Sheila Chisholm
A DIP into Johannesburg-born, classical ballet trained Marc Goldberg’s impressive CV shows an award winning dancer with considerable professional experience and expertise in multiple dance disciplines. These range from pure classical, through neo-classical to contemporary.
Over and above dancing traditional classical repertoire Goldberg has performed in musicals. He’s studied in Canada and Korea. He choreographed Rock a Tutu in 2004 for South African BalletTheatre and Smoke for Cape Junior Ballet.
Presently a Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) soloist, Goldberg is venturing into choreographing his first full-length ballet, and chosen Noel Coward’s play, The Vortex, for his plot-line. Commissioned by Pieter Toerien and worked around eight CTCB dancers, Goldberg’s world premiere of The Vortex takes place at Theatre on the Bay from July 29 running until August 8.
The Vortex concerns Florence Lancaster, an aging nymphomaniac socialite and Nicky, her 26 year-old cocaine addicted son. Tom is Nicky’s friend and Florence’s lover. Bunty is Nicky’s ex-fiancée. David is Florence’s weak, lack lustre husband. Family friend Helen is the only level-headed person of the lot and two (unnamed) guests.
Dealing with drug abuse, an Oedipus relationship and homosexual undercurrents were certainly controversial subjects in 1924, when The Vortex premiered in London.
Yet, with Coward himself playing Nicky opposite Lilian Braithwaite as Florence, Coward’s bantering – hiding these darker elements – provided his first commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic.
Asked why he choose this particular play and venue Goldberg replied: “I hugely admire Mr Coward’s plays and music. His understanding of human nature tied up with his intellectual ability to portray their frailties so wittily has long held my interest as material for a ballet. My problem has been which play to choose? After research I settled on The Vortex. It’s a plot that comfortably embraces eight dancers. As does Theatre on the Bay’s stage. Another plus is the venue’s wonderful atmosphere lends itself to unconventional treatment of Mr Coward.”
Asked how he expresses – in dance – Coward’s plot complexities without word use, or losing his wit, Goldberg says: “I engage varied, slick, stylized and original contemporary dynamics to explore Coward’s themes of adultery, aging and drug use in a dysfunctional high-society 1920's family.
For Goldberg, music and seeing the “body’s” outline in movement are paramount. So he’s selected diametrically opposed music. “I am mixing original Mr Coward recordings with Murcof – a very modern, intelligent, sophisticated and evocative Mexican electronic composer to articulate my choreographic ideas.”
As Coward’s play is in three short acts I asked how he trimmed his ballet down to two? “I have given the first act over to introducing and developing the characters. The second advances the plot. I’ve set The Vortex in London against a black background – again an important element to showing-off body outlines with uncluttered movement.
Transferring a brilliant Coward script into dance, while still clearly telling the story, is a tricky exercise. How Goldberg tackles this warranted watching him working his dancers in rehearsal.
Immediately it was possible to see the quiet confidence of a choreographer who knows where he’s going and what he wants. Neither is there any symptom of fear about creating different actions to which both dancers are, and audiences (will be) unaccustomed.
Energy, detail, line, nuances, both facial and body are essential qualities. Quirky port de bras(marionette like) replicated in eccentric steps and pas de deux well-matched Coward’s inimitable text.
From a costume perspective, Goldberg initially considered 1920s flapper styles. But these proved too “flappy”. Thus feathers etc went out to streamline get-ups down into simple models. Denis Hutcheonson takes on the lighting design.
For Florence he has cast Lara Bosenberg, Claire Spector and Kim Vieira are alternates. Tom is Ivan Boonzaaier, alternate is Daniel Szybkowski. Nicky is Thomas Thorne, alternate is Jesse Milligan. Bunty is Sarah-Lee Chapman – alternate is Elizabeth Nienaber. Helen is Kim Vieira – alternate is Elizabeth Nienaber. David is Xola Putye – Bradley van Heerden is the alternate cast and guests are Katlin Smith and Thomas Dubroyni.
Goldberg thanks Toerien and Elizabeth Triegaardt (CTCB’s honorary executive director) for unstinted support towards getting his project off the ground. “Without them, my idea would have remained just that... an idea. As it is, I’ve been given a pretty free hand to choreograph in my style, design sets and costumes and use my music choice.
The Vortex promises to be a ballet with a difference.
l Tickets R100, R150, R200. Book: 021 438 2300, Computicket, 0861 915 8000.