Performance

SLAM!

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SLAM!

Zellerbach Hall: UC Berkeley: October 5, 2024 8 pm
FLIPFABRIQUE AND EXMACHINA:
Robert Lepage

This extraordinary Canadian group brings us acrobatic and physical skills I have never seen elsewhere, except perhaps, in the old circus days when clowns and acrobats entertained between acts. But SLAM! Is unique: although the set is a boxing ring (albeit square), events and incidents occur all over the stage, below and above the rink! It is an amazing show although, for this viewer, almost too much.

The eight ‘acrobats’ perform multiple feats (with head, torsos and yes..feet) with most extraordinary skill. They juggle, confront and toss each other about, perform on ropes, right side up, upside down and in the case of one woman performer, almost inside out! Each event follows one another in a rapid pace, giving the audience almost no time to recover… although the performers seem to do so in marvelous speed. Fortunately, there is much alternation of performers so that necessary recovery time between events is provided. And then there is the janitor… who seems to be outside the events, picking up dropped objects and other used paraphernalia from the stage floor, outside the rink. But then, of course, he is a performer like no other, ascending to (and adjusting) a walk rope high above the rink. He executes balance feats, tumbling, ascent and descent superbly executed.

SLAM! Is a thrilling 90 minutes of events. This viewer (who alas tires easily) was longing for a quiet moment of non-activity, hoping the performers would just be still sloughing off all skills and just be lazy. Lepage keeps them moving: we are amazed!

The performers are: Jéremie Arsenauft, Fabien Cortes, Maerva Desplat, Naomi Eddu, Jonathan Julien, Stephine Pansa, Cédrik Pinault and Adele Saint-Martin.

Opera, Performance

Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi

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Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi
Cal Performances
Friday September 27, 2024 8pm
Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley

Simply Beautiful!

The opera Harawi has many unusual aspects; many were discussed in a varied and complex discussion by scholars before the performance. Yet, no matter the complexity of language choices (Messiaen chose Andrean Harawi language traditions to use in his text), the music, the performers, the choreography and the dramatic staging succeeded beyond all intellectualization. The performers, singer, pianist, and dancers are superb.

Julia Bullock, soprano, is Cal Performances 2024/25 ‘artist in residence’. She will return Zellerbach Hall January 19, 2025 to perform with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Bullock is an amazing performer. Not only is her voice a superb instrument, but she is a resourceful actress, interacting with the two dancers on stage in emotional moving song and drama, but she was also physically active in her roll, at one instance singing from the floor … on her back!

The dancers, Bobbi Jane Smith and Or Schraiber complemented the dramatic activity with carefully chosen appropriate choreography. Smith interacted with Bullock, embracing and comforting her during some emotionally intense moments. Schraiber provided quieter support; both were dramatically effective complements to the singer. The choreographic choices were simple and effective throughout.

Conor Hanick, pianist, held center stage on the grand piano playing Messiaen’s score with great skill and expressiveness. His focus on the score and the sound centered him so that we the audience could concentrate on the dramatic action of Bullock, Smith and Schairber.

“Harawi” was a challenge to audience’s concentration and skill; listening, watching and reading the text (in French and English) shown on the screen above the performers. The translations were sometimes odd: but then the words were often in Harawi.

This performance is a production of AMOC, American Modern Opera Company which was established in 2017 with the mission of “building an sharing a body of collaborative work”. In 2022-23 AMOC reached audiences through 34 performances across 20 US venues and digital platforms.

This event, the Cal Performance first of the season was superb … and a challenge to its audience. It promises to be an exciting season at Zellerbach Hall and on the UC campus.

 

Dance

ODC Summer Dance Festival

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ODC Summer Dance Festival
Sunday, August 18, 2024 Matinee

Two Dance Events: Different Perspectives

In my long history of attending dance events, I have pleasant memories of receiving a paper program, learning something about the event and waiting, well-informed, for the curtain up, the lights down. Now, with clever assistance and cell phone, the information appears on the screen held in one’s hand. There’s always too much to read and then…the show starts.

The first event of the Sunday matinee of ODC’s Summer Dance Festival was an extended solo by Jenna Varvara. Varvara is a response to both Alexander Rodchenko’s photograph “PerformingFurniture,” which features his artistic collaborator and life partner Varvara Stepanova, and to Stepanova’s body of creative work. One of the prominent Russian Constructivist artists, Stepanova’s endeavors included textiles, visual poetry, costumes, and set designs. Soviet theater critic Konstantin Rudnitsky wrote, “The human body was perceived as a machine: man had to learn to control that machine.” It was the theatre’s function to demonstrate the fine-tuning of the human ‘mechanisms.’”

So we see the dancer encountering a variety of stage set pieces and costumes which she can successfully maneuver, climb, touch and handle along with an extensive movement vocabulary. She is very successful and deliberate in all this. Finally, reduced to her basic underwear, she rests…and begins again. Varvara îs an extremely powerful performer; her skill is excellent and well executed. But, alas, it is all too much (at least for this member of the audience). She is to be admired, applauded and remembered for this dimension and intention, but the event is too long and somehow it is not extended to the audience. It is as if she is dancing for herself and the constructive ideas.

Then, at the other extreme. Charles Slender White with “Half-Time, Full Out”. The dancers move together, much like a cheer-leading squad, breaking formation only occasionally to go behind a set piece to change costumes. The costumes also reflect the ‘team’ nature of this event; they are bright blue, red and occasionally gold …. and they all wear blue socks! Rah,Rah! The dancers are technically excellent and their ensemble ability is superb. As we accept the solo performer for her commitment and aesthetic, we stand and cheer for “Half-Time, Full Out”