The National Theatre Ballet ensemble has introduced the first premiere of the season, a piece called Moonshine, composed of choreographies by Christopher Bruce, a famous British author and former artistic director of the London-based Ballet Rambert.
Even before the opening night took place, Czech audiences also had had the opportunity to get to know Christopher Bruce in a way somewhat different from his artistic work. The National Theatre organized a week before the premiere at the New Stage an (in)formal meeting A talk with Christopher Bruce with Petr Zuska, the artistic director of National Theatre Ballet as a host. The interview was not so much about the approaching premiere, the talk revolved rather around sources of inspiration, about ethnic and folk music, aspirations and limits, current situation and plans for the future, even Marie Rambert and Christopher’s leisure time activities in his garden have been mentioned too. Petr Zuska coped with his role courageously, he even did not need an interpreter, so one could turn a blind eye over the "negligible" historical inaccuracies that he made (Marie Rambert did not create her own version of The Rite of Spring after Nijinsky had made his one, she rather helped him with understanding the complex score by Stravinsky). Still, it must be said that Talks with ... are a great idea that will hopefully find their place among the regular program activities of the National Theatre.
Anyway, from a dramaturgical point of view it is definitely not a good idea to compose an entire evening of choreographies of just one author. His or her distinctive choreographic style then seems to be rather tiresome even if the programme consists of pieces based on different music, moods, smells and flavours.
The opening piece Dance at the Crossroads with songs by the British group The Waterboys is a story of a woman who recalls her vanished youth. She symbolically sheds her overgarments and returns in her thoughts several decades back. From a black coat to a red dress and slips and back again. The way nostalgically idealized memories gradually gain a more realistic form is quite evident. She goes from a self-confident, playful, exuberant girl to somebody no one really wants and who suffers. The story has a clear dramaturgical line with music regularly changing slow melodies for quick rhythms. Dance in all its forms and aspects creates an impression of infinite fluidity, the movement seems never to stop, even if it slowed down to a maximum. The culminating point is a sad, dreamy duet between Zuzana Susová and Alexander Katsapov, which is the exact opposite of the original self-confident, spirited version.
Moonshine, although being the piece the whole evening takes its name from is rather controversial. It was originally created in 1993 for Nederlands Dans Theater 3, a company of dancers advanced in age. It is based most of all on the characters of the performers and apart from the nostalgic line that it somewhat radiates it is assumed that the actions of the dancers will make the audiences laugh or, at least, smile. None of that, however, really happens for most of the time. Dancers (namely Tereza Podařilová, Edita Raušerová, Oleksandr Kysil and Viktor Konvalinka as the first cast) either fail to really get into their characters or, on the contrary, tend to overact their roles. The most convincing of the cast was Oleksandr Kysil. Anyway, there are a lot of weak moments in the piece and the question is what they are actually supposed to represent. At the beginning it seems that a family with two teenagers is going on a trip (with rather too heavy suitcases), hower, the idea somewhat disappears after the duet of mother and her son or the sequence, where the daughter tries to seduce her father. The piece then ends with the dancers looking at a rather trashy horizon representing a landscape somewhere in the southwestern United States. Fans of Bob Dylan, whose songs are played throughout the show may find at least something attractive there, unfortunately, others are bored to death.
The last piece, Rooster, is an ode to youth. To the youth of Christopher Bruce, who lived at the time when the legendary Rolling Stones played hits such as Sympathy for the Devil, Ruby Tuesday and Play with Fire. It was to these and other songs by this British rock 'n' roll band that dancers performed, men looking like fops with hair-grease, dressed in colourful shirts and ladies as stylized as temptresses, playful coquettes or chaste girls. The theme of playful youth gives situational humor full play. In addition to corps de ballet scenes some duets are there too, and solos for men and ladies, where the opposite sex is the backdrop for the presentation of the main characters thoughts. Among the performers it was especially Alexander Katsapov attracted a spectator’s eye, fitting into the role of a showing-off rooster well. A duet with an ostrich boa performed by Ivana Mikešová and Francesco Scarpato was quite impressive too. As for the range of movement, however, it was quite obvious how much time has passed since the inception of the piece some 20 years ago, no wonder that combinations of some dance parts, mainly jumps taken from classical dance technique combined with contemporary dance and civilian movements seem rather unnatural and outdated (chassé, grand jeté, backswingsetc.). Nevertheless, all things considered, Rooster is quite a good act, the music by Rolling Stones energizes the audiences and at some points the dancers really seem to be having a good time.
As Petr Zuska said after the premiere of Moonshine, by including a piece by Christopher Bruce in the National Theatre Ballet repertoire his dream came true. The question is whether this idea was not rather short-sighted. Less is sometimes more... similar movements and dance parts may be interesting in the first piece, but fail to surprise in the second one and tend to be rather boring in the last one. Similarly monotonous seems to be the use of songs as the background for dance. There is no question about Christopher Bruce’s musicality. However, it seems that the songs had rather forced their simple rhythms and melodies upon his choreographies, instead of him creating a defiant dialogue with them, which happens only at some points in Dance at the Crossroads.
From this perspective, it would be certainly more interesting for spectators to see the works of more dance icons, one of whom Christopher Bruce undoubtedly is, together on one stage
Review is written from the premiere on November 16th, 2011 at the New Stage of the National Theatre.
Translation: Tomáš Valníček
The National Theatre Ballet ensemble has introduced the first premiere of the season, a piece called Moonshine, composed of choreographies by Christopher Bruce, a famous British author and former artistic director of the London-based Ballet Rambert.
Even before the opening night took place, Czech audiences also had had the opportunity to get to know Christopher Bruce in a way somewhat different from his artistic work. The National Theatre organized a week before the premiere at the New Stage an (in)formal meeting A talk with Christopher Bruce with Petr Zuska, the artistic director of National Theatre Ballet as a host. The interview was not so much about the approaching premiere, the talk revolved rather around sources of inspiration, about ethnic and folk music, aspirations and limits, current situation and plans for the future, even Marie Rambert and Christopher’s leisure time activities in his garden have been mentioned too. Petr Zuska coped with his role courageously, he even did not need an interpreter, so one could turn a blind eye over the "negligible" historical inaccuracies that he made (Marie Rambert did not create her own version of The Rite of Spring after Nijinsky had made his one, she rather helped him with understanding the complex score by Stravinsky). Still, it must be said that Talks with ... are a great idea that will hopefully find their place among the regular program activities of the National Theatre.
Anyway, from a dramaturgical point of view it is definitely not a good idea to compose an entire evening of choreographies of just one author. His or her distinctive choreographic style then seems to be rather tiresome even if the programme consists of pieces based on different music, moods, smells and flavours.
The opening piece Dance at the Crossroads with songs by the British group The Waterboys is a story of a woman who recalls her vanished youth. She symbolically sheds her overgarments and returns in her thoughts several decades back. From a black coat to a red dress and slips and back again. The way nostalgically idealized memories gradually gain a more realistic form is quite evident. She goes from a self-confident, playful, exuberant girl to somebody no one really wants and who suffers. The story has a clear dramaturgical line with music regularly changing slow melodies for quick rhythms. Dance in all its forms and aspects creates an impression of infinite fluidity, the movement seems never to stop, even if it slowed down to a maximum. The culminating point is a sad, dreamy duet between Zuzana Susová and Alexander Katsapov, which is the exact opposite of the original self-confident, spirited version.
Moonshine, although being the piece the whole evening takes its name from is rather controversial. It was originally created in 1993 for Nederlands Dans Theater 3, a company of dancers advanced in age. It is based most of all on the characters of the performers and apart from the nostalgic line that it somewhat radiates it is assumed that the actions of the dancers will make the audiences laugh or, at least, smile. None of that, however, really happens for most of the time. Dancers (namely Tereza Podařilová, Edita Raušerová, Oleksandr Kysil and Viktor Konvalinka as the first cast) either fail to really get into their characters or, on the contrary, tend to overact their roles. The most convincing of the cast was Oleksandr Kysil. Anyway, there are a lot of weak moments in the piece and the question is what they are actually supposed to represent. At the beginning it seems that a family with two teenagers is going on a trip (with rather too heavy suitcases), hower, the idea somewhat disappears after the duet of mother and her son or the sequence, where the daughter tries to seduce her father. The piece then ends with the dancers looking at a rather trashy horizon representing a landscape somewhere in the southwestern United States. Fans of Bob Dylan, whose songs are played throughout the show may find at least something attractive there, unfortunately, others are bored to death.
The last piece, Rooster, is an ode to youth. To the youth of Christopher Bruce, who lived at the time when the legendary Rolling Stones played hits such as Sympathy for the Devil, Ruby Tuesday and Play with Fire. It was to these and other songs by this British rock 'n' roll band that dancers performed, men looking like fops with hair-grease, dressed in colourful shirts and ladies as stylized as temptresses, playful coquettes or chaste girls. The theme of playful youth gives situational humor full play. In addition to corps de ballet scenes some duets are there too, and solos for men and ladies, where the opposite sex is the backdrop for the presentation of the main characters thoughts. 
Among the performers it was especially Alexander Katsapov attracted a spectator’s eye, fitting into the role of a showing-off rooster well. A duet with an ostrich boa performed by Ivana Mikešová and Francesco Scarpato was quite impressive too. As for the range of movement, however, it was quite obvious how much time has passed since the inception of the piece some 20 years ago, no wonder that combinations of some dance parts, mainly jumps taken from classical dance technique combined with contemporary dance and civilian movements seem rather unnatural and outdated (chassé, grand jeté, backswingsetc.). Nevertheless, all things considered, Rooster is quite a good act, the music by Rolling Stones energizes the audiences and at some points the dancers really seem to be having a good time.
As Petr Zuska said after the premiere of Moonshine, by including a piece by Christopher Bruce in the National Theatre Ballet repertoire his dream came true. The question is whether this idea was not rather short-sighted. Less is sometimes more... similar movements and dance parts may be interesting in the first piece, but fail to surprise in the second one and tend to be rather boring in the last one. Similarly monotonous seems to be the use of songs as the background for dance. There is no question about Christopher Bruce’s musicality. However, it seems that the songs had rather forced their simple rhythms and melodies upon his choreographies, instead of him creating a defiant dialogue with them, which happens only at some points in Dance at the Crossroads.
From this perspective, it would be certainly more interesting for spectators to see the works of more dance icons, one of whom Christopher Bruce undoubtedly is, together on one stage
Review is written from the premiere on November 16th, 2011 at the New Stage of the National Theatre.
Translation: Tomáš Valníček
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species