Choreography: Todd Bolender
Music: Frederic Chopin
Costume Design: Russ Vogler
Born near Warsaw in 1810 to a French father and Polish mother, Frederic
Chopin exemplified the Romantic movements in Poland. He combined
in his works expressions of yearnings for independence, the influence
of European classicism, and the accents and modalities of authentic Polish
folk music. The commingling of virtuosic skills as a pianist (a
bright and brilliant prodigy at the age of eight) and dramatic originality
in composition, has resulted in a legacy of music ceaselessly magnetic,
enticing to generations of choreographers.
The lure of mazurka, waltz, etude and tarantella, inspired Todd Bolender
to create this ballet in 1983 for a benefit performance. The
occasion was the gala opening of a Kansas City Specialty store, a glittering
event. Conceived in that instance as an intimately-scaled salon
piece, the work has expanded. It is both larger and longer, but
the core remains. The music, and similarly the movement, for ten
dancers, is, by turns, breezy, passionate, noble, dramatic. The
dances are sometimes reminiscent of the courtly dances of the seventeenth
century, sometimes fueled by stylized intensity. All are lit from
within by the capacity for expressiveness which made the piano and the
Romantic period synonymous.
The work opens dramatically with the "Prelude in F Minor."
From there it continues in the collected spirit of a dancing party, through
the pas de deux, the lovely and familiar lyricism of the "Waltz in
A Minor." A vibrant "Marzurka in B Major" for five
boys is followed by the pas de quatre and the pas de deux of two "Waltzes,"
both in A flat Major. The dancers progress through the lyrical "Etude
in A flat Major" to a brilliant "Tarantella," the pyrotechnical
summation of the dance, and the party.
Plotless in the honored tradition of American Classical dance, the work
is collected visually by the presence onstage of The Pianist. Not
Chopin, nor his ghost, there is nevertheless suggestion of entwined talents
which gives the work wholeness, and makes it complete.
|
|
|
