Konstantinos Rigos and his group Oktana, presented his version of the Nutcracker, third and last part of his trilogy of ballet remakes to the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky. The other parts of the trilogy are the Sleeping Beauty (1999) and Swan Lake (2001). (Nutcracker premiere: 19/11).
A grown-up Clara in a mini skirt and high heels. Sometime around holiday season. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, she will be visited by ghosts of Christmas, good and ugly, all of them filled with sexual activity, past and present that will show her an inescapable future -unless change occurs. What do we get from the adult version of the Nutcracker? First, that Christmas may be a very lonely period. Second, it can be a battle-field that does not the least remind of love and peace on earth, wishes that are left to celebrities, politicians and the various Miss Universes, all of them on TV that night of the year around the globe. Third, that sexuality is a dark space and fourth, that better be a man in this world, because women are apt to abuse and violence.
Third and fourth points combined, lead to the equation: sexuality is dark and has nothing to do with approved rules of morality and descency + women are supposed to be descent and avoid abuse + abuse is inescapable in boys’ games=therefore sex is better of between those who can take it, aka, boyz. Fine, I guess good old master Petipa would have approved of similar hypocrisy and ideological stances, let alone Piotr Ilitch, who allegedly committed suicide because of his sexuality.
Female sexuality traditionally escapes the capacity of understanding by the male community. In K. Rigos’ Nutcracker, Clara, the female “incomprehensible outcast” is only incorporated in the group of the four (male) people either through acute humiliation and hysteria usually identified with “femaleness” or as the alter ego of a “gay outcast”. Well, sorry to break the news, but no, gay men and women do not have the same agenda, and must not have the same agenda. Yes, they have and still do suffer discrimination, but for different reasons and in different settings.
What was disturbing in this truly interesting version of the Nutcracker, was the masochistic image of the female, its “expurgation” through pain and abuse and the hiding of a gay agenda behind a female persona. If “Clara” loves and hates what hates and rejects her, if her object of her desire means that her life must be embedded in shame and fear, she should speak out. Because if a gay male bears the shame of “acting female”, and if a gay person has not come to terms with the shifting of his identity’s signifiers, then future “Christmas” will only repeat past humiliations and traumas.
Critic’s verdict: It’s good to re-open the discussion in regard to gender.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
THE ILIAD, book 12 (Rapsody M)
On the 6th of January 2011, at the National Theatre in Athens-Greece, Ms Karambeti recited the 12th Book of the Iliad.
Was it because the actress has many friends, or because the Greeks need to regain a sense of identity and orientation in the context of their most recent humiliation brought by the financial crisis? Whatever the reason, the auditorium at the refurbished National Theatre was filled with people of all ages, while the actress received a standing ovation in the end of her solo.
To be honest, I would have expected either a man to recite the Iliad, or a woman who would make an effort at "singing" the words of Homer. The terrible deeds of war, the recount of the battle scene, glorious as well as horrific with blood and flesh, swords and spears, cracking bones and breaking skulls.
We have come a long way from the epic days of manhood proven at war, to the psychological problems of the soldiers returning from war.
Each war has its own existential aftermath and questions: some inspired sympathy for those returning from battle; some have inspired hatred for those who went to fight. The most recent wars, with their mercenaries or professional soldiers, have little to say to the people, outside the soldiers' families that is, in regard to sympathy. War has become an unreasonable deed, or tends to become such in the collective Western unconscious, and if there is any concern for those returning crashed from the war (more likely to be thought of as "invasion"), it refers more to the chemicals that may be used in battle and their side-effects on both soldiers and citizens, the soil and the food chain.
Homer, on a deeper layer, does not address such issues, but manages to find his way into today's audience, through his artistry and skill, through his call to glory and honour. The Iliad, is among other things, a manual for the righteous chief of state: in Book 12 in particular, Sarpedon, Hector and Ajax, all set the standards for the hegemon as someone who has to fight like the rest of the soldier, and be even braver and set the example for them. Shakespeare obviously benefited greatly from Homer, as his works, in the zeitgeist of the 16th century, included a vast commentary on a king's qualities in almost every play he wrote.
The recital lacked in originality, but was well delivered. Most annoyingly old-fashioned was the costume: white dress in "ancient style", which made Ms Karambeti appear like an oracle, a priestess or a ghost. Not to my taste I' m afraid.
Was it because the actress has many friends, or because the Greeks need to regain a sense of identity and orientation in the context of their most recent humiliation brought by the financial crisis? Whatever the reason, the auditorium at the refurbished National Theatre was filled with people of all ages, while the actress received a standing ovation in the end of her solo.
To be honest, I would have expected either a man to recite the Iliad, or a woman who would make an effort at "singing" the words of Homer. The terrible deeds of war, the recount of the battle scene, glorious as well as horrific with blood and flesh, swords and spears, cracking bones and breaking skulls.
We have come a long way from the epic days of manhood proven at war, to the psychological problems of the soldiers returning from war.
Each war has its own existential aftermath and questions: some inspired sympathy for those returning from battle; some have inspired hatred for those who went to fight. The most recent wars, with their mercenaries or professional soldiers, have little to say to the people, outside the soldiers' families that is, in regard to sympathy. War has become an unreasonable deed, or tends to become such in the collective Western unconscious, and if there is any concern for those returning crashed from the war (more likely to be thought of as "invasion"), it refers more to the chemicals that may be used in battle and their side-effects on both soldiers and citizens, the soil and the food chain.
Homer, on a deeper layer, does not address such issues, but manages to find his way into today's audience, through his artistry and skill, through his call to glory and honour. The Iliad, is among other things, a manual for the righteous chief of state: in Book 12 in particular, Sarpedon, Hector and Ajax, all set the standards for the hegemon as someone who has to fight like the rest of the soldier, and be even braver and set the example for them. Shakespeare obviously benefited greatly from Homer, as his works, in the zeitgeist of the 16th century, included a vast commentary on a king's qualities in almost every play he wrote.
The recital lacked in originality, but was well delivered. Most annoyingly old-fashioned was the costume: white dress in "ancient style", which made Ms Karambeti appear like an oracle, a priestess or a ghost. Not to my taste I' m afraid.
Monday, January 3, 2011
BEACH BIRDS-REMEMBERING MERCE C.
If...If his works had not been mediated by the masterful ballet technique, Merce's strange "birds" would have been proven to be another unbearable pop melodrama of extreme banality.
It seems that gay art has an inherent tendency for the over-emotional and Merce C. decided not to give in. Nor to give up his efforts to invent a more sophisticated, detached movement vocabulary. He could be said to be among the first, responsible for the theorization of modern -and post-modern- dance, which led many mediocre works to stardom, thanks to the fervent analysts of "genres" and styles, products of an interdisciplinary approach, born in the Universities.
His elaborate thinking and methodical approach to choreography, the union of dance to questions earlier asked by artists such as Duchamp, i.e. in regard to the relation of a work of art to its maker, as well as to the origins of its possible value and price in the market.
Merce Cunningham lied: the levitating legs of his dancers, their constant "hiccupey" break of action as if reluctant which way to go as if they changed their minds constantly unable to focus on a single action, clearly added to him giving to the world some of the ugliest moments in art. And this comes from someone who can take "ugly in art" either as hard-core scenes or disturbing ones. He could have been named the "no-action hero" of dance...
Having given voice to the then new American dance, he earned prominence, more than his work could have ever afforded him to. However, strangely enough, it seems that his work will live longer than that of his pupils of the post-modern strand. Though his choreographies look equally dated, the affiliation with ballet, despite its resemblance to a desperate effort at deconstructing Balanchine, was a smart move.
The question however, persists: did his dancers, his brilliant dancers made a career at...nothing and for nothing?
Before closing, it should be mentioned, even in passim, that despite his experiments with space, music, positioning, fixed theatrical spots and movement, he remains a modern for his closeness to fundamental issues for mankind, although he deviated a little with his focusing on questions of identity of both the artist and the work of art; he also remains an "American artist". If Martha Graham took on an American identity as a necessary, multi-coloured, extremely weighed upon ideological cape, Merce Cunningham bears the specific signs of a particular society at a given time; his, is a settled and permanent identity, and his work is that of a particular community. That makes him both contemporary, in the narrow and most difficult sense, and with a foot in the post-modern movement.
It seems that gay art has an inherent tendency for the over-emotional and Merce C. decided not to give in. Nor to give up his efforts to invent a more sophisticated, detached movement vocabulary. He could be said to be among the first, responsible for the theorization of modern -and post-modern- dance, which led many mediocre works to stardom, thanks to the fervent analysts of "genres" and styles, products of an interdisciplinary approach, born in the Universities.
His elaborate thinking and methodical approach to choreography, the union of dance to questions earlier asked by artists such as Duchamp, i.e. in regard to the relation of a work of art to its maker, as well as to the origins of its possible value and price in the market.
Merce Cunningham lied: the levitating legs of his dancers, their constant "hiccupey" break of action as if reluctant which way to go as if they changed their minds constantly unable to focus on a single action, clearly added to him giving to the world some of the ugliest moments in art. And this comes from someone who can take "ugly in art" either as hard-core scenes or disturbing ones. He could have been named the "no-action hero" of dance...
Having given voice to the then new American dance, he earned prominence, more than his work could have ever afforded him to. However, strangely enough, it seems that his work will live longer than that of his pupils of the post-modern strand. Though his choreographies look equally dated, the affiliation with ballet, despite its resemblance to a desperate effort at deconstructing Balanchine, was a smart move.
The question however, persists: did his dancers, his brilliant dancers made a career at...nothing and for nothing?
Before closing, it should be mentioned, even in passim, that despite his experiments with space, music, positioning, fixed theatrical spots and movement, he remains a modern for his closeness to fundamental issues for mankind, although he deviated a little with his focusing on questions of identity of both the artist and the work of art; he also remains an "American artist". If Martha Graham took on an American identity as a necessary, multi-coloured, extremely weighed upon ideological cape, Merce Cunningham bears the specific signs of a particular society at a given time; his, is a settled and permanent identity, and his work is that of a particular community. That makes him both contemporary, in the narrow and most difficult sense, and with a foot in the post-modern movement.
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