LUX AND GLORY. Presented by Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve (Geneva Ballet) at Artscape Theatre for a short season. SHEILA CHISHOLM reviews
REPERTOIRE from visiting overseas ballet and dance companies makes interesting viewing. Not because they come from abroad but because they often bring works not seen here before. While simultaneously acting as a benchmark to gauge our own technical, artistic and choreographic standards.
Some companies are disappointing. Others, such as Geneva Ballet, stimulate. Geneva Ballet comprises 21 height balanced, athletic and superbly trained classical ballet dancers comfortably embracing the contemporary choreographic idioms designed by Ken Ossola for Lux and Andonis Foniadakis for Glory.
Initially, matching Ossola’s choreography to Gabriel Faure’s Requiem in D Minor 48 proved disturbing. Apart from Jean-Marc Puissant’s costume designs outlining skeletal forms in sequins on see-through shirts, Ossola imposed nothing funereal on to his dancers. However, as Faure wrote his seven movement Requiem for his own pleasure and not for any particular person’s death the music’s origins ceased to intrude as, in various numbers and groups, Ossola unfolded this 35 minute piece like a gentle flowing stream.
Lux began in semi-darkness in a tableaux with 16 dancers lying on their backs as a central couple slowly began moving. First one arm stretched forward. Then another followed. Then, almost imperceptibly, the corps started lifting an arm, or a leg or contracted into a kneeling position with one leg extended behind.
Next move saw individuals, pairs and groups separately crafting alphabet shapes with their bodies, legs or arms until standing in straight lines facing upstage. Thereafter Ossola capitalised on their skills to replicate movement to music in a visual work of art. A canvas added to by Kees Tjebbes’s outstanding lighting design comprised ever changing shafts of white lights.
Famous for his electronic arrangements of classical music, French composer Julien Tarride’s arrangement of parts of Handel’s Dixit Dominui and Messiah– brought to Foniadakis’s Glory a different sound, pace and mood from Lux.
Although both choreographers used a large cast, similar movements such as arm swings, developpes, off-centre side bends, leaps in arabesques, ronds de jambe, turns and body contours, the energy and breathtaking speed behind Glory’s moves wove a totally different textured tapestry from Lux’s.
Perhaps a trifle too long, several costume changes, altering body-sculptures, helped sustain interest. A particularly novel scene saw seven men wandering around with rods attached to a girl’s “fishtail” until it blossomed into a giant fan parachute blowing this way and that way as though caught in a gentle breeze. Other arresting moments came when upstage shadow figures slowly stepped down on to a patterned floor before breaking into Foniadakis’s inventive action.
Mikki Kunittu’s stunning lighting design involved umpteen combinations of shafts of white lights angled from various points to create an awesome spectacle.
Geneva Ballet has gone, but has left a lasting impression.