Head toward the light
Ratmansky & Côté
Four Seasons Centre, Toronto
The days of ballet being associated with tutus and fizzy fairy tales are long over. Today’s top choreographers are pushing the boundaries with provocative works that make the audience work as well. This is certainly the case with the National Ballet of Canada’s summer mixed program Ratmansky & Côté.
The world premiere of Guillaume Côté’s Being and Nothingness, which took place Saturday, leads this triple bill. A principal dancer and one of the company’s two choreographic associates, Côté may often star in princely classical roles, but his choreography is anything but old-fashioned. In fact, in this piece, which first began as a solo for Greta Hodgkinson in 2013, Côté appears to reject traditional ballet poses for hyper-modern, angst-ridden movements.
It’s based on French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential text Being and Nothingness and is set to stirring music by Philip Glass. Sartre felt that life had no purpose or meaning. He rejected the notion of God, emphasizing freedom of choice over the idea of fate. Many of these themes play out in seven intense vignettes.
The ballet starts with the house lights up, revealing a brightly lit stage. The wings and curtain have been removed. A handful of white objects, including a bed, sink, and door, pop against a stark black backdrop. A single light bulb hangs centre stage. A woman in a short white slip sits on the side of the bed. Suddenly the house lights switch off, and the light bulb turns on.
Part 1, entitled “The Light,” features a wild solo by Hodgkinson, who appears anxious and erratic. Arms and legs flail and twist into unsettling positions. Occasionally she looks to the light, as if searching for help out of her state of despair. It’s raw, even ugly at times, but also achingly beautiful.
In fact, in each scene there are powerfully charged mo- ments that cut right to the core. The uber-talented Dylan Tedaldi brings hypnotic intensity to the mundane task of shaving in “The Sink.” And Svetlana Lunkina and Brent Parolin take on some challenging acrobatic lifts as two lovers quarrelling in “The Living Room.” One particularly fiery moment has Parolin grabbing Lunkina’s ankles and spinning her around forcefully while she slaps the floor.
The solos and duets pack the most emotional punch. However, a group scene featuring male dancers in black hats seems out of place alongside the other intimate dances. The minimalist set by Michael Levine, and light, airy costumes by Krista Dowson, are well suited to the seductive choreography. Audiences may be missing seeing Côté perform on stage lately (he’s still recovering from a serious knee injury), but it’s easy to see that he’s been busy over the past few months making his mark as a bold and gutsy choreographer.
Superstar Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky teams up with his favourite composer Shostakovich in Symphony #9 and Piano Concerto #1. (Ratmansky has set more than a dozen ballets to Shostakovich). Both works look back at the history of Soviet Russia, and the tensions between art and politics. To help illustrate this, red Soviet symbols are projected on a screen or hang over the dancers.
While both of the Ratmansky works — which are rooted in classical vocabulary — feature his signature speedy footwork (no one packs more steps into a musical phrase than Ratmansky), Concerto No. 1 is the more visually stunning of the two. The corps de ballet dons unitards that are steel gray on one side and red on the other, and the rapidly changing colours creates a splendid effect as the dancers move energetically through the steps. Jillian Vanstone and Dylan Tedaldi are technically superb and bring crisp attack to their pas de deux. Both small and compact, they dance like they are six feet tall and make a dynamic team.