Out of Context - For Pina
One of the strangest, weirdest shows I have seen in quite a while, this production sharply divides audiences and critics. It is biting, cutting-edge modern dance that really makes you think.
Ballets C de La B is based in Belgium (Ghent) and has been choreographed and directed by Alain Platel since 1984. This work premiered last year, touring internationally, and was performed in Sydney as part of this year’s Spring Dance season.
Platel seeks for a language of movement connected to the arbitrary, the uncontrolled, the unconscious. Some of it is hot and sexy, parts are very funny, a lot of it is extremely thought provoking. A reading of this plotless work could be that it begins quite slowly and primitively with the lower members of the animal kingdom and eventually ends with primates. The dancers interact, but for most of the work there is a feeling that they are all in their own separate worlds, emotionally detached and with no interaction with the audience.
The show begins with the dancers emerging from the audience, clambering onstage and stripping down to their underwear. Dusty pink blankets become an essential prop, ditto some microphones. In one section the dancers are like underwater columns of coral with a blanket draped around them and waiting for a shoulder strap to drop. Or should that be ancient Greek statuary?
Choreographically, yes, you can see the Bausch influence, but also that of Kylian, Bejart, sumo wrestling and Nijinsky’s L’Apres Midi D’un Faune, plus allusions to the cygnet pas de quatre from Swan Lake. Ballet is used as a solid base but there is a wide range of other movement – spasms, convulsions, tics, ‘silly walks’, blinks, frowns, teeth chattering, and popular dance forms (popping. locking, moonwalking etc).Ripples of movement and fabulous soft jumps are contrasted with lots of earthy floorwork. Disco movements are also incorporated.
Fragile animal movements are used (head turns, sniffing), at times lion-like (roaring), at others equine (e.g. pawing). From the human end of the spectrum we see a shy couple courting, children waking from sleep (wonderful rippling arms here, for example). Fabulous articulated feet almost become star performers in their own right.
Sexual desire and the eroticised human body are humorously, delicately portrayed. One of the hunky male dancers clambers over the audience seats and ‘shakes his stuff’ in the face of an audience member. Another (Romeu Runa I think – tall, gangly and an incredible mover) mostly wears headphones, provides a lot of the noises as part of the soundtrack, and has a rock star-like sequence or two with various microphones.
A sequence that can stop the show with tumultuous applause is when a severely suited man, po-faced, does an ironic sign language version of ‘The Man I Love’.
Individually, the entire seemingly-boneless cast are astonishingly brilliant performers, presenting the almost impossibly demanding choreography with detached precision and amazing control. The ensemble work is gripping.
The soundscape ranges from silence to animal noises, disco rhythms, karaoke-like spoken lyrics to various songs, grunts, and various sounds produced by the dancers (at times with the microphone in their mouth).
The Pina Bausch influence (to whom the work was dedicated) is evident in the production’s disturbing analysis of the human condition. Confronting and challenging, it questions the very meaning of existence.
Rating: Three and a half stars
Les Ballets C de la B and Sydney Opera House present
Out of Context – For Pina
Danced and created by Elie Tass, Emile Jose/Quan Bui Ngoc, Hyo Seung Ye, kaori Ito, Mathieu Desseigne Ravel, Melanie Lomoff, Romeu Runa, Rosalba Torres Guerrero, Ross McCormack
Concept and Direction: Alain Platel
Dramaturgy: Hildegard De Vuyst
Direction Assistance: Sara Vanderieck
Lighting Design: Carlo Bourguignon
Sound Design and Electronic Music: Sam Serruys
Sound Engineer: Bart Uyttersprot
Costume Design: Dorine Demuynck
Running time: 90 minutes (approx) no interval
Sydney Opera House
August 30 – September 1
Ballets C de La B is based in Belgium (Ghent) and has been choreographed and directed by Alain Platel since 1984. This work premiered last year, touring internationally, and was performed in Sydney as part of this year’s Spring Dance season.
Platel seeks for a language of movement connected to the arbitrary, the uncontrolled, the unconscious. Some of it is hot and sexy, parts are very funny, a lot of it is extremely thought provoking. A reading of this plotless work could be that it begins quite slowly and primitively with the lower members of the animal kingdom and eventually ends with primates. The dancers interact, but for most of the work there is a feeling that they are all in their own separate worlds, emotionally detached and with no interaction with the audience.
The show begins with the dancers emerging from the audience, clambering onstage and stripping down to their underwear. Dusty pink blankets become an essential prop, ditto some microphones. In one section the dancers are like underwater columns of coral with a blanket draped around them and waiting for a shoulder strap to drop. Or should that be ancient Greek statuary?
Choreographically, yes, you can see the Bausch influence, but also that of Kylian, Bejart, sumo wrestling and Nijinsky’s L’Apres Midi D’un Faune, plus allusions to the cygnet pas de quatre from Swan Lake. Ballet is used as a solid base but there is a wide range of other movement – spasms, convulsions, tics, ‘silly walks’, blinks, frowns, teeth chattering, and popular dance forms (popping. locking, moonwalking etc).Ripples of movement and fabulous soft jumps are contrasted with lots of earthy floorwork. Disco movements are also incorporated.
Fragile animal movements are used (head turns, sniffing), at times lion-like (roaring), at others equine (e.g. pawing). From the human end of the spectrum we see a shy couple courting, children waking from sleep (wonderful rippling arms here, for example). Fabulous articulated feet almost become star performers in their own right.
Sexual desire and the eroticised human body are humorously, delicately portrayed. One of the hunky male dancers clambers over the audience seats and ‘shakes his stuff’ in the face of an audience member. Another (Romeu Runa I think – tall, gangly and an incredible mover) mostly wears headphones, provides a lot of the noises as part of the soundtrack, and has a rock star-like sequence or two with various microphones.
A sequence that can stop the show with tumultuous applause is when a severely suited man, po-faced, does an ironic sign language version of ‘The Man I Love’.
Individually, the entire seemingly-boneless cast are astonishingly brilliant performers, presenting the almost impossibly demanding choreography with detached precision and amazing control. The ensemble work is gripping.
The soundscape ranges from silence to animal noises, disco rhythms, karaoke-like spoken lyrics to various songs, grunts, and various sounds produced by the dancers (at times with the microphone in their mouth).
The Pina Bausch influence (to whom the work was dedicated) is evident in the production’s disturbing analysis of the human condition. Confronting and challenging, it questions the very meaning of existence.
Rating: Three and a half stars
Les Ballets C de la B and Sydney Opera House present
Out of Context – For Pina
Danced and created by Elie Tass, Emile Jose/Quan Bui Ngoc, Hyo Seung Ye, kaori Ito, Mathieu Desseigne Ravel, Melanie Lomoff, Romeu Runa, Rosalba Torres Guerrero, Ross McCormack
Concept and Direction: Alain Platel
Dramaturgy: Hildegard De Vuyst
Direction Assistance: Sara Vanderieck
Lighting Design: Carlo Bourguignon
Sound Design and Electronic Music: Sam Serruys
Sound Engineer: Bart Uyttersprot
Costume Design: Dorine Demuynck
Running time: 90 minutes (approx) no interval
Sydney Opera House
August 30 – September 1
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