In the end, my gamble paid off. Turning down the concierge's suggestion that I go to the Berlin opera house to see the ballet "Sleeping Beauty," I took the train 45 minutes to the neighboring (and picturesque) town of Potsdam instead. There, I saw lots of Germans in the 20's and 30's with a few in their 40's watching a company from belgium called Les SlovaKs. Born in Slovakia but having emigrated to Belgium, the dancers, all well-trained and wonderful movers, found each other over time and created this company. I had never heard of them but was thrilled to see them. They had a combination of beautiful dancers' bodies, wonderful technique, surprising choreography, and charm enough to go around and still have some left over.
The company of five male dancers has created this piece with the help of a violinist who composed the music for the piece. The choreography was created by the collective of five male dancers. Perhaps the moments that most succinctly represents the piece is a violin solo where the violinist plays a series of quirky and short notes followed by a single note that he holds for a while. In that moment, the quirky is transformed into something beautiful. It's not that the quirky short notes are not beautiful and the long note is, but that the longer note, in its beauty, provides a context to experiencing the succession of shorter notes.
The company of five male dancers has created this piece with the help of a violinist who composed the music for the piece. The choreography was created by the collective of five male dancers. Perhaps the moments that most succinctly represents the piece is a violin solo where the violinist plays a series of quirky and short notes followed by a single note that he holds for a while. In that moment, the quirky is transformed into something beautiful. It's not that the quirky short notes are not beautiful and the long note is, but that the longer note, in its beauty, provides a context to experiencing the succession of shorter notes.
The piece looks like something the cowboy from "Midnight Cowboy" might choreograph, which is to say something choreograhed by amateurs making up something that they think looks like dance but with a certain energy and charm. Taking that kind of playfullness for its language, the piece plays those movements out to something that shows the beauty and skill involved in such movements and in playing them out to a certain end. The piece's movement, in fact, is comprised of quirky choreography (meant to look amateurish), folks dancing moves (ostensibly from Slovakia), and technique that comes from modern dance. The amateurish and folk movement are eventually because we see in them skill and beauty that are not evident at first.
The dancers and the violinist also appear to have a certain relationship that makes the piece even more charming. We get to watch them play together and it's a joy. At one point, one of the dancers begins to introduce one of his comrades. He tells us his name and explains that he's got a goodlooking Slavic face, which the dancer adorns with a mustache because he's young and wants to appear to be older. It's a kind of silliness that would be annoying if it weren't coupled with talent but that is endearing and funny because it is and because we like them. (When one enters the space, the six performers are all standing about 10 feet from the front row and just smile as we file in.) There are also moments of violence in the piece, as when one of the dancers begins to beat up on one that earlier had wanted his attention. The beating also turns into beautiful movement but is repeated and so we experience both pain and beauty at the same time. In one of these moments, one dance pounds the other's stomach as if hurting him and the dancer lands against the wall to the back of the stage. He lands on his back, feet up in the air and against the wall, and he begins to roll slowly, his body extended, towards the audience. In doing so, he transforms the movement of being beaten into something unexpected, in which we get to sympathize and then witness with awe.
The feeling of the entire piece might be describe as off balance but controlled. That's exemplified by a certain moment in which a dancer has has left arm extended straight. He brings his right arm over to the left but never extends it quite straight. He almost gets to that position that is common in dance but he never quite finshes it. He doesn't get to the point of balance. As a result, he seems in danger of losing his balance but he never does. And in not delivering for our expectation of balance and centeredness but also never losing his footing, he transforms our expectation and creates something new.
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