Ballet BC dazzles again with “Program 3” at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Showcasing three works, which are loosely linked together through the use of the human voice in their musical accompaniment. It is an audacious program full of textural and atmospheric variety. From the bold and tumultuous to sinuous and feline and even a sprinkling of the comical. Individually each piece was a delight, together they make for an utterly enchanting tapestry of artistic expression.
“Beginning After”, by Spanish choreographer, Cayetano Soto, investigates the mischievous relationship between memory and truth. It was bold, stark and powerful. The piece was punctuated with dense nodes of activity. These nodes were populated by individual or paired dancers. Within a node, dancers seemed to be held by an invisible central force, completely isolated from what was going on around them. Paired dancers would undulate sinuously around, over and seemingly through each other, until this inexplicable connecting force was broken, scattering the dancers to the wings, to be replaced by fresh couples mercilessly pulled together. These concentrated pockets of activity seemed to highlight the nothingness of the surrounding white space, or maybe rip through it as powerful nuclei of super dense pulsating form. Contributing to this sense of dense dark matter were the costumes; eye-wateringly tight, obsidian black, almost molten second skins extending from neck, to hands and terminating at the upper thigh. This was all eerily set to Handel’s Giulio Cesare, HWV 17, Act 1. Complementary to but not quite in sync with the dancing, the music seemed to be layered on top, like montage music is in a film. This gave the sense that the activity on stage was somehow on playback, an echo of a past event. It seemed like the dance occupied a different temporal plane, which we, the audience, could only ever be passive observers of.
Emily Molnar’s (artistic director at Ballet BC) piece was entitled “When You Left”, hauntingly accompanied by the Phoenix Chamber Choir performing Peteris Vask’s ‘Plainscapes’. Without any exaggeration the vocals were exquisite, filling the auditorium with a spine-tingling crystal clear resonance. As for the on-stage performance, a subtle and fluid play of light, and a cinematic eye for composition made for some evocative imagery. We were treated to beautiful and ephemeral tableaus, such as a dark and brooding stage with light dusting the shoulders of a swaying army of dancers. To my mind, this brought forth imagery of seagrasses illuminated by the distant revolving beam of a lighthouse. Dissolutions of the human form, which are perhaps fragments of memory, seemed to be a prominent motif of the piece. I was reminded of the work of Swiss sculptor Giacometti and his figures consumed by a distant heat haze, no matter how close you get, the figures will always appear far away.
“Bill”, by Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal, in collaboration with Gai Behar, was my favourite of the night. Richly textured, playing between serpentine, flowing forms and frenzied, quirky gestures. The dancers were clad in flesh coloured head to toe catsuits, with hair coloured to match. This gave them an amorphous appearance, all turned a sickly sherbet yellow under the insipid lighting. The piece was so pleasantly perverse. It played with the concept of worlds within worlds, ever diminishing fractals, the decomposition of the group to the individual. Like crystals in a rock or birds to a flock the nature of the individual dictates the nature of the whole, but contrariwise the nature of the whole will also dictate the nature of the individual. It was like we were looking through the microscope at a bundle of excited atoms trying to escape their molecular bonds. Imagery helped by the pungent sulphur hue of the lighting. I was imagining feisty sulphur atoms, all idiosyncratically jostling for position, yet ultimately conforming to some powerful invisible laws of physics.
I heartily recommend that you seek out “Program 3”, it is a real treat and a word to the wise, Saturday would be a good night to go as it will see this seasons wrap party directly after the show.
– MG