Theater/Dance Review by Ron Fassler . . . .
Even with the very un-springlike weather we’ve been experiencing this week, you can always tell it’s spring when international dance companies appear in New York City as reliably as the blooming magnolia trees. The Nederlands Dans Theater arrived in town for four nights at City Center (April 3-6), presenting a bill of three dances in three acts. Having first made their debut on the same stage in 1968, it’s a pleasure to report that they are still doing fresh and exciting work. Innovative and of-the-moment, the five choreographers credited for the three dances have created inventive and original work that was met by cheers from an audience that was as attentive as it was enthusiastic.
The first titled “N.N.N.N.” is the work of William Forsythe, whose bio covers his more than fifty years as a choreographer. Described in the program notes as “boneless or anti-structural,” it presents four male dancers in a minimalistic, modern setting, whose movements are striking in the multiple variations of hand and arm gestures. What little music there is as accompaniment is staccato and choppy, with the dancers’ breathing worked into the piece as both song and rhythm. In telling its story on a bare stage with marginal lighting effects, it brought to mind the opposite of Hamlet’s speech to the players, in that it goes against his specific advice: “Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently.” Still, actions speak louder than words, and it is rapid and arresting in its pace and execution. Jon Bond, muscular and aggressively charismatic, shines in particular.
The second is “The Point Being,” a beautiful exercise in shapes and movement co-choreographed by Imre Van Opstal and Marne Van Opstal, a brother and sister duo. Beginning with a solo dancer (Nicole Ishimaru) whose back is to the audience, she gently infiltrates a group of dancers and slowly becomes involved with one in particular (Matthew Foley). Their sexually suggestive pas de deux is a masterpiece of fluidity and control. This middle section of the show presented enough imagery to allow for imagination to take flight. At times I felt as if I were watching bits of Julie Taymor’s Lion King (all in my head, mind you), as well as feeling like the dancers were aboard a great ship at sea, bucking and swaying to invisible winds. It was enough to take one’s breath away and its nine-person cast formed a tightly cohesive unit.
The final section, called “Jakie,” like “The Point Being,” is a U.S. premiere. Co-choreographed by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, it featured the largest contingent of dancers in any of the pieces—sixteen. Some of its silhouetted tableaus had the effect of something filmed by an expert cinematographer. With music that also included gibberish speak, it was eclectic and stripped of any pretext. And speaking of stripped, the dancers all wore nude stockings that accentuated their bodies, offering a somewhat neutered effect, or “futuristic androgyny,” as the program states. It also had a tribal sensitivity, beating out rhythms and with clusters that came together and burst apart throughout. There was a vibrancy to it that even included genuine vibrations of movement, like when a foot would flutter and jiggle.
Unquestionably, anyone with a love for modern dance will enjoy this splash of spring from the Nederlands Dans Theater.
The Nederlands Dans Theater performed April 3-6 at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues). www.ndt.nl/en
Photos: Rahi Rezvani
