New/Works - Stuttgart Ballet

[LACAD]

This evening saw the premiere of the limited stream - ending on Monday at 10pm CET - of New/Works, by Stuttgart Ballet. An evening of contemporary ballet choreographers attached to the company’s history as part of their 60th anniversary. The quadruple bill is bursting with big names, and the company is rightfully very proud of the many great choreographers they’ve commissioned and had in house. It’s refreshing to see a major company stream an evening of mostly brand new works, leaving their performances to the consternation of a potentially much larger audience than the theatre can even fit.

 

And my mind goes to the word ‘consternation’ primarily because in my view this is a rather mixed Mixed Bill. 

 

Christian Spuck’s ‘Cassiopeia’ is a different venture for him (something he admits in his interview, there’s one for each choreographer bar Forsythe). The work is largely conceptual and abstract and he’s become much more known in recent years for full length story ballets. The piece shows the great contemporary talent of the company, particularly the arresting Elisa Badenes, but it was rather forgettable to me. The costumes and indeed the choreography recalls Kylian, even one of the music selections is used in his Bella Figura, but it feels sort of like an imitation of Kylian. There were some interesting passages of movement but they seemed to get swamped in rather dated ‘contemporary’ ideas.

 

I found I had the same issue with the other premieres. Marco Goecke’s intense duet Nachtmerrie felt rather one note. The impact and movement in his works are always striking, but it can be almost unyielding. I was amused by his choice to include a recording of Lady Gaga singing her pop anthem Bad Romance as a raspy cabaret chanteuse to piano, but that was the most interesting moment in the piece for me. Edward Clug’s Source is an aesthetic minimalist’s dream with its plain costuming, sets, and sleek use of the lines of the body. But despite a very physical and playful pas de deux performed by Rocio Aleman and star principal Friedemann Vogel, Clug - like Goecke, stuck with what he knew. The piece neither really took off or had a hook, nor was a thoughtful meditation. It was just… neutral.

 

I say all this still believing that it is better to produce new works than stick with safe bets, even if that leads to a dud. And while I wasn’t a huge fan of the previous works I still admire the choreographers and the intentions of Stuttgart Ballet. Yet I did find myself waiting patiently for the “safe bet”, and boy was I glad.

 

Forsythe’s Blake Works I has seem to have drawn superlatives since its premiere in 2016, and finally having seen the work I’m inclined to agree. Unlike the other works, this ballet doesn’t take itself seriously and quite aptly has a wonderful summery vibe, yet it is so rooted in pure academic ballet. The piece allows all ranks to shine, and while the dancers visibly aren’t so used to the breezy dynamism or intricate corps patterns of Forythe’s style, you can really see their joy radiate through. And what makes this piece really stand out is its episodic nature. While I certainly don’t think dance without a story needs to follow a specific layout, it needs to be interesting enough to rise above the need for an arc. In Blake Works I, if you’re not too fond of one section, there’ll be another shortly after with a completely different approach and ambiance. I’m excited to see it live next Spring in Sadler’s! One thing to note is that some viewers complained in the live chat about Forsythe’s wish that the piece is filmed neutrally, from the front of the stage, without close-ups, and with one camera. I almost preferred this as I can take it in like a live performance but please, consider the screen you watch this on.

 

Overall I’d recommend watching if you want to become more familiar with Stuttgart’s dancers (newer addition and Lausanne prize-winner Mackenzie Brown gets lots of deserved attention), or to give the world premieres a try. But I’d definitely say the stream is worth checking out for the Forsythe (beginning at 2:27:00).

 

I did find myself thinking about the recent and obviously warranted exploration of streaming theatre. I sincerely hope this trend of free or cheap streams continues once things get back ‘to normal’. I understand some smaller companies need bums on seats and it’s just not economically viable. But I hope bigger/wealthier companies continue to take full advantage to showcase their rep, dancers, and company to as wide an audience as possible.

[Sabine0308]

I saw the live stream yesterday as well, and agree with you on Christian Spuck's piece...some ideas for duets and single movement were beautiful but it left me cold. I had no idea what it was about before he explained it in the interview...and I don't like this. I mean when I don't get what the story is about from the choreo itself. I don't consider myself an expert so might be clueless about a story but at least I want to FEEL something. Here, I didn't. 

But GOECKE!! I loved that piece.  The story of  2 people, married or not but certainly in a relationship. Fighting, loving, struggling and forgiving- it was all there and spoke to me from the beginning. BEFORE I saw the interview with him. The body language Goecke creates is certainly not an easy one to understand but if you do, it's magic. Both dancers were incredible.

Crugs choreo was ok, nothing special and the Forsythe was the thrilling end to an interesting, diverse evening.

I liked that every single dancer got a little flower bouqet. And their Faces!! You could literally see them screaming: YES WE'RE BACK ONSTAGE! Was happy to see how much the audience cheered and demanded many curtain calls. So well deserved. ❤❤❤

[ninamargaret]

Have to admit I was less than impressed by the offerings, although no criticism of the performances. For what it's worth, my cat was fascinated by the Crug piece!

[Christine]

Finally, this weekend I was able to see live ballet again. And, like quite a few other fans of Stuttgart Ballet, after almost 7 and a half ballet-barren months I was so starved of this particular kind of pleasure that I went to see all three performances  - yes, I treated myself..!

 

And yes, a mixed bill it was, and while I enjoyed all the Works presented, whether New as a creation or New to the Stuttgart stage, I do agree that not all of them were a complete success. It is always fascinating to read other viewers’ accounts of your own local troupe and members on this forum really do have an amazing amount of experience and knowledge on ballet that has provided me with lots of valuable insights since I rediscovered ballet a few years ago. So I really loved reading your accounts of the stream, LACAD and Sabine0308, and, of course, ninamargaret, even if I was slightly taken aback by the use of the term “consternation”… not sure whether it is as strong a term in English as it is in the German language.

 

It’s certainly true, that Stuttgart Ballet love choreographic experiments at the risk of creating “duds”. I do hope, in this case, however that none of them will turn out to be quite that, although, admittedly my experience with the Spuck piece was similar to yours – it made for pleasant viewing, the backdrop painting with its stylise trees was beautiful, but I did not find it very memorable.

 

Still curious about that cause of “consternation”, LACAD, I went and had look at the live stream after the three shows and felt very strongly that some of the pieces did not really transmit very effectively at all onto the screen. The atmosphere evoked by the set, lighting, music and dancing in the real theatre context seemed to have burst like a bubble – which, I thought, especially applied to Source by Clug, but also, to some extent to the Goecke, where the ingenious, magical lighting really is an integral part of the story-telling by the dancers and the choreography but hardly registered on the screen. 

 

Source, seen live, developed a real hypnotic pull: visually - the centre-piece is a a huge chandelier-like structure hung with ceiling- to-floor strands of translucent material which initially served as a maze to the dancers and later were drawn up to a shorter length to hover like a good spirit (that of Cranko, perhaps) and shining a light above the dancers who were dressed in black-and-white sports suits looking very sleek;  musically – a beautiful if minimalist score – and also thanks to the reduced-to-the-max choreo with its use of unexpected twists. All in all, it made for a very fragile composition which, I feel, should best be seen in full without close-ups and heard with the full resonance of the live orchestra. The live stream made the choreography look overly simplistic. Whether this could have been improved by different camera work, I am not sure. I suspect, that some pieces just fall flat when streamed. Now, and since I have written this overlong sentence above, I have discovered Jeannettes’ comment on the piece in the other thread who obviously enjoyed the piece despite the live stream, so perhaps what I have been writing is just down to the usual disillusionment of watching a streamed performance after you’ve seen the real thing. By the way, even on the third viewing Source still felt like only 10 minutes rather than the 25 minutes it actually lasted.

 

Loved Nachtmerrie by Goecke, whom I very much admire like a lot of other German ballet-goers, as, for me, he has developed a choreographic language which can express the emotional turmoil of human existence and interaction with unrivalled clarity and graphic poignancy. I can understand that a lot of people find his style too disjointed, difficult, jerky - it goes so much against the grain of the flowing lines of ballet dancing.

 

I absolutely loved Blake Works I, of course, which was danced with so much spirit and exuberance. “Breezy dynamism”, such a perfect description of how the piece should ideally be danced, LACAD, and I could see that not all SB dancers had quite achieved that, yet. By the third performance, however, you could already see how much easier and flowing the dancing had become and how much the dancers really enjoyed flaunting it.

Edited June 24, 2021 by Jan McNulty
At request of member to correct a name.

[Sim]

Thanks for this wonderful review Christine.  

[LACAD]

On 22/06/2021 at 19:18, Christine said:

Finally, this weekend I was able to see live ballet again. And, like quite a few other fans of Stuttgart Ballet, after almost 7 and a half ballet-barren months I was so starved of this particular kind of pleasure that I went to see all three performances  - yes, I treated myself..!

 

And yes, a mixed bill it was, and while I enjoyed all the Works presented, whether New as a creation or New to the Stuttgart stage, I do agree that not all of them were a complete success. It is always fascinating to read other viewers’ accounts of your own local troupe and members on this forum really do have an amazing amount of experience and knowledge on ballet that has provided me with lots of valuable insights since I rediscovered ballet a few years ago. So I really loved reading your accounts of the stream, LACAD and Sabine0308, and, of course, ninamargaret, even if I was slightly taken aback by the use of the term “consternation”… not sure whether it is as strong a term in English as it is in the German language.

 

It’s certainly true, that Stuttgart Ballet love choreographic experiments at the risk of creating “duds”. I do hope, in this case, however that none of them will turn out to be quite that, although, admittedly my experience with the Spuck piece was similar to yours – it made for pleasant viewing, the backdrop painting with its stylise trees was beautiful, but I did not find it very memorable.

 

Still curious about that cause of “consternation”, LACAD, I went and had look at the live stream after the three shows and felt very strongly that some of the pieces did not really transmit very effectively at all onto the screen. The atmosphere evoked by the set, lighting, music and dancing in the real theatre context seemed to have burst like a bubble – which, I thought, especially applied to Source by Clug, but also, to some extent to the Goecke, where the ingenious, magical lighting really is an integral part of the story-telling by the dancers and the choreography but hardly registered on the screen. 

 

Source, seen live, developed a real hypnotic pull: visually - the centre-piece is a a huge chandelier-like structure hung with ceiling- to-floor strands of translucent material which initially served as a maze to the dancers and later were drawn up to a shorter length to hover like a good spirit (that of Cranko, perhaps) and shining a light above the dancers who were dressed in black-and-white sports suits looking very sleek;  musically – a beautiful if minimalist score – and also thanks to the reduced-to-the-max choreo with its use of unexpected twists. All in all, it made for a very fragile composition which, I feel, should best be seen in full without close-ups and heard with the full resonance of the live orchestra. The live stream made the choreography look overly simplistic. Whether this could have been improved by different camera work, I am not sure. I suspect, that some pieces just fall flat when streamed. Now, and since I have written this overlong sentence above, I have discovered Jeannettes’ comment on the piece in the other thread who obviously enjoyed the piece despite the live stream, so perhaps what I have been writing is just down to the usual disillusionment of watching a streamed performance after you’ve seen the real thing. By the way, even on the third viewing Source still felt like only 10 minutes rather than the 25 minutes it actually lasted.

 

Loved Nachtmerrie by Goecke, whom I very much admire like a lot of other German ballet-goers, as, for me, he has developed a choreographic language which can express the emotional turmoil of human existence and interaction with unrivalled clarity and graphic poignancy. I can understand that a lot of people find his style too disjointed, difficult, jerky - it goes so much against the grain of the flowing lines of ballet dancing.

 

I absolutely loved Blake Works I, of course, which was danced with so much spirit and exuberance. “Breezy dynamism”, such a perfect description of how the piece should ideally be danced, LACAD, and I could see that not all SB dancers had quite achieved that, yet. By the third performance, however, you could already see how much easier and flowing the dancing had become and how much the dancers really enjoyed flaunting it.

Great review Christine, I’m glad some of the pieces transferred stronger in the theatre than online.

 

In regards to my use of the word ‘consternation’ I don’t mean it too strongly. Just that sometimes an online audience can be a bit more discerning than one in the theatre that’s able to soak up the buzz and atmosphere. It’s easy to judge a work a little more harshly when you’re not there, and perhaps I may have done that with some of the pieces from that night myself! 

[Christine]

12 hours ago, LACAD said:

In regards to my use of the word ‘consternation’ I don’t mean it too strongly. Just that sometimes an online audience can be a bit more discerning than one in the theatre that’s able to soak up the buzz and atmosphere.

That is very true, of course, and you could add after a lengthy period of deprivation. Thank you for your comments, LACAD.