Shobana Jeyasingh Dance - "Bayadère – The Ninth Life"

[trog]

I caught this at the MAC in Birmingham last night and as I had hitherto never seen any of Jeyasingh's work, I was hoping to see something that would further expand my appreciation of modern dance.

Putting into the pot Petipa's "La Bayadère", the internet, an account of an 1830s European tour by real Bayaderes (as recorded by Theophile Gautier), her own experience of viewing of the ballet and giving it all a big stir, the result is, in my opinion, largely what you would expect.

The work starts strongly, with clever use of projections, as a précis of "La Bayadère" is presented. The characters from the ballet are introduced, and elements of Petipa's choreography are recognisable. This could be described as the ballet for the YouTube generation and I thought it was very clever. After telling the story so familiar to ballet goes, we end this section with the shades.

The second section starts with the aforementioned 1830s tour and the score includes repeated snippets from a contemporary account of the dancers, probably that of Gautier. I could see that this was quickly going to degenerate into the typical rolling around on the floor, that to me seems to be a feature of modern dance. I was proven to be correct. Later we were presented with seemingly random movements, some drawn from yoga, some from ballet but mostly the dancers contorting their bodies and sticking legs into the air as high as possible.

A measure that I use as to the success of a work, is how much my mind wanders during it. In the second half I was wondering why all the men had green tops under their main costume, while the women had red? Is her hair really that colour or is it a trick of the light?

To a score by Gabriel Prokofiev (a relation?), which I rather liked, the nine dancers clearly worked hard to deliver. In the program notes, Jeyasingh describes how she watched a performance of the ballet, and how this left questions unanswered. This work does not answer them, nor does it ask any new questions. I'm sure many will enjoy this immensely; your author found it very patchy, starting well but finishing poorly.

[alison]

I could see that this was quickly going to degenerate into the typical rolling around on the floor, that to me seems to be a feature of modern dance. I was proven to be correct. Later we were presented with seemingly random movements, some drawn from yoga, some from ballet but mostly the dancers contorting their bodies and sticking legs into the air as high as possible.

 

True, I haven't seen any of Jeyasingh's work in recent years, but I would never have expected to see much of what you describe above in one of her pieces.  How strange.

 

And yes, Gabriel is Prokofiev's grandson, I believe.  He has had a work or two played at the Proms in recent years.

[aileen]

Richmond Ballet used a piece of music by Gabriel Prokofiev for one of the ballets which they performed at the Linbury a couple of years ago.