The Piano fine-tuned for the stage
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is breathing new life into the Kiwi movie, finds Carly Thomas.
Jiri Bubenicek doesn’t stop moving. Even in stillness, the choreographer’s fingers twitch, play, clench and release. The rehearsals for The Piano are spread between two studios.
The New Zealand film is being translated into ballet, the storyline precipitated into the bodies of the dancers. It’s a story of love, passion and pain, three things dancers know well.
In the smaller studio are three female dancers learning the character of Ada and three different male dancers portraying her husband. Ada is mute, fiercely reverent of her piano and a tiger mama to her daughter Flora.
The part requires a certain kind of a dancer and Abigail Boyle says she couldn’t have danced this role when she was first starting out on her career. ‘‘You need to be mature and you need to have life experience and know what it is like to bare your soul on stage and how to handle that.’’
Sara Garbowski says it is physically and mentally demanding, ‘‘Ada is on stage pretty much the whole time.
‘‘You need to know how to mentally prepare for that and you can’t just fall back onto your ballet training, you have to stay in the character because she is really strong. It’s really challenging.’’
The three young dancers taking on the role of Ada’s daughter Flora may not quite understand the depth of the production, but Garbowski says they have an amazing work ethic.
‘‘It’s a big thing for a young girl to do. It is nice having them in the studio, it brings a different atmosphere to rehearsal.’’
Nadia Yanowsky and Loughlan Prior practise a move over and over again. Bubenicek explains the feeling, ‘‘a capture and release, slowly, slowly’’, he uses his hands, his body to articulate the image in his head, he laughs, ‘‘it’s like fishing’’.
It’s a very Kiwi thing to say and The Piano is a very New Zealand story to tell. Bubenicek believes that stories are often best told by those who have a little distance from them and he definitely has that, he lives in Prague, on the other side of the world.
‘‘I saw this movie when it opened many years ago and I was very touched and fascinated by it – the nature and the black sand, the character of Ada and the tragic end. It made me cry and it touched me to my roots somehow. I knew one day I wanted to make it.’’
He got his chance when he was asked to conceive a one-act story ballet for Dortmund Ballet three years ago and then stepped forward again this year into making a full-length ballet version of The Piano. Twenty-five years on from watching the film and being irreversibly moved, Bubenicek has realised his dream.
‘‘I love stories, I enjoy the psychology of the different lives that people lead. This story also means I can combine classical ballet with a contemporary language, I like to mix styles.’’
Another layer to the new ballet is the cinematic approach to the stage production. Bubenicek’s twin brother Otto has filmed video montages of New Zealand’s landscape – waterfalls, ferns, forests, pounding surf and the grand vistas have become the set, wrapping the stage. It is a technician’s dream and led to the RNZB’s technical director Andrew Lees buying two huge projectors.
‘‘I had the first conversation about this two years ago when Otto was over for the New Zealand School of Dance and since then I have been looking at how we are going to do the projection that would work in all the different centres that we travel to.’’
The solution to achieving highquality, consistent images was with two 31000 Panasonic laser projectors that were developed for the Rio Olympics.
They are the only two in the country and will be earning their keep by being hired out between productions.
‘‘They are bright and fantastic and everyone in the industry is wanting to hire them. It’s great.’’
For Bubenicek, it’s an important part of conveying the story and the emotion. ‘‘I want the audience to be captured so that they think about it afterwards. Not just because of the film, but because of the story.
‘‘Dance is an amazing thing. It is happening in the moment, the dancers are right here and now. I can guide them but they are performing. They have to be honest, they have to be themselves and be true to the story. They need to touch the audience.’’
He also has music on his side. The sweeping, tidal lull of Michael Nyman’s original soundtrack has been merged with Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Schnittke and Debussy. It is hypnotic at times, driving and immediate at others.
Everything has its place in this ballet and everything a purpose. There are no cameras to create angle and tension just dancers trained in the art of storytelling, beauty and expression.
"You have to stay in the character because Ada is really strong. It's challenging."
Sara Garbowski
❚ The Piano opens in Wellington’s St James Theatre on February 23 as part of the NZ Festival, before travelling to Napier (March 2-3), Auckland (March 8-10), Dunedin (March
16), Christchurch (March 21-23) and Palmerston North (March
28). For more information, see rnzb.org.nz