For the International Day of Dance. And what a better occasion to pick up this poor abandoned blog! So here’s what I’m going to do: every day of this week I’ll share one ballet video and one contemporary dance video from which I’d choose a “perfect moment”. A moment where everything comes together and just plainly works to perfection.
You’re hereby invited to send me your own ideas of perfect moments, and I’ll share all that I can here too.

For today, however, I’m adding one more dimension to the idea: today I want to say Happy Books Day (I know, it’s all a bit confusing, I believe here in the UK it’s actually called Books Night, but in Spain we celebrate Books Day today and I just can’t let go of this one ;))

So my choices are to do with stories coming from books. And also, for the ballet video, I’ve chosen to homage the great Tamara Rojo, as she was newly appointed director of ENB as you all well know by now. Congratulations and best of luck to her! (And if the second video can serve as a hint, better even :P)

So here they are, the partnership that we’re all crying for 😉 Anyway, my choice is not so much of a moment I have to admit… It’s the whole of Juliet’s variation. I think in there comes together all that is Juliet, and the beautiful music and the masterful choreography, and I love the way Tamara interprets it!

The second, contemporary dance video, is for Lorca and Mats Ek. The House of Bernarda Alba in Ek’s interpretation. If you’re Spanish speaking, excuse the swearing! 😉 Also notable in this video, the superb Ana Laguna.

I have to admit that I’m not all convinced by this version (though I’m dying to see it live!!), but that’s because I adore Lorca’s work and his symbolism and obviously Ek did his own thing with the play. I guess they’re just two very strong creative forces put together! The result, as you see, it’s explosive 😉 My moments in this video would be the beginning of the music, and the end, everything is just packed together there.

And that’s all for today, enjoy! and wait for more tomorrow!!

Yes, I know, I said that I’d have the post ready “tomorrow” and it’s been more than two months… I have to say in my defense that it’s been “almost finished” since then, but I always had something going on to leave it for another day… Anyway, here we go!

Let’s start by saying that towards the end of this piece during Rambert Dance Company’s triple bill, I could barely stay sitting (and so was the situation for lots of people around me). This work by Galili has all the ingredients to make it impossible for you to walk out feeling indifference (which is something that I’m missing quite a lot in contemporary dance lately).

What are some of these ingredients?
Music!! The rhythm of Percossa will make you dance even if you try really hard not to! And the movement, following this rhythm, is as contagious. This is also accentuated by the fact that the music is live, and that the percussion is also accompanied by vocals and clapping and all other sort of things, which give a party mood all the way through the work.
Lighting. Well, it is just genius, not only because of the way it is designed, and the colours, but also because it is dynamic, it changes with the dancers, it evolves. Probably the most striking lighting for dance shows is that in which the lights and the movement are choreographed together. (Think Russell Maliphant and Michael Hull, specially Afterlight).
Meaning. Well, there is not much on this piece wherever you look, apart from people talking about it being “sexi” and “streetwise”. I believe I read somewhere that it did have something to do with sexuality, and in a way with how it is seen (or challenged) from the group. But I might be making this up too… Memory doesn’t really cooperate with me this days! 😉

And on to the bit that  is more important to us (in a way…), the movement!
And how is the movement? Well, it is loose, very technical but looking effortless and almost careless. It is in unison most of the time and very rhythmical. It is also interesting movement! (What a surprise!) Movement that could be used in a solo and that it is made much more effective and impressive because of the number of dancers.

I’m going to show two videos of this today, one by Rambert Dance Company, and one by the Ballet of the City of Sao Paulo. Both great in this work, but I do believe that the video shows Rambert a bit tighter in the unison work.

So having a look at the video of  Ballet of the City of Sao Paulo.

Things that I can see here:
The soloist “against” the group, a feature used a lot , for example, in Pina Bausch’s work. We can see it here at 1:25 and see how it works wonderful to give sense and strength to both parts.
From 1:35 we can see a series of changes in which the lines move along the stage with the light changing to make them disappear and appear again in another spot. The movement is just a repeating sequence that the two different lines do at different moments (or two shorter sequences that they alternate, if you like), so nothing really fancy, but the effect is great. Then, from 2:07, they move on to a different direction too, so that we end with a cross, and a soloist in the middle. This moment is intricate and beautiful, and then develops adding another line and another soloist.
At 3:40 there is another moment of great choreography, a contrast of speed, where the big group is moving slowly, and the back line is moving fast. It is not only a very clever way of combining movement, it is original in that it reverses the usual way of drawing attention to those in front.
And at 6:20, the great finale… with just one dancer moving in silence!! After all the busy work, this ending is just bliss! So clever…

About the Rambert video then…

0:46, the dancer making a square all around the stage is a clever way of making them relate to each other (also by being in unison) without looking at each other or being directly linked in formation or gaze. Also, the simplicity of the movement allows the viewer to  enjoy the shape more and produces a sort of soothing effect very becoming to the piece.
0:51 impressive hey? Who knew clapping and walking could have such an impact! Again this 0:56 and it’s brought to another level by the very very cool movement in 1:00.
And to finish, at 1:04 we get a glimpse of the strong power of number (especially when as together as Rambert’s are here).

I’m going to finish giving you a bit of a review by Judith Mackrell on this very smae piece on Rambert (from the 14th May 2009)

“But with a cast of 24 – made to look even bigger by the intensity of the lighting, the ramped-up percussion of the live band, and the tightly driven patterns of the choreography – the impact of the piece becomes irresistible”.

Completely agree! And it is irresistible for me to, once again, reference to the lovely girls of The Ballet Bag, in this case to Linda, the ballet physicist! ;), who once said that “in ballet as in nature, one really needs to gather mass to generate huge amounts of energy!”

Yes, I’ve been terrible at keeping this blog going lately… but I won’t make any promises that I can’t keep, so let’s just hope I get better one day!

For the moment, I’m leaving you with another comparison between two dancers in the same piece of choreography.

In this case I’m going to go for McGregor’s Chroma with two different female dancers (Alina Cojocaru and Mara Galeazzi) but the same male dancer (Edward Watson)., which should give even more interesting aspects to the game 😉

So here we go… Just so that you know, and those of you who know me do know this already, I do have a favourite in this one, just because she is my favourite in general, but I’ll try my best to be as objective as possible!! 😛

Videos first:

Chroma with Mara Galeazzi and Edward Watson

Chroma with Alina Cojocaru/ Edward Watson

So generally speaking there is a clear difference in dynamics. Mara is more continuous and controlled while Alina breaks the dynamics more and gives more accents to her musicality (have a look at the end of the turn in 0;56 for Alina and 1:15 for Mara, Mara kind of continues while Alina turns faster and stops suddenly).
In terms of movement we can have a look at a very static position (0:53 for  Alina and 1:09 for Mara) and observe the differences. While Alina is more “abandoned” and her legs are falling more towards the floor, Mara keeps a very clear line towards the audience. This trait can also be noticed in some choices of expression, for example in Mara facing forward (0:47) while Alina keeps her head to the back (0:27), or the line of the eyes directly to the audience (or camera) in the sequence of movements in Mara (1:02) but not in Alina (0:42).

I could go on about the differences between them two, but I think it’s better to leave just a taste of what could be read in these videos. Obviously there are lots of factors that could weight heavily in these differences, like their different training, bodies, understanding of the choreographer’s intentions… Even the fact that these videos are two performances of lots and that their interpretations could, and probably did, change along the way. It would be very interesting also to know who created the role and how that might affect the other dancer when learning the material (I haven’t been able to find this info, and though I have some idea myself, I wouldn’t want to give you the wrong info!!)

Now for another very interesting part of this comparison… What about Ed? He is the same person with two different partners, how does this affect him? Let’s have a look!

Let’s take the little sequence in 1:26 with Mara, or 1:09 with Alina. It does feel like he’s taking in the different movement styles of his partners, he’s got more of a controlled/fluid movement with Mara, while being more “broken” and sharp with Alina. Now have a look at his stance in 1:52 with Alina and 2:05 with Mara, interesting hey? (I was very excited when I found this bit ;)).

Now anyone that has ever done partnering will understand and accept this without question. Of course you need to change when you dance with different people! Not only to adapt to different partnering styles but also just naturally because of the different relationships you might have with the persons you’re dancing with. And that changes the dance too (I lived through a very clear example of this in my last period of rehearsals with the company I dance for in Wales, I had to change partners temporarily from a person I’m very used to dance with, to a person I had met the same morning, and that was a big change!!).
So for me, if I were to look at the dances without taking into account what McGregor was meaning to say (because I do not know what this was), Alina and Ed are having more of a physical fight, quite aggressive and fast. Mara and Ed are having a fight too, but there is more tension than physical violence, it’s more of an argument I guess.

How much can we read in two minutes of dance, isn’t our art wonderful?! 😉

More soon, but I do not promise!

Juliet:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

No, I’m not going all Shaskespearian on you for no reason. I’m getting the feeling lately that dance is turned into a matter of names and not so much movement. We see the same names everywhere and very rarely new ones. I could almost have written some shortlists or line ups myself without knowing anything about who applies for things.
I undersand that this happens when you become “famous”. We do say you try to “make yourself a name”. My issue is when you have a name and then use it to become accomodated and to do only half baked works. Or to repeat the same things over and over because they were original at the beginning, and just change the name or the subject (relative, anyway, when subject is only just touched upon and not properly researched).
Don’t missunderstand me, I like some names! I like names like Forsythe that, independent of how much you like or dislike the piece, always mean proper work and big research.
I don’t like names of people that can’t look outside their own little tunnel vision, or those that are yet tiny in artistical achievement but have a godfather/mother that writes their name in golden ink, for the future.
I believe that hard work is what makes tha dance world spin, and that only by working hard will you really make a difference.
Maybe I’m an idealist! But here it is to hoping that we will go back to the movement and what is behind it, and forget about the names and their façades!