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Theatre listings >
Scottish Ballet's Autumn
2004 tour . - Tour & World Premiere.
Nightswimming into Day.
Choreographer - Ashley Page.
Music – Brian Eno, J Peter Schwalm and John Adams.
Designer – Jon Morrell.
Lighting – Peter Mumford.
Twilight.
Choreographer - Hans van Manen.
Music – John Cage.
Design – Jean Paul Vroom.
Lighting – Jan Hofstra.
Two Pieces for HET.
Choreographer - Hans van Manen.
Music – Arvo Part and Erkki-Sven Tuur.
Design – Keso Decker.
Lighting – Jan Hofstra.
Suite from Artifact.
Choreographer and design - William Forsythe.
Music – JS Bach and Eva Crossman-Hecht.
Lighting – Peter Kanneberger.
Artistic Director – Ashley Page.
Company -Scottish Ballet. www.scottishballet.co.uk
Company - Scottish Ballet Company.Website.
Dancers - here .
Tour Dates and Times - here
.
Seen to review at Glasgow Theatre Royal. on 17 December 2003.
Run Time - 2 hours 45 with two intervals .
Reviewer - Vivien Devlin.
Fresh, Energetic and fun.
Fresh, Energetic and fun with terrific live orchestral and live music,
this is a great programme of premiere and revived work.
The starting point for Ashley Page in the creation of his major
new work for Scottish Ballet, Nightswimming into Day was the musical
score Shaker Loops by John Adams. The continuous melody,
shifting in tempo and rhythm, is a perfect medium for choreography. Underlying
themes in the piece are associated with flowing rivers which prompted
Page to create a piece about water.
The opening night-time set behind a gauze screen is dark with red shimmering
shadows all the more atmospheric against the haunting Eno/Schwalm
soundtrack. Two women in bathing costumes walk tentatively to the edge
of diving boards as if scared of the water. A man appears in the “pool”
as if floundering and lost. The stage opens up with an open road backdrop
as we are drawn into a dreamlike world.
Couples dressed in blue and sea-green costumes slowly glide together until
the mood shifts into a fast club beat matched by brilliant choreography.
Then the gauze lifts, the sun rises and a new day dawns. To a live orchestral
performance of Shaker Loops, the movement shifts from graceful calm to
furiously frantic as the dancers create a kind of Busby Berkeley synchronised
swimming sequence. Imagine a David Hockney blue sunlit California swimming
pool painting on stage. From a dark enigmatic beginning, Nightswimming
bursts into a fresh and scintillating dance oozing with youthful energy
and life.
Twilight.
A strident, disturbing musical score sets the tone for this duet. The
Perilous Night by John Cage is composed for a prepared piano,
using nuts and bolts to alter the sound. The theme of both music and dance
focuses on sexual eroticism and the loss of love. The girl in a short
white blouse and stilleto heels seems to taunt, provoke and seduce her
male partner. The mood is menacing rather than loving. When she removes
her shoes she is then able to run and embrace him freely. Intimate and
mesmerising.
Two Pieces for Het.
The couple are dressed in blatantly erotic costumes – he in black
thong beneath transparent leotard, she in short black tulle skirt, white
tights and pointe shoes. This is a masterly blend of the purity and control
of classical dance with the abandonment of contemporary sexuality.
Van Manen admits to being inspired by Fred Astaire and in this
exquisitely beautiful duet, the dancers move as one in a delightful, watchable
partnership.
Suite from Artifact.
This is a shorter adaptation of the original full length Artifact IV
[1984] created by William Forsythe in collaboration with composer
Eva Crossman-Hecht. It starts in silence with house lights up as
the audience come back from the interval, surprised and confused to see
a dancer already on stage. She walks across and stides around the stage.
The safety curtain suddenly thumps to the ground. Bach’s Chaconne
in D minor for solo violin now fills the theatre evoking both beauty
and sadness as two couples create exaggerated circular movements with
their arms in semaphore signalling fashion. The curtain crashes down,
stopping the dance in mid flow. In the contrasting second half,
Crossman-Hecht’s joyous piano score is performed live as the entire
company, all dressed in uniform blue/grey costumes perform in a free-flowing,
abstract, expressionistic style. An inspired scene is a chorus line of
12 male dancers with linked arms. The synchronised, hypnotic music and
dance rhythm with the ensemble clapping in unison is absolutely flawless,
growing with amazing force to its dramatic conclusion.
©Vivien Devlin, 16 September, 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Other EdinburghGuide reviews of Scottish Ballet Autumn
2003 tour | Spring
2004 tour. | Nutcracker
(this production will be revived for 2004 - 05 Festive season).
Cast list of Soloists and Principal dancers - Tatiana
Loginova, Eve Mutso, Patricia Hines, Tomomi Sato, Adam Blyde, Soon Ja
Lee, Sophie Martin, Anne Dancer, Kara McLaughlin, Vassilissa Levtonova,
Claire Robertson, Cristo Vivancos, Hubert Essakow, Erik
Cavallari, Glauco Di Lieto, Adrian Cunesco, Diana Loosmore, Jarkko Lehmus.
Autumn
2004 Tour Details for Scottish Ballet.
15 – 18 Sept at
7:15pm. Thurs Mat at 1:30pm Glasgow Theatre Royal 0141 332 9000.
22 – 25 Sept at
7:30pm & Thurs mat at 1:30pm at Edinburgh Festival Theatre
0131 529 6000.
29 – 30 Sept at 7:30pm and mat on 30 Sept at 1:30pm Inverness Eden
Court 01463 234 234
15– 16 October at 7:30pm and mat on 16 Oct at 2pm Dundee The Space
01382 834 934.
Tour Ends
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