June 25, 2012
7 of 9
The Cult of Pina is currently occupying London with an epic season of 10 large-scale shows in just over a month. I probably qualified as a card-carrying cultist already, but if not I certainly am one now. We booked for 9 of the shows, skipping Palermo Palermo on account of having seen it before and not liked it much; an omission I now regret greatly. At first, the prospect of so many long nights in the theatre seemed daunting, but now I'm sad it's nearly over. I'm not going to offer extensive reviews, but here are just a few notes on the perfs so far, primarily to aid my own future recollection.
Viktor (Rome, 1986): the earliest of the 10 "city" shows, and the most archetypically Pina-esque, full of images and tactics that will recur again and again through the season: repetition, audience participation, smoking, water, slightly premature announcement of the intermission, falling matter, working the hair and, of course, chairs. Long, meandering, relatively low on "proper" dance and much higher on chaos and screaming and awkward silences than its successors. Darker than the others, too, though even so still relatively upbeat. Avant garde endurance cabaret. [Kicki & Ian]
Nur Du (Los Angeles, 1996): in a similar mode, but with much less heft and somewhat more dance. Again, significantly too long. As an oblique portrait of LA it seems pretty shallow, but then that's clearly part of the point. [Ian]
...como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si... (Santiago, 2009): most recent and danciest of all the shows so far, with almost none of the old guard dancers and lots and lots of beautiful, fantastically-performed but slightly lightweight dance. Zenith of hair working. Striking earthquake set reminiscent of Shibboleth. [Antonio & Lorette]
Ten Chi (Saitama, 2004): slightly meandering but consistently beautiful, mostly dancey, with a cute whale set and utterly mesmerising snow effects that I could watch for hours all on their own. [Ian]
Der Fensterputzer (Hong Kong, 1997): big and bold, with much beautiful dancing and all sorts of random interpolations, around a huge mound of red flowers. Occasional longueurs and WTF? moments, but also some fabulous images, in particular the titular window washer and a lovely cross-legged chorus line. [Ian & Lesley + Ros & Larry]
Bamboo Blues (Kolkata, 2007): sweet and charming, similar in lightness of tone to ...como el musguito..., and shortest of all the shows at a mere 2h20 including interval. Seems to present a rather glossy and superficial magazine-cover view of India, with a lot of fashion glitz and Bollywood and a generally airbrushed quality; again this is probably intentional. [Ian]
Nefés (Istanbul, 2003): an absolute blinder, one of the most gorgeous pieces I have ever seen. The two halves both start a bit iffily, but wind up presenting a succession of stunning dances with wildly varied, fluid and surprising choreography, immaculately performed to lovely music. A joy to behold, and we all left with a spring in our step. [Ian & Antonio]
As if that wasn't enough theatrical excitement for <3 weeks, there was also Philip Ridley's shouty but ultimately touching 2-hander Tender Napalm, and AFP's post-Kickstarter rock gig declaring that, of course, Theatre is Evil. Amanda herself was a bit rough-voiced by the end, but pleased the crowd with some old faves as well as new stuff and guests, while support standup Andrew O'Neill was extremely funny, especially his skit about reclaiming "I'm not being racist but..."
In yet more good news, I've at long last managed to submit my tip breakage paper to the unfortunately-abbreviated Anal. Chem., and now the whole process can shift into a new phase of annoyingness. But at least editors and reviewers are supposed to be one's enemies, which is a step up from being thwarted and backstabbed by one's so-called collaborators. FFS.
And now I must go off and finish my proposal/application for a new CoMPLEX postdoc thing with an extremely short deadline. On the plus side, there are two of these jobs, they've essentially been created for people in my situation and there are probably less than 10 people even eligible to apply. On the down, if I can't manage to get this then I really don't deserve to be in science and should fuck off and get a proper job. I'll let you know how that goes...
Posted by matt at June 25, 2012 10:58 PM