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Choreographer Wayne McGregor's mind-blowing choreography is so complex and daring that at times it seems like trompe d'oeil. The only colour in the set is the skin tones of the dancers. The choreography shuts down the brain and rivets the eye.

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60 views2 pages

CHROMAglobemail

Choreographer Wayne McGregor's mind-blowing choreography is so complex and daring that at times it seems like trompe d'oeil. The only colour in the set is the skin tones of the dancers. The choreography shuts down the brain and rivets the eye.

Uploaded by

Liz Seymour
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dance review

Stunning Chroma brings down the house


PAULA CITRON
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010 4:49PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2010 2:38PM EST

Chroma, Serenade, Emergence


Choreography by Wayne McGregor, George Balanchine and Crystal Pite
National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre in Toronto on Wednesday

Canny artistic director Karen Kain has snagged a big one in Chroma. Superhot British
choreographer Wayne McGregor created the piece for the Royal Ballet in 2006, and Chroma
went on to win the three top London dance awards.

And there has never been, in recent memory, an ovation like the one given to Chroma at the
National Ballet on Thursday.McGregor’s mind-blowing choreography is so complex and
daring that at times it seems like trompe d’oeil. Simply put, Chroma is a stunner, both in
movement and the visual environment.

Architect John Pawson has designed towering white walls that surround the stage. There is a
large opening in the back wall that allows dancers to both enter and exit, their bodies
appearing and disappearing by degrees as they go up and down the hidden stairs.

Chroma means absence of white, and McGregor has determined that the only colour in the
set is the skin tones of the dancers. Lucy Carter’s clever lighting consists of shades of white,
cream and beige so that nothing takes away from the glaring nakedness of the space.

The subtle hues of Moritz Junge’s costumes (unisex sleeveless, loose tunic tops and brief
shorts) range through pink, olive and taupe, and with the costume and skin bleeding into
each other, the dancers’ bodies are brought into stark relief.

This quintessence of environmental nothingness is the perfect backdrop for both


illuminating the architecture of the body, and manipulating the body as a frequency of
colour.

These abstract concepts are certainly intellectually interesting, but they pale in the face of
the dance itself. McGregor’s choreographic language shuts down the brain and rivets the eye.
You don’t have to know his point of departure to appreciate his gift as a dancesmith. In fact,
you just want to lose yourself inside the dance.

A woman raises her leg to her head to create the six o’clock position – and her partner bends
the leg even further back to a quarter to six. Hips swivel right and left, but distort beyond
what the socket should allow. Feet, knees, and ankles flex to unimaginable angles.

The six men (Aleksandar Antonijevic, Zdenek Konvalina, Noah Long, Robert Stephen, and,
plucked from the corps de ballet, Brendan Saye and Dylan Tedaldi) and four women (Greta
Hodgkinson, Tanya Howard, Tina Pereira and Bridgett Zehr) seem to make their bodies do
the impossible, both alone and in partners.

Their elastic, supple bodies seem to have no bones. Not only that, different parts of the body
are doing different things at the same time. The movement language is both ugly and
beautiful, androgynous and sexy. The central male trio (Stephen, Saye and Tedaldi) with its
complex, lightning fast, staccato manipulations, brought down the house.

Added to this delirious frenzy of movement is the fantastic score that includes three songs by
the rock group White Stripes and four pieces composed by Joby Talbot, all arranged for a
huge orchestra. Maestro David Briskin and his players had a field day letting it all hang out
with the White Stripes, and pulling back for the more reflective Talbot.

Chroma is not to be missed, particularly since the other two works on this mixed program
have their own claim to greatness. Gilding the lily are George Balanchine’s poignant
neoclassical Serenade, and Crystal Pite’s Emergence with its magnificent insect imagery.

The National Ballet mixed program continues at the Four Seasons Centre until Nov. 28.

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