OSLO: Nacho Duato is back in Oslo, creating a whole evening ballet for the Norwegian National Ballet with the name: “Multiplicity – Forms of Silence and Emptiness” enclosing 22 different long and short pieces, but connected to a whole work by using of music by J.S.Bach.

It is a success for the National Ballet and Nacho Duato.

Review by Henning Høholt, Photos: Erik Berg

The wonderful dancer in the Nationalballet Ole Willy Falkhaugen is the leading figure, as J.S.Bach. Together with him many of the star dancers from the company Eugenie Skilnand, who thursday received Dancecritic Prize for her role in Woyzech, and Yolanda Correa, who was recently voted the “most outstanding female dancer on the international scene” by a jury of the world’s premier ballet critics awarding the Premio Positano “Leonid Massine” Per La Danza.

BACH´s LIFE AS BALLET
Johann Sebastian Bach‘s life and music are described in dance when the National Ballet for the first time set up a full-length balletwork with by choreographer legend Nacho Duato.

It is a production using Bachs music as inspiration for different “tableaus” virtuose, detailed, historically in spired, humoristic, performed by an outstanding cast of 20 dancers from tha National Ballet, which in this has a lot of possibilityes to show them self at their very best.

The 22 september Nacho Duato went back to the main stage of the Opera House, this time with his award-winning works Multiplicity – Forms of Silence and Emptiness. This is the world famous choreographer’s tribute to composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and a choreographic reflection of Bach’s music and life.

Usually I have never been a great Bach fan, but in this way where we are getting Bachs music illustrated, and as Angelij Precoljai told me a few days ago, “For me the dancers are like the flowers”, that is a very good way of describing how the dancers are in this ballet.

Very good, and sometime very elegant costume design by Nacho Duato in cooperation with Ismael Aznar,  follows the production, which was premiered in 1999 in Weimar in cooperation with the Spanish Natonal Ballet, where Nacho Duato at that time was balletchief. Furthermore there is an effectfull installation of a scenographic backwall by Jaafar Chalabi, which gave me a lot of ideas, of what this artist has ment, and from where he has got the inspiration.

With 22 different numbers in the production, it is difficult to go in to all the details. However, in the first part: Multiplicity:  no 3, Per Motum Contrario,  from Musikalisches Opfer BWV 1079, where Kaloyan Boyadjiev was “like” playing spinet on the body to Chihiro Nomura, was deliciouse and elegant .

Furthermore no 4 Polonaise, where Philip Currell and Andreas Heise in smart “skirts” was dancing in the end together with Bach (Falkhaugen) was virtuose and elegant. No 6 Brandenburgo no 3. Allegro was virtuose in a very high speed with 10 dancers.

 

In the second part: Forms of Silence and Emptiness:  The Toccata for organ in d-minor BWV 538/1 became the highlight of the whole production, splendid danced by Kaloyan Boyadjiev, Philip Currell, Martin Dauchez, Lucas Lima, Roberth Refling, Arne Kristian Ruutu and Garreth Smith, where the last made his debut with the National Ballet of Norway.

The Finale. – no 9. To the Aria da capo from Goldberg Variations, it was swinging, headed by Eugenie Skilnand and Ole Willy Falkhaugen
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‘It is a very good production, which gives a good introduction to Nacho Duatos dancing technique, – to Bachs music, and letting “the dancers be like beautiful flowers on stage”.

In Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness Duato has translated Bach‘s baroque compositions for their rich, flowing and cascading dance language

. In the center stands the composer and events in his life. Connection to the baroque and 1700s emphasized not only of music but also of the dancers costumes that are modeled corsets, breeches and wigs that were common in Bach’s time.

Nacho Duato style is described as a fusion of classical ballet technique and the freedom of modern ballet. The Norwegian audiences got to know him first when Por vos Muero was set up  in 2003.

Koreografi: Nacho Duato
Musikk: Johann Sebastian Bach
Scenografi: Jaafar Chalabi
Kostymer: Nacho Duato i samarbeid med Ismael Aznar
Lysdesign: Brad Fields