KVT – Let’s Face the Music and Dance

KVT won over by Spaniards at Au Co

In the past two years the Spanish Embassy in Hanoi has come up with two of the best contemporary dance events imaginable….dance companies that would be acceptable at major cultural festivals throughout the world.

Last year it was seriously brilliant flamenco. And this year seriously brilliant dance with Teresa Nieto and Company who pulls a lot of her inspiration from flamenco and, at age 59, still has dramatic roles in many of the pieces she choreographs for her company. She’s been awarded with dancer of the year awards and her company and others she’s been associated with have all been in the forefront of contemporary dance….she’s also acclaimed for her dancing, her choreography, as an actor on stage and in film and it was indeed a rare treat to be part of her audience at the Ao Co theater on Friday night.

Last time I was at a live music performance at Au Co the music was almost eaten up in the maw of the cavernous back stage, but on Friday, with a great sound system and recorded music, the theater was just about perfect. Nicely raked seats and a wide, deep stage that the five dancers made brilliant use of, enhanced by a more than brilliant lighting design, against a black backdrop.

The production was named Al Mal Tiempo Buena Cara, which in colloquial Spanish means ‘putting on a good face in a bad situation’ or if you like to hum along to some good old Broadway tunes could be stated as ‘Put On a Happy Face’ or ‘Lets Face The Music and Dance’, with the Diana Krall version providing an inadequate but emotional synopsis for the series of fragments from Nieto’s choreography for the company over the past 20 years.

I saw – amongst other psychological and emotional states – memory, remorse, jealousy, seduction, domination, frustration, anger, joy, loneliness, hate, alienation, madness and tension…all relating on the stage in the guise of three women and one man. Choreography was at times slinky and slow and at others so powerfully frenetic that, as the dancers’ arms sliced the space around them, you could see visible arcs of movement. Flamenco whispered or pulsed through many dances and you were always aware of that genre’s palpable and passionate tension and sexuality. Once I could feel the violence of Apache simmering not too far beneath the thin skin of tension.

Music used ranged from being hauntingly classical to vibrantly modern to almost atonal post modern (I think I may have coined a terminology!) to voiced song to perfect silence when so much of the most intense dancing was done.

A lot of the audience’s favorite section may have been when the castanet-clacking male forced his dominant will on a fragile female, or the very powerful threesome and solo featuring the spurned bride/virgin in her gushingly white dress.

The finale was stylized and energetic. Great stuff!

As for me, I loved every single, lengthy moment. I saw a few great contemporary dance companies during my overseas summer break and Teresa Nieto En Compania was not left in the shade.

A prelude to the night’s Spanish dance was a vigorous and tense piece by a group of very agile and young Vietnamese dancers that raked through the youthful vibes of ‘West Side Story’ through to a ‘now’ street cred. Nieto’s choreographic imprint was on the dance and I hope that the dancers get the chance to continue a program of development that may augur well for the fairly static state of Vietnamese contemporary dance….fingers crossed!

I am continually amazed at the youth of the Vietnamese audiences that voluntarily grabs seats at these challenging, and thankfully free, events. I’m also amazed at their concentration and appreciation.

Thanks you fabulous Spaniards at the Embassy and at the Cervantes Institute for taking this piece of Nieto’s company from their Asian tour for a welcome interlude in Hanoi and another superb night.

Here’s a couple of clips that indicate some of the company’s style