Bolero- based ballet embraces divine madness
Choreography reflects gradual shift from ‘ quite controlled to something out there’
Johan Inger remembers clearly the first time he heard Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. He was a youngster in Sweden when he saw a black and white version of Zubin Mehta leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic as it played the composer’s most famous work.
“It was such a show,” Inger said. “He started very aristocratic, hair well combed. He starts very theatrical and he builds to ecstasy. At the end, his hair is flying everywhere and his eyes are widening and I thought had a very nice energy, something very mad about it.”
Mehta’s performance in Bolero was an especially memorable one. In 1973, the film version called The Bolero won an Academy Award for Best Short.
“It had a big impact on me,” Inger said.
Following that initial memory, it would take a number of years before Inger was given the chance to turn it into Walking Mad, one of three works being performed by Ballet BC, tonight to Saturday.
He would attend both the Royal Swedish Ballet School and National Ballet School in Toronto before moving on to dance with the Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.
Attracted to the works of the legendary Jiri Kylian at the Nederlands Dans Theatre, he joined the Dutch company in The Hague in 1990.
Kylian initially noticed Inger’s talent in the company’s annual choreography workshops. Along with a number of young choreographers, Inger was given the opportunity to create something for an evening of orchestra music. Inger chose Bolero.
“I was watching a couple of versions of Bolero: ballets,” Inger said. “They were always very erotic and sensuous. They had fallen, in my eyes, to a cliché. I wanted to break it up and still keep that eroticism and keep it as more of a battle between the sexes.”
Bolero was created in the early 20th century as ballet music commissioned for Russian ballerina Ida Rubenstein.
When it premiered at the Paris Opera in November 1928, Bolero was a hit with the public. Since then, it has become one of classical music’s celebrity tunes.
In creating his dance, Inger was inspired by the Socratic saying “Great blessings come to us through ways of madness.” In one of the dialogues known as Phaedrus, Socrates lists several kinds of divine madness including prophecy, poetry and love.
“What’s interesting about the piece and the recording is it goes from something quite controlled to something out there, to letting go,” Inger said. “Its natural course is from something delicate to something powerful. I have followed that pattern.”
Since its premiere by the NDT in May 2001, Walking Mad has been performed by companies all over the world. It has become Inger’s biggest hit.
“It has a little bit of everything,” he said. “It has humour, craziness, drama. And there is this wall that keeps on changing the space. There are always new situations occurring. People always seem to really enjoy it.”
Inger, who lives in Spain, arrived Sunday in Vancouver after being in transit for almost 20 hours. The next afternoon, a jet- lagged Inger saw the company perform Walking Mad for the first time at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. He was impressed.
The work is playful, theatrical and full of life. In a spirited rehearsal performance, the company’s dancers did it full justice.
One of the central metaphors and props is a wall on wheels. Not only does the wall divide the space, it moves around during the work. The versatile wall also becomes a surface to dance on and against, as well as a ledge to hang from and balance on.
In addition to Walking Mad, two world premieres are part of Ballet BC’S program.
Opening each performance is between disappearing and becoming by Emily Molnar, the company’s artistic director. After hearing Without Sinking by Hildur Gudnadottir, Molnar said in the program notes she was moved by “its hauntingly beautiful landscapes and sense of urgency.”
The other work is Aszure Barton’s Vitulare which has a varied musical score that includes Figlude performed by Matt Haimovitz, O Yo Yo performed by Shallaway and It’s Cloudy and Harvest Song performed by Brooklyn Rider.
After the three performances at the Queen Elizabeth, Ballet BC is taking Walking Mad & Other Works to suburban theatres. The company will be performing at the Surrey Arts Centre March 13, the ACT Arts Centre in Maple Ridge March 15 and the Chilliwack Cultural Centre March 17.