Posted by Capping a brief flirtation with modern dance I attended my third ballet performance of the year at the National Arts Centre on November 1st, 2018. I was comped into all three as a guest of a journalist friend who was reviewing the shows for the paper and who knew that I was not a big fan of the genre.
I was almost turned around when I saw Betroffenheit back in April, a post-apocalyptic industrial modern show that blew my mind. Next up was a ballet in a very similar style that I somehow liked exponentially less. Finally (perhaps) came this show, featuring Canada’s most famous dancers – the Royal Winnipeg Ballet – presenting a very modern bit of choreography set to the archaic (though modern at the time) music of Monteverdi. Specifically: Vespers, 1610.
In order to make the entire stage available to the dance troupe the orchestra and singers were set up in the orchestra pit; the first time I believe that I’ve seen this at the NAC. The stage was fairly plain; just a large tree with a couple of built-in platforms serving as the sole prop. The show began with about fifteen dancers onstage, perhaps a half-dozen of them wearing animal masks. As things progressed any discernible story remained out of reach for me but that didn’t matter because the music was just so, so good.
Sitting as he was at the cusp on the Baroque era, Monteverdi’s music relied heavily on Gregorian Chant, which was the infancy of common-practise classical harmony and a style of music I like very much. But modernist that he was back in the late 1500’s, Monteverdi kicked Gregorian restrictions to the curb, reimagined polyphony in the process and becoming one of the central composers to usher in true choral music. The singers at this concert were singing his music so well that they collectively achieved a sound that landed somewhere between a pipe organ and the droning overtones that one gets from rubbing the rim of a wine glass.
For me the dancing was just a visual stimulus to accompany the music. Watching the amorphous mass jump and run together was a pleasant lava lamp-like thing for my eyes to do while my ears were busy having the time of their lives. When I focused on any one dancer for even a second the illusion would fall apart and all I would see was the silliness of running around on one’s tiptoes, but taken as a whole it was a bit like watching a flock of birds flying around the sky together. But set to positively heavenly music, of course.
And so it was decided: I don’t like dance as a rule but there are exceptions. Which is difficult, because it means that maybe I should go see dance more often, despite the fact that nine times out of ten (or two times out of three, I suppose) I’ll probably not enjoy it very much.
But that one time (in this case: Betroffenheit) would probably make sitting through the others worthwhile. Especially if they have good music.
Todd Man Out 