Filmed last month at the Lucent Theatre , their home in the Hague , this is the latest in the current season of screenings of works by the wonderful NDT ( Nederlands Dance Theatre ) , as always showcasing their superb dancing .
It is a striking and unusual double bill of works by Canadian Crystal Pite , who is the founder and artistic director of Kidd Pivot. Pite is also currently the associate choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater and associate dance artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre.
To quote from the publicity blurbs : ‘Crystal Pite is renowned for her flowing, organic and poetic style, and with her surprising and innovative approach she has succeeded in bringing her dance to the attention of a wide audience. She is fascinated by familiar storylines of love, conflict and loss, and the body’s role in providing the illustrative shape of those stories’.
In this double bill two co-existing and contrasting worlds are established , in and ex- terior. The exterior is limitless and inhabited by shadows, the interior a visible, recognizable and known world.
While the dancing was sensational PARADE, the opening work, could be quite confusing , judging by other audience members reactions. Beckett like in influence (and not to forget the famous Picasso/Matisse /Satie/ Cocteau collaboration for Diaghilev) it is a meditation on life.
Sad , strange clowns ( representing ‘Everyman’ ) in tattered costumes , bald caps and tear streaked makeup emerge from a tent ( a fragile symbol of creativity) . Tightly organized chaos ensues as the clown’s monochromatic world is interrupted by the very controlled, orderly marching band, which apparently is meant to ‘exemplify the tension between instinct and intellect, rational and irrational, unconscious and conscious.’.
There are birthday celebrations, hanging of a string of lanterns and various phrases of movement ( eg shifting and stacking of plates , the passing of the cake) are repeated and echoed.
Ritual , shadows and rhythms are very important. There is instruction in the juggling of chickens, using nonsense words. The starry night sky, with the use of the cyclorama stretched across as an eclipse, was wonderful.
Some of it was fast, hyper and frenetic . At various points there are blocks of movement for the entire ensemble. Some of the movements are robotic. There is a wonderful, strange dreamlike pas de deux at one point with unusual lifts. But what is behind the symbolism of the giant bear and lions heads and the marvelous kite-like fish? ‘Frontier’ , which explores the concept of dark matter and the borderline between un/knowing and un/consciousness , is sometimes lyrical and floating , sometimes ominous and scary. Throughout there are dancers as ‘dark matter’ , in black like Japanese ‘Koken’ , who manipulate , support and quietly interact with the other dancers . Are they also meant to represent Death ? The choreography is at times avian with angular elbows.
There is a superb opening solo where the ‘dark matter ‘ support the woman . In another section a woman walks on the back of the ‘dark matter’ as if floating . There are a couple of extraordinary solos where it seems the dancers are trying to escape the ‘dark matter’ and can’t . There is a featured short glorious male pas de deux. Some of the work is ominous with much use of haunting shadows . At other points it is luminous with dappled, rippling lighting .
The music varies from a haunting, lyrical liturgical piece to techno beeps, crashes , throbs and hums. The finale with the exultant soaring music has the whole cast as the ‘dark matter’ writhing in a sculptural mass.
This was a lyrical, very strong work. Together, PARADE and FRONTIER made for an exciting and challenging double bill. AN EVENING WITH CRYSTAL PITE screened at selected arthouse cinemas the weekend of the 9th and 10th March, 2013. An evening with Crystal Pite screens at selected cinemas March 9 & 10 Running time was 2 hours ( approx ) and the film included an interval which has a fascinating short documentary interview with Pite about the creation of the double bill and her work with NDT .
© Lynne Lancaster
11th March, 2013
Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews- AN EVENING WITH CRYSTAL PITE, Sydney Arts Guide, Lynne Lancaster
