Boston Ballet's "Black and White"

As promised, I'm including a little more structured description of last night's production of Jiri Kylian's "Black and White" that TW and I went to see. I was so looking forward to this production -- because of the music, mostly -- that I ended up buying tickets.

The production consisted of 5 pieces: Webern's Five Pieces for String Quartet; two slow movements from Mozart piano concertos; what was advertised as a Bach partita, but was really two snippets of the partita separating a very radical transformation of that same music; Steve Reich's Drumming; and a little dollup of whipped cream, six (little) dances by Mozart.

The choreography spanned a wide gulf: from ultra-modern movement, which resembled architecture more or less, to what in context was more "traditional." I use the scare quotes around traditional because even the most conventional choreography last night was completely modern in orientation.

A series of over-sized dresses provided a continuous link between all five pieces -- sometimes rolled, sometimes lofted overhead, everpresent.

The first piece, "No More Play," played with different spaces throughout the stage. A series of squares of light were projected onto the floor and scrim that helped to demarcate different areas of activity. Dancers strolled behind the scrim, leaned over the lip of the stage into the pit, and were projected high up onto the scrim. The modern choreography often resembled a school-yard jungle gym as the dancers climbed over and upon each other (see the above picture); and the dancers perfectly mirrored the angular musical lines.

The second piece, "Petite Mort," began with an unaccompanied rhythmical dance with swords -- a first for me! But once the music (Mozart piano concerti) kicked in, the choreography slid into a more traditional territory.

The third work,"Sarabande," literally scared the bejeesus out of TW: at one point, the dancers turned to the audience and shrieked. This work juxtaposed the old and new, but it also played around clothes. In addition to the large rolling dresses, the five men pulled their shirts over their heads -- and danced; and then pulled their tights down around their ankles -- and danced! Oh, and they shrieked...I know I'm not selling this very well, but it was a very interesting work. The entire piece was enacted with the rolling dresses hanging halfway up over the stage. I interpreted this as a commentary about either a) woman's domination over men; or b) modern technology's domination over man. Either way, it made me think -- and cower a little bit.

The penultimate work, "Falling Angels," was most likely my favorite piece. It's complete integration with the music made it so succesful. Reich's piece, "Drumming," is a minimalist masterpiece: Minimalism, in a nutshell, consists of very small cells of music repeating over and over again; and these repetitions start to reveal variations as they build layer upon layer. Not for the faint of heart, but very cool when combined with such unique choreography. The dancing paired ensemble precision with outburts of soloistic flair; the rhythmic persistence of the score was illustrated in the constant fluctuations in the dancers.

The final piece, "Six Dances," was the perfect cherry on top of the evening. (Overly) Powdered wigs and actual skirts on the woman were consistent with the more traditional movements -- yet, the head butts and pattycakes enlivened the affair!

Overall, a great evening of modern dance...check out a tragically short version below. The clips are: "Six Dances," "Sarabande," "No More Play," "Petite Mort," and the final piece is "Fallen Angels."