December 8th, 2009: Merce Cunningham – Nearly 90²

@theatre de la ville

I think Merce Cunningham thoughtful plans for his company after his death show that he knew this had a fair chance to be his last. But I didn’t get any sense of a farewell or of a look upon his storied past. As usual, his dance remained about the present. And if there were lot of familiar elements in the speeds and the kind of movements, it felt more like another step in the direction he had been exploring these past few years. I think he was still trying new things.

I’ve never been a big fan of his work, and this show had about all the things I like and don’t like about it. On the positive side, there’s the dance for itself, pure movement without story or props. There’s also a really interesting array of different speeds, very slow at the beginning, pretty fast later, then less extreme. I think this is a very rich show, with a lot of different aspects, but very consistent as well. There is definitely something running throughout the show, more specific than Cunningham’s later style. That’s equally impressive and rewarding. And of course some specific movements that stood out for me. The one I liked best was repeated often at the beginning, with a dancer on one leg slowly turning her head and torso to one direction while turning her other bent leg in the other.

Which is also illustrative of what I don’t like much about his work. The software origin of the dance really shows, but in those extreme movements and in a kind of artificial looking smoothness. It does create something unique, but when combined with the high skill of the dancers, it often goes so far in this direction that it becomes almost purely visual. I think that’s what people call abstract about his work, though the word is wrong, just like cold would be. To me the demands of the dance make it impossible to relate to it on an immediate level, it’s an intellectual appreciation, which lacks something. Likewise with the dancers, they’re so skilled there’s not much showing from each as an individual.

I think the explanations of Cédric Andrieux helped me like this show better, in retrospect. Now I can guess some of the things I missed while I was seeing it. And anyway, even though it’s not the kind of dance I like best, it’s still a great show, and it display a real vision and trust in that vision. And it succeeds in making it come true. That’s a lot, more than I can reasonably expect from a dance show.

December 7th, 2009: Mathilde Monnier – Un Américain à Paris

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This was actually a short part of a tribute to Merce Cunningham that featured a short film about his career, the relevant part of Jérôme Bel’s Cédric Andrieux, and Boris Charmatz’ 50 ans de dance. More about those two later, both are on my schedule.

The evening had been planned as a private celebration of Cunningham’s turning 90, but his death turned it into a public tribute. I don’t know why I was invited while some people I know were not, even though they’ve been going there for longer than me. Anyway, it was one of those rare occasions when I saw no one after five or ten minutes — an otherwise sure bet.

Mathilde Monnier’s tribute had a kid reading things that Cunningham had written or said about his experience in Paris over the years, including having people throw tomatoes at him — something that puzzles me because of the planning involved, though I never saw it happen — and teaching one of his pieces to the Paris Opera ballet dancers. These were often pretty interesting as he managed to come off as being very confident in his vision and ideas, but with a nice sense of humor and never taking himself too seriously. I’m not fond of seeing kids on stage like this, but I think it was a pretty good idea in this case, probably better than if a dancer had done the reading.

Well, he was actually a dancer, because the second part of this short set had him joined by Foofwa d’Imobilité, a former member of the MCDC. Obviously the kid didn’t go as far as the pro, but that kinda worked too. The dance had a few of the highly technical and so visually potent graphical figures of Cunningham’s dance, some typical arm and leg gestures, but the technical limitations of the kid made it less pure, and more alive and immediate. I didn’t like it much, but that quality made it worth seeing.

December 4th, 2009: Audrey Chen – Frederic Blondy – Michael Johnsen – Jerome Noetinger

@atelier tampon

It was my first time there, and the place is nice if a little too cozy for me in a way. It’s not a good fit for me, because I usually stand in the back, and there that’s next to the street and the noise from there often got in the way. It’s probably much better being seated in front.

I had seen each of the four performers before, but never two of them together. Frederic Blondy was familiar from Hubbub and Po-Go, and Jerome Noetinger from too many projects to mention. I had only seen Michael Johnsen and Audrey Chen once, but her Abattoir project has been a favorite of mine whenever it came up on the station, which has been quite often — that basically means more than once a week.

They did two sets, both with Michael Johnsen first playing saw, again in a very interesting way that featured none of the usual sounds associated with this instrument. Harsher, and replacing the smooth continuity with dense blocks that had another way of fitting in together. From way back, his part on electronics suffered from the same problem as what Jerome Noetinger was doing: I just couldn’t hear much aside from the occasional louder burst. That’s a shame because I really liked what Noetinger did with what I think where very short bits of voice recordings for while.

I’m quite fond of prepared piano, and Frederic Blondy was really good at it, exploiting the percussive side by hitting the strings as well as more resonating sounds that blended very well with the cello. Which was what I was here for, anyway. Audrey Chen did many different things, playing with a bow whether in the regular way or not, putting a stick between the strings, picking the chords, or rubbing those balls on the back to build up a very nice drone. She didn’t use her voice all that much though, but I think it was better that way because it wouldn’t have fit all that well with what the others were doing.

As a group, I think it worked OK but not great, but that might come from the acoustic instruments carrying much better to my spot than the rest. That meant I had a hard time hearing the latter unless the former stopped, and that robbed me of much in terms of how they were interacting. I guess I should have gone and sit in front in the light, but that was just not happening. What I could hear was worth it anyway, and I even got the Abattoir CD and a solo one, and both are great, by the way.

December 3rd, 2009: Gilles Jobin – Black Swan

@abbesses

I don’t remember seeing a show I didn’t like by Gilles Jobin, but this one may be my favorite. Totally different from the previous one, but with some familiar arm positions, and the long poles at the end reminded me of the rubber lines from Text to speech.

At first there just one dancer on stage, her arms often extended, with a lot of circles with a smooth flow at first, then this was slightly changed with a few angles added by her extending her arms. A second dancer joined her, and her dance was both close to and contrasting with the first in its vertical axis, with angles from bending and the occasional quick high kick. The first one left and that ushered another break as the remaining dancer went to the ground, sometimes rolling and something keeping her legs in circling/rolling motion as she stood straight. A totally different take on those opening circles.

Then a male dancer joined her, and as she rose he would provide support but always staying still as he doing so, pretending to be just an object happening to be there at the moment she put some of weight on him. Another contrast between her flow and his stop and go trajectory. Then Jobin came in wearing rabbit headed gloves, as did the other guy. They alternated in burst of speed, a flurry of movement but again totally different. Jobin was more classical and vertical, the other would use more space, though standing just as upright.

Then the women came back, going through the stage with arms extended like children playing at being planes, with their hands briefly alighting on the crouching male dancers’ backs. That childlike quality was reinforced by the appearance of a few small stuffed horses, which the dancers kept in front as they gathered in a rolling pile crossing the back of the stage, ushering in a more visual part of the show.

Then a single dancer came back, with a long pole, and the low blue light coming from the front was only occasionally reflected by that pole. That was a beautiful sequence, visually ambiguous. As Jobin joined her with another long pole and the light went up, that effect was dampened but not completely gone either. That’s when I was reminded of the rubber lines, the way these were slicing the space, though the pole were moving whereas those earlier lines were not.

The last sequence had more small stuffed horses being pushed around by these poles. Here the dancers going above or below those lines slowly moved by others was even more reminding me of that earlier show. Those lines moving and dividing were another nice effect, as they slowly brought those horses to the front of the stage. After the dancers had left, the last sequence had flashing lights projecting horse shadows on the back of the stage, not really looking like those were actual or moving horses, but close enough to make me think of that, and of what was missing, another delightful ambiguity.

November 27th, 2009: Tengir-Too / Byambajargal Gombodorj / Ulzhan Baibussynova / Ardak Issataeva / Raushan Orozbaeva

@cité de la musique

Tengir-Too, at last! This gig was easily the one I had been looking after since the venue’s schedule came out. And having Ulzhan Baibussynova and Ardak Issataeva around only made it even more a must-see show. Byambajargal Gombodorj was a late addition, probably because of her being featured in the soundtrack to a movie that was popular around here. That made no sense in terms of the show’s theme, but I’m not complaining.

Let’s get the whining out of the way first: that late pretend inclusion of Mongolia in central Asia was lame enough, but even the original label “music from the steppe of central Asia” made little sense. That’s no big deal, but their *again* botching the sound aspect is getting an annoying habit. There was a nasty echo on one komuz and worse issues with Issataeva’s and Baibussynova’s voices. I mean people, get your act together, or stick to western classical stuff and spare me the aggravation. Maybe I should consider those issues a tribute to those amazing voices, as they clearly went beyond the expectations of the engineers.

I’m definitely not a fan of the elaborate dress of Byambajargal Gombodorj, but her voice is so great it more than makes up for that. I’m glad I ended up in front, because any PA would be challenged and her voice is really something to be heard. She sang first, then left and only came back at the end, two bits of long song that made me eager for more. I wasn’t that keen the first time I heard her, but she had won me over before the end of that gig and knowing about the long song only made this experience more enjoyable. I guess I’m a fan now, she’s just great. She didn’t sing that long, but these were highlights for me. I’ll put in a plug for a great resource about Mongolian Music for those who are interested.

The performers from Kazakhstan were great too. I still love Ulzhan baibussynova’s voice, the deepest of this evening’s singers, but this time around I noticed her wonderful work with intonations. It was like another part altogether, and only increased my esteem for this performer. Despite the technical difficulties, I liked Ardak Issataeva’s voice better this time, because I noticed a richer texture than the first time. And her dombra playing is just amazing, I just hadn’t paid enough attention to that. She has so many different sound and combines them so well. I hadn’t heard Raushan Orozbaeva before, but I love the qyl-qobyz and her long solo was another great moment. It might be a relatively simple instrument, but in the hands of such a talented performer, it reaches great heights.

Tengir-Too was as surprisingly enjoyable as I thought. I’m usually not fond of fast music, but Kyrgyz music is different. And definitely worth seeing, as the many sounds of the komuz come alive with the theatrics of such skilled performers. I don’t mean that in a disparaging way, those elaborate gesture do add something, I guess that’s closer than you’d think to Hendrix’s stuff, in a way, but I actually like the former better. Even the talking/singing part was nice, even though I couldn’t understand a single work. I wasn’t that fond of the female singer’s voice though, and I wish there had been more jew’s harps. But the little there was featured my beloved jygach, and Nurlanbek Nyshanov is a master than made me forget my initial dismay at not seeing Zalina Kasymova, who had impressed me last year. He was great with other instruments as well, many different flutes and chopo choor, which added to some of the disconnect. In that it reminded me of the obvious Andean music, which was still an improvement over the weird connection I felt with Irish music. No explanation for that, as I hadn’t even drank a pint of Guinness in a while — meaning more than one week, not a few hours.

A nice, nice gig, despite the problems, and this time they did come all together for an upbeat song, and even though it was far from seamless, it was nice to see them give it a shot. As a very personal note, I really appreciated the occasional small gestures of appreciation from some of the performers toward others from another country. Irdak Issataeva’s smile during Byambajargal Gombodorj’s second song was the most heartwarming thing I’ve seen in a while.

November 26th, 2009: Lia Rodrigues – Pororoca

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The only thing I knew about Lia Rodrigues was that she had been part of Maguy Marin’s company, back when I liked what she was doing. Nothing, actually. She may be from Brazil, but there was no samba rhythm, thankfully. Just kidding, this was contemporary dance, and any postcard bit would have been tongue in cheek anyway. No music at all, actually, and I didn’t miss it, there was enough going on already, and that was fitting somehow, the sounds of their steps and breathing was enough. I can’t say I liked the only extra sounds in the show, when they were crossing the stage on all fours while belting out animal cries.

At first the dancers came on the side of the stage carrying plenty of stuff, from a table to plastic bags, through lawn chairs and shoes. They stool still for a while then erupted in a frenzied outburst, throwing those objects around. There were several times when they just stood still this way between bursts of movement. These stops paced the show in a way. There was a quite long sequence with most of the dancers somewhere between fights and embraces, more or less in a front to back line. Sometimes one would step or be pushed apart from the group and be on her or his own for a short while before going back into the group. I liked that, in part because of the group/individual dimension, and also because it made each more distinct, and that helped me to figure out that what had first seemed to like a confused heap was nothing like that at all. It was all minutely written, and I could clearly seen the patterns inside, the temporary pairings that added a middle level between the group and the persons. That made for a dense clockwork of interlocking patterns, nothing could be further from confusion.

That was my favorite part, the rest was slower and more immediately readable in my opinion, though there were also some striking images, like their holding hands in a distended circle in the front, or a moving circle in the back. The pauses often made a lot of sense, especially the one with them eating oranges. The long one when they stared at the audience while making faces came close to being too long, but they did it right, long enough to bring out some awkwardness, but just short of being just boring and losing its strength. Overall, I liked this show, despite a few times when I didn’t like what was going on, there was a great control of pretend chaos here.

After the show, there was a Q&A session with Rodrigues, and that was quite interesting. She explained how she was inspired by the alternative organization of her surroundings that she couldn’t make sense of at first, and I think she perfectly reached that goal. She also said an important theme was territoriality, and I totally missed that. Some questions were funny too, with the audience’s usual obsessing over sex. She said it wasn’t part of what she was saying, but I don’t think they believed her. Another interesting bit was her saying that the standing-still-and-staring part was originally over 40 minutes long — I’m happy she cut that shorter. And her work in Rio and her explanations about the way they prepared that show over there made me want to learn more. And see more, of course.

November 25th, 2009: Renata Rosa

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I was going there out of curiosity but with low expectations, because I’m not into Brazilian music. I was pretty dismayed to see I had a center seat in the front row, which was basically on the stage because the set was Masurca Fogo’s. I hate being in front this way, all the more for this kind of positive music — complete with singalong and people coming down to dance — which is deeply alien to me.

It started very well though, with Renata Rosa entering the stage with the four Karari-Xoco singers, very nice singing with percussive stomping, a great start. Hearing her on her own later made clear she has a great voice, and her violin playing is the kind I like, without overt displays of skill, but done too right for her not to be skilled indeed.

I really wish they had left more space for those singers, the one time they did a song by themselves was great but very short. Then again, there were fine call and response sequences, and some of polyphonic parts were really good — especially those with three doubled parts.

The musicians were good — especially Pepé — and they had a good thing going as a band, but I really have a problem with that typical Brazilian samba rhythm. I just don’t like it, and it got more grating for me as the set went on. It makes no sense at all, because I actually like cumbia, and it’s rhythm isn’t that different in a sense. But unfortunately it’s just the way it is, and that pretty much spoiled the second half or so for me. But I did enjoy the first half, so I don’t regret coming.