Live, urgent, but with a slightly recycled feel
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Saturday, October 5, 2024


Live, urgent, but with a slightly recycled feel
In an undated image provided by Camilla Greenwell, Salomé Pressac in Wim Vandekeybus’s “Draw From Within.” The British dance company Rambert livestreams a new choreographic work by Wim Vandekeybus. Camilla Greenwell via The New York Times.

by Brian Seibert



NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In London on Saturday night, the venerable British dance company Rambert performed “Draw From Within,” a new work by the Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus. I watched it from my home in Brooklyn.

Such viewing from afar, once rare in concert dance, has become ordinary. But where most such performances these days are free and prerecorded, this one was ticketed and livestreamed. If you missed the show, you couldn’t catch it later, so it had immediacy. But, unlike most livestreams, this was not a static recording or a glitchy presentation over Zoom. Watching it felt more like watching a movie, immersive and absorbing, yet easily the most technically sophisticated live dance production I’ve seen since theaters closed.

Filmed entirely within Rambert’s studios, the work seemed to roam, via moving cameras and moving sets, through different spaces, scenes, dreams. We were in a dark place, in the middle of dancers who drew figures in the air with smoke from extinguished torches. And then — suddenly, smoothly — we were in the dojo of some martial arts cult, or witnessing the birth of a miracle child who turned out to be a murderer, or, most topically, trapped in a sinister hospital ward.

If that sounds like a series of nightmares, you’re getting the idea. Occasionally, the mood lightened, as when “You and Me” by Penny & the Quarters came on the soundtrack, and Salomé Pressac — one of the most striking of the telegenic Rambert dancers — swayed and shimmied with delicious nonchalance, unimpressed by a suitor. Yet even then, the undertone was menacing, and the next moment, Pressac found herself ensnared by wires.




Those wires, wielded by leaning dancers and slicing up space, are a good example of the production’s ingenuity and also of how that ingenuity was continually applied in the service of intensity. Over time, though, that relentless intensity grew to feel monotonous and manufactured.

Apart from a little bit of soul, the soundtrack tended toward Eastern European wedding music and a lot of electric guitar. The hyped-up choreography, in fact, often resembled simultaneous guitar solos: the dancers noodling, flinging themselves around, always jumping and spinning at once. Or, to borrow a metaphor from the work itself, the dancing was like that smoke: sinuous and short-lived, however many times the torch was relighted.

The supple, vigorous dancers were equal to the physical challenges. They could handle the acting. But the dramatic scenarios, intended to be surreal, were instead generic, built out of familiar ideas from horror films, skillfully recycled and reproduced but not allusive in any illuminating way. If “Draw From Within” was like a movie, it was like a movie you’ve seen before.

The state of emergency it presented was ersatz, conventional, a trademark of Mr. Vandekeybus. I might have been more receptive to it if we were not in a real one. Everyone on the long list of rolling credits deserves praise for pulling off this show, but the stakes of relevance are much higher now than before the pandemic, when the production was first planned.

Near the end of the production, one dancer, playing a clueless host or fatuous TV news reporter, asked, “What is this? What are they doing?” In another time, the question might have registered rhetorically, as satire or as a commentary on criticism. On Saturday, I wanted to know the answer.

© 2020 The New York Times Company










Today's News

September 29, 2020

Early works by Edward Hopper found to be copies of other artists

Ai Weiwei supports Assange with silent protest

Britain to return looted 4,000-year-old plaque to Iraq

Paris finally bows to Coco Chanel's flawed greatness

He Art Museum designed by Tadao Ando opens to the public on 1st October

A new Zwirner gallery with an all-Black staff

Jewellery auction to star the largest Burmese 'Royal Blue' Sapphire offered at Sotheby's in the last two decades

Head of Auschwitz Memorial seeks easing of Nigerian boy's prison sentence

Exhibition of new paintings by Stanley Whitney on view at Gagosian Rome

Major retrospective features rarely seen works by virtuoso woodcarver Elijah Pierce

Bonhams goes Pop

Works by Pino Pascali and Lucio Fontana lead Christie's Thinking Italian Art and Design sale

British photographer Richard Ansett & Tim Williams Fine Art release two new editions of Grayson Perry portraits

Chisenhale Gallery opens Thao Nguyen Phan's first solo exhibition in the UK

Sterling Associates announces highlights of Estates Auction

UK invites the world to collaborate on musical soundscape Expo 2020 Dubai

Bonhams announces promotion of Leslie Roskind to Head of Jewellery, Hong Kong

Two possibly unique watches by Patek Philippe and Rolex lead Sotheby's sale

Turkey seeks new life for submerged tourist town

At last - the online guide art and antiques dealers have been waiting for

Live, urgent, but with a slightly recycled feel

Art Rotterdam: 22nd edition will be held from 4-7 February 2021

Letter written in 1943 by Albert Einstein condemning racism in the U.S. is for sale

Newlands House opens a major retrospective of Ron Arad's work

Usage of Bitcoins in the fashion industry

The Resounding Success of Blackjack

Can Art Be Truly Appreciated When Only Sold Online?

What to Do in Case You Get Injured Due to Bad Infrastructure?

What Colours And Music Do Casinos Choose And Why?

7 Most Popular Driveway Surfaces and What to Know about them

Famous Works of Art That Portray Gambling

How to measure ROI for an SEO strategy

The connection between Belviq and cancer

What Casinos Have Good Art Exhibits?

Causes of birth injuries related to negligence

Learning About the Best Roulette Tips for Online Games

It's a Smart Move with Home Smart




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful