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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Theater Dear Peter Boal

Posted by on Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 2:57 PM

Do yourself and the city a favor and see Kidd Pivot at On the Boards this weekend. You've been trying to limber up the rigid bodies and brains at Pacific Northwest Ballet for the last couple of years (bringing dances by Jerome Robbins, Benjamin Millepied, and William Forsythe), but this shit will blow your skull open.

Crystal Pite's choreography begins with a brawl—an obscure (possibly schoolyard) battle royale that ends in murder, performed in dim light. The choreography gets a little redundant in the middle, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. But that doesn't matter.

What matters is the way these dancers move. I've never seen anything like it—from their guts: twirling; worming; popping and locking; extending; lifting and soaring; then undulating like kelp, bearing all their weight on the tops of their feet; fighting; fucking; walking down the street; jostling in line; hypnotizing each other.

They all seemed to have extra joints the rest of us don't—they were not of this earth, Mr. Boal.

I thought of you while I watched them. Since you've come to Seattle, you've been pushing your company and your audience in directions they don't always like. For that, I commend you. Your predecessors, the Stowells, programmed like they were lecturing, handing down doctrine. Your programming is more like a series of questions—about ballet, about music, about dance in general.

These dancers may be one of the answers you're looking for.

(Dear the rest of you: If you give a damn about dance, see Kidd Pivot. It will recalibrate the way you think about bodies in motion.)

 

Comments (4) RSS

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1
Kidd Pivot - Apple Cup mascot?

Did you see the weird humoungous offesensive tackle/guard for Texas tech??? 6 foot 8, 350lbs! the batman eye makeup! the Tattoos! the dyed blonde dreadlocked mohawk?! BEAST!! haha, they got their asses whooped.

go huskies
Posted by gry mklsk on November 22, 2008 at 7:15 PM
2
gosh, i sorry. have a fun time. the dance looks great and nice. who wants cares about football. or at least on an unrelated post.

we went to a new "peruvian" restarunt 2day. Dancers, peruvian? i suppose were on pLasma...TVs very nice view over her (dinner date) right shoulder, she watch over my left, actually vice versa, either way goodfd strategic plavcement of both tvs, or good seating by us/waiutress. The DANCING was, how they say International, One-Worldly? --- no snark at all - calm crazy outfit, ukranian style najovo? jingle bells gymnastics, chewing on foots, beely flop trumble break dance, happiness for Diners circumventing the stage (royal comanor's event) scottish sounding bagpipes playing violin oom pah pah, very mild. no sweat. sounds similiar to the fun at On The Bopards.

this 'grand opening' resataraunt was in a barren type of generic plaza (dental office? tuxedo rental?...) the type of plaza i memebre from Clolumbian City by the Busy Bee ("one pack of American Spirit ex-lights please?" chocolate milk? mr. goodbar, Lucky Penny Little Nickle!!classifieds?)

the plaza off to the right, befoire the postmodernist style bldg of Youth cultural center (Sanda? was one word, started with S....SEED) for classes and art workshop building there was a sad looking plaza style consumer go to place for goods, and was Pakistani or other sculture who eats and feeds us good lambvb meal kebob stuff and hang around place to talk avbbout women and Politics......
Posted by gry mklsk on November 22, 2008 at 8:05 PM
3
Mr. Kiley,

I saw the show last night and share your enthusiasm for it. It was as good as any dance I've seen on stage here recently. But do you really believe that this piece, if added to the PNB's repertoire, would be such a radical departure from the sort of works they have been performing of late? I think it would fit right in, though it may have less of an impact on a stage the size of McCaw Hall. But I am curious: what questions does Boal "ask" in his programming that this piece "answers"? Do tell.
Posted by Jim Demetre on November 23, 2008 at 11:50 AM
4
Hello, Jim.

Questions about what's appropriate for a big ballet theater. Questions about the Balanchine hegemony on the American dance landscape. Questions about democratization of dance—sometimes he makes gestures to the esoteric and weird (Forsythe), sometimes towards the popular (Tharp's Sinatra Songs). Questions about whose taste should prevail at a major dance theater. Questions about what a ballet dancer's body should do. (They've been getting more fluid, more infused with modern technique, less like coat hangers in pretty wrapping paper.)

I'm not suggesting PNB program Kidd Pivot. But that performance achieves some things Boal has been striving for with his own corps.
Posted by Brendan Kiley on November 23, 2008 at 1:26 PM

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