Sydney Opera House, 21/11/09
Por Vos Muero – Nacho Duato
Scuola Di Ballo – Alexei Ratmansky
Dyad 1929 – Wayne McGregor
I must confess, I have always been extremely interested in more than what happens on stage. The first music review I ever wrote I dedicated the first 300 words to describing the architectural impact of the venue, in great poetic detail. It was soon cut by my editor and I republished it on a blog months later because I liked it so much. There is so much more to a performance than what happen beneath lights. Last night, at the Sydney Opera House, my entry to the Australian Ballet performance was preceded by watching Michael Bublé sing “Feeling Good” as part of the Australian Idol dress rehearsals, the air was thick and hot, and in the Botanic Gardens, a dance party played out in flashing lights which reflected off the surface of the water like fireworks.
One would assume that the shift from the sparkling city into “Por Vos Muero”, the first act of Concord which claimed to pay tribute to the pivotal roles that dance played in the Spanish Renaiisance, would be a simple transition of spectacle for festival, but this was not to be. Unfortunately, Nacho Duato‘s choreography exhibited a disjointed nature which didn’t line up with the fluidity and vibrance of Spanish dancing. Though the rubberised exhibition of dance was interesting, with each section lasting only a few minutes, and having dead space between most sections for overly conspicuous entries and exits, the piece fell flat, exacerbated by a lack of synchronicity between dancers. I can’t help but agree with Stephanie Glickman from Australian Stage:
“While there are some strong pas de deux sections, the ensemble work was not always as tight as it could be and the heavy, dark costumes do not particularly flatter. It works best in the opening and closing, beautifully simple and pared back sections.”
When a pair was supposed to mimic one another, they were often slightly apart, yet again straying from the rhythmic intensity of Spanish dancing for a middle ground.
Fortunately, the second act, “Scuola Di Ballo” was a sheer delight and kept a smile on my face throughout the entire piece. The piece is a comedy portraying the foibles of clumsy ballerina, Felicita, her exasperated instructor Rigadon, and Fabrizio, the impresario. When Fabrizio arrives looking for a star dancer, Rigadon tricks him into taking Felicita off his hands. Alexei Ratmansky’s choreography expressed every moment of the plot flawlessly, the characters differentiating themselves easily through dance. It is clear that some of the Australian Ballet ensemble have some experience in musical theatre, employing facial expressions and movements beyond their choreography which implied character extremely well. Though it can be difficult to transmit character without any dialogue, the ensemble rose to the challenge and performed extravagantly. Not only was this act the highlight of the evening, but it best displayed the talents of the individual, with the other two acts treating the ensemble as homogenous, even in solo sections. Ben Davis was stunning as the pompous comedian, Rigadon, while his bumbling protégé Felicita, played by a beautifully uncoordinated Laura Tong, who stole the show ironically with her feigned lack of talent. As this is the first piece which Ratmansky has devised for the Australian Ballet, it feels me with great hope for further interaction between the company and this talented, expressive and meticulous choreographer.
The final piece was so minimalistic in its expression that one feels it would be overthinking it to review it at great length. Although the concept of Wayne McGregor’s Dyad 1929 was extremely interesting – the realisation that man had progressed from first reaching the south pole on foot, to flying over it just twenty years later – the execution suffered a similar looseness to the first act. The concept was visual engaging, a stage drawn up in a grid of dots, and the costumes which portrayed the diptych in both black and white, and yellow were extremely well chosen, the piece itself didn’t portray the strictness which technological innovation conjures. The ensemble, rather than locking to rhythm, seemed to perform slightly out of kilter with one another, a notion which seems to negate that of industrialism or progression in such a scientific field.
Concord is a show easily inhibited by its form. The Australian Ballet seeks to put on a display which covers a variety of genres, but it is all too easy to choose pieces which ,in their diversity, may conflict. One begins to wonder whether Scuola Di Ballo, situated in the middle, was the show which the company felt was the strongest, and allowed the faults of the other two to slip by. One could have easily watched three separate comedies in one night, or even an extended ballet, but the two conceptual pieces on either side detracted from the strength of the central piece. After seeing The Nutcracker earlier this year, it is obvious to me that the Australian Ballet presents its best side when working within tighter confines.
[...]Review:Concord(Australian Ballet)[...]