Three new works, with a musical flourish, from Prague.
Choreographers Kodet, Zuska and Stránský each created part of the Martinů program.
Prague Chamber Ballet is closing out the Bohuslav Martinů anniversary year with a program of three new dance pieces, one set to Martinů’s music, complemented by a live musical performance of his work. Created by three difference Czech contemporary choreographers, it premiered at Divadlo v Dlouhé Nov. 15.
The company was founded in 1964 as Ballet Prague, and went on to become a milestone in the history of ballet in this country, due to the innovative approach of its founders, Czech choreographers Luboš Ogoun and Pavel Šmok. The aim of Ballet Prague was to establish an original Czech ballet style by accentuating Czech music and folklore references. In 1975, the company became Ballet Prague/Prague Chamber Ballet under the sole leadership of Šmok, one of the most outstanding personalities of Czech dance in the 20th century.
The current artistic director is Lucie Holánková, to whom Šmok handed off the company in 2007. Although he still keeps in touch with Holánková and consults with her, he is more of a patron now. Nor does the company have a home theater; instead, it functions as a traveling ensemble, with the 12 dancers performing in cities in the Czech Republic and abroad.
The first and best piece of the evening, Doteky snáře (Touches of the Dream Book), features choreography by one of the leading members of Czech contemporary dance, Jan Kodet, set to music from Martinů’s lyric opera Julietta, or The Key to Dreams. Kodet’s choreography is abstract, based on the relationship of three people. Such complicated triangles accompanied Martinů his whole life and were part of the creation of Julietta, which has a beautiful but elusive woman as the main character. In her, Kodet found his inspiration for the trio, thinking how hard it must have been for Martinů’s wife, Charlotte, to cope with her husband’s affairs. An intelligent and loving woman, Charlotte always stood by her husband, and Kodet’s choreography concludes on a note of conciliation.
The dance nicely emphasizes the substance of Martinů’s music. The trio is performed by Lenka Bílková, Lucie Holánková and Michal Vlk, all of whom mastered their dramatically intensive parts with technical and expressive proficiency. All three are flexible, diverse and talented.
With Kodet working on the choreography for the National Theater’s production of Martinů’s Miracles of Mary, he didn’t have much time to develop Doteky snáře. „Actually, I only had two weeks to compose and rehearse the piece,“ he confides. „Although the dancers were really concentrating all the time, a lot of things and ideas we couldn’t try until the day of the premiere, as we couldn’t rehearse in the theater until then. However, the work with the dancers was fine, and I was nicely surprised during the premiere at how they managed to uplift the whole piece.“
The second piece on the program is a musical intermezzo: Martinů’s Duo No.1 for violin and cello, performed by violinist Jan Adam and cellist Balász Adorján. The piece fits the atmosphere of the evening perfectly. Though it’s difficult, both musicians play it with precision and feeling.
The following dance piece, titled Lyrická (Lyrical), was created by Petr Zuska, the artistic director of the National Theater Ballet Company, in 2008. A well-established choreographer on the Czech scene, Zuska gained dance experience with the Prague Chamber Ballet, the National Theater Ballet in Prague and in foreign dance ensembles in Munich and Montreal. Managing the National Theater ensemble since 2002, Zuska has also found time to perform in contemporary pieces himself and do choreography for other companies. He created Lyrická originally for Eva Horáková, the artistic director of the Laterna Magica company, and himself as a part of Prague Ballet Gala at the National Theater.
Zuska’s piece is a melancholy duet set to motifs from three Slavonic and Ruthenian folklore ballads. His soft, slow-paced choreography complements the emotional lyrics, with the dance following Slavonic singing that is more or less understandable for Czech speakers. However, even for English speakers, the dance is perfectly understandable by itself.
Lucie Holánková and Alexandr Volný portray lovers who dance through memories of longing, fulfilled love and devoted faith. Their interpretation of Zuska’s poetic choreography is well-rendered and full of feeling. Zuska also employs skilled light design that nicely supports the mood of the piece.
The third and somewhat different dance piece, Za oponou (Behind the Curtain), was choreographed by David Stránský. A member of the Prague Chamber Ballet company, he also works as a dance teacher. For this third project, he turned to the period between 1948 and 1989, when the Iron Curtain represented an almost impenetrable boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas. The music is songs composed by singers of the period, such as Jaroslav Hutka, Karel Kryl, Vladimír Merta, Vlastimil Třešňák and Dagmar Andrtová Voňková, some of whom were persecuted by the communists.
Stránský attempts to invoke the atmosphere in Czechoslovakia by focusing on the iniquities of that time. But the piece comes off as random, disorganized and incongruous; some passages simply fall flat. It’s the weakest work on the program and somehow doesn’t fit into Martinů’s evening.
Overall, though, Okna do duše is a nice cultural experience, with the Prague Chamber Ballet dancers proving their interpretive abilities and their potential for the future. The professional level of the ensemble is impressively high. And, even with a constant lack of money, under Holánková’s leadership, the company continues to carry on its proud, 45-year tradition.
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