Амелия / Amelia - La La La Human Steps (Edouard Lock, David Lang) [2002 г., Хореографичес...

Бесконечные монотонные пермутации балерин и танцоров двигающихся как механические куклы. То, что танцевали примерно десятеро это наверно только ради того, чтобы дать занятие как можно больше народу.

В самом начале было даже интересно. Остальных 50 минут к сожалению те же механически конвульсивные движения как-будто танцовщики все страдали странной заразительной болезнью конечностей.

И в танце и в словах сопровождающих песен смысл трудно уловить. Мне нравится и «абстрактный» танец, который выражает только себя, грациозность движения, гармонию музыкального материала, который как полет вдохновения. Мне нравится и танец выражающий чувства и ситуации. Но после 50 минут пристального просмотра «Амелии» замысел постановщика так и остался непонятным.

К красоте, к грациозности движения, без чего классический танец, а также танец Фокина, Масина, Баланчина, Кранко, и в большой степени Ролана Пэти -- просто немыслимы, ко всему этому в «Амелии» почти нет ассоциации. Говорю 'почти', потому, что иногда видны вялые попытки постановщика создать нечто эстетически красивое, например в секвенции открывающей произведение -- на мой взгляд этих первых 40 секунд это лучшая сцена всей «Амелии», а также играя светом, или в сближениях лиц танцующих. Эти изолированные элементы эстетики не спасают механически монотонной, лишенной всякой грациозности или цельности хореографии.

От подобных шедевров веет скукой уже после первых минут после начала просмотра. После с тоской человек вспоминает, что редко, но иногда бывает, что современный танец может иметь хотя бы слабое сходство с Прекрасным. Не в данном случае.

Сколько этот шедевр постмодерна стоил трудно оценить, но сам факт, что над подготовкой паркета, окружающего танцоров трудилось 10 (!) канадских плотников внушает уважение. В общем нечего беспокоиться — за все заплатило одно из самых прогрессивных правительств замного шара — из кармана канадских налогоплательщиков конечно.

О чем может быть т.н. искусство-модерн на Западе? Глупый вопрос «о чем?», конечно если не о спасении китов от людей или о спасении Земли от парникового эффекта, то уж точно о «sexual politics»!

Подтверждением этому первый параграф, который служит введением в интервью. К счастью самое интервью более разумно и содержит много материала о самой постановке. Ввиду того, что интервью может быть не всем доступно, привожу его здесь.

Только интервью развеяло мои сомнения насчет скорости движения и особенно вращения танцоров -- оказывается никаких трюков с увеличением скорости киноленты: сами танцоры движутся с этой невероятной скоростью (!) как cyber-dolls» (цитата из интервью).

Вообще после прочтения интервью всё проясняется: упоминание «sexual politics» во введении это только так, чтобы удовлетворить «Thought Police» -- примерно как обязательнзая ссылка на произведения В.И.Ленина в пособии по скотоводству в советское время. На самом-то деле, оказывается, идеей движущей хореографом было установление особого рекорда мира по количеству балетных позиций за единицу времени...

Спасибо. Наконец стало понятно...

By LIESL SCHILLINGER

Published: January 30, 2005

THE Montreal-based choreographer Édouard Lock and his company La La La Human Steps first drew widespread attention to his audacious take on gender 20 years ago, with "Human Sex." "Amelia," which has its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday, continues his vertiginous, deeply layered exploration of sexual politics.

In "Amelia," beautiful, tall, androgynous dancers perform linked solos and duets at startling speed, with the precision of computer-generated images. To a haunting string-and-vocal score by David Lang, dancers hurtle through the air in horizontal spins, spring into a partner's arms and spin out and back from their partners like whips uncoiling and recoiling. They also maintain difficult poses, on point, for a disconcertingly long time.

In one audacious scene, the lovely Zofia Tujaka, hair slicked back, dons gentleman's drag (black jacket and stovepipe pants) and dances with a male partner - both of them in toe shoes - in a charged, rectilinear duet. It is one thing to move with the fluid precision of an anime heroine in a cartoon, but how does a real, live, breathing woman do it onstage? Ms. Tujaka explained her methods to Liesl Schillinger recently from Montreal.

LIESL SCHILLINGER: Tell me a little about yourself and your unusual name.

ZOFIA TUJAKA: I was born in the States, but my parents are Polish. My dad is a reverend in the Polish National Catholic Church, a church that's not recognized by the pope, because the priests are allowed to marry. So I speak Polish, but I grew up American, in Chicago and then in Cleveland.

Q. Did you start dancing early?

A. No. I've always been pretty athletic, but I only started going to dance class in Chicago when I was about 8, because my best friend was doing it. But then my knees started bothering me, and I quit when I was around 10.

Q. When did you start dancing seriously?

A. After my family moved to Cleveland, when I was 12. I saw "The Nutcracker" performed live, and that got me interested again. I tried out for the School of Cleveland Ballet. They accepted me, but I started at the lowest level. The other girls were two to three years younger. But then I started progressing really quickly and advanced two levels in one year. Soon I was dancing with girls who were older.

Q. What was that like?

A. It was hard. With the younger girls, I was ashamed to be so far behind. But it made me feel like: "O.K., I can do better. I just have to work hard and catch up." But with the older girls, I felt behind in different ways. They were intimidating. They had more life experience than me. So I had to learn how to trust myself. It's this ongoing process, a constant struggle, gaining confidence and maintaining it.

Q. When did you come into your own?

A. It took a while. I'm 32 now, but in my 20's I was mostly working in Canada, dancing in the corps of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. I'm just under 5 foot 11, which is tall for a ballerina, so I wasn't getting big roles. I did a European audition tour in 1993 and didn't get hired for anything, and I came back very discouraged. So I stopped dancing, went back to Cleveland and did front-desk work at a hair salon.

Q. What got you back in action?

A. After a while, I couldn't live with the fact that I had talent and wasn't going to use it. So I went back to Winnipeg and danced in the corps. Joining Édouard's company was my turning point, in 1997.

Q. How did you find out about La La La?

A. A friend of mine told me La La La was looking for a replacement. I had seen Édouard's "Étude" and fallen in love with it, and with the fact that the women in it were incredible, powerful creatures. The movement was mesmerizing but also strong. It had a human element that I found lacking in classical ballet. In classical, you're always trying to be something: a princess, a lady of the court. But with Édouard, you weren't trying to become something, you were it.

Q. You move so quickly in "Amelia." I've never seen point work done so fast. Is your training tailored to help you keep your balance at that speed?

A. Not exactly. Sometimes I do proprioception exercises, which are a little like the rehabilitation exercises that physical therapists give to a dancer after an injury. They make you aware of all the hundreds of little muscles that are brought into use when you stand on one leg at length. I have a ballet class every day at noon. But I'm a bit of a stretchaholic, so I'll come in an hour early and warm up. I vary my workout depending on what's feeling tight.

Q. Onstage, you look like an animated cyberdoll. How do you achieve that surreal, animated effect?

A. I try to show each position clearly and efficiently, and then cut down the time between positions. "Amelia" is like a flipbook. If you go through a flipbook at the right speed, it looks fluid, but you see everything. If you go through it too slowly, you get caught up, and the story gets muddled. You get fluidity from the quick succession. At the beginning, we would think we were so fast. Then we'd see the work on video two months later and realize, "Wow, we've gotten so much faster."