", this paradigm gave the creative inspiration to Benhalima’s interpretation of episodes from the life of Van Gogh. Moments of arresting beauty softly shine in poignant human frieze sculptures using the hands and heads of the dancers, their slowly changing positions and relations, open to contemplation. The dancers punctuate the work with explosive bursts of dazzling floor work, soaring impossible leaps, bounds, and slides, exhibiting daring aplomb in the face of possible harm. The emotions underpinning Van Gogh’s relational experiences are evoked in tasteful erotic terms, contrasted by violent checks in his everyday concourse. Preceding his death, the deep fraternal dependence on Theo is presented in measured doses of male pas de deux. Dai Castaing’s music is elegant and well adapted to the movescape and scenario developed by Benhalima, and the painting by Mischel, although seldom seen, was appropriate, and finally lighting by Perez is good, capturing the moods explored in the opus. A must see! PKO
Date line: Saturday the 27th of May, 2023
1,2,3 GAINS’BAR
The work of Héléna Garric, dancer, and choreographer of COMPAGNIE LE G, opened the final two days of the week-long marathon of La Semaine de la Danse at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien with 1,2,3 GAINS’BAR. The work presented a Musical Danse Theatre salute, to the iconoclastic French singer Serge Gainsbourg, encapsuling his career, in three periods of his ever-feverish trend setting and following development, with Garric’s musical dance concept, namely: “Rive gauche,” “Les Muses,” and “Gainsbarre.” The artists: Nicolas Toussaint (Serge Gainsbourg), Roxane Errin (Juliette Gréco), Nicolas Retabi (Clyde), Justine Gérard (Jane Birkin), Maïwenn Bramoullé (Brigitte Bardot), and Timour Aydogan (Boris Vian) interpretated Gainsbourg’s persona, and epoch with grace and verve. The choreography evoked: Bob Fosse style moves, Geoffrey Holder type singing presentation, mixed with an Alvin Ailey folkloric touch, all warped up in a package well suited to a Ronny Louis Las Vegas Lounge Review. Garric has a potential Midas touch for American production values, using a down home French touch, adapted to French chic trendiness, ready for prepackaging for selling to a thirsty foreign market. However, this is not to deprecate in any manner Garric’s merited art, nevertheless her work is atypical of the French contemporary danse milieu. The dancing content is powerful and performed with stunning technicality, at times coy, peppered with French chic, tartish, caustic gestures suited to the feminine characters, and hard driving virility on the part of the male contingent, palatable for a palpating reception from a decerning, appreciative public. A special kudos to Toussaint, a modest artist, whose compelling stage presence, enthralls an enraptured audience: deep baritone singing, partnering with assurance, extravagant dancing, and floor work all point to a distinguished career. The performance ends with a fist raised salute well suited to the guts of Garric’s artistic intentions. A not to be missed rendition of the underlaying soul of Gainsbourg Mania! PKO
Zen To – The Journey Ahead
Zen To – The Journey Ahead, the third dance concept on the program of La Semaine de la Danse, at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien, was performed by: Axel Swann Poulsen and Angela Mit of the COMPAGNIE LABORATOIRE ROBESPIERRE. Poulsen, universal artist: composer, musician, singer, choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, and designer; was co-partnered by Mit, equally talented: dancer, actor, ventriloquist, in a postmodern work of Trance Synthesis Dance. The music, composed by Poulsen, mixed several distinct forms, artfully intertwined with Poulsen accompanying his binome on an acoustic guitar, while she danced. The stage, strewn with different artifacts, was transformed into diverse alternate universes of Poulsen’s fertile imagination, not without a perverse obstinacy, displayed by his recalcitrant partner in creation, who displayed a charming resistance to participate in his strange new imaginary worlds. A trinomen, in the form of a hand puppet, disputed with the binome, in which path to take, on whether to join in the Poulsen delirium, or trace a new path to nirvana, finally resolved in a co-existence expressed in a stunning solo danced by Mit, accompanied on the guitar by her binome. One sequence of Poulsen’s music exploited synthesized bells, augmenting an otherworldly religious layer to certain passages of the work, enhancing a psydoc: understanding a person’s existential condition in order to develop behavioral strategies that better establish harmony between who they know themselves to be and their life situation; ably linked with spoken passages by both partners to the whole concept. The opus displays the deep potential of the two young, superb artists: for future development and collaboration, internally and externally with other production entities and individuals. PKO
Date line: Thursday the 25th of May, 2023
IDENTITÉ
The second work on the opening program of La Semaine de la Danse, at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien, was IDENTITÉ, danced by artists of the Compagnie Kumo: Corey, Chichii, Jamson, and Viny Colby. Darkness cloaked the opening movement of the opus, pierced by lights emanating from miner’s lamps fixed to the foreheads of mysterious figures: crouching, crawling, standing, swirling, moving, searching in the obscurity. Suddenly a change in focus: an individual scratching his head, recalling a character in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey, discovers a strange object gleaming with a seductive, soft light lying on the ground. Picking the object up the dancer involved embarks on an existential journey of discovery of: who, what, and where he and all concerned are. Ominously evocative of today’s culture, the ensuing action, decrypted in an amazing polytechnic of hip-hop, contemporary, and original work, carries the scenario into a multi-dimensional fantasmagoria of a solid dance interpretation, with a leitmotif focused on the current fascination with Steve Job’s eponymous invention. Having solved the mystery of transcendental reality, the choreography of Jamson and Chichii soars in a combinatorial explosion of moves embracing the multiplicity of modern interpersonal existence. Wonderful dancing on the part of each individual in the ensemble, with a special accolade to Chichii, co-choreographer and superb dance interpreter, reminiscent of the female alien in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks: smooth moves, liquid silk, lion tamer, aggressive yet soft, a pleasure to watch! The music and violin of Catherine Lara, provide depth and solid grounding in a postmodern soundscape admirably adapted to the theme of the opus. Stylist: Viny Colby, Visual direction: Corey Yvon and Artistic adviser: Florian Blache round up the production and all deserve honorable mention. PKO
Date line: Tuesday the 23rd of May, 2023
DANS LA BOUCLE
The company Carré Blanc launched La Semaine de la Danse at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien with DANS LA BOUCLE, a marvelous spoof on everyday life, danced by three effervescent dance artists: Zoé Boutoille, Yane Corfa and Bryan Montarou, under the artistic direction of Michèle Dhallu. A vintage setting reminiscent of Hollywood: when dancers, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Donald O’Conner would dance with everyday objects; chairs, brooms, hats, tables, mice, you name it everything was danceable, echoed by Martha Graham in her dance dramas; was fair game for our intrepid dancers in their dazzling dance comedy. Combining diverse technics: hip-hop, contemporary, classic ballet, and plain down-home gymnastics, the dancers performed with consummate virtuosity the mundane tasks of unpretentious home chores, lending pathos and at times smoldering passion to solos, pas de deux, and pas de trois in atypical cross gender encounters. Inspired by the statement, of Stefano Boni in Homo Confort – 2022: “By depriving us of any experience considered unpleasant or negative, comfort encloses us in a protective cocoon that cuts us off from the outside world and from ourselves, from everything that makes the "salt of life" and contributes to making us fully human.” the dancers explored sensitively the limits of human discourses through dance; building solid emotional structures that were revealing of the many underlaying tensions ever lurking in everyday life. The creation of the choreography was a communal effort by the dancers, encouraged and guided by Dhallu and is of an exceptional level of excellence. A positive plus of the work is its openness and accessibility for all ages starting at six years of age, a rarity in contemporary dance today! Accolades and Bravos all round! A must see! PKO
THE DANTE PROJECT
Simply put, a project is a series of tasks that need to be completed to reach a specific outcome: Wayne McGregor’s THE DANTE PROJECT can be seen as a work in progress and as such it could benefit from a serious rethinking of its objectives in view of the results presented at the Palais Garnier on its debut performance. The program descriptions of what the dancing is purported to be representing and what actually is seen is vastly different from reality. It is a toss-up between a Rorschach test and the Emperor’s New Clothes. The ballet is constructed in three acts: Act 1; five scenes, Acts 2 and 3 one episode each. The first act opens with almost total obscurity masking the dancers in smoke and darkness, making it difficult to discern the choreographer’s work. Without the program notes it would be a miracle to understand what the dancing is supposed to represent. This is the main problem with McGregor’s ambitious project. Throughout the ballet the program references are strewn with allusions to Dante’s work and principle characters, from Dante, Virgil, Beatrice, Ulysses, Satan, the adulterous lovers Paolo and Francesca, the tragic lovers Dido and Aeneas and important passages representing Hell, Purgatory, and the Afterlife. Dance is well suited to emotions and poetic images but is ill adapted to abstract relationships such as: this is my brother in laws niece by his second marriage. Aside from the difficulty of delineating Dante’s work in dance there is the problem of McGregor’s choreographic vocabulary running out of steam, where he tends to throw in some turns to express ideas and emotions. At best throw away the program notes and enjoy the wonderful dancing and the sublime choreography of McGregor illustrating the marvelous symphonic efforts of Thomas Adés music. McGregor’s work shines best at the end of act one with the dance of Dante and The Thieves where he lets out all stops and showers the stage the blinding fireworks of the male dancers going for broke in the best display of virtuoso male polytechnic dancing since Cranko’s work to Stravinsky. PKO
Date line: Wednesday the 3rd of April, 2023
Maurice Béjart Revisited
It is interesting to have the experience of witnessing the canonization and defanging of an old friend who loved to shock the world with his daring iconoclastic creations. The presentation of Maurice Béjart’s work at the Opéra Bastille recently is a case in example. The first ballet on the program was Firebird. Gone was the bemusement of seeing a man dance the role of the Firebird, created originally for Tamara Karsavina by Michel Fokine in 1910 for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russe. Béjart’s creative innovation in 1970, enshrined Michaël Denard in the role of the Firebird, and was invigored by costumes resembling Chinese revolutionaries in a supporting cast of partisans, which shocked the public in America. Béjart’s use of the idea of the Firebird being resituated by the Phoenix thus carrying on the flame of eternal revolution smacked of Trotskyite leanings. The second work, Songs of a Wayfarer was inspired by a series of melodies for baritone and orchestra by Gustav Mahler (« Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen »). Béjart imagined a duo in four sequences, bringing together his best classical dancer, Paolo Bortoluzzi and Rudolf Nureyev. The choreographer commented, « He is a wayfarer like the young apprentices of the Middle Ages, who went from town to town in search of their destiny and their master. The ballet provoked controversy at its inception by the novelty of a male pas de deux, today no longer shocking. Bolero closed the evening’s performance. Béjart’s proclivity of putting the male dancer first, and foremost was cemented by this ballet, which was originally commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, and premiered at the Paris Opéra on 22 November 1928, with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and designs and scenario by Alexandre Benois. Rather than having a female dance on a tavern table as in Benois’s conception, “Inside a tavern in Spain, people dance beneath the brass lamp hung from the ceiling. [In response] to the cheers to join in, the female dancer has leapt onto the long table and her steps become more, and more animated.” Béjart’s 1961 creation placed Jorge Donn smack in the middle of a round table surrounded by male dancers undulating sensuously to the insistent main theme adapted from a melody composed for and used in Sufi training. Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" (from صُوفِيّ, ṣūfīy), and historically typically belonged to "orders" known as tariqa (pl. ṭuruq) – congregations formed around a grand wali who would be the last in a chain of successive teachers linking back to Muhammad, with the goal of undergoing Tazkiah (self-purification) and the hope of reaching Ihsan. The revolutionary, religious and gender aspects that were controversial in Béjart’s work have been long lost or forgotten by today’s audience who applauded with almost mindless enthusiasm the evening’s three offerings. It is regrettable, but all for the better that Béjart’s work is merely well danced and presented for its entertainment value in this banalized world consumerism. PKO
Date line: Friday, 28th, April, 2023
École de Danse Soirée exceptionnelle en l’honneur de Claude Bessy
The Soirée exceptionnelle Claude Bessy at the Palais Garnier: danced by the students from the School of the Paris Opera Ballet, honoring the former dancer étoile, and director of the École de Danse de l'Opéra national de Paris, was an ode to a living legend in dance in France. The evening embraced her career in dance: from her first infatuation with ballet, through to her present eminence in the pantheon of dance, via a film and excerpts from ballets tracing her contributions to the sacred art and was a pleasure for all concerned. The evening commenced with SUITE EN BLANC: choreography by Serge Lifar, music by Edouard Lalo; it was danced with elegance and aplomb by the dancers, faithful to the spirit of the seminal force of Lifar, who was responsible for the resurrection of the grand traditions of classical dance at the Opera in the difficult year of 1946. Followed by the film, CLAUDE BESSY, LIGNE D’UNE VIE by Fabrice Herrault, relating in images and film clips important episodes and influences in Bessy’s life and career. John Neumeier’s YONDERING, music by Stephen Collins Foster based on popular songs from the American West (1844-1964), beautifully sung by baritone Thomas Hampson, was interpreted delightfully by the dancers, in particular BEAUTIFUL DREAMER was a jewel, danced by Maëlys Chiorozas, Paul Mayeras, and Micah Levine. The ballet originally mounted on the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada, entered the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet School on March 20th, 1999, and is a marvelous example of Bessy’s innovative policy of developing the real performance skills of the school’s students. The ballet closed the first half of the evening with a lusty rendition of THAT’S WHAT’S THE MATTER performed with zest and dash by the ever-stalwart dancers of the school. The second half opened with Maurice Béjart’s M POUR B, which was added to the Paris Opera Ballet School repertoire on May 16, 1991, music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, featuring a lovely violin interpretation by Karin Ato. Danced with sensitivity and grace, in particular the interpretation by Lisa Petit, bore witness to the useful and a priory necessity for the development of the student’s artistic career through live performances before a discriminating audience. The evening closed with Claude Bessy’s CONCERTO IN RE, music by Johann Sebastian Bach, piano interpretation by Ellina Akimova, with full orchestra, led by Christian Vàsquez. Created by the students on May 25, 1977, at the Salle Favart (Opera Comique), this ballet demonstrated the wisdom of Bessy’s accent on the process of endowing the students with the immortal traditions of classical dance through active performance and participation in the creative act. Strongly influenced by Lifar’s leitmotifs the ballet is a masterpiece for the aspiring thespians and is well adapted to their needs and levels. Claude Bessy was on stage at the end, surrounded by the full cast of enthusiastic dancers, complemented by the presence of Élisabeth Platel, the current director of the school. The audience expressed their appreciation with well-deserved applause and full-throated Bravos. PKO
LIEU - Palais Garnier
Date line: Wednesday, 19th, April, 2023
LES AILES DU DÉSIR
Bruno Bouché - Ballet de l'Opéra National du Rhin
Les Ailes du Désir Photo: A. Poupeney
The Ballet Les Ailes du désir, choreographed by Bruno Bouché presented at the Châtelet with the Ballet de L’Opéra du Rhin, is a masterpiece! Inspired by the film of the same name by Wim Wenders: the ballet takes place in a world of guardian angels and mortals. The guardian angels, benevolent and invisible, dressed in trench coats, listen to the thoughts of mortals, and try to comfort them. One of the angels, Damiel, danced by Marwik Schmitt, wishes to become a human after falling in love with the beautiful trapeze artist, Marion, danced by Julia Weiss. Peter Falk, danced by Marin Delavaud, helps him during his transformation, by introducing him to the small pleasures of life. The action takes place in two acts: Act one, divided in a preamble, and six scenes, transpires from the point of view of the angels, who see all things in terms of black and white; Act two, in three scenes, when Damiel becomes human, is revealed to him in dazzling colors. Damiel leaves behind him his old friend, Cassiel, danced by Alain Trividic, who continues to be accompanied by Homer, danced by Pierre Doncq, the storyteller of humanity. Bouché takes this relatively simple story line and transforms it into a transcendental journey through the medium of dance, revealing the complexities of human and immortals existence. Act one being in black and white: is somber and the choreography has feeling of heaviness, whereas Act two explodes in an amazing display of elevation and pyrotechnical virtuosity on the part of the dancers. Bouché shows a deft hand in his construction of ensembles and a divine capacity of transforming humans into flying and intertwining angels. To see his work and this company is to be transported into a pure dance heaven. Costumes by Thibault Welchlin are well done and in keeping with the spirit of the authors intentions. Lighting by David Debrinay faithfully expediates the theme of heaven and earth. Video by Etienne Guiol is striking and thought provoking. A special bravo to Bruno Anguera Garcia for his sensitive rendering of the piano interpretation of Jean-Sébastien Bach’s Sonata n°2. A must see! PKO
Date line: Thursday, March 30th, 2023
Pit: Bobbi Jene Smith et Or Schraiber
Pit - Héloise Jocqueviel - Mickaêl Lafon - Photo: Yonathan Kellerman
Pit, a work choreographed by Bobbi Jean Smith and Or Schraiber, is a ballet of unrelenting morosity: although intellectually interesting, it remains a theatrical monstrosity. Doctor Frankenstein created his monster from bits and pieces of cadavers: so have Smith and Schraiber constructed a hybrid piece, assembled from diverse intellectual and musical sources. The end result engenders sustained boredom, interspersed near the end with some glimpses of potential choreographic interest. Despite, the use of the sublime Violin Concerto in D Minor, Opus 47 of Sibelius, and an intriguing sound scape by Celeste Oram: the work just doesn’t gel as a dance theatre piece. Neither choreographer seems to be able to construct work for a group of dancers. At times there are flashes of virtuosity from individual dancers, and there are a few rare moments when physical contacts begin to reveal movements of an astonishing beauty and originality, only to be obliterated by some unwarranted gratuitous violence. Dancers of the Paris Opera are marvelous, and they danced with dedication and perseverance, a pastiche of grotesque post-apocalyptic scrambling around: in the manner of dipsomaniacal cock roaches, possessed by spurts of inexplicable misandry; propelled by an unwarranted brutality, embroidered at times by lurid voyeuristic sex moves. Some feeble unexplained attempts of misplaced humor: shooting plucked chickens out of the sky, or a red garmented lady turning to reveal a bare ass in her backless grown, then her prancing back and forth to no good effect; did nothing to relieve the intrinsic emptiness of the choreographer’s scenography. The dumping of dirt from a wheel barrel onto the stage: leaving the dancers to scrabble about in an effort to recuperate a miserly bit of soil, in order to pay some mysterious debt, or forfeit to paradise is unnecessary: perhaps a tribute to Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring?! Near the end of the theatrical surplice, under the surveillance of a white coated warden, the dancers populate a grand elevated empty space, which remained empty for the larger part of the piece, with some movements of dance resembling festive folk dancing, only to be dispersed in a gradual petering out to an non-ending. PKO
Date line: Wednesday, March 29th, 2023
Ayelen Parolin / RUDA SIMPLE
Ayelen Parolin - SIMPLE - Photo: François Declercq
Ayelen Parolin in her creation RUDA SIMPLE has developed a Dance Theatre of the Absurd, reminiscent of classical dance’s commedia dell’arte roots. Her work gives the impression of improvised performances: based on sketches or scenarios with well defined characters represented by three male dancers. The themes are all developed in silence, punctuated by rhythms and sounds produced by the characters. Parolin picks up where Le Théâtre du Silence, created in 1972 by Jacques Garnier and Brigitte Lefèvre, leaves off, yet posing the same question: how to lay the foundations for new technics using the achievements of the past. The silence sets the mood: the first personage enters, in front of a garish multi-colored backdrop, wearing a matching multi-colored, long sleeved leotard, an everyman, hesitant, tall, gangly, barefooted, shuffling cross stage. Parolin has chosen a cross-section of different somatic types. This one looks lost! Silence hangs heavily, almost crushing each movement in indifference. As everyman attempts different movements, each less pleasing for him, he is joined by a more assured smaller, mustached nondescript, ordinary individual, wearing a replica of our tall hero. Our newcomer has no greater ideas to offer, until a foot stamping Don Quixote arrives on an imaginary hobby horse! What a marvelous idea! Soon all three are riding around stamping one foot as a means of propulsion. Evident joy convulsing each ecstatic visage. A brave new world has been discovered. The nonsense continues: finally broken by a paroxysm of frenzied destruction shared by all three! Total devastation occupies the stage, deserted by our upon imus dancers, who return banging drums of celebration for the evident victory of anarchism over order. The whole ballet is nonsense: yet further reflection engenders more profound allusions to our present everyday chaos, presided over by equally ridiculous buffed up individuals and movements, riding hobby horses, pointing to non-realizable nirvanas for all. Each resulting nihilist paradise is greeted with drum banging propaganda, vaunting the perfect solution. Perhaps Parolin’s oeuvre is not such non-sense after all! Hers is a very welcome breath of fresh creative air: to be beathed and enjoyed by all! A particular bravo to the three marvelous thespians: Baptiste Cazaux, Piet Defrancq, and Daan Jaartsveld! PKO
Date line: Saturday, March 25th, 2023
CARCASS Marco da Silva Ferreira
It’s rare to be struck gaga at first sight: but this one is it! A Must see! The Marco da Silva Ferreira company of ten dancers electrify the stage with their completely committed dancing. These thespians hold nothing back in their involvement in today’s realities. Political? Yes! Emotional? Absolutely! Equal? More than! They perpetuate a total theatre of images, supported by vocals, music, and décor, with a new original choreographic language steeped in folkloric realities. Sharp staccato percussive beats emitted from the drums of master musician, Joao Pais Filipe set the stage for the entrance of the dancers. The first impression is: Wow! The women have got real bodies: muscled, athletic, sculptured, in every way the equal of their male counterparts, plus being absolutely gorgeous, each is quite different from the other. No Kewpie doll, drooping lilies: these women are true originals. As are the male contingent of the company. Their true to everyday life look adheres to the naturalist aspect of their stage presence. The dancing is solid, with the elevated level of technical excellence demanded by Ferreira’s choreography: a combination of folk, gymnastic, and original moves, which coalesce into a very down to earth original language adapted to his vision of reality. His choreography is a movescape of constantly evolving semiotic images, which require little or no effort to decipher: hard hitting anti-fascist statements, calling for the tearing down of all barriers and walls to a true equality: to be endowed in all inhabitants of this fragile universe that we all share. Electronic music by Luis Pestana, lighting by Carin Geada, and costumes by Aleksandar, all add up to a unified whole well adapted to Ferreira’s vision of a brave new world. The dancers all deserve mention for their integral cohesion to the objectives of the opus: André Garcia, Fabio Krayze, Leo Ramos, Marc Oliveras Casas, Marco da Siva Ferreira, Maria Antunes, Max Makowski, Mélanie Ferreira, Nelson Teunis, and Nala Revlon. PKO
Date line: Thursday, March 17th, 2023
DANCE: Lucinda Childs, Philip Glass
DANCE: as performed at the Maison des Arts de Creteil, is an early Minimalist creation of Lucinda Childs. First performed in 1979 in collaboration with Philip Glass, composer, and Sol LeWitt, minimalist and conceptual artist. The present version of the work is a reconstructed creation using sixteen dancers of the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon. Childs’ choreography uses an absolute minimum of a basic movement vocabulary, embellished with tiny, small, at times hardly perceptible variations or additions to the original lexicon. Repeated over and over again, from different angles, patterns, perspectives, and filmed complements projected on a screen in front of the dancers, the composition exercises a hypnotic effect, which may lead the unwary into a surrealistic continuum resulting in a potential state of utter boredom. The work is considered to be a monument to the modern dance world: viewed in relation to the original, filmed by LeWitt, the present version has codified the original casualness of the performance quality into a strict neoclassic performance of ballet perfection. Gone is the optimistic dream of a brave new world of dance creation: what is seen here is a coddled museum piece, deserving to be preserved, well danced, bravely performed, which could be well served by the notice to the modern viewer; prepare yourself for a minimalist overdose! PKO
Date line: Thursday, March 16th, 2023
BEHIND THE LIGHT Cristiana Morganti
Cristiana Morganti is a consummate artist: fluent in five languages, musician, dancer, choreographer, fashion model, actress, and singer. She employs all these attributes and more in her extravagant one woman show BEHIND THE LIGHT. From the very beginning of her show, she castes an enchanting spell on her audience, establishing a co-conspiratorial intimacy with them, revealing the multitude of experiences that have shaped her artistic career. Despite her apparent openness, she guards an exceptional resistance regarding details of her personnel life. Outwardly, a flamboyant voluptuous Italian earth woman in the flower of her youthful age of fifty-five yet, during an open question answer session, when asked a personal question about her age by a member of the audience, she adroitly evades answering the question by changing the subject with a certain coyness. Morganti displays the charm and pathos of Charlie Chaplin’s tramp: in her poignant miming to the music, of the Peasant Pas de Deux from Giselle, of a dancer resisting her mother’s demands to practice her exercises as a dancer. Nevertheless, when she dances it’s with grace and bravura, displaying an iridescent amalgam of classic and contemporary techniques perfectly adapted to her very personal style. She has an innate mastery of line, the hallmark of a true dancer, sculpting her moves and forms with a delicious spontaneity, a delight to the eye. Her singing voice is powerful and seductive, providing a coloratura mezzo-soprano to her recitation of her career, comprising voice and movement illustrating in part, her twenty years with Pina Bausch. Morganti manages to resumé Bausch’s choreographic vocabulary with a few hilarious archetypical gestures. She flashes from mock to serious with the mere touch aa arm gesture, displaying her mastery of dance character. Lighting by Laurent P. Berger, and Video by Connie Prantera perfectly complement her artistic intentions, adding fullness and depth to the production. Hers is a not to miss show! A MUST SEE! PKO LIEU - Les Abbesses: 6 - 11 March, 2023
Date line: Monday, March 6th, 2023
BALLET Who Cares?
The George Balanchine program, at the Palais Garnier danced by the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris, opened with Ballet Imperial, created in 1941 by Balanchine for the American Ballet Caravan. The ballet had its premiere at the Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro on June 25th, 1941 as part of the program to build cultural and financial relations in South America amid World War II, financed by the American government. Balanchine wanted to show that American dancers could perform classical ballet with brio, and that they did, led by the dancers: Marie-Jeanne, Gisella Caccialanza, William Dollar, Fred Danieli, and Nicholas Magallanes. The dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet showed that they too were able to dance classical ballet, executing Ballet Imperial splendidly, with the elegance and aplomb for which they are famous. The second ballet on the program was Who Cares? created by Balanchine for the New York City Ballet in 1970, and first presented at the New York State Theater on February 5th, 1970. The two ballets show the creative growth of Balanchine from his initial efforts, at the age of 37, to show his Imperial Ballet, as proof of the capacity of American dancers to dance “classical” works, to his final maturity at 66, in ballets such as Who Cares? in which he had perfected a relaxed, whimsical, all-American style, resplendent with intricate foot work and dazzling virtuosity. Although the dancers of the Opera ballet accredited themselves well in Who Cares? they lacked the brio and dash so desired by Balanchine for the American dancers. The music for Who Cares? by George Gershwin, arranged and orchestrated by Hershy Kay, is subtle and intricate rhythmically demanding a special lightness in its execution. The dancers were most ably taught the ballets on the program by Sandra Jennings and Patricia Neary. PKO
Date line: Tuesday, February 28th, 2023
Hommage à Patrick Dupond
Patrick Dupond with Max Bozzoni
The Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris paid homage to Patrick Dupond for three days at the Palais Garnier in a mixed program of ballets proceeded by a short film based on his life in dance. It is said that the gods envy us because we are mortal and that every day could be our last, which makes everything more beautiful. Dupond danced as if every day was his last, he spared himself nothing in his quest for the ultimate excellence in dance. He passed through our lives: a burning, impish, mercurial presence that leaves a sadness for its absence, but never the less a thankfulness for those who were blessed by their chance to share his passion for dance on stage, all too briefly past. The program of dance commenced by the celebrated Défilé du Ballet, inaugurated by Serge Lifar in 1946, followed by the works by some of his preferred choreographers: Vaslaw by John Neumeier, Le Chant du Compagnon Errant by Maurice Béjart, and finally Etudes by Harald Lander. The dancers acquitted themselves adequately in the works without any particular brilliance until Etudes, whereupon there burst onto the stage a rising star emulating the charismatic force of Dupond. Guillaume Diop is the dancer to be seen and savored for his absolute dedication to the excellence reminiscent of the spontaneity and charm of Dupond. What was lacking in the performance of the other dancers was the go for broke, giving all that Diop personified, his was indeed a true homage to Dupond’s legacy. Diop brings an athleticism, which is sorely missing from the male contingent in the company. Much credit for the exceptional quality of Dupond’s dancing can be attributed to the training and mentoring of Max Bozzoni, who shepherded Dupond’s career throughout its formative stages well into its fruition in stardom. Hopefully Diop’s youthful exuberance will be nurtured and tempered by a deepening maturity only possible by the creation of roles for him by choreographers, who can sound the depths of his innate soul in his ultimate search for creative excellence in the art of dance, which would be a true homage to Dupond. PKO
Date line: Thursday, February 23rd, 2023
DES OURS spectacle de la compagnie Luciérnaga
LUCIERNAGA
A name to remember: Cassandre Herpin, a synonym for French Total Dance Theatre, presented her creation DES OURS in the heart of Paris in the Forum des Halles at the Centre Ruth Bader Ginsburg. No better place to usher in a fresh wind of creativity than the ancient market place of food for the bellies of Parisiennes, now the Paradise of Shop Until You Drop addicts. Cassandre is a modern-day Joan of Arc from Orleans, bringing heart land concerns, from the French bastion of monarchs and culture in the fabled valley de la Loire. The four dancers of DES OURS deal with everyday themes of life familiar to French society. No slam bam thank you mam action flick drivel from the foreign invaders in her work, Cassandre choreographs a true tapestry of the French Now, in the manner of the celebrated Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at the Musée de Cluny, depicting the pleasures and riches of an allegorical existence, propaganda eulogizing an imaginary wished for ideal lifestyle. The triviality and absurdity of modern consumerism is enacted in a stream of consciousness creativity: snippets, vignettes, symbols, moves, shapes, and multi centers of action in her stenographic choreography create a theatre of the absurd for the predilection of the viewer. Cassandre is a committed harbinger of French reality, and her fellow Thespis acolytes share her inspired neo-reality: The first to step forward is Chloé d’Arcy, who performs a inspired female orgasm, giving full vocal accompaniment to her gestural simulation only to be interrupted by a bellowing negration from Arnaud Tagnachie, “Ridiculous rubbish!”, adding to the incongruity of the situation, is the physical appearance of Arnaud, in a skin tight pink leotard, emphasizing his beer bellied stature worthy of a giant caricatural Hells Angel. The Hell’s a Popping atmosphere is continued and charmed by Cassandre’s naturalist dancing using everyday movements to further her choreographic narrations. She displays a full range of a modern dance vocabulary to support her ode, to anarchistic consumerism in the search for life’s meaning. Especial credit must go to Pierre Chauvet, whose commitment to the interpretation of today’s everyman, in a portrayal of a soul-destroying self-absorption, is admirable. Surrounded by the symbols, of the all-pervasive omnipotence of communication purveyors; television, MacBooks, and iPhones, he prepares a feast of a French cuisine, not of good wine backed by a Baguette, but of a more realistic dinner of pasta washed down by numerous bottles of beer. In all LUCIERNAGA, which is Spanish for firefly, brings a welcome addition to the Paris dance scene. PKO
Date line: Friday, February 17th, 2023
Aterballetto / Angelin Preljocaj / Rachid Ouramdane - Over Danse
Un jour nouveau - Rachid Ouramdane - Dancers: Darryl E. Woods and Herma Vos - Photo: Patrick Cockpit
In this Age of Crystal plagued by a pervasive chronophobia, a binome of dissidents have dared to challenge the prevailing doctrine of age limits with an innovative solution: OVER DANCE! Our two heroes, Rachid Ouramdane and Angelin Preljocaj present two timeless choreographic responses to the leitmotif of predestined obsolescence in their collaborative presentation at Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse. The first on the program is Un jour nouveau by Ouramdane, danced by Darryl E. Woods and Herma Vos: accolades to the dancers with a lesser bravo to the choreographer. Ouramdane a brilliant innovator has yet to find his voice in this sensitive realm of aged flesh, blood and sinews. There’s a feeling of hesitancy in his use of two mature artists almost as if he’s afraid that they’ll break if he dares to demand too much from their receptive bones and brains. He lets his oeuvre trickle off in a non-movement malaise. Preljocaj does not hesitate to challenge his dancers in the second offering on the program, Birthday Party! He pulls out the plug in a cornucopia of different genres: danced admirably by; Mario Barzaghi, Sabina Cesaroni, Patricia Dedieu, Roberto Maria Macchi, Elli Medeiros, Thierry Parmentier, Marie-Thérèse Priou, and Bruce Taylor, all deserving the abundant applause and bravos showered on their performances. Preljocaj also suffers from the creative block of what to do with his mature material. He trots out a series of short sketches from his choreographic repertoire without really coming to grips with the crux of the quandary of how to present really coherent new work with the chosen age group. The solution he presents is a party, which has no real reason to exist except to have a good time. Here’s hoping that our two heroes will find the time and resources in the manner of Jiří Kylián’s brave forage in the time dimension, to create oeuvres using the full resources of the human tapestry of ages, all deserving exploration and equal development. PKO
Date line: Thursday, February 16th, 2023
aSH - Aurélien Bory / Shantala Shivalingappa
Cie 111 - aSH - Aurelien Bory - Photo: Aglae Bory
Shantala Shivalingappa is the name of one of the most interesting dancer choreographers working today. Her collaboration with Aurélien Bory and his Compagnie 111 in the creation of aSH has produced a solo masterpiece.
Shivalingappa was born in Madras, India, and raised in Paris. Her gurus are Vempati Chinna Satyama, guru of the Kuchipudi dance form, and her mother, Savitry Nair, under whom she trained in Bharatha Natyam. She has worked with prestigious artists such as Maurice Bejart, Peter Brook, Bartabas, Ushio Amagatsu and Pina Bausch. She has specialized in the Kuchipudi, one of the most popular of the eight principal classic Indian danse forms, which is considered to be in India what classic ballet is to the west. Shivalingappa has used the Kuchipudi form to express a contemporary epopee of creation based on honoring the tradition of Shiva.
In Hinduism, Shiva is known as "The Destroyer" within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity which also includes Brahma and Vishnu. In the Shaivite tradition, Shiva is the Supreme Lord who creates, protects and transforms the universe. In the goddess-oriented Shakta tradition, the Supreme Goddess, Devi is regarded as the energy and creative power, Shakti, and the equal complementary partner of Shiva.
In aSH, Shivalingappa has embraced the Shakta tradition, and assumed the powers of Devi, and thereby she creates, destroys and resurrects the universe in an epic solo theatrical performance. Her Devi embraces the technics of Bharatha Natyam for the body and Kuchipudi for the fluidity of the arms and gestural mudras. Bharatha Natyam is the oldest classical dance tradition in India and was originally danced by men and demands rigorous leg and body strength with its fixed upper torso, bent legs and knees flexed assuming the “Arai mandi” or half sitting position, combined with spectacular footwork. Shantala displays an awesome mastery of both technics in her dance drama and her Arai mandi is a perfect spiritual triangle.
Her dancing is enhanced by Aurélien Bory’s scenography and staging using Kraft paper with its high elasticity and high tear resistance, perfect for creating a universe. Shantala is admirably accompanied by the live music of Loïc Schild and music programed by Joan Cambon. The result is a theatrical tour de force of pure dance poetry to be seen and savored. PKO
Date line: Tuesday, February 14th, 2023
BALLET BRITISH COLUMBIA
Ballet B.C. - The Statement - Photo: Michael Slobodian
Ballet BC presented three works, for their Paris debut, at the Grande Salle, Maison de Arts de Creteil, namely: BEDROOM FOLK, THE STATEMENT, and GARDEN.
Sharon Eyal, in BEDROOM FOLK, first on the program, moved her dancers with the precision of a drill sergeant, brooking no pity for the frailty of the human condition, rendered a somber view of gregarious inter-relations. Taking advantage of the suppleness of the resilient dancers of Ballet B C, her choreography favoured deep willowy back bends, accenting the forward thrusting of the pelvic region, sometimes with the acquiescence of a recipient. Unfortunately, the all black costumes, against a black dance floor, curtains, and harsh lighting, at times, made the dancers almost invisible. The overall effect did not facilitate the ultimate vision or intent of her work.
THE STATEMENT, Crystal Pite’s work, second on the program, was and is a masterpiece! Evoking comparison with THE GREEN TABLE, by Kurt Jooss, created in 1932, which won first prize for the international competition of choreography held by the Archives Internationales de la Danse in Paris, her chef d’oeuvre needs no accolades to assert its self-evident merits. Clean, precise, and apt, her choreography performed by four dancers, synced perfectly with the granular synthesis music composed by Owen Belton, and powerful text by Jonathon Young. Verging on a Japanese Manga style, favored by Quentin Tarantino, Pite’s dancers cast an enchanting spell on the choreographic interpretation of the spoken words, moving beyond simple mime into an internal truth in movement, woven within and without the theatrical time frame into meanings relevant to current events, and extending into eternal paradigms of human and celestial behavior. Pite is a choreographer, whose work has the rare quality of technical excellence, combined to a fine theatrical sense that provides to an appreciative viewer, a deep ethical and artistic satisfaction.
GARDEN, the final work of the evening, by Medhi Walerski, is ethereal, performed by dancers costumed in asexual, androgenous, mono-colored, all in one dance tights, from top to bottom, which give an angelic otherworldly look to the dancers. Walerski doesn’t hesitate to project his dancers into a realm of a possible garden of Eden, whereupon the dancer’s admittance or presence is challenged by repeated onslaughts of challenging angels. Broken into solos, duos, and assorted groupings the choreographic allegory winds to an indeterminate end. Leaving an after taste of a yet to be finished piece.
All in all, an evening to be seen, holding a promise of great things to come!
PKO
Date line: Wednesday, February 1st, 2023
Dorothée Munyaneza Mailles
Dorothee Munyaneza Mailles Photo: Leslie Artamonow
Dorothée Munyaneza is an enormously talented polyvalent artist whose recent creation, Mailles presented at the Chaillot Théâtre National de la Danse, lacks theatrical continuity. Intelligence doesn’t always imply intelligibility, and Mailles suffers from the gaps in its structure. Mailles from the Latin “macula” translates in English: in a bad sense; a disfiguring spot, stain, or blemish, in a neutral sense; a mesh in a net, or a cell or link in a coat of mail, and it is in the missing of the unison or continuity of the individual cells or spots in Munyaneza’s oeuvre that mars the development of Mailles, leaving the question, Quo Vadis?
The quality of the dancing, vocalizations, texts, and music is consistently excellent. Munyaneza has created some indelible choreographic motifs, which remain seared into the collective lexis of today’s dance. There is a touch of dilettantism in Munyaneza’s manner of beginning a wonderful display of flamenco style zapateado and port a bras that pleads for more, then dropping it without reason. The same tendency is manifest in the use of semi-autobiographical themes interpolated in the context of past injustices without concrete development.
Hopefully, future presentations will benefit from a coherent redaction with a greater respect for audience appreciation and theatrical conventions of continuity.
Bravi to the supporting artists and creators!
Date line: Wednesday, January 25th, 2023
Mythologies Photo: Jean Claude Carbonne
Angelin Preljocaj is one of the rarest of all types of choreographers, he is a romantic, a distinction he shares with the great immortals of the genre: Ashton, MacMillan and Cranko. In his ballet MYTHOLOGIES, at the Châtelet, he dazzles with a romantic series of sketches of mythical stories of love and passion, performed by 12 dancers of Ballet Preljocaj, united with 9 dancers from the Ballet de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux. A passionate score by the ex-Daft Punk composer, Thomas Bangalter, played by I’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, deserves special applause for its inventiveness and the close musical partnership with the chorographic ideas of Preljocaj. In the great romantic tradition, someone must die or end in a distraught forlorn misery of loss, due to an impossible love. Preljocaj fulfills this requirement in full measure throughout his series of mythical themes. Just as Nureyev propelled the male dancer to the forefront, so has Preljocaj placed the female dancer front and center in his work. There is a whiff of a masochistic auto erotic fantasy in the subsequent series of dismemberments, torture by Bacchanal banshees, death by arrows, shot by Amazons, and the clever duping of the Minotaur by the chosen maiden. The dancers illustrate the myths, with a superb technical mastery of the choreographic demands of Preljocaj’s abundant imagination, in solos, a pas de quatre, a pas de six, and an exquisite corps de ballet complement to a lush pas de deux. The lighting by Eric Soyer is effective and provides depth and mystery to the evocative images and moods. Videos by Nicolas Clauss are brilliant and give in and of themselves a true mastery of the ballet’s intentions. Mythologies is a must see and hear! Bravo! and above all a special Brava! To the marvelous Amazons!
Post Scriptum: Lest we forget those hardworking magnificent dancers and musicians who give their bodies, souls, talents, and hearts to make creation possible! DANCERS: Ballet Preljocaj; Baptiste Coissieu, Mirea Delogu, Antoine Dubois, Clara Freschel, Véronique Giasson, Verity Jacobsen, Yu-Hua Lin, Tommaso Marchignoli, Emma Perez Sequeda, Mireia Reyes Valenciano, Khevyn Sigismondi, Cecilia Torres Morillo
Ballet de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux; Marini da Silva Vianna, Vanessa Feuillatte, Anna Guého, Ryota Hasegawa, Alice Leloup, Riku Ota, Anyun Shin, Clara Spitz, Tangui Trévinal
MUSICIANS : I’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris
Date line: Saturday, October 22nd, 2022
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Marco da Silva Ferreira’s choreography, for ferm inferm is to be seen, again, again, and again: performed by eight polymorph dancers, executing diverse composition modes, it fills the stage with mystery, passion, and joy. The four women dancers are built for strength, speed, and flexibility, sporting thighs that permit incredible hinges and fast near floor moves. The men are lithe and smooth complementing the overall look of dancers rooted in everyday life. Together they are coolly synchronized in Ferreira’s complex composition, ranging from tribal ritual, street dancing, pantsula, fugue, tap, hip hop, and post-modern modes of dance expression, accompanied by cries, whistles, speech, and gestural codes, supported with good old down-home foot, leg, chest, and body slapping, backed by vigorous hand clapping. Ferreira’s opus opens visual structures, rich with potentially diverse interpretations: one that strikes the imagination is the final three dancer totem formed at the end of his composition. The totem is not perpendicular but multi directional, one dancer on the shoulders of the supporting figure, with the third hanging upside down, legs encircling the totem’s waist, reminiscent of clan totems celebrating ancestral origins, all positioned at the end of a long triangular black slash opened on the stage, with dancers gravely observing the ceremony, only to be interrupted by a Bojangles tap routine performed on the black slash, finishing the performance. Jonathan Uliel Salidanha’s music provides excellent depth with a firm foundation for Ferreira’s work, encompassing natural soundscape structures, challenging electro acoustic composition structures, and rock-hard rhythm backing. Lighting by Carin Geada is evocative of diverse venues and effectively complements the overall work with Dark Dindie styling concept providing costumes suited to the strenuous moves executed by the remarkable dancers.
Amala Dianor’s work Emaphakathini is second on the Chaillot experience Focus Portugal program: second but certainly not least! His work employs a dance-fusion style that embraces altérité, an ancient Platonian concept of otherness encapsuled by societies encountering other societies judged to be completely different. Dianor’s poetic choreography breaks down historical colonial barriers in a celebration of togetherness. Dianor uses Pantsula, which is a life-style culture covering: fashion, music, dance, gestural and speech codes, to interpret his choreographic philosophy of acceptance of métis and unison and integration of the difference between peoples. The dancers are up to this challenge, interpreting Dianor’s work with enthusiasm and consummate technical virtuosity. The eight dancers of Via Katlehong Dance, the same as those in Ferreira’s work, are superb! Their collective persona transcends mere dance, ascending to poetic heights of artistic excellence, earning well merited applause from an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. Awir Leon’s music powers Dianor’s dance poetry, laying down acoustic tracks supporting and amplifying his vision, in complete harmony with his conceptual philosophy. Lighting by Carin Geada and costumes by Julia Burnham are both in tune with the overall concept and complete the artistic vision of the work.
Date line: Thursday, October 6th, 2022 Time: 19:30
Compagnie XY en collaboration avec Rachid Ouramdane Möbius 7-18 sep 2022
XY: In search of a new choreographic language, The company XY challenges the scenographer to develop a new language to describe their choreographic genius. Their present production of Möbius in collaboration with Rachid Ouramdane, at the Chaillot-Théâtre National de la Danse, demands danse vocabulary neologisms, to describe the neomodern dance phenomimes that their work represents. XY’s auto descriptive of their art uses the term “verticalité circassienne,” which opens polyvalent possibilities of interpretation: ‘verticalité’ accentuates the risks of falling, also in psychotherapy the lack of words, for an individual or a small group; ‘circassienne’ implies circus, or Circassian Circle dances, which are ancient folk dances, exemplified by running and hopping steps. XY excels at running, whether in a line, a group, or individually, running is a sublime form of expression in the company’s corporal vocabulary. Their diverse running manners include: the leaning run, which is used for high acceleration moves, twisting and turning, punctuated by hops, jumps, and falls, leading to an endless mobius, forming a perfect polyhedral. Falling gives XY indelible images to share with an enraptured public: perpendicular, lateral, curved, individual, group, dangerous, amusing, menacing, accidental, planned, or contrived falls, are all part of their choreographic repertoire. Apart, from analyzing their use of descriptive vocabulary to describe their work, it is the evocative aspect of their imaging that transcends the ephemera of the moment, and transmits indelible images of totems, recalling ancestral communal roots. Human totems, two, three, and four bodies high, bring feelings of being watched, cared for, and at times menaced. The use of these totems helps XY to develop a continuity with the folkloric aspect of their work and cements their roots in universal dance traditions. Ouramdane’s deft choreographic touch is evident in XY’s use of group movements, where dynamic interactions polarize the emotional impact of the dance ensembles, bringing conflict, tenderness, exclusion, and mystery to the pallet of expression of the nineteen individuals in the mobius. Excellent lighting design and execution by Vincent Millet, costumes by Nadia Léon, and sound by Claire Thiebault-Besombes compliment the theatricality of the work, and are to be congratulated.
Date line: Tuesday, September 7th , 2022 Time: 20:30
Malandain Ballet Biarritz Programme Stravinski
Claire Lonchampt, Hugo Layer, Mickaël Conte - Oiseau de feu Photo: Olivier Houeix
Firebird
L’Oiseau de feu MUSIQUE Igor Stravinski CHORÉGRAPHIE Thierry Malandain COSTUMES Jorge Gallardo LUMIÈRES François Menou RÉALISATION COSTUMES Véronique Murat, assistée de Charlotte Margnoux MAÎTRES DE BALLET Richard Coudray & Giuseppe Chiavaro Ballet pour 22 danseurs
Friday evenings performance of Thierry Malandain’s Firebird was truly brilliant! Malandain’s choreography is rich and inventive: filling the stage of the salle Jean Vilar, as would an impressionist painter using broad, yet intimate strokes executed by his dancers. He creates a world, through the character of his Firebird and dancers, where there is hope and resurrection. Since the creation of the Michel Fokine’s original ballet by the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev at the Paris Opera, June 25th, 1910, there have been no less then 150 different productions of the Firebird concept: some successful some not. Malandain brings a highly Christian theme of redemption to his ballet: through the intervention, of a supernatural union of heaven and earth, made possible by the Firebird itself; his mythical bird is personified by an androgynous dancer, exemplified by a young male dancer; who displayed a perfect classical line. It’s a pity that there were no dancer’s names in the program: it would only be just if that oversight were rectified in the future; for the dancers, without exception, were magnificent, working together, tightly disciplined, with an enviable lightness to their jumps, no thumping landings for these terpsichores, and they deserve individual and collective recognition. Malandain’s choreography evokes references to past masters of the Firebird theme: Balanchine’s 1949 work is delightfully interwoven into the ballet, through Malandain’s use of Balanchine’s leitmotif of the intertwining of his dancers in a sort of neverending daisy chain, used here as a pas de trois of the Firebird partnering Heaven and Gaia; the choice of Maurice Béjart, of Michaël Denard for the role of the Firebird, the original being that of a woman, danced by Tamara Karsavina, is followed by Malandain with floorwork by his Firebird recalling that of Béjart’s Firebird, the divine Michaël Denard. The apotheosis of the ballet comes: with the breath of the Firebird uniting Heaven and Gaia in the light of the eternal soul of all humanity; thus, bringing hope, meaning and everlasting peace to all existence.Costumes by Jorge Gallardo were memorable and well executed by Véronique Murat and Charlotte Margnoux, with a special accolade for that of the Firebird, which was light and evidently extremely danceable. Lighting by François Menou helped bring meaning and life to Malandain’s work and deserves a special mention. PKO
Rites of Spring
Photo: Olivier Houeix Le Sacre du printemps MUSIQUE Igor Stravinski CHORÉGRAPHIE ET SCÉNOGRAPHIE Martin Harriague LUMIÈRES François Menou et Martin Harriague COSTUMES Mieke Kockelkorn RÉALISATION COSTUMES Véronique Murat, assistée de Charlotte Margnoux RÉALISATION DÉCOR/ACCESSOIRES Frédéric Vadé ASSISTANTES CHORÉGRAPHE Françoise Dubuc, Nuria López Cortés Ballet pour 18 danseurs
Martin Harriague is a choreographer of abounding imagination whose images print indelible impressions on the imaginations of the spectators of his Rites of Spring. Particularly potent are: The vision of dancers slithering out of the piano placed on the stage; primordial beings evoked by the music of Stravinsky; whilst the composer plays the opening strains of his opus on the piano. Ancient religions worshiping the sun god; recalled by Harriague’s dancers: seated facing the iridescent sacred light streaming down on their adoring faces. The building of a primitive Stonehenge out of massive blocks by the straining dancers: forming a circle whereon they sit in judgement of the chosen one; exhorting her on to ever greater efforts; just until her ultimate death; bringing forth new life to the now fertile soil. Harriague’s choreography tends to be favoring dancers sitting; this propensity engenders a rather static vision of dance, which might not be to everyone’s taste, and has the unfortunate aspect of rendering the action les coherent. Some characterizations are less than flattering: that of the Shaman is particularly unsavory, giving the impression of a doddering old fool rather than the potent harbinger of ritual necessity for the well-being of the tribe. The chosen one comes off more a victim than a willing virgin, who performs the ultimate sacrifice for the good of her people. Lastly the section of the ballet where the virgin is chosen resembles a gang rape, where the maiden is manhandled, mauled, and thrown clumsily around to no good effect. Lighting by François Menou and Martin Harriague is effective and supports the overall concept. Costumes by Mieke Kockeikorn and executed by Véronique Murat and Charlotte Margnaux are in keeping with the theme. Décor and accessories are by Frédéric Vadé and are well adapted to Harriague’s concept. PKO
November the 5th, 2021 Venue : Théâtre National de La Danse Chaillot 1, place du Trocadéro, 75016 Paris, France Salle Jean Vitar
Date line: Friday, November 5th , 2021 Time: 20:30