Vigil (Bdění), National Theatre Brno, (NdB; Národní divadlo Brno), Première, November 3rd, 2023

Nov 6

Nov 6 Vigil (Bdění), National Theatre Brno, (NdB; Národní divadlo Brno), Première, November 3rd, 2023

Vigil (Bdění), National Theatre Brno, (NdB; Národní divadlo Brno), Première, November 3rd, 2023

Another long-awaited evening at the NdB (Národní divadlo Brno) with the Première of three choreographies by Radu Poklitaru, Jiři Kylián and Nacho Duato, who need no further introduction.

Copyright: Ricardo Leitner/ a t t i t u d e

But before going into the details of the evening, there is the necessity of a few words to Mário Radačovský's administration as Artistic Director, the kind of work that I intensely admire:

Always open for critiques (A sign of intelligence), always caring, in the minimal details, about the company (A sign of very analytical thought) and particularly easy-going, humble, and down-to-earth (An even bigger sign of emotional intelligence and balance!), Mr Radačovský is always, like the best dance ever, MOVING.

And this particular performance and the days that follow it with a meeting with some of the biggest Companies in Europe, show that there is definitely „something going on" in Brno.

This chain of events should be an example to some Central European companies, to wake up from a kind of comfortable „sleep", which reveals much of a very old-fashioned „monopolistic belief", to the fact that there is always a need for intellectual „innovation " even if you are dealing with a répertoire company in which the classics are performed.

I repeat: Something admirable is really going on in Brno. I am extremely glad to have been invited for such a prestigious and enriching/rewarding evening, „rubbing elbows" with the likes of Ted Brandson (Dutch National Ballet's Director), José Martinez (Opéra de Paris' Directeur de la Danse), Emma Southworth (The Royal Ballet's Creative Producer), Javier Torres Lopez (Finnish National Opera & Ballet's Artistic Director), Eric Quilleré (Opéra National de Bordeaux's Director of Danse), Jiři Kylián, just to name a few.

During his welcome speech, just before the performance started, Mr Radačovský delighted the audience not only with the content of his talk but with the way he addressed the public, moving with the speed of summer lightning from Czech to English and back, mentioning that we were about to witness something that had never yet been seen in Brno. And how right he was.

But what would you say, if you were sitting in the audience about this „combination" of three choreographies by three different people? Of course, they do not have to have something in common. That is not needed in a triple-bill evening. But they had: Loss.

Even in Kilián's piece, in the widest possible sense, it is there.

Copyright: NdB - Národní divadlo Brno/ Pavel Hehný

„Waves", by the Moldavian choreographer Radu Poklitaru (presently principal Ballet Master and Artistic Director of the „Kyiv Modern Ballet"), deals, among a gamut of emotions, with an extreme presentness of physicality – suggested symbolically and less symbolically by several physical functions. The pee pot in the morning, copulation, pregnancy, birth, a twosome and threesome sex, ageing, death... and the cupboard door that brings, hides things (the pot for example), thoughts, memories and people away. Loss.

Somehow I was touched by a very open and nearly „baroque" way of thinking about body functions (The detailed correspondence between Maria Theresia and her daughter, Marie Antoinette about detailed intimate „physical" tips of how copulation should be „done", will never slip my mind. With the beginning of the 19th century, this „comportement" became - until today - more and more prude, with the „exceptions" of the 1920s and the more open „hippie" 1960s/70s during which the “sexual revolution” took place... )

The „Baroque", is also (stylizedly) “suggested” in the set, in the furniture, and their colour. Predominantly grey, extensively used as the „No colour" (as it is neither white nor black) strongly employed in the technique called „grisaille" in oil painting and drawings. Artists have traditionally created grey by mixing black and white in various proportions. They could also make a grey by mixing two complementary colours, such as orange and blue. They also added a little blue for a cooler grey, or a little red to make a warmer grey. And I do believe that the latter is the case with the Scenery from „Waves".

Anna Yeh heads the cast with a sovereignty that I have seen in her performance for the first time, Arthur Abram and Klaudia Radačovská magnetize our attention with their usual precision and abandon on stage. Eriko Wakizono and strong Ilia Mironov must be mentioned for their subtle and extremely effective acting skills.

Kylián's „Sleepless" is not a new work for me but one I intensely admire. The pin-pointness and concentration required to perform Dirk Haubrich's music should not be neglected. Also, sleepless nights during a creative process are connected with certain „losses". Of former concepts, of previous thoughts about ourselves and our work.

Allan Watts once wrote (positively) about another loss that fits like a glove in this most subjective of pieces: "Waking up to Who You are requires letting go of Who you imagine yourself to be."

Positively meant, this is another „Loss".

Having been previously conceived for the young dancers of NDT II, I believe that it found a more mature and experienced casting at this Première at NdB.

The four couples „impress" by their commitment and precision, by their „presentness". Yes, they are there on stage, right there. Not only with their bodies but also with all their souls. It is amazing how Mr Kylián's work can „hypnotize" dancers, to the point that they inhabit the characters/parts they are playing.

To summarize my opinion in just a few words: A work of genius.

The audience’s reaction was a bit too exaggerated to my way of thinking. I felt that the tremendous applause was more dedicated to Mr Kylián’s presence than to his piece (I was sitting in the same row and just a few sits to the left from Jiři Kylián, Nacho Duato’s representative - Unfortunately Nacho could not attend the première - and Radu Poklitaru)

It was not a „pure coincidence " that „White Darkness" by Nacho Duato was chosen as the last piece on the evening's programme (One should mention that the intermissions between the first and second piece as well as between the second and the third piece were used as „emotional" frames around all of them; giving the necessary „emotional distance" to enjoy their individual messages).

The sadness, the loss, the complications, the hardness of dependence mixed with the „speed" while under the influence, displayed openly, with neither embellishment nor beautification of the circumstances up to the assessments of the sordid facts that lead the dependents to their end. The other's, the ones who are left behind, „loss".

Emilia Vuorio played the lead with the right quantity of emotion, never for one moment asking for our pity – something that could easily happen if the preparation of the role had gone wrong.

Arthur Abram, an experienced professional, as well as Robert Hyland and Taela Paltridge, stand out beautifully.

I kept as „last", one of the Highlights of the evening. I must mention Klaudia Lakomá and her beautiful, sensible work as a dancer. Intelligent and very emotional. Never afraid to show too many feelings or too much emotion on stage. This combined with a fine technique, makes her an endearing member of the company to whom we focus our attention.

I have been admiring Miss Lakomá's work for quite a while – just a few months ago I had the opportunity of watching her as Beethoven's mother in Mario Radačovský's beautifully conceived „Beethoven".

An evening to be recommended.

A company to be admired and an Art direction that describes the pure sense of those two words in all its strength and delicacy. If we could only hold such moments in our hands…

Ricardo Leitner

November 5th, 2023