Engaging Storyline Through Dancing and Music
Honestly, the Ballet Du Grand Théâtre’s performance exceeded my expectations about modern ballet. I was looking forward to a classical ballet but found myself thoroughly intrigued throughout the performance. The first piece, Para-dice, had such a tranquilizing flow to it that I found myself getting lost in the experience. The music was very subtle and I felt like there was a metallic movement to the piece. With the slicing of each dancer’s arms through the air, the music sliced into your ears further. The emotion it evoked was mostly confusion and losing control but living in the moment.
The next piece, Selon Désir, caused a great stir of emotions with the vibrant performances and the strong music. There was a constant feeling of frantic desire and sensation. Many of the sequences were repeated but I never found it dull. The pieces were done with every performer having their own set of steps that made the whole dance come together. With each dancer having their own performance, it made the dance that much more intricately beautiful. It created so much emotion that went back and forth between frustration and raw desire. There was a sense of desire amongst the dancers with every movement that threw them into the next sequence. To me, it almost told a story, similar to classical ballet, and depicted adolescence and sexual drive. It also insinuated a feeling of violence along with the sexual tendencies. The music shaped each emotion into the piercing raw instincts that were portrayed through the dancing. It made me in suspense of each movement, anticipating the next surprise even though I knew the sequence was repeating towards the end. Even though I didn’t know the story for sure, I kept waiting for the ending that I thought would be an amazing climax to conclude the dramatic storyline.
My favorite part was the beginning of the piece ‘Loin’ because the portrayal of love was magnificently done with emotions playing at each other between the two performers. I enjoyed this part because I felt the emotion they created with just the movement and space between them. Their facial expressions also seemed to give away the emotion of love because of how their eye contact was hardly ever broken. The dancers made sure they were focused on each other, as there was nothing else in the world, with all their space to be taken up by them and their love. It was intriguing to realize that two dancers who most likely do not share a history together could make the audience feel as if they had these feelings for one another.
The end of Loin was also though and emotion provoking. I thought it told a more vivid story than the previous stories because the dancer had to carry all those people and drag them along. It made me feel like those were his burdens because he had to carry them wherever he went and they relentlessly stuck on. I felt the free energy he felt when he got rid of his burdens at the end. It was an almost accomplishing scene and I even thought it could be a depiction of death, when all your burdens are then released on your passage away from earth. The clothing also resembled peasants clothing, emphasizing the harsh struggle of the piece. I really enjoyed this modern ballet because of the emotions it was able to emit into the audience while telling a story, similar and dissimilar to a classical ballet.
- Shaziya Ali