eonnagata

conceived and performed by

Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage, Russell Maliphant

Sadlers Wells in association with Ex Machina & Sylvie Guillem

Lighting Designer ~ Michael Hulls

Costume Designer ~ Alexander McQueen

Sound Designer - Jean-Sebastien Cote

Due to phenomenal demand for tickets during its world premiere season at Sadler's Wells earlier in 2009, Eonnagata returns for a limited run.

This brand new Sadler's Wells production brings together three of the world's foremost creative minds: internationally acclaimed dancer Sylvie Guillem, world-renowned theatre-maker Robert Lepage and award-winning choreographer Russell Maliphant.

Eonnagata tells the story of the Chevalier d'Éon, Charles de Beaumont - diplomat, writer, swordsman and a member of the King's Secret, a network of spies under the control of Louis XV. De Beaumont was perhaps the first spy to use transvestitism in the furtherance of his duties and until the day he died his true gender was a source of constant speculation, even provoking public bets in the late 18th century.

"The alchemist of modern imagistic theatre, Robert Lepage is one of the most challenging and chimeric directors of our time" THE GUARDIAN

For this remarkable collaboration, Guillem, Lepage andMaliphant draw not only from their respective backgrounds, but also from the ancient Kabuki technique of Onnegata - in which male actors portray female roles in an extremely stylised fashion.

The elaborate costumes of Louis XV's court will be evoked by legendary fashion designer Alexander McQueen, complemented by stunning lighting from Michael Hulls.

mostly dreadful - i haven't been so bored or cross in a theatre for a very long time.

1. Le Page swinging tin foil swords

2. Guillem telling us the whole Chevalier d'Eon story

3. Maliphant emerging from a giant geisha

4. Long boring bit skidding over tables to Bach

5. Fan dance with Empress of Russia with a large red fan and singing up from bass profundo to soprano shrilling

6. Fighting with a feather quill to a coarse poem & then writing with a sword to her mother then the old lady appears out of the table

7. Twirling sticks

8. Calico shadow show

9. Nice story from "Plarto who we call Plato" about original species with both genders two heads & double arms & legs til Zeus decides to literally cut us down to more manageable size - in half like an apple - and ever since we've been looking for our other half

10. Fighting with ring & stick

11. Short guillotine sequence with a skull head

12. Mirror tables including two tops with one mirrored bottom

13. Post-mortem under a swinging neon light

Lots of great ingredients that never quite manage to come together into anything very wonderful. The costumes are so exquisite and the lighting so visceral it often feels like watching an extra esoteric fashion show. The sound too is great and often dominant & rich enough to satisfy for itself.

there are moments that hold but the narrative interest is pierced by hearing the full story at the start, the spectacle of the scenography is insufficiently spectacular, and the performances are too often too lack-lustre and ordinary to hold so that I was actually bored through several sequences. And in the end it all just didn't add up to much more than very expensive looking flummery.

A sad story of how many talents can end up cancelling each other out.

*** Kinkan Shonen + Toki (Sankai Juku)

19 November 2008

Kinkan Shonen (Kumquat Seed)

23 November 2008

Toki (Time)

Sankai Juku

Direction, Choreography and Design ~~~~~~~~~~ Ushio Amagatsu

Dancers

Ushio Amagatsu (toki)

Semimaru (toki)

Sho Takeuchi

Akhito Ichihara

Taiyo Tochiaki

Ichiro Haseqawa

Dai Matsuoka

Nobuyoshi Asai

Sadlers Wells

http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Sankai-Juku

A soldier - he comes towards us - salutes - eats sand - grins eats sand again - grins again - eats sand

Four men in long skirts and masks of artful disfigurement dance together - their hands are huge and sometimes claws - then they are entwined together almost loving - then they are a gyrating diagonal line - now they are still gyrating bare bottoms in our faces - sexy rude funny subversive

A man and a peacock locked together face to beak come towards us - slow - they are one entity - then they are two separates dancing together - then they are man and ornamental bird the cock perched on his back - then they are apart: the dancer sinuously moving the bird still and watching - he will stay present for the rest of the show

Then another three dancers arrive so we are given a couple a single man and a man and a peacock - near naked the couple show us fighters wrestlers determined and cruel then increasingly tender until they are lovers - the single two men find each other and become a couple - counterpointing fighting with the other couple's loving and vice versa

A dancer comes on squashed into a small box version of himself - his face widely pleased and comic

A near-naked man hangs upside down slowly turning from a golden kite triangle of against vivid blue….

intoxicating
mesmerising
transcendental
breathtaking
moving ….

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/SankaiJuku?authkey=Gv1sRgCKaouu-v1MK8-gE##

'aphasiadisiac' - ted stoffer, les ballets C de la B

Aphasiadisiac
les ballets C de la B

http://www.lesballetscdela.be/
Ted Stoffer

Les Ballets C. de la B. return to Sadler’s Wells with Aphasiadisiac – the final instalment in a trilogy of work by guest choreographer Ted Stoffer. Based in Ghent, Belgium, Les Ballets C. de la B. is a collective of choreographers renowned for presenting powerful, theatrical performances of startling, anarchic beauty.

American-born Ted Stoffer, a former Rambert dancer and founder of Aphasia Dance Company, derived the title Aphasiadisiac from ‘aphasia’ (the inability to express or understand thought in spoken or written words) and ‘aphrodisiac’ (arousing the mood of sexual excitement). Focusing on issues of communication and human relationships and featuring a cast of five performers who each represent a member of his own family, Aphasiadisiac sees Ted Stoffer exploring the private languages and politics of love.

"Stoffer is a brave performer who bares both his body and his soul… a deeply
personal experience that reconnects you with your own humanity" THE STAGE

Set to a soundtrack of pop, classical and traditional Czech music, plus live drumming, and set within a full-size onstage brick house (complete with furnishings), this promises to be a truly remarkable experience from one of Flander’s most important contemporary dance companies Les Ballets C. de la B.

A Sadler's Wells co-production

Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadlers Wells

http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Ballet-C-de-la-B-Stoffer

Four people on stage building hollow four-sided towers with wooden bricks - some with words on them and of course I try and put these into meaningful clusters until I remember we are in the strange messed up dimension of aphasia and let the attempt go.
A fifth performer Pietrejan Vervondel arrives in business shirt and tie - there are two towers now each encasing a performer who have to climb their structure to get head & hands above it to catch the new bricks they are being thrown by ‘the businessman’ - the feels wonderfully dangerous and the audience are vocally excited as each new brick is thrown high and mostly caught with varying degrees of threat to the catcher and their tower remaining upright. How special and rare to have this real and live danger in a theatre.
We then see a hand from each performer reach out and across - but not connect - from their tower - and then she finds she can pass bricks from her tower to him to add to his.
Then we get a glorious aphasiac real estate presentation jumbled to be right at the edge of coherency - and how satisfying to be able to pull sense from this delightfully and wittily scrambled volley of words.

He breaks through the back wall.

He climbs the wall to a suspended drum kit, harnesses himself into the seat which he then releases forward - another moment of thrilling peril - and we get raucous surging music with accordion playing girl (Kristyna Lhotakova) in stocking feet and man and woman lying prone and stretched over brick stacks playing trumpet and horn. This makes the background sound for Stoffer's sinewy dislocated head lead movement that seems the physical mirror of the scrambled words - somehow finding a sense and coherency from inverted and inhumanised movements
We also get a number of contact improvisation duets that are fluidly satisfying to watch. And we get achingly intimate and recognisable words with movements from Mieke de Groot who we later see in a very funny duet mime with Yvan Auzely After they have been stripped of their instruments and left alone together by the double-banging drummers Vervondel & Lhotakova.
She then gives us the clearest monologue telling us how much she loves 'him' while he undulates, unfolds and curls under and through the chair and table, before the remaining tower is noisily toppled and cleared and the two of them show us their relationship via a set of tight and variously competing / cooperating dances.
The final sequence is a fast flowing sexy contact duet with Stoffer and Lhotakova joined throughout at the eye & cheek.
This show is packed with ideas and imagery and associations and virtuoso displays interspersed with sudden clear moments of absolute truth and recognition. It is far too clever to leave me more than momentarily absorbed inside it, but the richness of ideas - intellectual and performative - more than justifies this.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/Aphasiadisiac#

'Lunar Sea' (Momix)

'Lunar Sea'

Momix

at Peacock Theatre

http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Momix-Lunar-Sea

American company Momix returns to the Peacock Theatre to delight audiences with artistic director Moses Pendleton’s fascinating other-worldly dance creation Lunar Sea. Step into another world where figures glow eerily as they float through the darkness – combining props, light and shadow, Momix’s Lunar Sea is a “black and white ballet” in which dancers in fluorescent costumes float and fly magically, unbound by the laws of gravity.
"A fine merger of illusion, suspense and comedy" THE GUARDIAN

Presented under black light and featuring projections and puppets by Michael Curry (part of the Lion King design team), Moses Pendleton’s surreal world of dance and optical illusion is an exceptionally inventive production that will enthral all ages.

http://www.mosespendleton.com/

Artistic Director ~ Moses Pendleton

with

Tsarra Bequette, Jennifer Chicheportiche, Joshua Christopher, Simona DiTucci, Jonathan Eden, Donatello Iacobellis, Robert Laqui, Danielle McFall, Sarah Nachbauer, Christopher Patterson, Cassandra Taylor

Lighting Design ~ Joshua Starbuck and Moses Pendleton

Costume Design ~ Phoebe Katzin, Moses Pendleton, Cynthia Quinn

Puppet Design ~ Michael Curry

Video Projection ~ Moses Pendleton

Video Editing ~ Woodrow F. Dick, III

What a cool show
This is a company who are completely sure about what they do how they do it and how they offer it to us in their audience They know when and how to dazzle us with quite awesome spectacle when to tease us a little and let us see their secrets and when - as with the curtain call - to confront us with their perfectly toned human strength, agility and acrobatic dancing

The first half is called the sea of tranquility and is full of whimsy and teasing and subterranean images floating and flying and dangling and dancing and whizzing and rolling through a kaleidoscope of superimposed images of lunar and interstellar spectrums

Favourite moments
The rolling jelly fish
The rotating legs
The seahorses

The second half is called the bay of Seething and is much hotter and brighter and sharper and dangerous and angular and starts with birds and then is more plants and insects fighting and feeding and crawling and flying
favourite moments:
The zipper insects
The six legged and the four legged spiders
The feathered mouths / wings / flower
The long-winged birds making a crazy waving angular line together
The ghosts that fly through
An easy a show to enjoy and smile through wonderful and surprising enough to hold us mostly captivated through its not quite 2 hours.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/LunarSeaMomix#

'40/60' (richard alston dance company)

‘40/60’
Richard Alston Dance Company
Dance Umbrella 2008

at Sadlers Wells
http://www.theplace.org.uk/461/welcome/richard-alston-dance-company.html

‘Shuffle It Right’ ...
... Danced to Hoagy Carmichael is all liquid silk and easy charm. It's a delight to watch and I smiled all the way through until the final solo that has a heavier more world-weary feel. Jason Goddard especially is riveting - combing an impossibly easy flowing lightness with a relaxed smile.
This piece is the joyous highlight of my night.

‘The Men In My Life’ ...
... Is intended to display and impress, and this it certainly does. But the bitsy nature of this birthday concert of highlights cannot hope to accumulate any sustained effect: we watch, we enjoy, we applaud. It is what it is: a series of mostly solos duets made for specific dancers:
‘Water Music’ is court majestic
‘Strider’ - danced in silence - presents the men alone and twinned showing off all strength and hold and supple line
‘Petroushka’ is danced to Stravinsky intricate piano played by Jason Ridgeway and both performers are virtuoso - dressed in black and making dark movements
‘Rumours Visions’
‘Shimmer’
‘Dutiful Ducks’ - created originally for Michael Clark and danced with winning good humour by Jonathan Goddard - is quirky and beguiling danced to a brilliant percussive poem
‘Red Run’ is intimate duet with Pierre Tapon my other favourite dancer from the evening
'Fingerprint' gives Jonathan Goddard a more lyrical movement to use his liquid flow as more of molten flow
‘The Signal’ returns the mood to courtly elegance and formal pomp finally uniting all eight dancers in a short stately chorus line

‘Blow Over’ ...
... Is danced in monochrome black and silver to Phillip Glass in a piece that becomes increasingly exciting. Again Pierre Tapon holds the attention.

Martyn says he enjoyed it somewhat - but lots of flouncing and posing

It's an easy night watching beautiful perfect young men and women moving beautifully to a variety of mostly beautiful music in very tight beautiful and mostly tiny costumes: just what the ballet should be perhaps … It is also what it claims to be: joyous, uplifting and wonderfully rejeuvenating.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marktrezona/4060RichardAlstonDanceCompany#

"bahok" (akram khan company + national ballet of china)

wednesday 11th june 2008

bahok
akram khan company + national ballet of china

artistic director / choreographer ~ akram khan
composer ~ nitin sawhney
chinese music advisor ~ gisele edwards
set conceived by ~ fabiana piccioli, sander loonen and akram khan
dramaturg ~ guy cools
producer ~ farooq chaudrey
associate producer ~ bia oliviera
http://www.akramkhancompany.net/

material devised and performed by ~
eulalia ayguade farro
kim young jin
meng ning ning
andrej petrovic
saju
wang yitong
shannell winlock
zhang zhenxin

sadlers wells
http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/bahok

bahok is the eagerly anticipated collaboration between Sadler’s
Wells Associate Artist Akram Khan and the National Ballet of China. After
creating intimate duets with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (zero degrees) and Sylvie
Guillem (Sacred Monsters), Akram Khan now works with eight dancers, as five
performers from his own kathak-contemporary company go head-to-head with three classically-trained dancers from the National Ballet of China.
bahok, named after a Bengali word meaning ‘carrier’ explores the ways in which the body carries national identity and a sense of belonging. Khan’s dancers come from diverse cultures, traditions and dance backgrounds – Chinese, Korean, Indian, South-African and Spanish – and this rich mix of both spoken and dance language pushes the boundaries of movement vocabulary. Khan once again joins forces with long-time collaborator Nitin Sawhney, renowned for his multi award-winning compositions, who will create an original score for bahok.

stunning dancing and choreography - ahang ahenxin in particular is extraordinary


Judith Mackrell
Tuesday March 11, 2008
The Guardian
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/dance/reviews/story/0,,2264142,00.html#article_continue
It is almost inevitable that a collaboration between Akram Khan and the National Ballet of China should be about crossing cultures. The eight dancers in Bahok embody a vivid palette of styles and traditions: modern and classical, Asian and western. As a choreographer, Khan's preoccupation has long been with the nature of identity in a migrating world. Just as in his previous work, Zero Degrees, Khan is fascinated here by the adventure of travelling outside one's home culture and the danger of being lost in translation.
Bahok presents a stark atmosphere of limbo; the stage is designed as a waiting room that could be any airport or train station around the world. The dancers sit slumped and restless beneath an information board that flickers through dispiriting variations on the message: Please Wait, Delays.
Desperate to fill time, they experiment with verbal and physical contact. Meng Ningning - one of the three Chinese dancers in the ensemble - introduces herself delicately with a shy enchaînement of ballet steps; the Indian-born Saju strikes bold martial arts poses; and Nitin Sawhney's score adds its own dazzling mix of musical styles.
These migrants are far from home, and their collective mood is anxious. A funny, unsettling dialogue unfolds between Young Jin Kim and unseen immigration officials, whose conversational cross-purposes threaten to escalate into an ugly situation. More poignantly, Eulalia Ayguade Farro is a woman who has travelled so far that she has forgotten her name and place of origin. When she borrows a mobile phone to ring her mother, she cannot make a connection.
As Kahn allows these travellers' tales to unfold, he takes full advantage of the compelling individuality of his cast. Wang Yitong is outstanding as her classical training opens up to the slamming, corkscrew dynamic of Khan's vocabulary. Occasionally, the logic of the piece starts to feel predictable as it jogs from one individual story to the next. However, the final section recovers its thrilling pace and intensity as Khan unites his dancers in a furious, wheeling ensemble, pounding the stage as they restart their collective journey.
The announcement board flashes up the messages, "HOME ... HOPE ... HOME", but we have no sense that these characters, driven by the piston-pumping rhythms of Sawhney's score, will ever arrive at a destination. Through this ultimately powerful piece, Khan captures both the exhilaration and the desolation of a world on the move.

http://picasaweb.google.com/marktrezona/BahokAkramKhanCompany#

"sutra" (sidi larbi cherkaoui + monks from shaolin temple) ***exceptional experience

tuesday 27th may 2008

"sutra"

sidi larbi cherkaoui ~ direction, choreography + performer
antony gormley ~ visual creation + design
szymon brzoska ~ music + piano
with monks from the shaolin temple:
shi yanbo, shi yanchuang, shi yanci, shi yandong, shi yanhao, shi yanjiao, shi yanjie, shi yanli, shi yanmo, shi yanna, shi yanpeng, shi yanqun, shi yanting, shi yanxing, shi yanyong, shi yanyuan, shi yanzhu

musicians:
piano ~ szymon brzoska
violin ~ alies sluiter & olga wojciechowska
cello ~ laura anstee
percussion ~ coordt linke

produced by sadlers wells
http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Cherkaoui-Gormley
with the blessing of the abbot of song shan shaolin temple master shi yongxin

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui takes a completely different direction with this brand new Sadler’s Wells production Sutra, which is inspired by the skill, strength and spirituality of Buddhist Shaolin Monks. He has collaborated closely with Antony Gormley who creates a constructed environment for the performers, employing light to dramatic effect. Polish composer Szymon Brzóska has created a brand new score for piano, percussion and strings.

"As a child, Bruce Lee was a role model; not just the characters he portrayed, but the man himself and the world-view he embodied. When he spoke about martial arts, about drawing from nature, from elemental forces, it rang true. Through him, I delved deeper into Kung-Fu, to the Shaolin school of chan Buddhism. Later in life, as a choreographer and a dancer, I was inspired by the Shaolin understanding of movement, their complete identification with the living beings around them, and that remarkable ability to become the essence of a tiger, crane or snake" Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

By visiting the Shaolin Temple in China, and working with the Shaolin Monks over several months, Larbi follows a life-long interest by exploring the philosophy and faith behind the Shaolin tradition, its relationship with Kung-Fu, and its position within a contemporary context.

pretty special. wonderful. humour. design being a live a integral part of the show. stunning acrobatics and disciplined movement. cuteness from the amazing little kid. strong empathetic and evocative music that again worked as a central element in the piece. enormous generosity from larbi standing apart to let the monks dominate. nively balanced in the final sequence where he steps in as one of the gang doing the same high octane king fu.

violent budhism at its finest and most beguiling i suspect. and so i keep a preference for the qi kung of cloud gate's more liquidly powerful "moon water".

rambert dance company

wednesday 21st may 2008


rambert dance company
http://www.rambert.org.uk/

Scribblings
American choreographer Doug Varone, described as a ‘craftsman' of irresistible intensity, uses his extraordinary musical instincts to present his first work for Rambert. Inspired by composer John Adam's flamboyant Chamber Symphony, Varone draws on the comic exaggeration and the energy in the music, to create a daringly complex work set in an off-kilter world with touches of urgency and humour.
Doug joined Rambert in December 2007 to begin work on this exhilarating new commission for Rambert which will be presented as part of Rambert's 2008 spring tour, and made its world première at His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen on 20 February 2008.

Carnival of the Animals
Set to Saint-Saëns' beautiful and melodic music, Carnival of the Animals is arguably Siobhan Davies' most popular and endearing work. Re-invigorated for the 21st century the work re-unites Rambert dancers with this outstanding, Olivier Award-winning artist.

Anatomica #3
Renowned for his breakneck, athletic movement, Canadian choreographer André Gingras explores the idea of the human body as exhibition site in this high energy work for a large cast.
Featuring an original score from one of the most powerful and intriguing young composers in the UK, Joseph Hyde, and designs from former Rambert dancer, Fabrice Serafino, this exciting project was Gingras' first collaboration with Rambert.
Premièred at Theatre Royal, Brighton, 23 February 2007

at sadlers wells theatre
http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Rambert-08

Rambert Dance Company is Britain’s premier contemporary dance company. Its drama, scale and spectacle continue to thrill and inspire audiences of all ages from across the UK and throughout the world. Carnival of the Animals is arguably Siobhan Davies’ most popular and endearing work. This brand new production by Britain’s most accomplished female choreographer is set to Saint-Saëns’ beautiful and melodic music. Re-invigorated for the 21st century the work re-unites Rambert’s dancers with this outstanding artist. American choreographer Doug Varone has extraordinary musical instincts and has been described as a ‘craftsman’ of irresistible intensity. His work is daring and accessible, often laced with wit and rich in emotional detail. His latest work, Scribblings, with Rambert’s sensational dancers will make its London premiere this spring. Andre Gingras’ surprising and exuberant Anatomica #3 is thought-provoking and breathtaking, making a perfect climax to this programme of work.

Judith Mackrell
Thursday May 22, 2008
The Guardian
Charm is the most elusive of qualities: it cannot be worked at; it comes as a gift. But it is a quality that Siobhan Davies ensnared back in 1982 when she created Carnival of the Animals for Second Stride. And it has been preserved in this current revival for Rambert, as has Davies' skill in choreographing characters who flicker between animal and human and who sustain a witty conversation with Saint-Saëns's score.

Davies' eye for the image that defines each of the 14 sections is wonderfully acute, from the fastidious, scratchy walk of the rooster and hens, to the gliding elegance of the solitary swan. Pure genius is the lovelorn cuckoo who mimes a beating heart to the dying fall of its own musical call.

In this current triple bill, Carnival is sandwiched between two much noisier and more muscular works: a revival of André Gingras's Anatomica #3 and a new work by Doug Varone. Scribblings is set to John Adams's Chamber Symphony, a score crammed with such clashing jangling cross rhythms that it spills out of the orchestra pit like the unravelling innards of a broken clock.

In the first of its three sections Varone harnesses the music's energy with dance of unbroken ferocity: clumps of bodies that hurtle from side to side of the stage, individual phrases that slam and rebound back on themselves. In the middle duet, however, Varone loses his focus. Although the two dancers sustain the elastic dynamic of the choreography, the thread of connection between them, and to the music, no longer holds.

actually for me i found the first two ("scribblings" and "carnival") pretty light weight, albeit "carnival was pleasingly so. hence my borrowing this review which i pretty much agree with if with rather less excitement for "carnival".
but the huge high came for me in the final piece "anatomica#3" which was much more dynamic and fearless and exciting and wow i thought showed the incredible dancers' abilities in ways that the first two pieces did not.