Cullbergbaletten/
Deborah Hay and Laurie Anderson: FIGURE A SEA
Seen: 22 January 2017, Amsterdam
Think of
the sea, what do you see? Multiple colors of blue spreading over the endless
surface. Whales talking deep down there. Different forms of life, still related
to the life above land, but still pure.
The stage
as a sea of endless possibilities. The dancers as a sea of endless
possibilities. Twenty dancers perform the challenges of figure a sea, challenges without limiting the dancers’
intelligence, speed and beauty. Providing the audience with a lot qualities,
movements and stunning moments. Bringing the audience to think about what they
are witnessing.American dancer, author and choreographer Deborah Hay born in 1941, knows how not only to challenge her dancers. The audience of figure a sea is up for a life changing experience. The mind has the opportunity to go wild, which creates a struggle of not going with your thoughts, and staying with the dancers. Getting your focus to the dancers leads you to see a certain curiosity and openness. Getting sucked in by one of the dancers is impossible, the use of the stage is renovating. The middle white, surrounded by a black floor, an open stage where the sea of dancers float, run, and jump. Interesting to see was the use of the sides, were the attention of the audience shifts towards as all of the sudden you see movement in the far right corner of your eye, and you will be surprised what this does to you.
There are
moments with the music combined where it’s hard to keep your attention to the
dancers, everything is combined so beautifully, the looseness and ease of the
movements combined with the music which stays in the same energy, the head
starts to take over and you start daydreaming. The freedom the dancers have in
this pieces makes you want to run over the beach, with your feet in the soft
sand, jumping over the breaking waves, and before you know you dive straight in
to the sea, the cold water wakes you up and you realize you are watching a
performance. There is no time to analyze what just happened to you because the open-improvisation
feeling of the piece sucks your attention straight to the next scene.
A
performance to talk about after you’ve seen it, a performance to talk about in
summer, a performance that might open up endless space of thought. Where to
brain will be active while watching, and where you are surprised by what it
does to you as audience. For the movers under us, it’s a performance where you
just want to join the dancers by the
feel of freedom, but before that happens the complicated structure will make
you do just fine as audience and there won’t be a second you take your eyes of
the dancers and just watch this beautiful and well constructed performance.
Last show:
23th of January 2017, Amsterdam
Performance:
Cullbergbaletten
Choreography:
Deborah Hay
Composition:
Laurie Anderson
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