rhythmaning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rhythmaning) wrote2008-06-18 05:56 pm
rhythmaning) wrote2008-06-18 05:56 pm
Dance Dance Dance
I went to see Nederlands Dans Theater 2 last week. This is the feeder group for Nederlands Dans Theater; NDT frequently visit Edinburgh, and I see them whenever I can – they played here in April: but I was very disappointed – it was all of a muchness, and none of the pieces grabbed me. I was underwhelmed. (I thought it was me, but I spoke to two different friends who also went along, on different nights, and they felt the same.)
So I was slightly trepidatious about going to NDT2. I have seen them many times before, too; they are always fun, full of energy even they still have some technique to learn. This time around, I wasn’t disappointed.
They danced three pieces. The first, Sleight of Hand, I had seen before. (Actually, looking at the schedule, it looks as if I have seen this before, I must have seen all three pieces last year. Oh well…) Set to Phillip Glass’ Symphony no. 2, it opens with two figures – a man and a woman - towering over the stage on sixteen foot stilts. Moving from the waist up only, swaying backwards and forwards, swathed in black cloth, they are joined by other dancers rising from steps in front of the stage (a trick NDT have used before). The dancers on the stage move seemingly oblivious to those above them. It works very well – plus I like the music. I couldn’t help think of a chess match – the stiltsmen the king and queen, the others lesser pieces – or a ritual in a ballroom in Gormenghast1. I liked this piece a lot.
The second piece, Dream Play, is a new ballet set to the Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. This was good – not brilliant, but very good. There was a little too much of illustrating the music – jumping on loud beats, arm movements as if conducting the orchestra – and I wonder about the wisdom of using such a familiar piece of music. It did work well – and the use of a wooden platform, the sole piece of set, was really good.
The final piece, Mammatus, worked much less well for me. It felt a bit clever-clever: the lights following a paranoid dancer, snow falling similarly wherever he walked, boots walking away by themselves. The ensemble sections had a bit too much running around – sure, running around to music, but just running around doesn’t really seem like dance. Full of energy (these are the youngsters) – maybe they still had energy to burn after the first two pieces – and the clever-clever bits were fun, but a bit “novelty” – good ideas that didn’t necessarily fit together. Perhaps I just didn’t like the music (I didn’t).
All in all, a very good evening, but I had some reservations.
Should anyone in Glasgow be interested, you can catch this programme at the Theatre Royal on 20 and 21 June.
Incidentally, as well as the main company, NDT, and the feeder group, NDT2, there used to be a third company – imaginatively labelled NDT3, comprising older dancers: those in their middle age who, in contrast to NDT2, have neither the energy nor the joints to do full scale pieces. They were formed because some dancers who had left NDT wanted to keep up their involvement in dance. For me, they were the stars whenever I have seen them: what they lack in flexibility and energy, they make up in style, technique and grace. They just moved so wonderfully. It might have been the novelty – one rarely sees old dancers on stage – but I thought they were brilliant. Unfortunately, according to the website, NDT3 are no longer performing, due to lack of subsidy. This is sad – I really hope they manage to keep going one way or another. I think they will always be welcome in Edinburgh.
1Not just me: looking at old reviews in the Independent, they also mention Peake’s fantasy.
So I was slightly trepidatious about going to NDT2. I have seen them many times before, too; they are always fun, full of energy even they still have some technique to learn. This time around, I wasn’t disappointed.
They danced three pieces. The first, Sleight of Hand, I had seen before. (Actually, looking at the schedule, it looks as if I have seen this before, I must have seen all three pieces last year. Oh well…) Set to Phillip Glass’ Symphony no. 2, it opens with two figures – a man and a woman - towering over the stage on sixteen foot stilts. Moving from the waist up only, swaying backwards and forwards, swathed in black cloth, they are joined by other dancers rising from steps in front of the stage (a trick NDT have used before). The dancers on the stage move seemingly oblivious to those above them. It works very well – plus I like the music. I couldn’t help think of a chess match – the stiltsmen the king and queen, the others lesser pieces – or a ritual in a ballroom in Gormenghast1. I liked this piece a lot.
The second piece, Dream Play, is a new ballet set to the Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. This was good – not brilliant, but very good. There was a little too much of illustrating the music – jumping on loud beats, arm movements as if conducting the orchestra – and I wonder about the wisdom of using such a familiar piece of music. It did work well – and the use of a wooden platform, the sole piece of set, was really good.
The final piece, Mammatus, worked much less well for me. It felt a bit clever-clever: the lights following a paranoid dancer, snow falling similarly wherever he walked, boots walking away by themselves. The ensemble sections had a bit too much running around – sure, running around to music, but just running around doesn’t really seem like dance. Full of energy (these are the youngsters) – maybe they still had energy to burn after the first two pieces – and the clever-clever bits were fun, but a bit “novelty” – good ideas that didn’t necessarily fit together. Perhaps I just didn’t like the music (I didn’t).
All in all, a very good evening, but I had some reservations.
Should anyone in Glasgow be interested, you can catch this programme at the Theatre Royal on 20 and 21 June.
Incidentally, as well as the main company, NDT, and the feeder group, NDT2, there used to be a third company – imaginatively labelled NDT3, comprising older dancers: those in their middle age who, in contrast to NDT2, have neither the energy nor the joints to do full scale pieces. They were formed because some dancers who had left NDT wanted to keep up their involvement in dance. For me, they were the stars whenever I have seen them: what they lack in flexibility and energy, they make up in style, technique and grace. They just moved so wonderfully. It might have been the novelty – one rarely sees old dancers on stage – but I thought they were brilliant. Unfortunately, according to the website, NDT3 are no longer performing, due to lack of subsidy. This is sad – I really hope they manage to keep going one way or another. I think they will always be welcome in Edinburgh.
1Not just me: looking at old reviews in the Independent, they also mention Peake’s fantasy.