"EAST": Akram Khan, Ohad Naharin, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, by Laura D.

Three masterpieces by three masters of choreography

The 14th of April 2017 I went to see “EAST” by ‘Ballet Vlaanderen’ in the opera of Antwerp.
It was a performance of two hours and a half and consisted of three masterpieces by three of the most
renowned choreographers nowadays: Akram Khan, Ohad Naharin, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. It were
“Kaash” (Khan), “Secus” (Naharin) and “Requiem” (Cherkaoui) that were being performed that night.  

The first choreography to be brought on stage was “Kaash”. All dancers were wearing black
leggings with long black skirts, the females wore black shirts whereas the males were naked.
The choreography was about Hindu Gods, black holes, Indian time cycles, tablas, creation and
destruction, This was clearly visible. What was very remarkable was the spacing, the dancers
constantly changed the formations, without making it too big of a difference each time.
The music was very interesting as well, it sounded traditional as would be logical, linked to the
theme.
Overall I think for a big part it were the dancers’ qualities, demanded by the choreographer that
made the choreography so good for me, very controlled and precise, but also powerful with
never-ending flows, which was satisfying to look at.

Now let’s discuss “Secus” by Ohad Naharin. Naharin is my one of my favourite choreographers
nowadays so I was really looking forward to finally seeing his work live. I think he's an absolutely
brilliant choreographer, very innovating and 'out of the box' with his movement. But what I most
love about his work is the outstandingly original relation it has to the music he chooses, and the
visual images he works with, for example combinations of certain colours displayed by the
costumes or formations in space.
In Secus he uses the body in all its capabilities and not just in the way that’s common for most
dancers, as in classical ballet or other techniques for example -which is also fine naturally-.
The costumes consisted of simple pieces of clothing but with vivid colours. This created an
incredible sight.
He absolutely stands out to me, as I said already -but also definitely in this piece- his choice of
music is brilliant to me, really. The music he chose for this work was so mysterious and
miraculously building up to reach a point of clarity and satisfaction, but also catchy at the same
time. The way he used it in combination with this choreography is exceptional, to my opinion.
I really mean it when I say I find him genius at times. And on top of it all he has this great sense
of humour he likes to integrate in his work that's like the icing on the cake for me.

So for the third piece by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, I’d say he used dance in a very esthetic way, the
beauty of dance etc. That’s not exactly the style I like the most but it’s interesting to see how well
he elaborated it. The props that were being used were gigantic things set up at the side made out
of wood that made it seem like houses in a small street.

The choir sang within those props and it seemed as if though they were standing in houses and
looking through windows, the thing even contained second floors. This had a wonderful effect.
The singers also walked on stage with clothing dating from the past. All this together with the
music and choreography gave the whole thing the right atmosphere according to the subject that
was ‘Requiem’. But because of the many-sided limitation of this subject -as in musical choice,
freedom of choosing certain emotions to go with it, etc.- , logically due to its history,  I couldn’t call
this piece my favourite. However I would like to point out that I’m not talking on whether or not I
like Cherkaoui’s work, because I have been fond of works of his in the past.

So overall I can conclude that I adored Ohad Naharin’s piece, and that Akram Khan’s choreography
would come in second place for me because I thought it was very good but I always prefer more visually
based choreography, or more out of the box. Therefore Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s work wasn’t my favourite, I
felt like it was not really the style I love to see the most due to the heavy subject of course. The whole of
the three pieces was well put together, it formed a nice mix of very different styles and subjects. I would
highly recommend seeing this performance, it is an incredible chance to witness the work of three
completely different but excellent choreographers in only one evening.

Photography by:

Laurent Ziegler, Robert Wyatt, Koen Broos, Louis Fernandez, Yan Revazov, Filip Van Roe

Author: Laura D.

I Wayan Gde Yudane & ensemble Wrdhi Swaram (Bali) - Cynthia Verpoorten

Traditional dance and music from Bali

The performance was 9 December in the theatre ‘De Singel’ in Antwerp, Belgium.
This was a performance to see another culture, it gave a look to the traditional dance and music from Bali.

The title prefers to a Balinese composer and musician. He comes from Denpasar, but with an international reputation. His work introduces new approaches from the gamalan. Tradition and contemporary are meeting each other. 

Gamelan, instrument

In this piece there were twenty-two musicians and three dancers.  The piece contains three traditional dances. It started with a music part what sounded strong, it gave a whole new energy to the room. The musicians had a strong bond with each other, they were continuously looking around but also focusing on their own instrument.

 Jauk Longor dance

After the intro it was time for the Jauk Longor dance, it’s a classical solo that give the impression to movements from a demon. At the beginning it gave a ‘wow’ feeling, because the costume is so defined, with lot of details and we are not used to the movements. So, you try to understand and take everything what you see. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oXfSKnYk6U

Later came another solo named as Topeng Tua, this is about an old man, and you need a lot of technique skills.  After the first solo you begin to understand the traditional movements and music. It’s interesting to see how the technique is, but it’s also difficult to watch and understand it if you don’t know anything about the dance techniques.

After was a duet ‘Legong Semarandhana’, it tells a story about Semara and Ratih two god’s that represents the sexual love. 

This duet was lovely to watch, it was also the first time that you see the girls dancing instead of the male solo’s from before. The duet was without masks, so the make-up and eyes became important.
This duet gave another point of view to the dance technique and culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siICiYS5NkQ

On the video you see, the dance they performed but then as a duet.

The piece became strong because you meet another culture. The costumes of the dancers where special and not easy to dance with. They are wearing a lot of layers and that makes it harder. You can see on the pictures as on the video that their dance technique is based on their costume, so they easily deal with their costumes, it’s a big part of their culture.

The music itself was also traditional, if you’re not used to real traditional music from Bali, then is this a nice experience.

"Barbarians " by Hofesh Shechter-Evelyn Hutchings DM1

Barbarians in love

By Hofesh Shechter

8th of July 2016

Sadler's Wells

Rosebery Avenue, London. 

“I’m a 40-year-old man looking for a thrill” . 

This is how   “The barbarians in love” starts .

World premiere on 1 November 2014 at Festspielhaus, St Polten, Austria.

“Barbarians in love“ ,as well as the following pieces “tHE bAD” and “Two completely different angles of the same fucking thing” are part of one of the most successful dance pieces of the Israelian choreographer  Hofesh Shechter, named “Barbarians” . A trilogy inspired by the sense of passion, intimacy and love but also by the freedom to choose and to be your own self .

Revealing his choreography at its most elegant and intimate, the highly acclaimed and perturbing “the barbarians in love" opens the evening with a formation of six dancers performing on the notes of  deafening music composed by François Couperin, with a mixture of electronic sounds from rock drift and baroque melodies.These “barbarians”, following the same line of thoughts  of the author,  stand as a symbol of the relationship between the human being and whatever is unknown and unfamiliar to his eyes. For instance we can all feel barbarians when we are dealing with unexpected and unexplored factors. This is represented by the dancers themselves , who invade and dominate the space in clinical white suits ,forcefully advancing in perfect unison.

From the outset, as a part of the audience, it was easy to perceive the moral meaning behind this picture, that led me into a more introspective  view of  the performance.

Overall it was fascinating to see how Hofesh reverses the canons of reality on stage through movements which recall primitive vocabularies, tribalisms and animalistic sequences . Revisiting those movements  in a contemporary key was an outstanding choice that completely captured the audience.

Nowadays we have been accustomed to regular, precise and well-structured aesthetics, to the “ideal beauty “ that we experience in our daily life and that is around us in works of art.

However all of that is banned and according to Shechter ‘s style of choreography , dancers should act by instinct and simultaneously accept everything their body would like to do with no interpretation or embellishment . 

Nevertheless this  style of movement may appear to be as a chaotic and ruffled sequence of steps , where dancers don’t follow any kind of structure or line .On the other hand it seems that the dancers manage to free their minds and lose themselves  in their natural impulse . This is accomplished by sharing their mood with the audience . In addition it creates a unique dancing body  in harmony with enthralling music which  ,by ignoring conventions, it becomes pure rhythm. 

In summary despite there not being  a global common taste for this work, I would recommend sampling a Shechter's performance yourself! 

Follow the link below for a taste of the barbarians rehearsals before the big tour in the U.K. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAfNuc2pPEw

Credits:

Choreography and music of Hofesh Shechter

Performed by Hofesh Shechter Company

Photographs of Gabriele Zucca