Stuttgart Ballet, Mixed bill “Breath-taking”

[Duck]

Gauthier Dance on Saturday night at the Colours International Dance Festival, the Royal Ballet on Sunday afternoon in a cinema broadcast, and to start the weekend, Stuttgart Ballet in a new triple bill “Breath-taking” last Friday evening (ballet & dance events like busses … a bit of a wait followed by three at once?) with works by Itzik Galili, Johan Inger and Akram Khan.

Itzik Galili: Hikarizatto was created for the company in 2004. Galili was inspired by the movement of people that he saw when he was in Tokyo – lots of fast movements within constrained spaces and with a mix of light and shadow. The piece thus comes with striking light design that makes the stage resemble a chess board. The dancers perform within light shafts, and when they quickly move to another imagined square on the stage, the light moves there within a split second, too. The remainder of the stage is dark as night. Sometimes the appearance of a new light shaft drives the change of the dancer’s positions on stage whereas at other times, the dancers moving across the stage will drive where the light will go to next. Initially just one female, then one male dancer, followed by several female/ male duos and groups of male & female dancers, further solos, etc. Dancing comes with e.g., female dancers on pointe, high extensions, balances and wriggling bodies in PDDs as well as some group sections that reminded me of some simple centre exercises. All this to fast percussion music, requiring meticulous timing and coordination between musicians, dancers and light technicians. Rhythmic, pulsating, break taking, wow. The ovations didn’t seem to end for this first piece of the evening, even the musicians applauded the dancers, and the light design with its shifting light shafts continued for the curtain calls.

Johan Inger: Out of Breath, an addition to the company’s repertoire, and quite a change in atmosphere from Hikarizatto. This piece took its inspiration from the medical complications that occurred during the birth of a child of Johan Inger. And so the centre piece on stage is a curved wall that symbolises the edge between life and death/ that represents life’s challenges and struggles. Even though this is an abstract piece, aspects of events and relationships can be seen. Female dancers in ballet flats now. Some dancers on stage are on their own. A female dancer runs around the wall a number of times until she is held up by a male dancer. There’s a couple that is in a quite passionate state of their relationship. A male dancer tries hard several times to climb the wall and fails every time. The piece ends as a male dancer helps a female dancer reach the top of the wall – has she reached her aim, or is she now truly at the edge of things? This piece was received enthusiastically, too, and in particular the solo violinist received massive ovations.

Akram Khan: Kaash, another addition to the company’s repertoire, making Stuttgart Ballet the first company in Germany that performs a work by Akram Khan. The percussion music is played live, supplemented by recorded samples of syllables. Movements switch between fast and slow and between edgy and soft (e.g., arms shaping a flower). Repeatedly lunges to the side with arms swinging from side to side, turns in parallel. Dancers are barefoot and wear long wide black skirts over black trousers, male dancers with bare torsos. At the start, Friedemann Vogel stands still, his back facing the audience, in the midst of the dancers, before he joins in. The work ends with a prolonged solo in complete silence by Vogel. His back is again towards the audience, and he twists and turns his fingers, arms, shoulders, upper body in all possible directions. Statuesque and, it seemed, making every single muscle fibre visible as and when these were activated by his ever-changing twists and turns. Statuesque and spectacular, the whole piece inducing a trance-like atmosphere.

Great dancing, superb music played live. Luckily, this programme will feature next season, too. Much looking forward to seeing this triple bill again (just wondering currently how many performances I might look to attend).

A preview with extracts of the three works here https://www.ardmediathek.de/ard/player/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS9hZXgvbzExMzE0MjA/

 

 

 

[bridiem]

I can't imagine anyone other than Akram Khan dancing Kaash (and I didn't know anyone else had done so). Very interesting!

[Jan McNulty]

Wow ... I've gone a funny shade of green just reading your report Duck.

 

This sounds just like the sort of programme I love!

 

Thanks!

[Duck]

Thanks so much, bridiem and Jan.

 

@ bridiem - Kaash has also been performed by the Royal Ballet of Flanders. There is a note in the programme book that the work was adapted/ extended for the Belgium company in 2017 (to account for the higher number of dancers I think) and that Akram Khan was planning further adaptations of the piece for Stuttgart Ballet. I haven't seen Kaash with either Khan's company or the Royal Ballet of Flanders so can't tell how much has changed. In terms of dancing style, are you able to tell from the brief extract in the preview in the link above whether there are any differences in style (or is the extract just too short to tell?)?

 

@ Jan - there'll be further performances of this triple bill next season https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/calendar/2019-07/breath-taking/51/   There was a direct flight from Manchester to Stuttgart a few years ago, not sure whether this still exists. From my own experience when I was living in Merseyside, travelling to Stuttgart wasn't particularly straightforward.

 

 

[bridiem]

26 minutes ago, Duck said:

Thanks so much, bridiem and Jan.

 

@ bridiem - Kaash has also been performed by the Royal Ballet of Flanders. There is a note in the programme book that the work was adapted/ extended for the Belgium company in 2017 (to account for the higher number of dancers I think) and that Akram Khan was planning further adaptations of the piece for Stuttgart Ballet. I haven't seen Kaash with either Khan's company or the Royal Ballet of Flanders so can't tell how much has changed. In terms of dancing style, are you able to tell from the brief extract in the preview in the link above whether there are any differences in style (or is the extract just too short to tell?)?

 

 

I'm not sure, Duck, but the extract is great. I suppose Khan himself is such an amazing dancer that no-one else could be quite like him. But others in his company are/have been brilliant too, and these Stuttgart dancers look excellent too.

[Sim]

Thank you for your wonderful review, Duck.  Thanks to that and the link you posted, I want to go to Stuttgart next season!  

[Duck]

Thank so much, Sim. If you are able to travel to Stuttgart (flight connections are fine) and chosen the date of the performance, feel free to message me, with a bit of luck I'll be there, too - it'd be wonderful to say hello and express my thanks for the forum in person.

 

[Sim]

Thanks so much Duck.  I will do that if I come over!