Two Intense works from Ballett Zürich: Emergence, Speak for Yourself

Opera House Zürich
January 13, 2018

Maggie Foyer

Ballett Zürich’s Emergence programme consists of two works: Crystal Pite’s eponymous ballet and Speak for Yourself from Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot. It is just a few hours in length, but the quality was outstanding; two forceful works full of concentrated emotion making a thoroughly satisfying evening.

The Lightfoot/Léon work is an experience for the senses where the choreography is enhanced by the dramatic inclusion of water, smoke and brilliant lighting to create breath-taking moments. The dancers’ idiosyncratic shapes and rippling bodies are distinctive features of the duo’s choreography; instantly recognisable in their complexity and articulation. Their dance language takes us to a place where sanity is in flux and comic madness rubs shoulders with deep, dark concepts. Daniel Mulligan’s opening solo sets the mood as he dances to Steve Reich’s text-based, Come out: sombre words that evoke images of urban brutality and race conflict. It is strong and confrontational, Mulligan holding us in his focus as clouds of smoke pour from the jet on his back.

In the cavernous black space, the smoke hangs in the air and later, water falls in showers, the mist adding to the dense air penetrated by shafts of light. The movements are delineated by splashes and water spray as the puddles grow and the soft, insistent drumming of the falling water brings another layer to the music, now fragments of J.S.Bach.

All wear uniform grey/blue leotards cut low in the leg and highlighting the dancers’ musculature. They are all fine technicians. Wei Chen and Tigran Mkrtchyan, two of the best, have explosive solos of fierce intensity. The three duets are in gentler mood, opening with Anna Khamzina and Jan Casier in fluent harmony while the eloquent pairing of Elena Vostrotina and William Moore is more a duet of difference. Vostrotina’s body, which can move from high elegance to distinctly odd in a split second, has a specific affinity with Lightfoot/ León choreography. But it was Yen Han and Matthew Knight who plumbed the depths. Each has the gift of revealing the rawness of real feelings, the vulnerable human in a strong body. As Han walked through the water to exit in the gloom behind, it was Knight’s body, in tortured cruciform shape, that held the audience in stunned silence as the curtain descended,

There was eager anticipation for this first showing of Crystal Pite’s work in Zürich, and the audience were not disappointed giving the piece a rapturous reception. In Emergence, Pite shows evidence of her skill in choreographing large groups. Central to the ballet is the phenomena of insect swarms and the brilliant lighting (from Alan Brodie) plus a neat central tunnel entrance fuelled the idea to great effect. The dancers emerge in blinding light, circling and forming massed cohorts. The furious counting and mechanical gestures capture the driven fatalism the makes us view swarms of insects with such fear while the sound of marching feet adds to the drama.

Pite captures the angularity of the insect limbs so eloquently in the opening duet. The liminal boundary between insect and human is expressed in eerie, otherworldly shapes with just a hint of soul. The effect is continued in the costume. The tattoos on the male bodies suggest a sinister ‘corporate’ identity enhanced by heads often swathed in black cloth. This is countered by a moment of sheer beauty as the women fall into a line, extending one elegant ballet pointe, all dressed in sophisticated black, the tops shaped with shredded detail. It is a work so filled with ideas and potent images that the eye and the mind are constantly absorbed and challenged. Individual dancers get their moment but this is a company work that definitely has a ‘wow’ finish.