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Requiem,
a
Buglisi Dance
Theater
classic that originally premiered in 2002, is set to Fauré's
choral-orchestral work of the same name which in mourning speaks
of the sweet promise of the day after.
Requiem
was originally inspired by Artemisia Gentileschi, the 17th century
painter, but became a haunting meditation after 9/11; the
choreography ‘overtaken by events.’ The drape and fall of
costumes in the colors of the clothes of Tibetan monks -- gold of
saffron and deep red of roses (which we have always thought very
beautiful on monks, and here, also, on dancers). Soft
amber-dark lighting, five women, bare skin of backs, dancer’s
bodies that ripple, move, and turn ever so slowly. Stillness
at times likes statues, everything here is in painterly
suggestion.
Letters of
Love on Ripped Paper
is a lovely idea--on paper. Music, words, images on the
screen, love letters read aloud, a stage full of dancers.
The letters: Pliny to Calpurnia; Queen Victoria to Prince Albert;
Zelda to Scott, Victor Hugo to Adele Foucher.... We
very much liked the premise of sensory overload and every now and
then it all seemed to come together in glorious synchronous
bursts, but taken as a whole was wanting in the choreography, as
if the promise of the premise was never quite completely carried
out; we wanted to see more romance, more lushness, more swooning,
more drama.... We loved the idea of the overlap of voice and text
and image and sound and dance, the acting out of different events
onstage all at the same time like a Chinese painting, but perhaps
in the end, and only in this did the dance become a letter of
love, it left you wanting more....
And we
thought of this letter of Pliny the Younger to Calpurnia:
You kindly tell me my absence very sensibly affects you, and
that your only consolation is in conversing with my works, which
you frequently substitute in my stead. I am glad that you
miss me; I am glad that you find some rest in these alleviations.
In return, I read over your letters again and again, and am
continually taking them up, as if I had just received them; but,
alas! this only stirs in me a keener longing for you; for how
sweet must her conversation be whose letters have so many
charms!....
See:
Requiem &
Letters of Love on Ripped Paper, Buglisi Dance Theater, through
Sunday at the Joyce Theater, 175 8th Avenue, New York,
Tags: dance
literature
language
books love
color
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glad
that you
find some rest
in these
allevia-tions.
In return,
I read
over your
letters
again and again,
and am
continually taking
them up,
as if I had just
received
them;
but
alas!
this only
stirs
in me a
keener
longing |
