“What’s it about?”
From the piece I choreographed for the National Ballet of Canada's Apprentice Program- "Future Shadow"
One question that I finds plagues the thoughts of dance neophytes, and always gets asked of me time and again is “What’s it about?” in relation to a piece of dance that they have just seen. For works that are non-narrative with no obvious story to follow, this is sometimes a difficult question. There are pieces that I have danced that are not really “about” anything, they are just a choreographer’s response to a certain thought, or even just what movement they are inspired to create when they listen to the music. However, even in these more abstract pieces, oftentimes you will ask some audience members after a show about what they thought the work was about, and most likely they will all give you different answers. I have had to answer questions about my own choreography for groups of elementary school students, and when asked what they thought it was about, the array of answers was staggering, and some of them also hit it right on the nose of what I was thinking about when I made the piece. So, as you can see, answering this seemingly simple question can sometimes be quite difficult.
To relate to my current dancing life: as you’ve read before, we at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo are currently working on Maurice Bejart’s “Sacre du Printemps”. Now, for a little bit of a history lesson: Vaslav Nijinsky choreographed the original version of the Rite of Spring (to give the work its English name) for the Ballet Russes (possibly the single most important company in the history of dance!) in the early 20th Century to original music that Igor Stravinsky himself wrote for the occasion. Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with this fantastic piece of music, go and rent the original Disney’s “Fantasia” and watch the animated Dinosaurs roam around to this complex and primal piece of music. It’s the same music that we are dancing to today. Speaking of complex and primal, the ballet was the same way; it paved the way for modern dance as we know it today and was an earth-shattering event in the dance world. So much so in fact, that there was an actual riot at the premiere! It was unlike anything that people at the time had seen before, and went against all of the aesthetic rules that ballet abides by. We actually had the privilege earlier this year to dance a reconstruction of the original choreography by Nijinsky, which was a very special experience. But I digress…
To boil the piece down into one sentence: A primal tribe makes a sacrifice of a virgin during the Spring Equinox. In the Nijinsky version, she is clearly chosen by the Gods when she falls several times during the young maiden’s consecration of the sacrificial circle, and then she dances herself to death. Bejart took the same idea and developed it a little more with a female and male soloist, supported by the entire company onstage at the same time. In the first section, only the men are present on the stage, and we dance until our “chosen one” falls on the floor during a long sequence of jumps (echoing the original), and he dances an incredibly difficult solo, and the section ends with the men jumping offstage in a line, and the chosen one’s strength spent and unable to follow. The second section begins with the women, but the “chosen one” is obvious right away. In this version, I believe that she is more playing the role of a Priestess for the man rather than a sacrifice herself (again, how personal opinions affect that famous answer!). The men then enter the stage, and we dance around the women, the soloists dance alone for some time, and then we finally couple up to finish the ballet in unison, raising the two chosen ones up towards the heavens.
So, in a nutshell that was my particular answer to the question. I’m sure if you asked someone else they would tell you what they believe to be true. Some may say that this makes things confusing but I say that it makes the art more accessible, and far more special!
Double Kiss!
A Fortnight ago…
The scooter in question parked outside my apartment!
I tell a lie, it has actually been more than a “fortnight” since my last entry. For the past two weeks, I have been telling myself each evening “you really should write an entry,” but then the other, louder and sometimes more aggravating voice in my head was telling me “but what have you got to write about? It’s not like you’ve been doing very much at the moment.”
Now that I think about it, I suppose that is not entirely true. Yes, it’s true that on most days for the past two weeks (and even this week) that I have only had one rehearsal per day (for the late Maurice Bejart’s “Sacre du Printemps”) and some other days I have gone into class, only to discover that the only works being rehearsed that day were ones that I was not participating in, so I have from midday onward completely free to do whatever I wish. You can always tell in Monaco when the Ballet is having a lighter workload than usual because on any given afternoon, you can usually find at least four or more company dancers all working out at the gym at the same time. I am proud to say that during this less intense time at work that I have been one of those people three times a week. There is also cleaning to do, curtain rods to install, laundry needing to be done. On the slightly more positive side, we also have time for other more leisurely pursuits as well, such as reading a book down by the beach now that the weather is sunny and really starting to warm up, or finally getting that haircut that you suddenly look in the mirror one day and realize that you desperately need, or taking the afternoon to go grocery shopping for special items because you’re having friends over for dinner that evening. All made much easier (and more fun) by scooting around town on my fire engine red Vespa that I would not dare to live in Monaco without! I found in the first three months that I was living here that the size of my thighs was increasing for all the walking up and down the slopes of the hills and mountains that Monte-Carlo is built on the side of.
So with nice hair, a clean apartment, and full both in body and soul from dinner parties with friends, I set forth into the final two weeks before our next premiere on April 1st. Not too shabby a condition to be in if I do say so myself.
Double Kiss!
Having been delinquent…
Yes, I am aware that it has been around two weeks since my last entry…but in my defense it had been a very busy time here at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and things are now starting to calm down a little bit.
From February 17th to the 20th, we had four shows of Romeo et Juliette (I figure I should honour the language of my company!) as “Imprevus”. Now, basically what that means is that we perform the ballet in our studio as opposed to at the theatre. Now we have a very large studio in two parts, which is made precisely for this purpose. This was the first time that we had used that space as a performance venue since I have been in the company, and I have to say that they really did a fantastic job in turning it into a theatre. There are a few drawbacks to not being in a real, hands down theatre…such as not enough space backstage, inability to “fly” pieces of set in from up above, and such. We were also missing a piece of the scenery, which to an average audience member would not be a noticeable hole, but we sure noticed it. Things just aren’t the same when you’re supposed to make your very first entrance in the ballet from the ramp, but now instead simply have to walk in from the wing. Other than those few details however, everything was precisely as if we were in a regular performance. Let me rephrase that: we WERE in a regular performance, we just had to deal with slightly less space. We had costumes make-up and full lighting, so I will admit that it was still an authentic experience.
If one were to wander into the Atelier (that’s what we call the building we rehearse in) around an hour before any one of these performances, you may have noticed the men sleeping in the green room, getting coffee, and generally looking a little worse for wear. That is the result of being in the process of learning Maurice Bejart’s “Sacre du Printemps” (Rite of Spring- and if that name conjures up images of animated dinosaurs, you are correct, it is the same one…the music that is) at the same time as we were conducting these performances. You are most definitely going to be hearing my thoughts about this ballet many times over the coming weeks, so I will spare the long and painful explanation, suffice it to say that the ballet is very hard for the men, leg , thigh, and knee wise. Sometimes, it’s very difficult to really give your all to these rehearsals when you know that your legs still have to carry you through the full-length performance that evening, but we do try our very best!
Following these performances, we had a week of very intense rehearsals for “Sacre” where we were learning the finale with the women, and piecing the ballet together with the women and the soloists, culminating in a “bash-through” on Friday afternoon. I can’t remember exactly where I first heard that term, but it is a phrase that I have really come to love using, especially when I am choreographing a piece of my own. When I hear the phrase “bash-through” my mind conjures images of a track and field runner competing with two enormous planks of wood strapped to either side of his body, literally bashing into his fellow competitors. That’s the general feeling one gets when participating in a bash-through. Basically, a “we just learned this ballet, and haven’t really had much rehearsal yet, but we are going to go from beginning to end without stopping, barring death or a plague of locusts.” This verbal outpouring from the choreographer or rehearsal director is usually followed by some entertaining combination of traffic jams, missed lifts, falling over followed by hysterical laughter (I may be personalizing a little bit with that one), and a general maniacal feeling in the room.
Luckily, nobody died, the ground did not open, and the locusts did not come…but we were damn tired and sweaty if I do say so myself!
Double Kiss!
"I live here?" 