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.
The films City Lights by Charlie Chaplin and Do The Right Thing by Spike Lee
