“It is very difficult to organize a dream, because when you organize it, you have to wake up. When you take control of your dream, then you realize that you are sleeping. That’s why it is necessary that when you dream, you are not protected” “says the announcement..
Not only the most famous one, but also the largest and most expensive ballet company in the world (on the Old Continent), nicknamed “ballet Rolling Stones” presented itself recently with a triptych of pieces of completely different styles, creative ideas and particular dance handwriting diversity and virtuosity of contemporary dance. The Netherlands Dance Theater (NDT) is one of the world’s leading contemporary dance troupes, based in The Hague, while performances for international audiences manage to gather 150,000 visitors a year in Europe, America, Asia or Australia. We are talking about the pieces of the most important choreographers of the late 20th and early 21st century, such as Jiri Kylian, Crystal Pite and Gabriela Carrizo.
The first piece, “La Trasa” is an intriguing dance piece by Carizzo, it took the audience into an apocalyptic dream, similar to a nightmare, with various travelers, lonely and lost souls, wandering along that one-way road that leads to nowhere.
Second piece, the anthology “Gods and Dogs” by Kylian, which is the old piece, showed all the mastery of the six players of this Hague ensemble and reminded us why Kylian (76) is one of the most famous choreographers. As Kylian himself once pointed out, this is a piece that floats between the normal and the abnormal, “because nothing positive can result without a healthy dose of madness”. He dedicated this dance piece to dogs, dogs who may reference with connection to gods in some religions and civilizations. Just one big dog, in a race, appeared projected on a black backdrop, watching the dancers from above, while they performed the half-twilight of that world of blurred boundaries, in front of a mystical curtain made out of big, heavy Swarovski crystals. And, also a poetic thoughts from this stage piece “Someone walks alone/cuts the night along the fragments of the roads, The night is wounded/bleeding through the cracks of sleep, Wounds are scattered/breath of sleeping animals/smell of lilies, Eyes close and open/night remains night“, the master of choreography, visualizes the fine line between normal and abnormal. “Gods and Dogs” has been called a “work in progress” because it draws on Kylian’s fascination with the beauty of what is not finished during life. Criticism in the world says that “in the play Gods and dogs, Kylian shows an indeterminate, hallucinating world in which the opposite and unusual take shape in various ways“.
At the end of the evening, a powerful and moving vocal-choreographic dance tragedy, “Figures in Extinction [1.0]” by choreographer Crystal Pite, a deeply disturbing work about the consequences of climate change, the extinction of numerous plant and animal species, and the disastrous relationship between man and nature. In the 30-minute stage piece – Figures in extinction [1.0], describe the issue of climate change and global warming, which the author does in an almost literary way. With overwhelming images, she creates a theatrical version of a disturbing documentary about a list of extinct animal species and missing glaciers.
Year 2024, choreographers Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young are bringing Vancouver’s Kidd Pivot in a new play “Assembly Hall” another production of radical hybrids of dance and theatre. That is about “a group of medieval re-enactors have come together for an Annual General Meeting in their local community hall. As the Board of Directors, they oversee an event called “Quest Fest” that has fallen on hard times: membership is dwindling, debt is mounting, and the hall is falling apart. Unless something drastic happens, the Directors of this venerable order will be facing dissolution. As the meeting progresses, the line between real and re-enactment begins to blur, ancient forces are awoken, and it soon becomes clear that there is something much more at stake here than a mock-medieval tournament.”