LOINS, LIMBS, RIBS, SINEWS AND SAX!
ANATOMY OF AN AFTERNOON is an ambitious and strenuous dance contribution to the Sydney Festival 2012 – with choreography collaborated by Paul White and Martin del Amo.
Paul White contorted his iron clad muscles into jagged anterior angles and antics involving posterior poses with green briefs askew!
His accompanying ensemble of musicians played an eclectic combination of celeste, saxophone, and laptop! What an amazing contemporary contrast to the seven Horns in the original Debussy score that accompanied Vaslav Nijinsky in May 1912 in Paris, – that premiered ‘Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune.’
To appreciate this complex and partly abstract work and Paul White deconstruction of it into ANATOMY OF AN AFTERNOON – it is useful to delve into the historical background of how the original ballet was constructed.
Serge Diaghilev – the great impresario of the ‘Ballet Russes’ took Vaslav Nijinsky to the Louvre, and they studied Greek vases and Egyptian and Assyrian frescoes.
Mallarme’s popular poem ‘L’Apres-midi d’un Faune” (1865) was explained to Nijinsky by Jean Cocteau – who helped him develop the scenario for a new ballet , using Grecian frieze-like positions and angular postures of Grecian body moulding and sculpting. Paul White’s execution and mimicry of the figure of a Satyr on a Greek Urn was menacing yet alluring. However, del Amos and White’s decision to remove all seven nubile nymphs taking a bath makes for a disjointed choreography – a mere monologue for a Satyr exploring the climes of the spring afternoon – with the Nymph who dances with him and drops her scarf conspicuously absent from the story and mime.
Whereas Nijinsky as the Faun caresses the scarf, takes it to his lair and uses it as a fetish for his , Del Amo and White have re-focused their exploration away from the faun character and seek to physically capture the elusive nature of the afternoon. However, this decision to present a generic version of the afternoon has stunted the Faun’s expressionism and has placed limits on the audience’s visual understanding of the sequence of the piece. The sensual nymph was the Faun’s temptress and pivot in Nijinsky’s ballet – and by eliminating this provocateur in Del Amos and Whites version, the key under-pinning of the Faun’s fantasy is completely lost to the audience.
Bobby Helpmann and Maxwell Collis choreographed this ballet in the mid 60’s for Ballet Victoria. Helpmann played the Faun/Satyr and the seven nubile nymphs were draped in romantic chiffon and used tulle scarves as veils and danced enticingly – to the Claude Debussy score. Helpmann tempted the nymph with bunches of green and red grapes intermittently offered in flourishing gestures. His gyrations and Grecian movements were sudden, subtle and succinct.
Nijinsky’s Faun was first performed in May 1912 at the Theatre du Chatelot in Paris. At first it produced feeble applause and some caterwauling. The Gendarmes threatened to stop the ballet unless Nijinsky toned down the ending. In the end, the entire season was sold out! Nijinsky’s ‘Faun’ was exceptional and great, confronting, controversial dance, Paul White’s and Martin del Amo’s adaptation of this great work was a disappointment.
Performing Lines’s production of ANATOMY OF AN AFTERNOON, performed by Paul White with choreography by Martin del Amo, opened at the Playhouse, Sydney Opera House on Monday January 9 and plays until Saturday January 14, 2012.
© Esther Rothfield
12th January, 2012
Tags: Sydney Dance Reviews- ANATOMY OF AN AFTERNOON, Sydney Festival 2012, Performing Lines Theatre Company, Paul White, Martin del Amo, Nijinsky, Mark Bradshaw, Esther Rothfield, Prudence Upton.