Sweden, with a population of not much over that of greater London, has produced a notable number of choreographers but there is little doubt of Mats Ek’s Godfather status. The packed house for his pre-show interview as well as the double bill of his works at Oslo’s Opera House showed his reputation extends beyond national borders. She was black, written for Cullberg Ballet in 1995 and A Sort Of … written for Nederlands Dans Theater in 1997 are two of his very best and were given a top quality performance by the Norwegian National Ballet.
She was black is premised on a joke: ‘I dreamt about God last night.’ ‘What was he like?’ ‘She was black.’
In one line religion, racial supremacy and male superiority are all neatly decimated. The ballet in Ek’s inimitable manner, operates on a similar trajectory, as it simply and honestly lays bare humanity in both its weirdness and its familiarity.
The two duets say a lot about human relationships. The first from Whitney Jensen with Erik Murzagaliyev gives clarity to Ek’s iconic shapes, splayed bodies decorated with fluttering hands in a relationship of some tension. Anaïs Touret with Simon McNally got to the heart of the matter as bodies intertwine and mould into one another with the innocent playfulness of kittens and the honesty of true love. The duets are played on tables and up the stairs as the minimal props assist the domesticity of the setting. The handful of other characters fill the landscape and build the energy to match Henryk Górecki's vibrant music.
Silas Henriksen added another gong to his list of fine credits as the Man on Pointe. From his first brief entrance, naked apart from a hat and cerise pink pointe shoes, then later dressed in trousers and jacket, he holds the stage. Never at ease, he is an intriguing mix of extroversion and vulnerability, his pointework so accurate, his character so ambivalent. Veronika Selivanova as She, first appears quietly flopping onto the stage in a silky black bag. She manages to find humour even within such bounds and later extricates herself to appear in totally black form executing ritualistic moves to throat music.
There are so many delicious moments: Jensen’s undulating bottom with what can only be described as a target pattered on it; Touret’s horizontal body slithered across a step to land like a pancake, flat on the stage and the final image as She appears to glide magically off the stage with only legs showing behind the lowering curtain. The ballet seamlessly combines the high comedy with moments of thoughtful reflection and despite its small cast, it teems with life and energy.
A Sort Of … Well, what? One might ask. Those three dots could lead anywhere, and they do. It’s a slice of life, featuring a cavalcade of characters and a set by Maria Geber that has its own personality. The opening backdrop of luminous lime green has a doorway carved out. Ek loves doorways. Through them we catch a partial view of happenings, while people and items enter and are thrown out.
What a treat to see Yolanda Correa back on stage. She pulls focus like a magnet whether plucked quietly from the pit in men’s clothes or leaping at full throttle across the stage in a pink dress. Mathias Tannæs, her partner begins the work lying down on the empty stage and closes the work back on the floor rolling over and gently snoring. It’s an odd relationship as he neatly packages her in a suitcase and takes her offstage only to return later and let her out having now changed clothes. Sonia Vinograd and Douwe Dekkers have a duet of parting and returning that develops into something quite wild. As Górecki’s music pounds with the intensity of a jackhammer, balloons are inflated and burst with intent and the intensity builds to a climax. Like life itself there are moments of blinding clarity in a daily muddle of what ifs and maybes.
The Oslo Opera House is one of the world’s most beautiful and the facilities are hugely impressive. The evening opens with Górecki’s String Quartet No.2, the quartet now an ensemble and seated at stage height. As conductor Jonathan Darlington begins, the platform of musicians is lowered to the pit. For the second work, Ek chooses Górecki’s Requiem für eine Polka, its fierce drama wrapped in thin musical threads. Then follows his maddeningly minimal Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings. In the final moment the backdrop splits apart to reveal the orchestra now stationed at the back of the stage and allowing them to come forward to take a real curtain call! Well done to the Norwegian National Ballet and National Opera Orchestra for using the theatre so imaginatively.
Maggie's trip was paid for by the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet
