Last year, I visited Copenhagen and saw two performances (see my posts here and here) by the RDB at the Operaen. This year, they are traveling to the US and their first stop is in Orange County at Segerstrom Hall. I went with Joan, my 90-something ballet teacher and my friend Ronnie. It's a long trek to Orange County from WLA but luckily it's a holiday weekend so a lot of people are out of town.
We had a lovely dinner at Silver Trumpet restaurant, where we can park the car for free and then leave it there and walk over to the hall. The food was wonderful, and except for some difficulty with serving espresso (my guess is they usually do cappucino) the service was fine.
The performance tonight is Napoli, which is a light-hearted ballet by the founder of Danish ballet, August Bournonville. His style is particularly noted for the lightness and clarity of the men's petit allegro. When I was in Denmark, I saw the company in repertory pieces, so this will be a first for me, to see them in a story ballet. The Pacific Symphony provided the musical accompaniment.
The story revolves around a poor fisherman and a young village girl who are in love. Of course there are obstacles (her mother's objections and competing suitors) and danger (she drowns in a grotto and is lured by a demon to become one of his naiads), the saving power of true love (the fisherman gets her to remember her real self through dance) and a celebratory wedding at the end. The artistic director of the RDB is Nicholaj Hubbe who is well known in the US as a principal dancer with NYCB prior to his retirement. He's taken the middle act (the grotto scene) and updated it with interesting video projection effects and more modern choreography. The first act is mainly to set the scene for us and introduce the characters. The village people do some dancing and show off the fishermen's lovely footwork. In the middle act, the modern choreography identifies the demon and his naiads along with lighting effects that make them look cold and blue. The fisherman is lighted with a warm light, and he dances the choreography that we saw in Act I, the traditional Bournonville, and as his love starts remembering who she is, she starts getting the warmer light and dancing the traditional steps. This act is a wonderful bridge between the first and third act, giving us a slightly darker and more moody atmosphere and allowing the bright quick dancing of the third act to really shine. The final act is a series of groups and solos where dancers get to show off their lovely lightness and beautiful feet. The interesting thing about this choreography that makes it so different from standard classical story ballets is the complete lack of show-off pyrotechnics. There's no posing, in fact the dancers barely stop dancing, transitioning in and out of center stage with barely time to take a bow. There is a purity to their dancing that is so refreshing. Plus they all look like they are having a lot of fun.
We had a great time but the glow of the performance did not last, as we got stuck on the 405, which was shut down completely at Long Beach with all traffic being diverted off the freeway. We later found out that two men were found shot in a van and the police investigation is what closed down the freeway. Our relatively quick 1 hour trip home turned in two hours.
21 May 2011
Atlanta
I went on a very short but fun trip to Atlanta and La Grange, Georgia to visit a carpet mill. La Grange is southwest of Atlanta and used to be a center of textile production but all of that moved to parts east (China for one) and now they have Interface and Milliken carpet tiles and a Kia plant. I was visiting the Interface facilities with 3 other designers. The company owns a beautiful 'FLW'-esque house on a hillside in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, there was no one around, it was so quiet at night, most of us city folks were a little uneasy and I was woken up in the morning by a racket of birds calling (at least 10 different kinds, singing so loudly I felt like they were in my room with me). The company provides a cook to make breakfast as well as dinner our first night. The food was hearty and delicious, especially the Brunswick Stew (apparently a local specialty). On our flight over, we shared the plane with Stevie Wonder, who was so gracious after he deplaned, taking photos with just about anyone who wanted and making sure to pull his famous braids out as well. His handler was going nuts trying to keep the star moving.
The mill tours were fascinating, I've always loved seeing the 'behind the scenes' in factories and the like, everyone was wonderfully polite and the design center was really cool. We happened in town during a 13 year cicada season. They were not out in huge numbers so we were spared the loud racket but we did see quite a few of the red eyed buggers around the plants.
There is one 'fancy' dining establishment in town called Carriage and Horses and it's run by a Lebanese-French man who owns a stable full of horses. From the dining room, you look out on a small pond and fields where the horses are hanging out. The food wouldn't stand up to what you'd find in LA, but it was delicious and clearly prepared with love.
Before we headed back to Atlanta, we stopped at Callaway Gardens, on property formerly owned by the family that ran most of the former textile mills as well as built the house we stayed at. They are relatives of the golf equipment family. They had a conservatory full of tropical butterflies, hot and humid, with some giants flitting around. The gardens include a golf course, pond, and walking trails.
In Atlanta, we spent a couple of hours at the Aquarium near Centennial Olympic Park. I was very impressed with this Aquarium. The displays include a river ecosystem to show local water creatures, an arctic area with giant, white Beluga whales, a deep ocean section with a shark and ray tunnel, and a tropical area with some of the most vibrantly coloured sea creatures I've ever seen. If we'd had more time, we could have participated in some special tours, such as a behind the scenes look at the tanks and research areas.
By the time we got back to the airport, most of us were pretty exhausted and I for one was ready to be heading home. It was a fun few days with a great group of people.
(The rest of the photos from Callaway Gardens and the Aquarium are here.)
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| Stevie Wonder! |
The mill tours were fascinating, I've always loved seeing the 'behind the scenes' in factories and the like, everyone was wonderfully polite and the design center was really cool. We happened in town during a 13 year cicada season. They were not out in huge numbers so we were spared the loud racket but we did see quite a few of the red eyed buggers around the plants.
 |
| 13 year Cicadas |
There is one 'fancy' dining establishment in town called Carriage and Horses and it's run by a Lebanese-French man who owns a stable full of horses. From the dining room, you look out on a small pond and fields where the horses are hanging out. The food wouldn't stand up to what you'd find in LA, but it was delicious and clearly prepared with love.
Before we headed back to Atlanta, we stopped at Callaway Gardens, on property formerly owned by the family that ran most of the former textile mills as well as built the house we stayed at. They are relatives of the golf equipment family. They had a conservatory full of tropical butterflies, hot and humid, with some giants flitting around. The gardens include a golf course, pond, and walking trails.
In Atlanta, we spent a couple of hours at the Aquarium near Centennial Olympic Park. I was very impressed with this Aquarium. The displays include a river ecosystem to show local water creatures, an arctic area with giant, white Beluga whales, a deep ocean section with a shark and ray tunnel, and a tropical area with some of the most vibrantly coloured sea creatures I've ever seen. If we'd had more time, we could have participated in some special tours, such as a behind the scenes look at the tanks and research areas.
 |
| One of the large tanks at Georgia Aquarium |
By the time we got back to the airport, most of us were pretty exhausted and I for one was ready to be heading home. It was a fun few days with a great group of people.
(The rest of the photos from Callaway Gardens and the Aquarium are here.)
08 May 2011
Mark Morris Dance Group
Mark Morris is one of my favourite contemporary choreographers primarily because he is exceedingly musical. I always feel like you can see the music in his dances. This year his group is touring and performing 'L'allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato' as a celebration of 30 years in the biz (not an easy thing to accomplish). This piece was created in the early 80's when Morris was the director of a theatre in Belgium. The music is a Handel piece for chorus and solo singers, the libretto is to poems by John Milton and the scenery is based on the paintings of William Blake (although in a very abstract way).
This work was considered a masterpiece almost immediately after it was first performed, and after experiencing it, I can see why. The music is composed of 32 sections and split into 2 parts with an intermission. The scenery is composed of scrims of various colours and at various depths on the stage, each dropping or lifting away to create different colour moods. There are also a few panels composed of vertical lines or squares that interact with the scrims. The costumes in the first part are muted, earthy colours. In the second part, the costumes are vibrant, lively colours. The various sections go back and forth in mood between 'l'allegro' (joy) and 'il penseroso' (melancholy) and the occasional attempt at 'moderato' (balance between the two). The movements vary from simple (walking, running) to sublime (one section had a series of turns and swooping motions that brought tears to my eyes). Unlike much of contemporary dance, there is a great deal of humour (the fox hunting scene and the men's slap/hug dance, for instance) alongside the serious.
The singers and chorus were fantastic, the intertwining of the music and dance so complete that there were moments when I forgot that the singing was not coming out of the dancers' mouths. As with other Morris pieces that I've seen, there are moments when the structure of the music is so clearly reflected in the choreography that it feels they must have been created together (when in fact they are separated by hundreds of years).
My dance friends and I were all in agreement that we felt the urgent need to jump up on stage with the dancers and join them. I wanted to see the whole thing again, as soon as it ended. I wanted to be part of it.
This work was considered a masterpiece almost immediately after it was first performed, and after experiencing it, I can see why. The music is composed of 32 sections and split into 2 parts with an intermission. The scenery is composed of scrims of various colours and at various depths on the stage, each dropping or lifting away to create different colour moods. There are also a few panels composed of vertical lines or squares that interact with the scrims. The costumes in the first part are muted, earthy colours. In the second part, the costumes are vibrant, lively colours. The various sections go back and forth in mood between 'l'allegro' (joy) and 'il penseroso' (melancholy) and the occasional attempt at 'moderato' (balance between the two). The movements vary from simple (walking, running) to sublime (one section had a series of turns and swooping motions that brought tears to my eyes). Unlike much of contemporary dance, there is a great deal of humour (the fox hunting scene and the men's slap/hug dance, for instance) alongside the serious.
The singers and chorus were fantastic, the intertwining of the music and dance so complete that there were moments when I forgot that the singing was not coming out of the dancers' mouths. As with other Morris pieces that I've seen, there are moments when the structure of the music is so clearly reflected in the choreography that it feels they must have been created together (when in fact they are separated by hundreds of years).
My dance friends and I were all in agreement that we felt the urgent need to jump up on stage with the dancers and join them. I wanted to see the whole thing again, as soon as it ended. I wanted to be part of it.
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