KVT – The Best of 2010!

Love, Betrayal. Destruction and Great Tragedy at the Citadel

Well it was a long wait for almost the whole length of 2010 but finally there came a Vietnamese cultural event that really knocked my socks off and completely took my breath away.

Funny thing that in 2009 the knock your socks off events were all in the art installation category and in 2010, thus far, they’ve all been contemporary dance. First we had the Swedish/Vietnamese collaboration between Skane Danteater and VNOB and the sensational “Black Water”. Then we had glorious reprises of the short pieces “Heart of Silk”’ and “Bamboo Rain”. And now, to top it all off, we’ve completed a 2 night season of the full length, world premiere of ‘Chuyen Tinh Thanh Co’ (The Legend of My Chau and Trong Thuy – Love at the Citadel)*

I saw it on both nights and if it had a longer run which it deserves. I’d see it again, and again. First night was an edifying entrée with a couple of minor hitches but night two was truly top notch!

Give the talented VNOB dancers a brilliant and renowned dance director and choreographer like Bertrand D’At (who has done stunning work with the Shanghai Ballet in 2006 and 2008 so his eyes and ears and senses were already attuned to the nuances of the Far East) and it’s inevitable that a great piece of contemporary dance would eventuate. This is the first full length dance commissioned for them and builds on their repertoire that has as its precious gems “Firebird”, “Heart of Silk’ and “Bamboo Rain”.

It was almost a perfect piece of art!

As theater it was directed as though by a magician and every human tableaux could have been frozen into a perfectly coordinated painting or a classically beautiful sculpture. In fact I’ve rarely seen such a painterly stage production.

As theater, too, it was acted beautifully by the whole cast and this is too often a rare thing in ballet companies a whole troupe that can act convincingly.

As excellent theater it sustained a perfect pace and the tension, that necessarily built up in such a great tale of love, betrayal, destruction and tragedy, was palpable right up to the final black out.

As a tale of young love and passion the tenderness, the grace, the youthful eroticism, the sense of starry eyed infatuation was worth any great production of a Romeo and Juliet and the dancing of these two young principals was 100% captivating.

As contemporary dance theater it leaves a lot I’ve seen done by very reputable companies in the West, in the last couple of years, behind in its exuberant shadow. Of course this was due to great direction and choreography but this couldn’t have been achieved without the great ability of all the principal dancers and the way in which they blended with and never overwhelmed the corp de ballet. Perfect direction! Excellent performances by all principals!

As with the best of the VNOB works, the set was starkly and very sensibly minimalist and this meant that the total space could be captured and carved up by the bodies of the marvelously supple young men who were dancing at full tilt and their wonderfully lithesome female colleagues.

The set and lighting designers need to be given awards!

A beautiful filmic quality was added by having the dance take place behind a massive scrim curtain. It was as if we were witnessing a well contrived silent movie with the additional boost of grainy color.

Any aspiring or practicing video artists would have done well to see the video projections on the scrim. They were convincing, not over done, and, at times, totally beautiful.

The music by Claude Debussey was a Cinderella fit and came through at the right decibel volume. One day a Vietnamese contemporary dance will have its own commissioned Vietnamese music swelling around it….but until then then Bach, Debussey or Nydesjo will do very well thank you!

If anything beats this as my pick of the best for 2010 I’ll eat my conical hat with chilli sauce on top.

The French and L’Espace, YOU ARE BRILLIANT AGAIN.

VNOB publicity people please note that I’ll donate my editorial skills for free so that your program notes fit the brilliance of your contemporary dance productions. Contact the Grapevine.

* Summary of the Legend (thanks to ticketvn and unedited)

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