Metaphors of Dance or Prague Chamber Ballet Stuck in a Blind Alley Once Again

Prague Chamber Ballet, once the most innovative dance company in Czechoslovakia, a company nearly defunct and reborn, searching for their lost identity ever since, performed their first new piece of the season on October 18th, 2015 at the Estates Theatre. In recent years, some of their projects indicated a new approach towards contemporary dance, but it seems that they have changed course once again and are indecisively waiting for more favorable winds. According to the program note, a triple bill called Metaphors of Dance focuses on "characteristics similar to those once typical of the Prague Chamber Ballet's repertoire, although the movement vocabulary has significantly changed over the years." The result, however, is more than questionable. It seems that the effort to recreate those "characteristics" has deprived the creators of imagination and looking back to the past has led the Prague Chamber Ballet astray.  First piece of the triple bill, Come see comme ça, the title of which is an Anglo-French anagram, is an attempt to make a humorous dance theatre piece. Stubborn pursuit of grotesqueness, however, falls flat, because the work of the Polish choreographer Aleksandra Dziurosz lacks both creativity in movement and coherent dramaturgy. A discontinuous scene of a party, where a collection of individuals – unhappy with their own identity – meet, unfolds in front of the audiences. Each of them behaves more or less pathologically, with either mannered drama, disdainfulness, aggressiveness, or vice versa, diffidence. Their deranged personalities are emphasized by the costumes, but that is where all originality ends.  The production evokes a feeling of fruitless expectation that something is finally going to happen. After all, contemporary physical theatre offers so many means of getting to the core of human emotions and crooked relationships. But the scenes of social life are extremely cumbersome, the characters seem to be completely soulless, sketches lack punchlines and relationships do not develop. At one point a parlor game is being played, a moment later there is something like a disco dancing, a hostess in an evening gown is trying to attract the attention of men, a teacher from a Catholic grammar school uncovers her suppressed sexual instincts while dancing a duet... The overall message of the production is clear and comprehensible, the creators of this piece are trying to show how unhealthy pretense hampers individual's effort to become themselves. But the way it is conveyed would be more suitable for a stage dance show. As if the development of physical and movement theatre meant nothing. And one feels sorry especially for the dancers who cannot demonstrate their skills, even though they possess an acting talent as well, and it is evident that they believe in the production and give it their best. In vain.  Choreography Silent Cry by Hana Litterová is based on another principle that characterizes the Prague Chamber Ballet – on their use of Czech music, in this case the symphonic poem The Water Goblin by Antonín Dvořák. Dvořák's program music inspired the choreographer to create this piece. The music, with its numerous dramatic moments, certainly ranks among those compositions that are easy to work with and tempt choreographers to adapt them into dance. Its structure, use of themes and dynamics can lead the choreography directly to dynamic peaks, although in this case the choreographer has created her own story to the music. I believe that this is a questionable approach. Dvořák composed all four pieces of the symphonic cycle under the influence of Erben's work as a musical setting of the latter's poems, the themes and motifs are based directly on specific verses and tectonics of the compositions always follows the plot of each particular ballad (Dvořák wrote the verses directly into the manuscript of the score). Is it really justifiable to choose such a musical piece just for its euphony and drama that is convenient to work with? Is it not a bit of a degradation of the original work? Even Pavel Šmok worked in the case of The Wild Dove from the same cycle with the original content of the work, although he gave it a modern choreographic form. However, this choreography at least poses an opinion, it is possible to argue with it, because there is something to argue with.  The subject matter of Silent Cry resembles an earlier successful dance production Ballads (2008) by Hana Litterová, there is also a coherent storyline, the issue of relationships in the family, violence, rape theme, but not in the historical, but contemporary settings. Everything is transformed into an elegant movement vocabulary somewhere in between neoclassical and modern dance. Choreography abounds with dramatic gestures and naturalistic scenes, as well as clean lines, lifts and graceful, lofty movements. Characters convincingly go through their fateful encounter. However, as for its content and means of expression, this piece brings nothing overtly new and it is not clear what it is supposed to contribute to the revival of the Prague Chamber Ballet's repertoire.  The last part of the program, a choreography This Is Not a Kiss!, has been created by Slovenian choreographer Žiga Jereb and Anna Štěrbová, a Czech dancer working abroad. Their work is close to contemporary dance and, as its title suggests, the theme is related to a kiss and all sorts of emotions that this small symbolic action may cause. Even here, however, emotions do not go into depth and the choreography feels somewhat cumbersome. It does not place greater demands on dance technique either, although there are some interesting spatial formations and duets feel intimately as well. However, between them and few humorous moments with airy kisses there are long minutes, when the movement stagnates, performers standing around, waiting. No energy flows from the stage to the audiences, no tension, nothing but tedium materializes on the stage. Perhaps it is also due to the distance between the performers and the audience and the layout of the space itself. In the opera glasses-type of theatre the gap between the two deepens, and this is no good for contemporary dance.  The main characteristics of the former Prague Chamber Ballet and their predecessor Balet Praha were progressiveness and novelty, their repertoire was like a fresh breeze amidst the repertoires of big theatres. The position of these companies was unique and well defined by the period in which they existed. Sure it is possible to look for new individual ways and specialize, but not intentionally. Returning to one's own past and trying to repeat the success by repeating similar patterns can never work. Likewise, a company can not function effectively without real artistic personalities and well-defined dramaturgy. The premiere was a success with audiences? Well, that was because the theatre was full of dancers, who came to support their colleagues. Experienced professionals, however, should not be fooled. Metaphors of Dance were supposed to "delight and entertain us," but, unfortunately, failed in both.  A review of the performance held on October 18th, 2015 at the Estates Theatre. Metaphors of Dance  Come see comme ça  Sound collage: Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, René Aubry, Murcof, Balanescu Quartet and Goran Bregović  Stage direction: Aleksandra Dziurosz Dramaturgical collaboration: Bartosz M. Martyna  Choreography: Aleksandra Dziurosz & Dancers  Musical arrangement: Andrzej Kopeć  Stage and costume design: Pavel Knolle  Lighting design: Jakub Sloup  Czech premiere: October 18th, 2015
  Silent Cry  Music: Antonin Dvořák (The Water Goblin, Op. 107)  Choreography: Hana Litterová  Set and costume design: Pavel Knolle  Lighting design: Jakub Sloup  Czech premiere: October 18th, 2015  This Is Not a Kiss!  Sound collage: Sarah Neufeld, William Ryan Fritch and Simon Spitzer  Choreography: Žiga Jereb & Anna Štěrbová  Set and costume design: Pavel Knolle  Lighting design: Jakub Sloup  Czech premiere: October 18th, 2015
  Translation: Tomáš Valníček

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