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A night of uneasy beauty
Artifact Royal
Ballet Flanders Birmingham
Hippodrome ****
THIS is ballet stripped to its elements,
its basic components; shapes,
form and
movement, shades of light and dark. There is
no narrative, no lifting symphonic swell of an orchestra, nor any
emotion or engagement. You feel nothing for the dancers. You are not
involved you just observe. It is all narrated – or
perhaps not - on stage by a Character in Historical Costume (Kate
Strong) who looks like the Queen of some nation long gone, and
Character with a Megaphone (Nicholas Champion) who looks a bit
like a maths teacher hating every minute of announcing at a school
sports day. They wander around speaking
nonsense with megaphone man tapping his microphone on the floor around
the stage as if testing for dry rot at one stage. There is no drama or emotion
in the voices which are flat and, in the case of Champion, distorted by
the megaphone, but they are somehow disconcerting. It is a little like watching
random scenes from Brave New World or 1984 made into a
ballet, something you almost recognise,
something almost familiar but not quite, leaving you feeling slightly
uneasy, out of your comfort zone. What it was all about I have
no idea. The programme notes give some
explanation, but we seemed to be being warned about stepping inside
ourselves and questioning our our world, our
reason and finally, at the end, stepping back outside and questioning
what was left, what we are. All very complicated but
mesmerising to watch; there is no scenery just the vast black Hippodrome
stage with columns of lights and speakers and a wall of 16 spots like
searchlights shining unimpeded up to the height of the flies. For the first time, perhaps,
many people could see why the appeal for refurbishing the stage is £1
million. It is vast. And on such a huge stage even
the mass of dancers from Ballet Royal look small, which perhaps adds to
the effect. The piece is in four parts
with the opening in gloom highlighted by spots contrasting with
blackness as the Character in Historical Costume worries people are
going to go inside. This is to music by Eva
Crossman-Hecht played beautifully by Margo Kazimirska on the piano in a
piece which throws in The Way You Looked Tonight from time to
time
The second part is set to
Bach's Chaconne in D Minor played by Russian born American violinist
Nathan Milstein. Here ballet is deconstructed as we find two couples
dancing without emotion in beautifully choreographed but strangely cold
pieces with the action interrupted by the curtain crashing down time
after time and rising to find the 30 strong corps in new formations. This is all the elements of ballet, shape, form, movement and wonderful dancing but with none of the traditional romantic or lyrical story that gives the dances shape. It is dance that is somehow not satisfying, and perhaps that is the point, but it is fascinating and beautifully done by soloists Aki Saito, Wim Vanlessen, Laura Hidlago and Yevgenly Kolesnyk. Legendary choreographer
William Forsythe, who also designed the stage and extraordinary lighting
created the sound mix for part three as panels with crude cogs
and shapes appear before we return to the music of
part 1 again as the panels form a wall which is demolished piece
by piece by the Character in Historical Costume as the dancers
all step outside and we are left to question what it
was all about. It is something which, sadly,
could also be asked of The Royal Ballet of Flanders, which is under
threat from Belgian politics. The ballet's Australian born
artistic director Kathryn Bennetts, who worked with Forsythe as Ballet
Mistress in Frankfurt for 15 years, is leaving in summer after the
Belgian culture minister decided to merge the ballet with the Flemish
Opera and orchestra– effectively sidelining Bennetts and taking away her
control of programming. There is a job application
form for a new artistic director on the ballet's website (http://www.balletvlaanderen.be/?lang=en)
where the premiere of David Dawson's Giselle in June has been cancelled
because of “recent occurrences”. Most of the dancers have
declared they will leave with her so the fear is that the ballet will
struggle to survive, especially in its present form. Its loss to
Antwerp, and to Belgium, would be on a similar scale to the loss of
Birmingham Royal Ballet to the Midlands and Britain. Artifact, first performed by
Ballett Frankfurt in 1984, and appearing as part of International
Dance Festival Birmingham closes 26-04-12. Roger Clarke
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