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Cape Town City Ballet's double bill at the Maynardville Open-air Theatre & the Masque Theatre Muizenberg.
Cape Town City Ballet begins a year of celebrating its 70th birthday by looking back at the works of two luminaries in the world of dance in South Africa, David Poole and Cecily Robinson.
In Retrospect features Poole's version of The Firebird to the Stravinsky score and Robinson's Les Sylphides to the music of Chopin. The production runs at the Maynardville Open-air Theatre from 18 January to 15 February, 2004, and at the Masque Theatre, Muizenberg, from 21- 24 January, 2004.
Les Sylphides, a one-act, plotless ballet, is a ballet of mood, grace and style. It was originally designed to evoke the spirit of the romantic era of ballet and is danced by the artists of the Cape Town City Ballet, led by Tracy Li and Daniel Rajna, alternating with Laura Cameron and Coert Grobbelaar. Members of the Apprenticeship programme swell the ranks of the corps de ballet of sylphs dancing in the moonlight.
David Poole's spectacular and colorful The Fire Bird tells a tale of love, magic and make-believe. First produced by Poole for the CAPAB Ballet in the 70's, this ballet will be revived on the company by Elizabeth Triegaardt, who danced the leading role in the ballet from 1971 to 1985. Other dancers who have been seen in the role of the Firebird in Cape Town include Lynne Domancie and Janet Lindup, while Prince Ivan has been danced by Keith Mackintosh and Eduard Greyling. On this occasion, the leading roles are shared by Marianne Bauer with Johnny Bovang and Megan Swart with Michael Johnston. Owen Murray, who danced the role of the evil Kotschei in Poole's original production, will recreate his role 33 years later.
Elizabeth Triegaardt produced August Bournonville's Romantic two-act ballet for Cape Town City Ballet with guest artiste Harold King as Madge. Performed to Herman Lovenskjold's recorded music, under Malcolm Hurrell's lighting designs. On Sundays at Maynardville until 23 February.
At Maynardville last Friday, Marthinus Basson's direction thrust Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona into the 21st century. Two nights later, at the same venue, Elizabeth Triegaardt's La Sylphide production kept August Bournonville's choreography firmly in it's 19th century Romantic era setting.
While comparisons cannot be made between these shows, they do raise the often mooted questions, "what relevance have traditional classical ballets today? If great 16th century plays can withstand modernisation, why shouldn't time-honoured ballets survive similar treatment?" Space precludes debating these ongoing questions here.
Suffice to say, when a period-piece is carefully reproduced, a stout effort made to understand and capture the style, - as opposed to Christopher Kindo's recent abortive, revamping of Michel Fokine's 1910 gem The Firebird - a place does exist in society for these artworks. Not only our rightful heritage, they form our root system. Roots from which creative processes grow and without which artistry would wither. Therefore, a responsibility lies with ballet directors world-wide to continue keeping these treasures alive.
This La Sylphide isn't flawless, (fussy ports de bras from the Sylphs were a distraction) but it is an honest attempt to recreate Bournonville's choreographic masterpiece, and Triegaardt must be congratulated on a splendid mounting. Her stamp on the corps was obvious. Uniform - but not rigid - precision in eye-line, body alignments and patterning. She also successfully blended the normally gauche student extras amongst the professional dancers, where with one exception, silent, controlled footwork highlighted the Sylphs supernaturalness. As did Malcolm Hurrell's lighting effects on Mayndarville's woodland background and the inclement weather help replicate conditions in the Scottish Highlands.
La Sylphide tells about James (Johnny Bovang), a young Highlander who, enticed by a Sylph (Marianne Bauer) deserts Effie (Jane Fiddler) on their wedding day. Gurn, (Stanislav Tchalov) in love with Effie, comforts the witch Madge, (Harold King) after hot-headed James insults her. When James runs off with the Sylph, Madge, extracting her revenge, causes the Sylph's death and Gurn marries Effie. As the toothless mat-haired hag King maximised his vast experience to dominate each scene with brilliant miming and acting skills, leaving no doubt the course Madge's spite would take.
Bovang's elevation and strength acted as a perfect foil to Brauer's ethereality and as a duo perform with noteworthy integrity. However, before Bauer incurs an injury she needs to correct her arabesque placing which is being taken too far forward. Fiddler charmed as the fickle Effie. Tchalov made a suitably love-lorn Gurn everyone danced the tricky reels joyously and humour coloured the witches cauldron carry-on.
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