BJÖRK, AND OTHER NEW BALLETS
The Opera House doors flew open this week for the throngs converging on the “Unbound D” program of world premieres. They were no doubt swelled by pop music fans anxious to savor the “Björk Ballet,” named after the mercurial pop singer featured on the sound track.
But the flamboyant “Björk Ballet” by Arthur Pita had a double appeal: It is as futuristic as a Star-Trekky sci-fi special. The Marco Morante designs alone, with bizarre masks and costumes composed of little more than bright ribbons and a lot of flesh, were a feast for the eyes. And the sexy dances didn’t hurt, either.
Yes, it’s glitzy, flashy and extravagant as a crowd-catcher, like a modern-ballet counterpart to the “Aida” Grand March. This is perhaps the closest of the 12 ballets to showing the directions that ballet is likely to go in upcoming years. Per the story making the rounds, it happened only because Ms. Björk, who rarely authorizes others’ use of her songs, had a chat with S.F.Ballet chief Helgi Tomasson—in Icelandic—and gave the green light, a la Aurora Borealis.
Clearly the communicators of our diplomatic future might well switch their conversations to Icelandic. Especially if our other languages aren’t functioning.
In one of his cleverest touches, the Portuguese choreographer Pita offered in contrast to the spacey corps a wandering fisherman, a white-face Marcel Marceau-like flat-footed figure from the past played enigmatically by Wei Wang. This offset well against the “other-worldly creature” Björk (Pita’s words) and her fantasy creatures on stage.
The work already seems ripe for revivals and tour performances, and a built-in audience demand. And all that night-clubby glitz be damned. The high-energy dancing itself is ferocious, though easily overlooked in this welter of distractions and attractions.
Some of the most original moves and maneuvers of the whole 4-part festival came in Edwaard Liang’s “The Infinite Ocean.” And here Sofiane Sylve doesn’t just move, she flows. In the most memorable portion, she lies prone under a partner and emerges upward, with her back arched like a drawn bow. Here bodies rotate over one another, with legs overhead like blades of a windmill. And partners often go upside down in a Y- or X-body position—hands down. And inevitably memorable.
Liang, a former Marin and NYC Ballet dancer, also manages a flirtation between pas de deux couples—all too rare in these 12 new dance works. And clearly, Sylve is an actress who can portray an enamored woman. At the end, in the grand group exit upstage, Yuan Yuan Tan leaps out of sight in a back dive into the unknown, without a splash. I hope the company hired an off-duty catcher from the S.F. Giants to assure a soft landing.
Dwight Rhoden’s fleshy “Let’s Begin at the End” is a high-energy work for seven couples remembered most for seven doors upstage for more entries and exits than in a Shakespeare play. The lead pairing, in their most impressive showing yet, featured Frances Chung and that blur of an agile male, Angelo Greco, who was all over the stage in his sprint dashes, maybe in two or three places at once.
ICELANDIC NOTES (FULL DISCLOSURE)— Björk isn’t just Björk. Her full name is Björk Guödmundsdóttir, with “dóttir” being the traditional female surname ending in that culture.
UNBOUND festival of world premieres at the S.F. Ballet, (final) Program D, including the “Björk Ballet.” Opera House, S.F. Through May 5. For info: (415) 865-2000, or go online.
