French prima
ballerina Sylvie Guillem goes contemporary with Akram Khan, the Bangladeshi-British
dancer and choreographer whom she partners with flair and wit in Sacred
Monsters. Since her first collaboration with British dance artist
Russell Maliphant four years ago, Guillem’s ventures beyond the
ballet canon have won praise, and her latest project hits the spot:
an arresting union of two singular movers from different classical cultures,
testing themselves as artists and people.
As performers, they’re night and day. While Guillem is tall,
slim and awfully supple, Khan is short, quick and a noted exponent of
north Indian kathak. This 70-minute show sees her bending and knotting
her long, balletic lines into the grooves of his compact muscularity,
their duets shaded with discord and harmony inside Japanese set designer
Shizuka Hariu’s curved glacial walls.
With both their hands joined, they swoop across the stage as their
linked arms weave around them in waves and arcs. Soon, they’re
play-fighting in slow-motion and trading blows. She corners him. He
sends her rolling backwards onto the floor with a few mock head-butts.
This note of conflict in their first dance continues in their next one,
which takes on a more comic tone. Jerking their limbs one joint at a
time, Guillem and Khan battle each other as feuding puppet-lovers.
These encounters, as well as their casual banter in between their dancing,
reveal a disarming sense of humour that, despite their star power, bring
them down to earth just a bit. They, too, have their nagging doubts.
As a classical dancer, Khan tells us, can he still portray the curly-haired
Hindu god Krishna when he is balding? Guillem worries about being futile:
“What I do is fine and I love doing it, but is it really important?”
she asks while shifting herself objectively into various lying and sitting
positions.
Supporting the action is a lean, textured score by composer-cellist
Philip Sheppard, who plays it live with a quartet of musicians and singers.
Sometimes it works quietly in the background, muted to a smattering
of whispers; it also expands with entrancing melodies, as it does during
the second half of Monsters. In a surprisingly tender duet,
Khan and Guillem – her legs hooked around his waist – echo
each other in large, undulating gestures that recall Hindu statues.
By the end, they're exchanging dance steps with the fresh-faced joy
of finding themselves anew. It's a strikingly touching scene.
Guillem's solo at the start of the show doesn't have quite the same
sparkle, though it showcases her famed technique and leggy, ear-grazing
extensions. Made by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre guru Lin Hwai-min, it presses
her to the ground in low, crouching poses; the arms unfold branch-like.
She may lack a more dynamic sense of weight for this dance, but she
can make a turning kick look all the more beautiful.
Khan, on the other hand, gleams in a solo created by kathak master
Gauri Sharma Tripathi. The coruscating rhythms of his stamping feet,
the angles and coiling vines that he shapes with his arms and hands,
the sudden corkscrew of a pirouette – when there is dancing this
good, who cares about the hair?
First Impression
French prima ballerina Sylvie Guillem - she of the leggy, ear-grazing
extensions - goes contemporary with Akram Khan, the Bangladeshi-British
choreographer who was last here in 2004 with his company. Since her
first collaboration with British dance artist Russell Maliphant four
years ago, Guillem's ventures beyond the classical canon have won praise,
and her latest project has her bending and knotting her long, balletic
lines into the grooves of Khan's compact, kathak-tinged muscularity.
In between their four duets, they chat with each other and tell us their
fears: being futile for Guillem, hair loss for Khan. Both reveal a charming
sense of humour that, despite their star power, brings them down to
earth just a bit. Guillem's solo (made by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre guru
Lin Hwai-min) at the start of the 70-minute show doesn't have quite
the same sparkle, though it showcases her famed technique. Khan's solo,
created by kathak master Gauri Sharma Tripathi,
however, hits the spot with his fleet and sturdy grace.
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"Since her first collaboration with British dance artist Russell
Maliphant four years ago, Guillem’s ventures beyond the ballet
canon have won praise, and her latest project hits the spot: an arresting
union of two singular movers from different classical cultures, testing
themselves as artists and people."
Credits
Artistic Direction and Choreography: Akram Khan
Additional Choreography: Lin Hwai-min (Guillem’s solo), Gauri
Sharma Tripathi (Khan’s solo)
Composer: Philip Sheppard
Musicians: Alies Sluiter (violin), Coordt Linke (percussion), Faheem
Mazhar (male vocals), Juliette Van Peteghem (female vocals), Philip
Sheppard (cello)
Lighting Designer: Mikki Kunttu
Set Designer: Shizuka Hariu
Costume Designer: Kei Ito
Dramaturge: Guy Cools
Choreographic Assistant: Nikoleta Rafaelisova
Producer: Farooq Chaudhry
Production Manager: Fabiana Piccioli
Sound Engineer: Emanuele Corazzini
Dancers: Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem
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From: The Editor (theatre@inkpot.com / Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 23:51:58)
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From: Ng Yi-Sheng (ng.yisheng@gmail.com / Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 03:17:51)
Interesting perspective from a woman who sat next to me: while the piece was very deliberately crafted to make the audience feel as if we were at an informal workshop (hence the very casual speech patterns of the dancers as they addressed us), the informality is completely artificial - and it's only powerful because the dancers are so famous to begin with. Many another event with similarly innovative experimentation - e.g. Dick Wong's "Body O Body" - has played to a miserably small audience, simply because the dancers weren't as famous.
From: Malcolm Tay (anatoxal[at]yahoo.com / Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 23:50:43)
She’s right in a way. “Sacred Monsters” plays on the dancers’ specific personalities and celebrity value; without Guillem and Khan, it won’t work, or perhaps it’ll be a different show. But even though they were talking to the audience, drinking bottled water and towelling themselves (among other instances of casual behaviour), I never once thought the show was set up like a workshop. Dick Wong’s “B.O.B.* - The Final Cut” was excellent and accomplished different things. I thought that the content, not the dancers’ reputation, was key to its appeal (though the dancers do make up a lot of the content). I wish more people could have seen it.
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