Choreographer covers Cash in ‘Man in Black’
James Kudelka was at a disadvantage when Balletmet Columbus asked him to choreograph a piece for a program based on American pop music. Kudelka grew up in Newmarket, Canada, listening to classical music and so was unfamiliar with most popular artists.
“I’d just seen ‘Walk the Line,’ so I was aware of Johnny Cash and loved the movie,” he recalls, “but I thought, ‘Do I really want to do anything with prison songs?’”
Once he found “American IV: The Man Comes Around,” the double album of cover tunes Cash recorded late in his career, Kudelka found his inspiration. He choregraphed “The Man in Black” to Cash’s versions of the Beatles’ “In My Life,” Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” and four other songs.
“They’re very energetic and beautiful,” he says. “They’re sadder but wiser songs and have nothing to do with prison.”
Smuin Contemporary Ballet is staging the piece as part of its “Dance Series 1” program, headed to Mountain View through March 1. Four dancers — three male and one female — dance the six-song suite. Kudelka upped the difficulty of his choreography when he decided the dancers should wear cowboy boots.
“They change your stance and your walk,” he says. “They ended up being a big part of the piece. … There’s lots of walking in it; walking is dancing.”
Kudelka created the work for Balletmet in 2010, five years after he ended his tenure as artistic director for the National Ballet of Canada. Now 64, he recalls that the commission came at “a time in my career as a choreographer that, when you’re invited to do a new ballet for a company, you’re given carte blanche.”
That phase of his career may be over, but Kudelka is still looking for new avenues to express himself.
“There’s a whole new generation (of choreographers) coming in with new ways of doing things,” he says. “I don’t want to be down about it, but I was warned as a young man that dance can run out on you. I feel I’m experiencing that a little bit, but I’m trying not to let that stop me from being a creative person.”
A decade after its creation, Kudelka says “The Man in Black” still holds up.
“It’s a pretty good piece,” he says. “It demonstrates where I’m coming from and my interior life.”
The Balletmet, he adds, “was a place where you could go out on a limb. I did two or three pieces there that ended up being signature works for them and me.”
In addition to The Man in Black,” Smuin’s Dance Series 1 features former Smuin artist Rex Wheeler’s “Take Five,” set to the jazz music of Dave Brubeck; and Michael Smuin’s “Carmina Burana,” set to the Carl Orff score. The program runs Feb. 27-March 1 at the Center for the Performing Arts. 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets are $25-$79 at 650-903-6000 or www. smuinballet.org
Contact Anne Gelhaus at 408-200-1051.