The Ballet Bag » Ballet & Culture

Five Ballet Books

Emilia & Linda — Sun, 12 May 2013 11:51:30 +0000

In the spotlight, five recent ballet and dance book releases that will make great summer reads or that are perfect for your Amazon wishlists:

Sadler’s Wells Dance House by Sarah Crompton

With plenty of photos of some of Sadler’s Wells’s most successful productions from the last few years (Sylvie Guillem fans are in for a treat), the book charts the transformation of this “once cradle of British ballet” into an international powerhouse of contemporary dance and commemorates Sadler’s 15th anniversary. From the days of the Vic-Wells Ballet and classical dance to hip hop, from popular successes to the more controversial productions, Sarah Crompton brings to life the story of a theatre that has shaped the course of dance in the 21^st century.

Further reading: Sarah talks about her new book in this recent interview at Dance Tabs.

Nijinsky: A Life by Lucy Moore

In the first full-length biography of Nijinsky for over 40 years, drawing on his diaries for the first time, historian and writer Lucy Moore introduces this troubled genius and the world around him to a new generation, providing insight into the creative processes and personal relationships of one of the great cultural figures of the 20th century. Moore examines Nijinsky’s turbulent relationship with the powerful impresario Sergei Diaghilev, which propelled him to stardom with the Ballets Russes and the subsequent rupture of their professional and personal association, when Nijinsky escaped Diaghilev’s control by eloping with a starstruck young follower of the company. Unable to work, Nijinsky’s world would fall apart. A real life filled with romance, exoticism, scandal and tragedy.

Daria Klimentová – Agony and Ecstasy: My Life In Dance by Daria Klimentová and Graham Watts

A biography of ENB principal Daria Klimentová, whose performances in Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall were the subject of a behind-the-scenes BBC Documentary entitled “Agony and Ecstasy”. The book charts her early years training as a young member of the Czech Olympic Gymnastics Squad to her current partnership with young ENB principal, Vadim Muntagirov. Daria’s book also follows her family life and career as a professional photographer who has exhibited her work widely and includes a foreword by her current boss, Tamara Rojo.

Dancers: Behind the Scenes at the Royal Ballet by Andrej Uspenski

Andrej Uspenski’s collection of photographs show the daily life of dancers at the Royal Ballet. Andrej’s unique access as a first artist with the company has enabled him to take captivating images from behind the scenes and to sneak a peek at live performance from the wings. All beautifully packaged in hardcover edition.

Ballet by Henry Leutwyler

Henry Leutwyler has been photographing New York City Ballet dancers for the company’s latest promotional campaigns. In early 2012 he was granted full access at NYCB and spent a month recording the dancers’s day-to-day activities with his 35 mm Leica. With images that look like paintings, the book captures the beauty of the art form, on and off-stage.

Alexei Ratmansky: Greatest Hits & Photo Gallery

Emilia & Linda — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:57:50 +0000

We have a new guest post up on the Royal Opera House blog, with snippets of five of Alexei Ratmansky’s coolest ballets:

24 Preludes, part of the Royal Ballet’s current mixed programme that includes George Balanchine’s Apollo and Christopher Wheeldon’s Aeternum, offers audiences the opportunity to experience Alexei Ratmansky’s first work for a UK company. Much lauded for revitalizing classical ballet and infusing it with his unique brand of inventiveness and rich cross-cultural references, the Russian choreographer makes ballets that often reveal new sides to his dancers. His works are very much in demand around the world and regularly staged in Russia, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US.

Ratmansky started experimenting with choreography at a young age at the Moscow Choreographic Institute (the school of the Bolshoi). His dancing career would take him to the Ukraine, Canada and Denmark, where he was exposed to works by such diverse choreographers as Bournonville, Balanchine, Neumeier and Tudor, who would later influence and inform his choreographic style.

During his time as Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet, Ratmansky set about re-staging historic works and revisiting ballet scores by composers like Shostakovich and Prokofiev. As American Ballet Theatre’s current Artist in Residence, he has created critically acclaimed versions of classic Russian ballets The Nutcracker and The Firebird. Known for his fresh take on dance comedies, dramas and even ‘dramedies’ (as in his most recent work for the Royal Danish Ballet, The Golden Cockerel), Ratmansky is also well-versed in plotless works, having created, in this commission for the Royal Ballet, a ‘ballet of mood’ set to orchestrated Chopin pieces for a cast of eight dancers.

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To illustrate the choreographer’s diverse range, we also selected clips of some of our favourite Ratmansky works. Hop over to the Royal Opera House blog to check them out, while over here you can take a look at Alice Pennefather’s gorgeous images of the current Apollo, 24 Preludes and Aeternum mixed bill:

(Click on thumbnails to enlarge & see as slideshow)

All Photos: © Alice Pennefather, courtesy of ROH

About Alice Pennefather:

With a twin brother flying high as a star of the Royal Ballet, Alice’s creative talents lie in image making. After studying photography at Falmouth College of Arts, she spent 6 years travelling and working abroad, focusing on scuba diving and filming underwater. She has recently returned to London and rediscovered her love of everything Ballet. Alice now works as a freelance photographer, and is a regular at the Royal Ballet General Rehearsals – photographing for us here at The Ballet Bag.

You can see more of Alice’s work at Alice Pennefather – Dance Photography.

Tatiana Leskova: A Ballerina At Large

Emilia & Linda — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:11:55 +0000

Tatiana Leskova as Giselle (1953)

In the same way as Alicia Markova in England, Tatiana Leskova is considered an instrumental figure in the development of classical ballet in Brazil. Leskova, who celebrates her 90^th birthday this December, is also one of the few surviving direct links to the Ballets Russes era and well-known for her stagings of ballets by Léonide Massine.

Born in Paris in 1922 to Russian émigrés, Leskova studied with Lubov Egorova and other former Imperial Russian ballerinas. She joined the Ballet de la Jeunesse at the age of sixteen, then Colonel de Basil’s Original Ballet Russe (known as Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo before the split between ballet impresarios Wassily de Basil and René Blum). Whilst touring with the company, she visited South America and settled in Brazil in 1945. In 1950 she joined the Theatro Municipal in Rio where she became principal dancer and later Ballet Mistress and Artistic Director.

As a ballet teacher, she has been involved in coaching such Brazilian dance talent as Márcia Haydée, Roberta Marquez and Deborah Colker among others, while as choreographer she has worked around the globe restaging selected Massine works: Choreartium for Birmingham Royal Ballet (1991) and Dutch National Ballet (2001), and Les Presages for the Paris Opera Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Rio de Janeiro’s Theatro Municipal Ballet and, more recently for the Australian Ballet (2007).

Her biography, Tatiana Leskova: A Ballerina at Large by Suzana Braga, first published in Portuguese, has now been translated into English by Donald E. Scrimgeour and updated with Tatiana’s close involvement, while a second book with historical images of Leskova’s dancing career (Balé Fotográfico – Tatiana Leskova: imagens de uma bailarina solta no mundo) has just been launched in Brazil.

Tatiana with Rudolf Nureyev in 1985

By courtesy of the publisher, Quartet Books, Chapter 1 of Leskova’s biography is available to read online/download (click on image below to download a copy):

TATIANA LESKOVA: A BALLERINA AT LARGE, by Suzana Braga (Quartet Books, 2012) is out December 6 on paperback edition.

Titian 2012: A Photo Gallery

alicepennefather — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:47:54 +0000

Monica Mason‘s last commission as the Royal Ballet’s Artistic Director, a jumbo season closer of three ballets by three different creative teams, as captured by photographer Alice Pennefather.

(Click on thumbnails to enlarge & see as slideshow)

All Photos: © Alice Pennefather, courtesy of ROH

About Alice Pennefather:

You can see more of Alice’s work at Alice Pennefather – Dance Photography.

Storified: English National Ballet’s Summer Party

Emilia & Linda — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 18:05:37 +0000

Last week English National Ballet took over Kensington Palace’s Orangery for its annual summer party. In addition to exclusive dance and music performances, guests were invited to place their bids for swan-inspired works by artists like Ronnie Wood, Pixie Lott, Sam Taylor-Wood, Julien Macdonald and – the company’s newly-appointed AD – Tamara Rojo.

Our collaborator and guest tweeter for the evening, Zarina Holmes, was at the event and captured the fun:

Ballet Next in Rehearsal

Brian — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:46:13 +0000

Ballet Next, one of the most interesting independent dance companies to emerge recently, was founded by former ABT principal Michele Wiles and ex-NYCB Charles Askegard. Together they aim to make ballet more accessible, investing in new works and audience engagement. One of the company’s projects is the Ballet Next Exhibitions Series, where audience members are encouraged to ask questions and participate in live discussions with the artists on topics like dance technique, choreography, production aspects and music.

Photographer Brian Mengini dropped in on Ballet Next in rehearsal and talked to Michele about her ideas and motivations:

Ballet Next is the newest ballet company coming out of New York City. Co-founded by Michele Wiles and Charles Askegard - who have only been dancing together for a little over a year – Ballet Next has made quite the splash since coming onto the scene and giving its inaugural performance at the Joyce Theater last year.

The company’s performances feature live music and offer a mixture of classic and contemporary. For the classics, however, you will not find fancy costumes and glitter: they present timeless pieces like the Act II of Swan Lake in a stripped-down version, so that audiences can focus on the music and the movement.

Ballet Next uses a core of six guests who are currently dancing with major US ballet companies. Their upcoming performance at MMAC has a lineup that includes Drew Jacoby, NYCB’s Georgina Pazcoguin and ABT’s Misty Copeland. What is the appeal of Ballet Next for someone who may already be with a company such as NYCB? Michele says “It’s new, fresh and dangerous, which is exciting. Dancers are attracted to that feeling. We are creating an atmosphere that allows the dancers to take risks and explore.”

Wiles had done some work with Askegard at a gala in Mobile (Alabama) and other shows through Youth America Grand Prix. While traveling, they began to discuss their concerns about major companies and things they wanted to change. Out of those discussions they decided to join forces and create their own vehicle. She adds “I wanted to experience my art in a different way. While the structure of a big company has its benefits, I feel more fulfilled as a human to be able to take on all of those responsibilities myself.”

What are some of their goals? “To continue to collaborate with dancers, choreographers, musicians and composers. We are interested in touring Europe and looking for opportunities for ballet to give back; opportunities for the power of ballet to do good” says Wiles.

Some of the choreographers they admire or would love to work with are: William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, Margo Sappington and Mauro Bigonzetti. For Wiles, Ballet Next offers the best parts of the classics, new choreography and amazing talent. For the dancers, this means a renewed sense of dance and, for everyone, the purity of dance.

All photos by Brian Mengini. More here:

Ballet Next will be performing at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center (MMAC) on 1 March, 28 March & 25 April. To keep up with what’s next at Ballet Next:

About the Author:

Photographer Brian Mengini resides in suburban Philadelphia and keeps a studio in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Brian’s unending passion for ballet came in the summer of 2007, when the Mann Center asked him to come in and shoot the Royal Ballet’s final performance of Swan Lake.   Since then, his images have appeared in a variety of exhibits and publications including Pointe Magazine and Dance Magazine.   In June of 2010, Brian started Barre Boys, a website dedicated to the male in ballet with a goal of squashing stereotypes and inspiring more males to pursue ballet. Together with his wife, he has launched Hope Dances, a nonprofit dance outreach program for children with special needs.

Ballet Black in Rehearsal for Storyville

Emilia & Linda — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:21:32 +0000

Ballet Black returns to the Linbury Studio Theatre this February with Short Dance Works, a mixed bill combining plotless pieces with a brand new 30-minute narrative ballet (their longest yet) choreographed by Christopher Hampson.

Storyville takes us back to the famous red-light district in 20th century New Orleans, Louisiana to tell the “rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags” tale of Nola, a sort of modern-day Manon. Before our Christmas break, we had the opportunity to watch Christopher rehearse the company:

One of Hampson’s inspirations in putting together Storyville was Louis Malle’s 1978 film Pretty Baby. Featuring Brooke Shields and Susan Sarandon, the movie tells the story of Hattie, a prostitute working at an elegant New Orleans brothel who corrupts her 12-year-old daughter Violet (Shields).

The main inspiration, however, is former dance club Mahogany Hall (shut in 1917), where the story unfolds. The central character is the young and innocent Nola, a real tour de force for dancer Cira Robinson as she simply doesn’t leave the stage. The other characters in Storyville are: brothel “madam” Lulu (inspired by the real Lulu White and played by Sarah Kundi), Mack (the “stereotypical crook”, here interpreted by Jazmon Voss) and “The Lover” (Damien Johnson) who tries to save Nola from her downward spiral.

For Hampson the real challenge for Cira will be “to go from teenage girl and to travel two years in half an hour, showing the decline in Nola’s personality…” Hampson adds: “Cira does beautiful work, I’m really thrilled to work with her.”

Asked about the parallels between Storyville and MacMillan’s Manon, Hampson nods: “yes, they’re very much alike. It’s a story of many societies and catches so many different time periods in history.”

With Storyville – Ballet Black’s longest ballet to date – and last year’s Orpheus (Tuckett) in the repertoire, does it mean the company will turn its focus to storytelling? Not for the immediate, says Artistic Director Cassa Pancho: “we are still very well known for the abstract work, so I don’t want to get rid of all of that from the repertoire”.

In additon to Hampson’s Storyville, Ballet Black’s Linbury season will include new pieces by Jonathan Watkins, Rambert’s Jonathan Goddard and Martin Lawrance.

All Photos: © Zarina Holmes for The Ballet Bag. More here:

With many thanks to Cassa Pancho and Christopher Hampson

Visit Ballet Black’s official website

Follow the company on Twitter @BalletBlack

Ballet Black presents Short Dance Works at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, from 29 February to 7 March 2012. For tickets & booking visit the ROH website.

Water Dancers

Emilia & Linda — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:49:38 +0000

We’ve often said that surfers are to waves what dancers are to music (or was it the other way round?), so we were extremely interested to read, on sports & lifestyle webzine Lupita, about surf brand Quiksilver’s new project, The Water Dancer.

The Water Dancer is a series of short films where Quiksilver ambassador and world champion Stephanie Gilmore meets and chats to different dancers to learn what inspires and drives them, discovering how their dancing relates to her own passion of surfing.

In the first episode she meets Tiler Peck, who has been dancing since the age of seven and is currently a principal dancer with New York City Ballet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v21YNaZ6nc

Stephanie also meets Noemie Lafrance, a Canadian choreographer & artistic director specializing in site-specific work for public space and urban architecture. Noemie has completed commercial video work with Apple and recording artist Feist, as well as performance pieces with architect Frank Gehry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7JRm11HP-g

In the third and final episode of the series Stephanie talks to breakdancer Casandra “Defy” Rivera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwNXH7b1-MU

Water dancing is also, albeit in a different way, an element of Earthfall’s award-winning 2005 production of At Swim Two Boys, based on the novel of the same name by Jamie O’Neill, which arrives in London (Riverside Studios) next month.

Created by Jim Ennis and Jessica Cohen and featuring two male dancers plus two musicians, the story unfolds against a cascading wall of water that slowly fills the stage. You can see a clip of the production here.

Home for the Holidays: Ballet Siblings

Brian — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:57:51 +0000

Here’s a holiday special from our fab US-based guest blogger Brian Mengini:

Christmas is a time for families to get together and celebrate; to enjoy each other and share in the love. But for most in ballet, it’s slightly different. Christmas means seemingly unending Nutcracker runs, accompanied by seemingly unending rehearsals and shows, maybe 30 or more in a season. This schedule can make it quite difficult for dancers to be with their families and loved ones. That is, unless you happen to be lucky enough to work with your family.

I recently talked to two sets of siblings (and alumni from Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet/CPYB) - the Cirios from Boston Ballet and the Staffords from New York City Ballet – about working in the same company and the kind of holiday traditions they have:

Lia & Jeff

Lia Cirio, a principal with Boston Ballet, danced recreationally until about the age of 13, when her teacher at the time encouraged her to intensify the training and gain more exposure. Interestingly, Lia read an article on how NYCB’s Abi Stafford had attended CPYB and that is what led her to join the school. Currently in her 8th year with Boston Ballet, Lia was hired by Mikko Nissenen, initially for the second company (Boston Ballet II), when she was 16. She has also spent a year with the Trey McIntyre Project.

As for her brother Jeff, once he decided to stop playing Game Boy in the hallways of CPYB and start taking some classes, Lia says ”We discovered he was basically a prodigy”. Or as their mother Mimi explains “not sure he was quite a prodigy, but he had a knack for it.” Jeff did not follow his sister into the company immediately. He delved into the competition circuit with great success, taking Bronze at USA IBC (Jackson) in 2006. At around age 15, Jeff was hired for Boston Ballet II, but left a year later to continue training (with Peter Stark) and competing, which led him to earn gold medals at Helsinski and at the World Ballet Competition and various other awards including the Grand Prix award at YAGP and silver at the NFAA Arts Week. Jeff is now a soloist and is currently in his 3rd year at Boston Ballet.

I ask them if brothers and sisters do normally dance pas de deux together. Lia and Jeff say they have never danced a pas together for Boston Ballet, although they have performed in the same works. They have, however, danced together in galas and other events, including the pas from Le Corsaire, Flames of Paris, and even the Coppélia wedding pas, along with several contemporary pieces. Jeff has also choreographed a pas de deux for the two of them, “As One”, to selected Bach Cello Suites.

Would they like to dance together in the company? They say that would be hard “because so many of the classical ballets are love stories, which you don’t really want to do with your sibling. We have been asked to dance the Grand Pas Classique from Paquita at some point outside Boston Ballet. But we would definitely like to do a Balanchine ballet together. Perhaps Ballo della Regina.” Jeff suggests.

Do they have any other plans or projects in the pipeline? “Actually, yes. We are starting to test the waters for a ‘summer company’ or a summer residency. We would like to have a small group of dancers and choreographers and offer them work and choreographic opportunities while on break. We would like to co-direct this, and we hope we can make this happen in the immediate future.”

Jeff & Lia have been roommates for the last three years. Their mom Mimi is still actively involved in their careers and travels to Boston for just about every program (though not for every show). Their parents and younger brother, Gabriel, travel to Boston every year for Thanksgiving dinner and for the opening night of The Nutcracker. As they don’t have much time off, the family usually returns for Christmas to celebrate with them. This year, however, Jeff & Lia will have a short break in Pennsylvania. Their entire family will be gathering at their parents’ house and everyone is quite excited. This is their first time at home for the holidays in about 10 years.

Jon & Abi

Jon & Abi Stafford are both natives of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Jon started ballet when he was about 8 years old, after seeing his younger sister in class and in performance. He was very much intrigued by the athleticism of it: “I remember watching the older guys and thinking what they were doing was so cool! I wanted to be able to fly around the stage.” Having entered the School of American Ballet (SAB) full time in the fall of 1997, he soon joined NYCB as an apprentice and was hired as a member of the corps de ballet in 1999. Jon became a permanent faculty member of the school in 2007.

Abi started her ballet training at CPYB when she was 6. She followed her big brother Jon, joining SAB in the fall of 1998. She became an apprentice with NYCB in November 1999. After becoming a member of the corps de ballet shortly thereafter, Abi continued to rise through the ranks to become a Principal dancer in 2007.

Was there any rivalry or fun competition about who would get in first? I ask. “Not really, I think, because of the age difference. We also both felt a natural progression from the school into the company,” Jon says. “I think if we were two sisters, there may have been some type of rivalry. But with us being different genders, we are not up for the same roles” Abi adds. Speaking of roles, have they ever danced a pas de deux together for the company? Abi responds “Yes, many times! We’ve done Nutcracker, Symphony in C…” to which Jon adds “We’ve danced together since we were kids. We know each other better than anyone. It really relaxes me. We danced the Pas de Quatre in Swan Lake together and I was really nervous, but just seeing her out there calmed me down.”

Unlike the Cirios, the Staffords knew their ultimate goal was to end up together at NYCB. Dancing for the same company makes it much easier for the family to come up and see them. “If we’re ever cast in the same ballet, even if it’s not a big role, they will be here just because we’re together” Jon says. But that doesn’t happen very often: “We may be in the same show, between 3 or 4 ballets. However, there have been times where Peter Martins has cast me as Cavalier for Abi as Dewdrop in The Nutcracker.”

So what is it like to have a sibling in the same company? Do they pull on each other for artistry or advice? Abi nods “Yeah, we’ve definitely talked about work to each other… We also haven’t known anything else. We went to CPYB together and then the same school up here, so this is how its always been” Jon agrees: “I think it just gives you that sense of familiarity, having someone you know so well here.”

As they work together so much, I try to find out if they spend much time with each other outside of the company: “On occasion Abi will crash at my apartment if there is an early travel day and from time to time, we will go on dates together” says Jon “But with the work schedules, it makes it tough to be together around the holidays.” For example, this Thanksgiving, Abi went home but Jon didn’t and now it will be the opposite for Christmas.

Are there any ballets, pas de deux that the Staffords would like to do together? Abi responds: ”I’ve never really thought about it.” Jon agrees “Yeah, I haven’t either. Its’ always a pleasant surprise when we get cast together. Maybe Apollo? That would be fun.”

About the Author:

Sylvie Guillem in Japan: Eonnagata

kriskosaka — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:49:06 +0000

Sylvie Guillem was in Japan over a month ago for her Hope Japan tour. Over three weeks of sold-out performances across the nation, including stops in Fukushima and Iwate, two of the most devastated areas from last year’s tragedy. She ended the tour with one of her newest works, Eonnagata, her collaboration with choreographer Russell Maliphant and Robert Lepage (re-edited since its London premiere).

Japan-based guest blogger Kris Kosaka attended one of Eonnagata’s last performances in Tokyo. She also had the opportunity to catch up with Maliphant backstage:

Japanese aesthetics mark the transient: the wabi-sabi in burnished pottery, cherry blossoms and their evanescent bloom, poetry compressed to 17 syllables. Japanese history honors as well humanity’s ephemeral greatness, what eminent Japan scholar Ivan Morris called “the nobility of failure”. The fragile, often foolish flicker-flash of triumph amongst travesty can be seen in such heroes as Minamoto Yoshitsune or Saigo Takamori. Add another champion to this Japanese bathos: the tragic Chevalier Charles d’Éon.

No matter that he was an 18th century French spy. Eonnagata, the theatrical masterpiece staged (for perhaps the last time?) 20 November in Tokyo, beautifully articulates the transitory beauty of this thing called man – or woman – any where, any time, any place.

Robert Lepage, Sylvie Guillem, and Russell Maliphant’s original creation premiered two years ago to mixed reaction. Three artists at the top of their respective fields, tackling history, philosophy, Japanese culture and sexual ambiguity, in a work that stirred the arts world and defied categorization – inevitably, tendrils of skepticism creeped across most reviews. For the audience of U-Port Hall in Tokyo, however, those last doubts dissolved. The final version of Eonnagata captures a detailed moment in time that will long be savored in memory. It gives voice to the story of one human caught in political and personal ambiguity, reinventing herself/recalculating himself to survive a turbulent era. It also sings the tale of three artists, redefining their roles, refiguring boundaries and reshaping what it means to create.

Literally with song. Both Maliphant and Guillem trill boldly onstage, just one of the many ways the artists challenged themselves with the work. As Maliphant explained after the performance in Tokyo: “Robert used to say the lines as a speech and a new scene came in and I was going to speak them when Robert suddenly asked, ‘Can you sing?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know – I’ll have a go’”. This willingness to alter his own limits epitomizes what all three performers embraced. Lepage, the director, moves with a dancer’s grace, alternating between dignity and comic verve. He perfectly syncs with the experts Maliphant and Guillem in an early scene as they impishly glide across three tables, pausing to play a game of chance, sliding and skating across time and identity as three generations of d’Éon.

Guillem’s stage voice resounds with historical authority one moment as she leads the audience through the Chevalier’s history and bursts into saucy song the next with “Madame Guillotine”, skipping insolently with her basket full of heads. One early criticism of the work derided the lack of levity, but the reshaped Eonnagata is full of such blithe balance to the dark. In another changed scene, Guillem’s early monologue on Plato’s three genders morphs into a tongue in cheek lecture from a towering, smiling Bunraku puppet, an ironic blend of East and West to perfectly frame humanity’s ambiguous achievements. Maliphant, the choreographer, dramatically gives voice to d’Éon’s uncertainty, wryly ponders sexuality in song and later acts as the ringmaster of wagstaffery before a comic pas de deux with Lepage.

Each artist, of course, excels at his or her chosen vocation. Lepage tightened the storyline to strike d’Éon’s contradictions amid the swirl of revolutionary France. Guillem’s ever fluid body pours through space, across mirrors and advancing shadows with an elegant masculinity. Maliphant’s choreography flows throughout the work, incorporating movement both subtle and bold. The costumes, designed by the late Alexander McQueen, transform to art themselves, wood and paper petticoats, military jackets tenderly curved. A white kimono, backlit in shadows, restyles itself with Guillem’s movements into a dragoon’s cape, a straitjacket, a shroud, and back to fluttering, fragile beauty. Michael Hull, again consciously experimenting with light and shadow, conjures everything from shoji screens on the floor to the shifting skim of suri-ashi, a sliding step used in many Japanese movements from Noh and Kabuki to Sumo and various martial arts.

The inclusion of Japan actually started with the choreography: “The sword was first,” Maliphant explains, “because Éon was a great swordsman. We tried, choreographically, to work with traditional fencing. But those movements are not particularly about flow, and I am more interested in flow and form, and this –” Maliphant pauses to physically express the staccato stab of fencing — “seemed kind of limited.” Nosing around in the basement of Lepage’s Ex Machina workshop, the trio discovered a costume trove of Japan, from old kimono to a Japanese sword. Maliphant remembers: “the sword itself is a beautiful thing, an object on its own – the curve is fantastic. The movement relied on flow instead of the minute stabs (of fencing), and that took us on to drums and fans. It took us on a broader journey towards Japan and Japanese culture — of course, the female impersonation in kabuki as well, but there just seemed to be a lot of elements in Japan we could relate to, and gave us a better understanding of d’Éon’s story that was helpful.”

Telling Éon’s story – and making it somehow universal – was a challenge the three diminished by expanding their own capabilities on stage and in the studio. Maliphant admits, “It was disconcerting in some ways, because I thought ‘I don’t know how we can create with all these details, because I don’t understand them yet…’ I think consequently some of that felt like… we got to the first performance, but we had not finished digesting quite a bit of the information. But we often had four or five months between some of the blocks of performances, so we had time to come back to it and to reshape.” The entire artistic process of Eonnagata, then, celebrates the fluid adaptability of humanity. It is echoed in d’Éon’s ambiguous tale, the spy who transmuted gender, the woman who was also a man.

Maliphant concludes: “All of the elements were so hard – just to study the drum is a lifetime, the staff (from aikido) is a lifetime, to sing or to dance – they are all lifetime studies. There’s so much in it, it was beyond challenging.” He pauses. “I will be sad to see it stop – as an area to challenge myself, because it is so broad, it challenges in a different way than I would necessarily be in work that I make as a performer for myself. I have not done anyone else’s work in probably 20 years. So to do it where I am asked to sing or work with a stick or taiko drums or fans or as the feminine – it was all quite challenging and I will miss that. But we’ll see if I will bring it into something else.”

The haunting final scene: Lepage, as d’Éon, wearily walks towards the welcoming autopsy table. The light swings across the shadows. Guillem and Maliphant frame the body, peel layers of deceit – but nothing is confirmed, in motion nor speech. Perhaps we know history’s conclusion, but the truth remains silent. Ichi go ichi e, the Japanese would say, literally, “one time, one meeting”, to express a celebration of fleeting life or transitory meetings – in the Noh theatre, in the martial arts dojo – and in the efforts of three artists who connect momentarily on stage with Eonnagata.

About the Author

Kris writes from Hokkaido, Japan where she recently moved after 15 years on the main island, mostly in the small town of Kamakura. She writes frequently for Japan Times, and teaches Japanese history and literature at an international school.