MAGICAL SIGHTS

Nederlands Dans Theater presented three exceptional achievements of their choreographers, works of pure and sublime beauty

IV Belgrade Dance Festival was opened in Sava Center by one the best dance companies in the world – Nederlands Dans Theater – presenting three exceptional achievements of their choreographers – the famous Jiri Kylian and by the young British-Spanish pair, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon.

The first ballet of the evening was “Wings of Wax”, Kylian’s choreography from 1997, with the music of Bach, Glass, Cage…inspired with the legend of Ikarus. On stage, a big tree is hanging facing downwards, which shows us in an interesting way that everything is happening among clouds. On stage, eight dancers wearing black, rapidly, yet technically brilliant perform a row of interesting choreographic passages. Most of the time they are under the rays of light that fall to the stage from the side (the sun that melts their wings), and then they retire to the semi darkness again. Periodical twitches of the feet or hands are fitted with the pouring quick pirouettes with which you get an absolute feeling of levitation. Kylian then skilfully, as only he knows, creates duets and then leaves the four girls to walk in slow-motion, while the male dancers furiously dance, slipping through the stage demonstrating clear, high jumps. The ending, even it is esthetical amazingly beautiful, is not connected to the fall of Ikarus (one pair dances slowly in the semi-darkness). It is obvious that this myth was for Kylian only a vague starting idea for his imaginative, suptile and very often abstract choreographies.

The second ballet “Speak for Yourself” by Lightfoot-Leon is a highly impressive dance piece. At the very beginning a male dancer comes out on stage with a hidden gadget on his back from which smoke is pouring out, and dancing – the dancer and the smoke create interesting forms. He is joined by other dancers, they dance nervously, quickly, breaking their bodies on every part were the body can be bended, distorted, contracted…and then, it starts raining, and the rain brings peace and creates a melancholic and sedated atmosphere. The grey tricots of the dancers, their impeccable built body muscles that can perform absolutely everything that Lightfoot’s imaginative mind can think off, smoke and rain, the combination of Bach and Steve Reich…really create an unusual stage experience. The stage is slowly being filled with water so every slipping, every movement of the hand or leg brings an even stronger effect of the dispersed water. Although without this scene effects the ballet wouldn’t have this power, Lightfoot’s style is interesting and original, and the dancers, including our very own Zoran Markovic, are virtuosos.

And at the end – “Tar and Feathers”, the most recent, from last year, Kylian’s ballet – a ballet inspired with Becket’s “What is the Word”. But, yet again, it is just the starting point from were Kylian builds his magical scene construction, where his imagination makes plots that seem like dreams and that are only known to him. On stage there is a black piano on very high legs, on which the pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama is playing. The atmosphere is a bit wired, half of the floor is black and half is white, the dancers in black perform for one moment geometrically precise and brusque, and the next moment, completely spontaneous and relaxed movements. Some are very tranquil; some are in a very strong, inner fissure. For Kylian is very characteristic the amazing precision, positioning the bodies the way as if the survival of the universe depends on that positioning, and it is very typical of him the outstanding feeling for details and so he builds a creation of pure, perfect form.

Every movement brings a certain meaning; every part is rich with symbols. Tar and Feathers is a bit surreal, a bit absurd but in any case a fascinating piece in which, as in the previous two ballets of the Nederlands Dans Theater, there are a lot of images of pure and sublime beauty.

Original text in Politika.