Cross Connection Ballet:
Outside In
Constantine Baecher:
Chiaroscuro
Tim Matiakis:
Piaseme &
Forgetting You is Like Breathing Water
Louise Midjord:
Map of Me (and You)
Martin Forsberg:
Working Title
Cross Connection Ballet, an extra curricular activity for a group of Royal Danish Ballet dancers under the direction of dancers Cedric Lambrette and Constantine Baecher is an impressive company, if being a company is measured by the ability to attract dancers to work for free, to produce a number of new choreography, to attract sponsorship and to market the company though all media platforms, not the least social media. They are a model in the way the present the company, combine a program with an exhibition, produce nice video snippets, arrange after performance intros with choreographers. And of course they do not forget to press a flyer into the hands of the audience at exit point, so we know when their next performance is scheduled.
So much skill and understanding on how to present a company with the total packet. And it is the more commendable as this company is not a full-time effort.
But one does not judge a company on presentation skills alone. Looking at the works presented it was unfortunately a mixed bag.
Ballet is as subject to fashion as any other industry. And for the last seasons the fashion re. ballet has dictated that new choreography should resemble modern dance and feature ground work and still work rather than jumps, spins and rapid movements. That trend is very significant in this Cross Connection program. It may be very well, but except for a few modern trained dancers the company is dominated by classically trained dancers, who are schooled to dance against gravity and not with it. So instead of catering for the dancers' qualities, much of the effort was spent to turn elegant dancers into non-moving grunting heavy objects in a array of ill fitting and unflattering costumes.
Voulez Vous
Reading the program notes it is very clear that the choreographers (mainly RDB dancers wanting to expand their CVs) has done a lot of home work especially in philosophy and spirituality. But that co-director Constantine Baechers "Chiaroucuro" is based on Celtic spirituality is definitely not poignant when the two RDB ladies -- Alfa Nadal and Louise Midjord together with Heloise Vellard -- crawl around the stage in lace leotards and above the knee red stockings, looking more like extras from Bazz Luhrmans famous Moulin Rouge video. Baecher has some good ideas, like having an artist on stage painting the decor during performance, and he uses the spotlights as support for the dancers, but in essentials the choreography is weak and uninteresting.
Let the movie begin
Prior to Tim Matiakis' ballet a nice little simple movie played. Filmed from one camera in a freight elevator, Matiakis, more dancers and various objects made interesting moves captured by the camera. It was clearly done on a small budget, but it had all the life and energy missing from both Matiakis' oeuvres. The first, Piaseme", was intended to portray human feelings, like fear and anxiety and support, but save the opening where Ester Lee Wilkinson, suspended in space, danced a pas de deux with a grounded partner, poetry and meaning are absent. For the rest of the ballet a large part was devoted to a monotone group number where the sounds of the predominantly male ensemble and Esther Lee with a sort of Monica Seles grunt made the sound. Matiakis' second work, "Forgetting You is Like Breathing Water," focus three girls carrying probably flamingo bricks in the shoulder parts of the bodice, making them hunch-backed. The bottom half of the costume is a diaper shaped dress and black knee stockings. It could not be uglier but the choreography is nothing but bland. I wish that Matiakis would let go to of the heavy stuff and instead chase the energy from the film and his own best work as a dancer.
It is all in the concept
Swedish Martin Forsberg is all about concept. His cast of four dancers and thee audience members is hushed around the stage doing rehearsed segments, as probed by prerecorded messages givem to them on ipods, thereby making one ballet into approximately 660 different versions. Fun concept but messy result. I suppose that the audience participation is inspired by Ohad Naharin's "Minus 7" which was a great hit at RDB a few years backs, but Forsberg cannot get as much impact as Naharin did from mixing dancers with the public.
Doing what you know
Louise Midjord has been on the choreographic trail for a number of years and created ballets in several genres. What she does best is shown in "Maps of me (and you) ", a work originally created for the Beijing Contemporary Dance Theatre.
Midjord is great on relationship ballets, you can almost coin the term "Chic-ballets" to describe her best works. She has previously, like the other choreographers, wandered into heavy subjects with little result, but it remains the human relations that make her work stand out. Five couples in brown y-fronts and vests (compared to the other works, that looks poignant and elegant) takes us to all stages of a relationship with opportunities to dancers to show personality and skill. Choreography does not have to be more complicated than that to be effective and poignant. One small complaint though. I wished that Midjord would start respecting the unity of a score. More often than not she presents us with a patchwork of various sound sources, but this a minor comment on one of her best and most well constructed works.
Keeping the company
With the professionalism of Cross Connection Ballet and its ability to produce, I cannot help regretting that this company was not around when Alexei Ratmansky, Michael Corder and Tim Rushton started their choreographic careers in the RDB, when options were few. This company could be a godsend for a great choreographer in the making, and identifying and supporting a unique talent could really bring Cross Connection on the greater map. But that will demand that the company should gain real artistic management skills to select and support the greater talent rather than anyone wanting to choreograph. That could be the best challenge for Cross Connection and a way to grow the company into significance.
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