" ... a contemporary, groundbreaking tour de force."

August 17, 2005 performance, reviewed by Connell McGrath

True to its mission, Jacob's Pillow brings demanding, original and artistically uncompromising work to its venue this week by hosting performances from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal (LGBCM). The company has been guided by artistic director Gradimir Pankov of Macedonia for the last five years. Pankov is the consummate ballet insider, having served as artistic director for the National Ballet of Finland, the Cullberg Ballet of Sweden, Nederlands Dans Theater II. He has also worked with the San Francisco Ballet and American Ballet Theater, among others. Judging from this week's performances, he knows what he's doing and has vision to spare.

The evening consists of two long works, first is TooT (2005) by Didy Veldman and second is Noces (2002) by Stijn Celis. They are both engaging, thought-provoking, disturbing and hard to classify. As entertainment, the audience responded well to the first piece and seemed upset and disturbed, giving a tepid response and quick exits, to the second. As works of art, Noces is the stronger piece with a more interesting provenance. TooT holds its own, though it devolves at times into pathos and silliness that is supposed to be absurdity.

According to her liner notes, Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman wrote TooT under the inspiration of Shostakovich's Jazz Suite No. 2 in an effort to "question identity, individuality and the relationship of the individual to society." The piece is set on 15 dancers, almost evenly divided between men and women. They are dressed as clowns in simple white costume and white face which immediately evokes existential questions of the meaning of whatever actions the dancers perform. The piece is set to the accessible, engaging Shostakovich score which gives it a carnival atmosphere, as well as to more ominous music by the Balanescu Quartet for the darker parts. While much of the piece is funny and interesting in terms of the diversity of action, there is a dark undercurrent to the work. This is almost always true in work that has a clown theme as a central aspect.

The piece is a bit too full of action including (1) a water gun fight that ends tragically for one and triumphantly for the rest, followed by a death dance. (2) A section in which one of the dancers uses a bullhorn to boss the others around. This part ends with the dancers revolting, and one of them singing Volare through the bullhorn. (3) The dancers making "I wish" statements such as "I wish I was a nicer person" and "I wish I could cry". I'm sure this has some interesting existential intention, however the action is too self-pitying. In general the dancing is very strong, with a lot of original and interesting movement. Veldman rejects almost all standard modern or ballet technique, creating original sets of movement for her work. There is also a strong use of set (Miriam Buether created both the sets and costumes). The sets are a group of semicircular benches that are moved into various configurations, and used in different ways throughout the piece.

Noces (2002) by Belgian choreographer Stijn Celis, is a reworking of the 1923 Nijinsky/Stravinsky ballet called Les Noces (The Marriage), considered by some to be a masterpiece of the twentieth century. It has been reinvented by Celis in this strong new work. The music by Stravinsky—forceful, ominous and even scary—was created on four pianos, percussion and a group of singers. It is a strong example of the music of that period. This new Noces is evokative of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, drawing some of the traditions of the 1920s and 30s of costume and to some extent of action. My interest and curiosity about this piece are increased by the fact that it is a reworking of an old classic. This gives another perspective to the idea of a classical ballet company performing very contemporary work with no apparent physical connection to older ballet styles. Despite that lack of connection, there is a very clear connection made by creating a new dance from an old work.

For this piece, too, the dancers are in white face though there is no association with clowning here. The original ballet depicts a peasant wedding. This one also revolves around celebration though in a more abstract way. The dance is strongly polarized between a group of 12 female dancers and 12 male dancers. They rarely danced together, but they "perform" for each other. As the women dance, the men sit on rough wooden benches, then they switch roles. The company uses the barn siding of the back of the Ted Shawn theater as a perfect backdrop set for a rural wedding. To this, they add two chandeliers that are lighted toward the end of the piece. Sets are by the choreographer. The dancing by both groups is forceful, even violent. One very interesting aspect of the choreography for the women is that they do movements—hip sways and upper-body shimmies—that at another speed would seem sensual, even erotic. But speeded up, and with added force they seem angry.

The choreographer includes as liner notes an interesting excerpt by the teacher Fernand Schirren (writing from 1996) that begins "The celebration—be it sacred or profane, a prelude to an attack, in rejoicing or sadness; whether it leaves memories of the present, perpetuates the past or conjures the future—the celebration in all its forms represses death." This points to ideas that Celis uses as a starting point for Noces. There is a panic aspect to some of this work, a fending off of the inevitable. Celis transforms existing ballet and modern technique into his own vocabulary of movement. Hi is also a master of large group choreography and use of stage space.

Mr. Pankov has taken LGBCM from a slightly tired classical ballet company into a contemporary, groundbreaking tour de force. He is bringing new and demanding work to the stage, and is creating a new role for the traditional ballet company.

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal
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