A GREAT PIECE OF ART,
"CACTI" by Alexander Ekman
Performing by Netherlands Dance Theater 2
the 30th of november 2017/ Arnhem
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| Credit: alexekman.com |
Have you ever had a thought of living sculptures holding green cacti in different shapes? Can you imagine it happened in front of you? One man had that idea and he put that immagination on stage.
I was sitting among the crowd high up on the balcony inside the Grote zaal, at the Stadsteater in Arnhem. What the audience got to see was the different shapes of green cacti carried in on stage, and this was not the only suprising moment. This evening the Nederlands Dans Theater 2 performed Schubert (2017), a evening consisting of three performences. The only thing the pieces had in common was the livemusic on stage by the virtuosa Franz Schubert, played by The Ballet Orchestra. Alexander Ekman had create the evenings last piece and it was called the same as the plant we know as cacti.
Alexander Ekman is today a well known Swedish choreographer, that created Cacti in 2010 first for NDT2. After its premier it become one of his most succesful pieces. Travelling a lot between different companies around the world he meets and work with a lot of different dancers. This evening the piece was once again performed by current NDT2.
We know him for his use of humor in his pieces, that builds up in smart transitions and in good timings. He wants to create a piece about something specific. And he wants to reach all the people in the audience by creating something with topics that we all can releate to. He makes it clear for the dancers what they are doing and they get challenged.
In the beginning of the piece sixteen dancers placed themselfs on top of their own individual squares, and from that moment the audience could expect a lot. Its a travel through diffrent meetings and emotions, and it keeps your attention the hole time. Every dancer had their own spotlight and they were all seen clear. They were so precise in timing and transitions and I could feel their concentration and strong mind. They fall and run a lot. Made sounds in different rythms together with the musicians on the stage. And that created connection between them. Using a string quartet playing live on the stage gave the music a stronger connection to the dancers. Their was communication through music, movements and also recorded spoken text used in a duett.
The expressiveness on stage was clear from a far distance, even to feel them being trapped on the oversized white squares.
On stage they were not anymore themselves as a member of NDT2. Alexander Ekman had succeeded transforming them to beeing an other person. And through the eyes the audience saw them changing caracters trought the performence. When carrying in their cacti it looked like they were ancient artefacts, wearing skin-colored body socks.
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| "Cacti" Photo by Rosalie O´Connor |
What Alexander Ekman created it´s a brilliant example of a great piece in contemporary dance, that give us a lot to understand. It´s a brilliant example with its suprising and interesting moments. And it give the audience a big mostly positive shock. I felt myself being a lot suprised, by all the suprises he had create. A falling cat coming from nowhere is one example. Why can we ask? It´s a contemporary dance piece where everything can happen. Their was great moments when we were looking at them and we in the audience were laughing together. Not at the dancers but at the situation they created that entertained us. Alexander Ekman trusted that this could be a something useful to share for audience.
The reason for involving a rare plant is not that obvious in the piece and we can wonder why? Maybe Cacti symbolize something important in his research. It became a perfect prop to use in the end. As in Alexander Ekman previuos works nothing is for no reason. So the plant it´s not just based on a joke, it has a meaning. In all performences we see that we can understand in different ways is all wellcracted. It reaches different kind of people and that is what art should do. And Alexander Ekman managed. If you want to see a piece of art that can hold your total attention and focus your mind on ideas, while having a great time seeing hilarious moments? Then I will recomend to go and see this performence.
Art gives us hope and he gives us that.
It´s a great piece of art, and we need to experience that.
Take a look- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUEelO7tK80
Choreography- Alexander Ekman
Assistent to the choreographer- Urtzi Uranburu
Music- Schuberts Der Tod und das Mädchen, The Ballet Orchestra
Lighting Design- Tom Visser
Costume Design- Alexander Ekman
Text- Spencer Theberge
Written by Simona Avelli DM1
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