All Kylian, reviewed by Kalyn Lai

An excellent start to an even more excellent ballet 

by Kalyn Lai

On a snowy evening in Boston, when everyone was hidden away in their houses, the beautiful Opera House was jammed full with people for the opening night of a Boston Ballet premiere of a contemporary ballet by the name of All Kylián.  It was worth the struggles of getting to and from the Opera House because Boston Ballet’s production of All Kylián was an excellent production of a modern ballet.  The choreographer of the dance piece, Jiří Kylián, is a contemporary dance choreographer from Czech-Netherlands.  He combines his artistic talent with the excellent and versatile ballet dancers of the Boston Ballet to create three pieces that are full of complexities with a touch of comedy.

            The first piece, Wings of Wax, opens up to a black stage and a revolving spotlight on a massive tree hung by its roots.  It is suspended overhead as dancers being to dance below.  The eight dancers are dressed in a black and move gracefully across the stage.  I loved watching the smoothness and flow of the dancing.  There were many intricate lifts and much dancing between partners. 

Although it was a ballet, there were many aspects of the dancing that showed that it was a more contemporary piece.  Dancers wore socks instead of ballet shoes or pointe shoes, and there were many times of flexed feet and bent standing legs.  The movements also consisted of clapping and shaking of various parts of the body.

            In the second piece, Tars and Feathers, the curtain lifts and there is a bright sculpture made from bubble wrap sitting on the stage.  A thick line of intense bright light shines high up on the backdrop.  This lighting also makes the flooring shiny and almost mirror like as if the floor is wet.  The stage seemed to divide into light and darkness.  The side with the bubble wrap was lit more brightly.  The other side of the stage was darker.  In the far corner of the dark stage, a piano was suspended on stilts about ten feet high.  Up there, Tomoko Mukaiyama, improvises music playing the piano as dancers begin to move below.  Even the dancers were half light half dark.  The female dancers wore a black leotard and the male dancers wore only black pants.  This made on half of their body light and the other dark. 

In the piece, female dancers would sometimes lift the male dancers.  At one point in the piece, a female dancer was walking on the backs of two of the male dancers. I found that in this piece the women held more of the control and seemed to be more powerful.

This piece, Tars and Feathers, confused me the most because every so often, the sound of a lion growling would play.  I think that this piece had the most acting in it because sometimes the dancer would be the lion growling.  The first time it occurred was comical because it was a female growling at it was funny because I did not think that someone so small would portray something so big and mighty.

Another comical moment in the piece was near the end when three men and two women came running onstage in tutus, black wigs, and brightly overdone makeup.  A man was speaking and each word he said, the dancers did a movement for.  A friend of mine mentioned that this could be making fun of ballet and I agree.  Many ballets tell stories and to tell stories, the have movements to depict words so that people are able to understand what is happening.  Ballet dancers also often look very similar and wear an excessive amount of makeup.

This piece had improvisation throughout the entire piece and it was well done.  If I had not read about it, I would not have known that the pianist and some of the dancers had improvised parts of the piece.

Symphony of Psalms, the third and final piece, was a grander piece.  Tapestries covered the back wall and instead of a small intimate cast of six or eight dancers, this cast consisted of sixteen dancers.  This piece seemed to be less abstract and have more ballet aspects.  I enjoyed watching this dance because there were a lot of wave movements.  Instead of always dancing synchronized, one partner would start and then another and another.  It was beautiful to watch.

The music in the piece was by Igor Stravinsky.  He created a symphony called Symphony of Psalms, which is what the name of the dance piece is name after.  Along with the music, a chorus also sang, conducted by its Artistic Director, Holly Krafka.

All of the music and chorus as well, the greater amount of dancers, and the beautiful tapestries in the background made this piece seem more rich than the other pieces.  Other pieces were simpler while this one had many things occurring at the same moment.

All Kylián was well created and well performed.  I give the ballet dancers credit for being so versatile and able to move in a different way than they are used to.  I enjoyed this performance so much that I plan on going to see it again.  I applaud everyone who contributed to making this show amazing to watch. This was a beautifully created dance performance that was elaborately grand and complex yet there were simple movements and sets that made people sit forward in the chairs yearning for more.