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| Posted by: Behind The Scenes |
5/14/2008 2:01 PM |
“Amsterdam to party, the Hague to live, Rotterdam to work.” —Dutch saying
Sparkling Muddy Water
by Austin Buchholtz
White Bird always picks a brilliant company for ending their seasons, so I knew this one must be special. In the lobby of the Paramount Hotel before joining them for dinner hosted by Art Fortuna of the Vibrant Table, I perceive (after many honest handshakes and easy smiles) that members of Scapino Ballet Rotterdam are affable. About half are from countries other than the Netherlands and so the common languages used among them are English first, then French and Dutch. Rotterdam (which means “muddy water”) is a busy port city the size of Portland, described in Wikipedia as “a no-nonsense worker’s city,” and yet hosts a world-renowned academy of dance, its own orchestra, zoo, aquarium, and even won the title of European Capital of Culture in 2001. No small feat, I imagine.
While at dinner, after dancer Rein Putkamer tells me Scapino Ballet has no other rival in the Netherlands, I joke with him and rehearsal mistress Charlotte Baines by asking if Rotterdam dancers would consider a dance-off with a company from rabid-soccer-rival and Dutch-culture-capital Amsterdam. They humor my absurdist vision and demonstrate the aggression spectators might see at such an event.
Amsterdam watch out: Scapino dancers get aggressive.
Artistic Director and choreographer Ed Wubbe later cheerfully announces that the hospitality shown by White Bird to the company in Portland “is better than in NY!” Such a rave review does not surprise me. White Bird is in fact known internationally among dance companies as one of the most welcoming and professional presenters and hosts. (And no, I don’t write such statements for extra tickets, although I wouldn’t turn them down…) I have heard such comments from satisfied visiting companies for years.
I join Rein for a drink after dinner. He tells me that in Scapino, which is mostly city-funded and has a touring physical therapist, injury does not necessarily mean a dancer is booted from the payroll. In fact, an injured dancer would be paid full salary for up to one year while on sick leave. Is such a system taken advantage of? No. Such humane modus operandi make dancing for Scapino seen by aspiring students in the Netherlands as a safe career path (if hired): challenging artistically, paid well, and taken care of. Um, hi, my name is Austin and where do I sign up to audition? By the way, my knee hurts.
But no need to worry that well-funded and relatively coddled dancers become flat-footed or ho-hum in their roles—the following night at the Schnitzer, company members clearly exhibit a no-holds-barred passion for their art.
In Wubbe’s the Green, seven men stir energy with delicate aggression, not unlike Indonesian martial artists. In one instance a dancer tosses another, then turns to carefully lower the neck of a third man to the ground.
Äffi, by Marco Goecke, is a solo piece set on a male dancer to Johnny Cash songs, a whirlwind of innovative combinations: from neck-scrubbing and twittering hands to belly laughter; and also slow, minute details such as two pointer fingers conducting an inner symphony. Imagine a young, lithe Don Quixote dancing butoh on speed.
Wubbe then takes us to the front lines of arranged marriage à la old-time provincial Russia in The Brides. Nine women in white bow, strut, and plead, hands on hips, hands on wombs. It is set to Stravinski’s the Wedding, an often atonal,tense medley of Bulgarian-women’s-chorus-like harmonizing and dark male baritone fatalism. In one memorable sequence, one of the brides commandeers much of the stage by facing the others and high-kicks from behind, like the whip of a scorpion’s tail. Resolution only comes in the last seconds, a wall of maidens, arms and eyes steady, acquiescing.
Hello Portland: Scapino dancers at their hotel.
Noisy creatures from the underworld populate The Rest is Silence, by Marco Goecke. Female dancers spit in olympic-sized arcs, or long alpine horns approach and recede like threatening elephants in dusky light. Paired with equally enchanting movement, we are treated to an onomatopoeic lingua franca—from buzzing, braying, snapping and paper rustling, to the human imitation of a bomb dropping and exploding—that makes us smile with the winking understanding of an inside joke.
After the performance, the company members joined Wubbe for a Q&A. There we learn among other things that most of the choreography this evening did not start as improvisation, and that they train so much together that their timing can be too perfect and sometimes must be syncopated or randomized.
In closing the Q&A, Walter Jaffe informs us that Scapino Ballet is the 72nd (!) unique dance company White Bird has presented in its first ten years. I now believe that Portland and Rotterdam have more in common than muddy ports and population totals: we work hard, and dance like we are on holiday in Amsterdam.
***
Austin Buchholtz is a graphic designer, writer, and certified instructor of ballroom and latin dance.Austin was White Bird's Director of Audience Services from August 2001 to December 2003. |
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