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Reviews from the Edinburgh International Festival 2007 (4)
Impressing the Czar
Royal Ballet of Flanders
Festival Theatre
****
Preconceptions about ballet are either left at the door or shattered
during the Royal Ballet of Flanders' ode to decadence, Impressing
the Czar.
Originally choreographed in 1988 by William Forsythe, the piece purports
to have no narrative but instead presents a series of episodes wrapped
in images designed to startle, mystify, arrest and impress. The music
is twisted Beethoven, mingling classical interpretations with Thom Willems's
metallic techno overlay and the occasional flirt of swing.
The striking opening sees a chequerboard floor jutting into the top
half of the stage, where a schoolgirl on a throne watches and occasionally
recounts the action unfolding down the telephone. A man with an ornate
pitchfork holds up golden canvas draping off a picture, and his counterpart,
with gilded bow fires imaginary arrows into the air. The hedonistic
feast of dance is somewhere between a renaissance masque and a Peter
Greenaway film, and drips with glut, excess and dark beauty.
However no sooner has this feast been tantalisingly presented, it is
whipped away in a stark but detoxifying second act, where lithe, green
clad dancers present clean choreography on a blank stage, framed by
a pair of golden cherries. Aki Saito's seemingly weightless ease and
graceful strength is the episode's strong point, before part three sees
the demonic chaos return in a Vaudevillian auction starring a man's
head in a golden safe.
Finally we are served up an abundance of schoolgirls, as the whole
cast take on disturbing clone uniforms and wigs, merrily prancing round
a dead man with an arrow wedged into his chest, in an arresting if unsettling
ending.
After promising beginnings, this ballet does not deliver enough of
the opulence it sets up, and uses its finest moments in the first act,
with each subsequent part declining in interest and spectacle. It's
a beautifully conceived piece; however had the Czar been late and missed
the first half he might not be quite so taken.
Lucy Ribchester
Scottish Ballet - Triple Bill
Edinburgh Playhouse
****
In a triple bill backed by music ranging from John Adams to Radiohead,
Scottish Ballet deliver a performance which demonstrates their versatility
as well as innovation.
The first piece on show, Ride the Beast, draws on the soulful
strains of Radiohead with music taken from their various albums. The
distinctive tones of their breakthrough song, "Creep", frames
a futuristic and celestial trio as two female dancers draped in delicate
white interact with a metallic-chested man. As the songs grow into the
electronic beats of the band's later work, an explosion of colour emerges,
with the dancers' shredded costumes and organised chaos seeming like
paint tossed at a canvas. A beautiful opening which locates the dance
in an access point easily recognisable.
The mood, however, is shifted introspectively with Trisha Brown's piece,
For MG: The Movie. After a promising beginning with a set which
evokes New York stations and street scenes, bronzed, dusty and with
shards of projected beams slicing across it, the dance fails to develop
beyond a meditation bred from the theme of running. The choreography
is challenging but repetitive to watch, and the piece, though at first
fascinating, drags on without evolving.
After a post-interval wait of epic proportions Anthony Page's Fearful
Symmetries thankfully proves itself well worth it. The blend of
John Adams's suspenseful and sexy score, alongside a set of Picasso-style
shifting shapes melds together the perfect atmosphere for Page's quick
and fluid choreography to unfold. With an electrifying duet taking centre
stage between ensemble episodes, Scottish Ballet's closing piece sums
up a winning balance of abstract spectacle and human interest.
Lucy Ribchester
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