Ballet West - Les Noces

[miliosr]

I'm splitting my review of Ballet West's revival of Les Noces into two parts so it doesn't end up being one gargantuan post . . .

 

I saw Ballet West’s revival of Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces on April 14^th and 15^th at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City.

 

I won’t belabor things with a long discussion of the plot, which consists of four tableaus depicting a Russian peasant wedding. The four tableaus are: Benediction of the Bride, Benediction of the Bridegroom, Departure of the Bride from the Parental Home and The Wedding Feast.

 

I would say that I had two different reactions (of varying intensity) to Les Noces. Those two reactions track with the two distinct but overlapping phases of the Ballets Russes (Les Noces’s originating company): its Russian phase and its Cubist phase. (Cubist being a proxy word for Modernism in general and French Modernism in particular.)

 

The lesser of my two reactions pertains to Les Noces as a dance drama with a Russian theme at its core. On that point, both performances left me unconvinced. To my eyes, it wasn’t a performance problem – the company looked fully committed to the piece. Where I think Les Noces the Russian drama and Ballet West the 21^st century Intermountain dance company parted ways was in how the ballet’s situation (a peasant wedding with a bride being married off to someone she doesn’t know) and the overall level of attractiveness at Ballet West worked in opposition to one another: the dancers at Ballet West look much too attractive, too fit and too modern to be believable as Russian peasants.

 

The problem manifests itself particularly in the interactions of the Bride and the Bridegroom. Her grim reactions to him are hard to believe given that the dancer playing the Bridegroom is very good-looking. Both nights I found myself thinking, “Does she not see who is staring her in the face? We should all have such problems!”

 

Complicating matters further is that Ballet West, as a medium-sized ballet company, doesn’t have a Principal Character Artists rank so character parts have to be played by company members who are the same general age as the leads. This undercut the believability of the stage action at times, particularly in the interaction of the Bridegroom and the Bridegroom’s Father; the latter looking more like the Bridegroom’s brother.

 

The one moment where Les Noces came alive for me as a dance drama was when the Bride’s enormous braids are wrapped around her neck. It’s a marvelous piece of stage business on Nijinska’s part as that moment perfectly encapsulates the Bride’s situation. She looks like she’s being strangled by a python and that strangulation acts as a proxy for her entire dilemma.

 

Part 2 still to come . . .

Edited April 17, 2023 by miliosr

[Sim]

Thank you @miliosr   I am looking forward to Part 2!

[miliosr]

Part 2 of my review of Bronislava Nijinska's Les Noces . . . 

 

Ballet West’s revival of Les Noces left me unconvinced of its viability as a lived, Russian-themed dance drama (the Ballets Russes at its most Russian, if you will). However, the production absolutely convinced me of its status as a living species of Modernist art (despite its origins in a bygone era) and as the truth foretold in regard to what were then still-future developments in dance.

 

To start, Nijinska’s choreography is rooted in classicism but it’s a highly individualized classicism – at times turned out, at times turned in, at times occupying a kind of neutral space (legs in parallel) between the two. Then there is her unique treatment of pointe technique for the women. Pointe work in Les Noces is not a launching pad for empty virtuosity. Instead, the monolithic pounding of the women when on pointe both underscores the oppressiveness of the Bride’s situation (far more effectively than the bits of actual character business did) and acts as a kind of accompaniment to Igor Stravinsky’s score.

 

By itself, Nijinska’s treatment of classical technique would be achievement enough. But the level of her invention did not (and does not) stop there. Throughout Les Noces, Nijinska deploys the dancers as moving blocks (or cubes) of humanity. The stage effect is akin to a Cubist painting by Georges Braque or Pablo Picasso suddenly springing to life. And not just that. The way Nijinska deploys these surging blocks in counterpoint to one another leaves the impression of two separate elements in a Cubist painting engaging in an ongoing dialogue. The result represents a fascinating application of Cubist thinking to dance; an application that is perhaps more successful than the ostentatiously Cubist Parade ever was.

 

I mentioned at the start of this post that Les Noces was “the truth foretold”. What I meant is this: Although rooted in classicism, Nijinska and Les Noces predicted the rise of Modern dance and Postmodern dance. In her use of flexed (rather than pointed) feet and her depiction of the body’s relationship to gravity and the ground, she anticipated Martha Graham and Jose Limon. Likewise, her use of repetitious non-dance movement like walking (everyday movement reconfigured as dance) suggested postmodernist dance makers like Lucinda Childs. What’s more, she bound together the two disparate movement systems (using classicism as the binding agent) even though 40 years later the ‘classical’ Modern dance of Graham and Limon and the Postmodern dance of choreographers like Childs were deemed fundamentally incompatible.

 

Where did all this leave me as I left the theater both nights? I was neutral about Les Noces as a dance drama. Perhaps a peasant drama set in the pre-revolutionary Russian mist is unrecapturable for 21^st century audiences (and dancers). But as a work of Modernist art, which not only encapsulates its time but times both antecedent and subsequent to its own, Les Noces remains fresh and first-rate.

 

Part 3 still to come . . . 

Edited April 18, 2023 by miliosr

[miliosr]

Part 3 - Final thoughts on Bronislava Nijinska's Les Noces . . .

 

What does the future hold for Nijinska's Les Noces?

 

It is an extraordinary work but its constituent parts don't lend themselves to enduring, popular success. The dance content is first-rate but it's not immediately accessible to the casual viewer in the way that the dance content in the other two works on the bill - Jerome Robbins's In the Night and Gerald Arpino's Light Rain - is. No surprise, then, that In the Night received twice as much applause as Les Noces and Light Rain received three times as much applause (as well as standing ovations on both nights).

 

Complicating matters even further is Igor Stravinsky's score. It will never be the kind of score that audiences love. In fact, the woman sitting next to me on the second night described it as "crazy," which if your idea of proper ballet music is the beautiful Chopin piano music from In the Night, then the score to Les Noces most certainly must seem crazy.

 

So, unfortunately, I foresee a continuing uncertain future for Les Noces. But my full compliments to Ballet West artistic director Adam Sklute for reviving Les Noces in its centennial year when the directors of wealthier, more established companies disgraced themselves by ignoring it. (To her credit, Cathy Marston has programmed Nijinska's Les Noces at the Zurich Ballet in 2024.)

[bridiem]

6 hours ago, miliosr said:

Part 3 - Final thoughts on Bronislava Nijinska's Les Noces . . .

 

What does the future hold for Nijinska's Les Noces?

 

It is an extraordinary work but its constituent parts don't lend themselves to enduring, popular success. The dance content is first-rate but it's not immediately accessible to the casual viewer in the way that the dance content in the other two works on the bill - Jerome Robbins's In the Night and Gerald Arpino's Light Rain - is. No surprise, then, that In the Night received twice as much applause as Les Noces and Light Rain received three times as much applause (as well as standing ovations on both nights).

 

Complicating matters even further is Igor Stravinsky's score. It will never be the kind of score that audiences love. In fact, the woman sitting next to me on the second night described it as "crazy," which if your idea of proper ballet music is the beautiful Chopin piano music from In the Night, then the score to Les Noces most certainly must seem crazy.

 

So, unfortunately, I foresee a continuing uncertain future for Les Noces. But my full compliments to Ballet West artistic director Adam Sklute for reviving Les Noces in its centennial year when the directors of wealthier, more established companies disgraced themselves by ignoring it. (To her credit, Cathy Marston has programmed Nijinska's Les Noces at the Zurich Ballet in 2024.)

 

Thank you for your really interesting reports, miliosr.

 

You are no doubt right about Les Noces having a continuing uncertain future. But companies do still (occasionally!) stage works because they deem them to be interesting/important even if they don't foresee great popular success for them - not every bit of programming is (or should be) done with accessibility to the casual viewer in mind (though even subsidised companies do seem to be being pushed further and further down that route). And programming can educate and enlighten, and open up new perspectives for the viewer (even the casual viewer!). You say that the music 'will never be the kind of score that audiences love' - but I love it (and did so when I first heard it aged 17, when Les Noces was part of the first ballet performance I ever saw and when I had up until then heard very little classical music). I don't think that people have no capability for being interested and intrigued by different material, and it's doing them a disservice by making everything the equivalent of easy listening. (I don't mean that 'difficult' music should be used on principle - I do find a lot of contemporary classical music unlistenable to (apologies for grammar) and I suspect choreographing to it would be near impossible - but I don't actually find Les Noces difficult in that way - it's unusual but thrilling.) Most of my musical 'education' (such as it is) has come from two sources: ballet, and the choir of which I was a member for many years. So ballet has a really important role to play in terms of providing serious, stimulating works, including works from previous centuries, rather than just being a fun evening out. (Not that the two are mutually exclusive, of course!). So I'm very glad to hear that Cathy Marston is staging Les Noces next year.

[Emeralds]

English National Ballet is also staging Les Noces this year (the ballet’s centenary year) in their Our Voices triple bill in September at Sadler’s Wells: a programme that is bravely bucking the trend, by rejecting the notion of “having singers is too expensive”. They’ve announced that their singers for Les Noces will be the chorus of the respected Opera Holland Park company, and they also have the excellent Madeleine Pierard singing Strauss for another work (Four Last Songs) in the programme, so there’s no compromise in the quality of singing for the ballets. It will have new choreography by Andrea Miller.

 

Nijinska’s version will come back later on, maybe not in this year or next year given world events. Brave of Ballet West to stage this version and it sounds like it was a nice balance of different styles. Les Noces is never a showstopper ballet that has people cheering the way they might for Don Quixote pas de deux or Act 3 of Swan Lake. The applause has always been warm and appreciative rather than cheering from the rafters, but I think it would be tedious to have programmes that are only about pyrotechnics all the time -would probably kill off the art form eventually! On the strength of the score and Nijinska’s creativity, I’m certain her choreography will return in the future. 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Emeralds

[Ianlond]

Thank you Miliosr for such a detailed review. I agree Les Noces has challenges regarding its appreciation by audiences (and probably directors and dancers too!) but that it’s also an extraordinary work of art that larger companies really should programme. If everything was Don Q or Swan Lake Act 3, it would get very dull, very quickly. I have everything crossed for the RB’s new season announcement! 

[Jan McNulty]

When I was doing the Links last week I picked up a couple of previews for Hedwig Dances in Chicago performing a sequel to the Triadic Ballet created during the Bauhaus period in Germany.  I would be fascinated to hear any reports of that.

[alison]

Where's enb getting four pianists from?

[Jan McNulty]

31 minutes ago, alison said:

Where's enb getting four pianists from?

I think I can still manage chopsticks!

[Emeralds]

4 hours ago, alison said:

Where's enb getting four pianists from?

Joke answer: quite a lot of dancers are good pianists.....eg they could ask Lachlan Monaghan and Vadim Muntagirov to drop in from Birmingham and across town if they fancy a night off (lol), as they are both reputed to be good pianists. 😂

 

Truthful answer: lots of professional pianists and musicians left out of work since the pandemic closures and rising inflation/costs . If you ask any agent or check the professional websites that the musicians have signed up on (no fees/very cheap fees) the list of pianists available for freelance last minute work  is as long as your arm 😢. And they are all of an incredible standard: they could probably sightread Les Noces - or already know it - while playing in time with 3 others, but will likely to have practised thoroughly (score can now be copied or read off online legally -hurrah Internet) between getting the phone call and arriving for rehearsals (I know two who are in that situation).

Edited April 23, 2023 by Emeralds

[Emeralds]

9 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

When I was doing the Links last week I picked up a couple of previews for Hedwig Dances in Chicago performing a sequel to the Triadic Ballet created during the Bauhaus period in Germany.  I would be fascinated to hear any reports of that.

Me too, Janet- sounds like a lot of interesting work by that ensemble and from that theatre in Chicago. Thanks for posting about them! 

[Sim]

20 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

I think I can still manage chopsticks!

Me too....we can do a duet!  😅

[SheilaC]

On 23/04/2023 at 09:29, Ianlond said:

Thank you Miliosr for such a detailed review. I agree Les Noces has challenges regarding its appreciation by audiences (and probably directors and dancers too!) but that it’s also an extraordinary work of art that larger companies really should programme. If everything was Don Q or Swan Lake Act 3, it would get very dull, very quickly. I have everything crossed for the RB’s new season announcement! 

When the Royal Ballet first danced it they did so with such commitment that it seemed a total masterpiece, despite the unusual score (for a ballet), the brown sombre costumes, the (initially) seeming lack of emotional engagement. I do so wish they would do it again.

 

Another ballet I'd really love to see again is Christopher Bruce's Ghost Dances, a section of the score was played this morning on R3 (as was a Scott Joplin piece that's in Elite Syncopations, which we are likely to see again). The Royal never did it and the latest incarnation of Rambert, (who created it) is not likely to choose to perform it again. Yet the spirit of the ballet is very much in tune with the times and the Sadler's Wells audience would love it..... as they did the environmentalist piece by Crystal Pite that NDT did last week (at the final performance Simon McBurney, of Complicite, who created the piece with Crystal, came on stage and addressed the audience to urge us to fight what he called ecocide; a political act that would be completely unthinkable at ROH!)

[Jan McNulty]

I would love to see Ghost Dances again!

 

I think quite a lot of Christopher Bruce’s works have a ‘political’ background.

 

Of course during the Schaufuss era, Christopher Bruce created several works for ENB - Land, The World Again, Symphony in 3 Movements, Swansong and Cruel Garden was revived for the company.  How about some of our other ballet companies taking on some of his work!

[ninamargaret]

23 hours ago, alison said:

Where's enb getting four pianists from?

And four grand pianos?

[Emeralds]

3 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

And four grand pianos?

That’s the easiest bit - lots of piano dealers hire them out, eg Steinway, Yamaha, Kauai, etc etc - and can arrange or recommend a good tuner to service the pianos before each performance. 

[Emeralds]

5 hours ago, SheilaC said:

When the Royal Ballet first danced it they did so with such commitment that it seemed a total masterpiece, despite the unusual score (for a ballet), the brown sombre costumes, the (initially) seeming lack of emotional engagement. I do so wish they would do it again.

 

Another ballet I'd really love to see again is Christopher Bruce's Ghost Dances, a section of the score was played this morning on R3 (as was a Scott Joplin piece that's in Elite Syncopations, which we are likely to see again). The Royal never did it and the latest incarnation of Rambert, (who created it) is not likely to choose to perform it again. Yet the spirit of the ballet is very much in tune with the times and the Sadler's Wells audience would love it..... as they did the environmentalist piece by Crystal Pite that NDT did last week (at the final performance Simon McBurney, of Complicite, who created the piece with Crystal, came on stage and addressed the audience to urge us to fight what he called ecocide; a political act that would be completely unthinkable at ROH!)

Another vote here for Ghost Dances. And ENB to revive their productions of Swansong and Cruel Garden too!

[ninamargaret]

4 hours ago, Emeralds said:

That’s the easiest bit - lots of piano dealers hire them out, eg Steinway, Yamaha, Kauai, etc etc - and can arrange or recommend a good tuner to service the pianos before each performance. 

They could, if course, use the original version which doesn't use pianos. It's just been released on a cd, and is far more percussive than the four piano version.

[Benjamin]

On 23/04/2023 at 23:49, alison said:

Where's enb getting four pianists from?

Maybe they have a piano company sponsoring them? They would want to have one. 

[ChrisG]

If anyone’s interested, a live concert recording of Les Noces from the 1996 Verbier Festival has just been released by Deutsche Grammophon on Spotify and Apple Music Classical. It features the choir I sing in, the Hallé Choir, and talking to those who took part it sounds like it was a hoot! The album also includes a recording of Rite of Spring from the 2013 festival.

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by ChrisG

[Ondine]

Brandon Lawrence said in the latest podcast that Ballett Zürich will be performing Les Noces.

[Scheherezade]

On 24/04/2023 at 12:03, Sim said:

Me too....we can do a duet!  😅

You are going to be busy next season, Sim, what with Chopsticks and the 32 fouettés. 

[Scheherezade]

On 24/04/2023 at 12:58, SheilaC said:

 

Another ballet I'd really love to see again is Christopher Bruce's Ghost Dances

I love Ghost Dances. It can’t come back too soon for me. 

[Sim]

1 minute ago, Scheherezade said:

You are going to be busy next season, Sim, what with Chopsticks and the 32 fouettés. 

😂😅😅

[Ian Macmillan]

An issue I hadn't considered before when the practicalities of staging Les Noces is concerned comes up in Leigh Witchel's excellent review of the Ballet West performance (today's links) is the space available:

 

It’s also a logistical nightmare. Somehow, you need to get four pianos into the theater. If they’re in the pit and you want another orchestral work during the evening, you have to move them. As Adam Sklute, the company’s director, opined in an informal conversation, the complexities of getting the work on the stage are the biggest obstacles to seeing it more.