Where is classical ballet today? Carried by our prestigious company, the succession of brilliant deviations offered by the singular choreographic reopening spectacle at the Palais Garnier makes us ask ourselves the question: without anything that truly shocks, but with a key question, where is the emotion in this series of quests for symmetry, asymmetry, seesaws, old-fashioned cuteness that are blurred by gestures structured like robots. Everything is blurred in this program opened with great academic pomp with the glorious Ballet and School Parade, augmented this year by the Junior ballet, a recent creation, to mark the nicely military attachment to classical and hierarchical values and vigorously beaten by a newcomer to the pit, the Slovenian Mojca Lavrenčič.
Impressive tradition but which then turns into a fantasy where everything gets confused, the Word for Word by the American My’Kal Stromile: pretty tutus, signed Chanel, distinguished port de bras, elegance, semblance of a traditional pas de deux against a backdrop of electronic borborygms signed Jerome Begin, which twist the ears and place the dancers in strange contrasts, where nothing makes sense anymore. Fortunately we have the pleasure of meeting Valentine Colasante (photo on left.) and Hannah O’Neill, even if they are not very well highlighted, and the dashing Guillaume Diop (photo on the right.) and Rubens Simon, complemented by the breathtaking Jack Gasztowtt.
Rearray (chor. W. Forsythe) © Ann Ray – OnP
Then comes the solid borrowing from William Forsythe, one of the contemporary gods of imbalance and syncopation, a virtuoso without context, who maneuvers bodies like unbalanced pendulums, and whom the Opera has made one of its favorite choreographers, especially since a certain In the Middle Somewhat elevatedin 1987. Yes, but there was Sylvie Guillem, Isabelle Guérin, Laurent Hilaire, etc… Enough to pass any guillotine. The shock was great at this new freedom, this hardness, where the body was nothing more than a strictly dynamic provocation, like the rolling of a locomotive. There, with Rearraywhich was created for Guillem and Le Riche in London in 2011, and reworked for this program, we find a little of this strength at once primitive and sophisticated, but it lacks purity, charisma among the dancers, which the It is also difficult to distinguish, because they are nothing more than mechanized profiles.
Finally, a marked contrast with always the same Forsythe, Blake Works I to the syrupy music of the popular James Blake, with graceful tunics and calendar aesthetics. Elegant, smiling, brilliant, and totally soporific, in his attempts to play the card of a dance that is both languorous and spicy. The mixture does not set.
Impasse (chor. Johann Inger) © Agathe Poupeney – OnP
On the other hand, a little more expressive force with Impassesigned by the very fashionable Johan Inger, who made a Carmen smeared but powerful, and a remarkable Petrouchka. This time, he paints a sketch in the form of a parable about our world in the process of shrivelling: a little house, a joyful trio who come out frolicking, then a flood of intruders, devils or circus characters, who little by little change the horizons of the three protagonists, first seduced by these new fashions, and at the end find themselves faced with a house that has become dwarfed, having lost their joy of living. Inger has a sense of spectacle, of narrative even, although just sketched in this piece, he likes howling, and does not always have very good taste. But at least he delivers a message, and he knows how to paint striking pictures. The dancers played the game with convincing strength, a vitality that fades in the face of the emptiness that takes hold of them. All set to the beautiful, colorful and violent music of Ibrahim Maalouf, which does not stray into unanswered questions. But the title, alas, Impasse, says a lot: mirror of the world, mirror also of so-called classical dance, in view of the opening parade proposed by this emblematic School of values to be exploited. But how?
Jacqueline Thuilleux
William Forsythe – Johan Inger – Paris, Palais Garnier October 4; next performances on October 9, 10, 11, 18, 19, 25, 26, 27, 31 & November 3, 2024. Only the performances on October 9 and 10 are preceded by Scroll of ballet and of Word for Word // www.operadeparis.fr/saison-24-25/ballet/william-forsythe-johan-inger
Photo ©
