To Begin, Begin (chor. Christopher Marney, mus. Dustin O'Halloran)
Storyville (chor. Christopher Hampson, mus. Kurt Weill)
As the company name suggests, Ballet Black is a professional ballet company specifically for dancers of black or Asian origin, considered (accurately) as under-represented in the standard dance companies. While Asian dancers don't fare so badly, at least in Britain - I can think of any number that I've seen in various British companies - it's very true that black dancers are much rarer, particularly the ladies, and one has to assume that there's a visual reaction involved, not common-or-garden racism (or not just), but a kind of shock at the idea of dark skin in the white costumes of some of the most famous classical ballets.
As if to confront that concept, Cristaux, specifically created for Ballet Black this year by choreographer Arthur Pita, features a ballerina in a crystal-encrusted white tutu, a glittering diadem in her hair, whose entry onto the stage resembles nothing so much as Odette in Swan Lake, drifting in on pointe with arms outstretched like wings, gently flexing.
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| Cira Robinson in Cristaux (© Bill Cooper, 2016) |
The piece is a duo, Cira Robinson an other-worldly image of fantasy dreamt up by Mthuthuzeli November, whose choreography contrasts sharply with her floating poise, in sharp angles and turns, all set to the hypnotic, shifting patterns in glockenspiel, whistler and piccolo, of part of Steve Reich's Drumming. It's the music, with its sliding phases and glassy sonorities, that evokes the crystals of the title, as much as Robinson's coolly detached, ethereal presence and shimmering dress, but all clearly serve to captivate November, who ends in the dark, and in a silent, convulsive fit. It's a striking piece, absorbing, and never outstaying its welcome.
The other new piece Ballet Black brought on their tour is by Christopher Marney, best known to me as a dancer with Matthew Bourne's New Adventures company. To Begin, Begin looks like an exploration of couples, three of them, one pair in what might be called the 'honeymoon' stage, all fresh wonder, one mature and content with each other, and one which looks on the verge of dissolution. However, the exploration is fairly superficial, pretty but not exactly soul-searching, any more than the music is memorable.
Cira Robinson returned, anything but detached this time, as the central figure, Nola, in Christopher Hampson's short narrative ballet Storyville. It's the familiar story of the country girl coming to the big city and falling in with a bad crowd, in the event the notorious, and historically real, New Orleans Madam, Lulu White, while Storyville refers to the red light district of New Orleans at the start of the 20th Century. Hampson tells his story in cinematic sequences; indeed, there's a deliberate reference to the silent cinema of the period, with dancers parading title cards around the stage, to introduce characters, or indicate the passage of time. That's an idea that could have been developed further, I think, it is sort of abandoned after a while, and the narration has a lot of logic holes in it, that might have been better served in a longer format.
The other slightly disconcerting thing is that Hampson sets his music remarkably literally. The music is Kurt Weill, much of it from the Threepenny Suite, but also some of the French cabaret songs, as well as bracketing the ballet with a wonderful period recording (Walter Huston, I think) of the title song from Lost in the Stars, based on the Alan Paton novel. Hampson interprets the songs very specifically, the gestures tied to the words in a way I find somewhat limiting, in the end, and in many respects, there's more dance-mime than real choreography. On the other hand, there are some nice duets for Nola and her sailor boyfriend (Damien Johnson, all easy charm), and one of her last sequences, when she's staggering around the stage, blind drunk, is quite the tour de force for the dancer. Sayaka Ichikawa was an icy Lulu White, crisp and heartless.
This was one of my impulse outings, but certainly not regretted, and now that I've been introduced to Ballet Black, I'll happily attend next time they come to town.
[Next : 2nd November]
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