Delightful use of the word “lard” in the NYTimes (8/8).  Alistair Macaulay: “The same three dancers delivered Hans van Manen’s ‘Solo’: each solo is a rapid and silly string of whimsically cute effects larded onto Bach music.”

First though, the work in question — (different performers):

So. I remember seeing this piece done at Ailey a few years ago, and I thought it was good, and beautifully danced (heart clifton brown).  But a little bit frustrating.  The crisp alignment with the music’s phrasing was inconsistent, and departures from it seemed kind of random.  I went back and found Macaulay’s review (12/3/07), in which he says more or less the same thing as the Colorado review:  “Mr. van Manen does give each dancer individualized material, though they have too many consciously quirky flourishes of head and arms and a too relentlessly left-right tick-tock phrasing to become serious”.  (I had a few other issues, as usual, with the production’s treatment of music.  Issue #1: a recording of the piece was used — even though it would only need a solo player; #2: the recording artist wasn’t mentioned in the program; #3: the music was listed as “Johann Sebastian Bach”, rather than the more informative “Corrente and Double from Partita No. 1 in b minor, 1720″. )

I watched Benjamin Millepied/Olivier Simola’s ciaccona (film) again the other day, and I actually liked it even more this time.  It’s not always wedded to the underlying harmonic structure, but it seems like it’s sensitive to something larger than that.  Here’s part 2 — the gut-wrenching section in D major…

Another recent find is a Forsythe version of the ciaccona, of which there’s not a complete version online. Here’s an excerpt from the end of “Steptext” (1985), and also a bit of the chaconne nested in his larger tanztheaterish work “Artifact” (1984) – excerpted here by a Dutch tv clip (see 1:40).

These are three really different approaches, to Bach, to ballet vocabulary, to theatrical appropriation of ye olde musicke, to ways of presenting dance (stage or screen), and to technical virtuosity.  I’m most interested these days in confronting and understanding that appropriation and perception of ye olde musicke, especially in modern dance.  The kind of thing where suddenly some (gorgeous, brilliant, complex) Schubert piano sonata comes on, and everyone is supposed to feel nostalgic and cry, but it could just as easily have been a Louis Jullien ditty, as far as the dramatic effect and intention were concerned…

As for Bach solo violin partitas in particular — I’m working on a couple of ideas with these myself, over the summer.  They’re pretty dorky, but fun little side projects.  To be continued…

And yes, I do wish Mark Morris had choreographed the B minor partita. Maybe some day.

Tags: bach violin partitas, benjamin millepied, hans van manen, olivier simola, william forsythe

Both comments and pings are currently closed.