Digital program book ‘Celebrating an evening with Jiří Kylián!’

For Sabine

Choreography by Jiří Kylián

STAGED BY
Lorraine Blouin & Stefan Zeromski

MUSIC
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Pianoconcert Nr. 9 (K 271) in Es-Majeur Le Jeunehomme (1777): Deel 2 Andantino.
Dirk Haubrich: additional composition
Tomoko Mukaiyama: improvisations

TEXT
Samuel Beckett: What is the word (1989). Licensed by Curtis Brown on behalf of the Samuel Beckett Estate

RECITING VOICE
Jiří Kylián

PIANIST
Tomoko Mukaiyama

LIGHT
Miikki Kunttu (original design), Kees Tjebbes (re-design, Oslo 2011)

DECOR
Jiří Kylián

COSTUMES
Joke Visser

NDT ASSISTANT
Tamako Akiyama

WORLD PREMIERE
March 9, 2006, Lucent Danstheater, The Hague, NDT 1

DURATION
25 minutes

With special thanks to:

“Tar and Feathers” was a horrific punishment! In a typical tar-and-feathers attack, the mob’s victim was stripped to his waist. Hot tar was either poured or painted onto the person while he (or she) was immobilized. Then the victim either had feathers thrown on him or was rolled around in a pile of feathers so they stuck to his body. Often the victim was then paraded around town on a cart. The aim was to inflict enough pain and humiliation on a person to make him either conform his behavior to the mob’s demands or be driven from town.

This is the origin of my “inspiration” – but my work has gone through many metamorphosis since the time I started thinking of the project.

If we look at the two materials used as the attributes used in this “ritual”, we can easily see that “tar” is a black sticky substance bound by gravity  and “feathers” are fragile white objects associated with lightness and elevation….!

My work, is a metaphor of the “Unbearable lightness” and the “Unbearable weight” of our being on our tiny planet….
Our life very often resembles a person with a “Lead weight” chained to his ankle, and yet holding a flying “Balloon” in his hands, soon to be torn apart by the two contrasting forces.

In “Tar and Feathers”, I have been inspired by the last poem Samuel Beckett ever wrote.
It is entitled: “What is the word?”
And this very question: “What is the WORD” is the question of a man who mastered “The Words” in two languages – English and French.
In 1969 he received a “Nobel prize for literature”.
And yet, with his last breath he asks: “….what is the word….?”
None of us will ever know “The Word” – or what this word should represent….?

Our lives are defined by the “laws of gravity” and the “laws of elevation” – physically, philosophically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally….
It is surely not easy to accept and even embrace these light and dark forces in equal measure, but they are inevitable because they need each other and we should try  to understand and accept them as such.
They are the two inseparable twins – they are “Yin and Yang”.

Jiří Kylián –  17th of February 2013

Choreography by Jiří Kylián

STAGED BY
Cora Bos-Kroese & Stefan Zeromski

MUSIC
Lukas Foss: Lento (fifth movement), Andante (third movement) from Salomon Rossi Suite (1975).© Editions Salabert, Parijs / Albersen Verhuur B.V.,‘s- Gravenhage. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (opening), Quando Corpus (ending) from Stabat Mater.
Alessandro Marcello: Adagio from hobo-concerto in D-minor.
Antonio Vivaldi: Andante from: Concert for 2 mandolines and strings.
Giuseppe Torelli: Grave from Concerto grosso, 8 nr. 6 (1698)

LIGHT
Jiří Kylián (original concept), Tom Bevoort (realization)

LIGHT RE-DESIGN
Kees Tjebbes

DECOR
Jiří Kylián

COSTUMES
Joke Visser

NDT ASSISTANT
Francesca Caroti

WORLD PREMIERE
October 12, 1995, AT&T Danstheater The Hague, NDT 1

DURATION
30 minutes

The basic idea, as well as all the building material, with which “BELLA FIGURA” was made, is not very complicated, but, maybe not so simple either, whenever viewed through the perspective of our experience. It is a “Parable” on the relativity of sensuality, beauty and aesthetics in general, and on the question, how we face the phenomenon in our everyday life. It is a journey through time and space, illuminating our dignity, as well as our doubt. Finding beauty in a grimace – in a knot of the mind – or in a physical contortion. It is like trying to perform a balancing act on the string of your umbilical cord.
For the dancers, it is not only a manifestation of their competence, aesthetic qualities or technical accomplishment, but equally, it represents their acceptance of their deficiencies, doubts and vulnerability.

The words “Bella Figura” in Italian don’t only stand for “Beautiful body”, they also represent a philosophical resilience of people facing a difficult situation – consequently it also means “Putting on a brave face”….

With other words: The people in the audience will not know, whether the actor ,who is performing for them tonight, is in a difficult situation or not, they will not know anything about his personal problems, but the actor also knows, that they don’t know! All he knows is, that they bought tickets to see him, and that they want to be “entertained”. So he puts on his “Bella Figura”. He puts on his “Brave face”, no matter what….

For a long time, I have asked myself the questions: “…. What is a performance, and who are actually the performers?”  And…. “ When does the performance actually begin? Does it begin when the curtain raises, or at the moment of our birth – or does it all only start when the choreographer asks the dancers to learn their first steps? Does the performance start when the dancers start putting on their make-up?”   And….” Does the show finish whenever they leave the stage, or does it carry on until the end of our lives?”   Or….” What is the difference between the clothes, we wear in the street, and the stage costume? Where lies the border between art and artificiality, and where should we draw the line between fantasy and reality?”….And finally: “….Where is the border between the truth and a lie….”

This “World in between”, this “Twilight zone” in which different feelings and experiences mingle, produces the kind of tension or alchemy, that interests me. It creates a world in which all kinds of realities ( rational or fantastic ) merge in the most unpredictable and surreal way.

Can you imagine, that you stand on the edge of a dream…you are in total darkness, and you stare into a bright sharp light, with your eyes closed, and you doubt every moment of our so called “reality”. And when you open your eyes, you realize that your dream entered you life, and has become a part of your so called “real world”.

In any case – all these things, which I have just tried to describe to you, can be explained in a much easier way: Imagine that you had a dream, in which you fell out of your bed, and as you wake up next morning, you realize, that you have a broken rib.

Jiří Kylián – Den Haag, September 23, 2007

An unfinished work

Choreography by Jiří Kylián

STAGED BY
Urtzi Aranburu

MUSIC
Jiří Kylián: concept, Dirk Haubrich: composition.
Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet Opus 18, Nr.1 in F-major [1799]; Movement II, Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato

LIGHT
Kees Tjebbes

DECOR
Jiří Kylián

COSTUMES
Joke Visser

COMPUTER PROJECTION
Tatsuo Unemi, Daniel Bisig

VIDEO PROJECTION
Dag Johan Haugerud, Cecilie Semec

NDT ASSISTANT
Emily Molnar & Lucas Crandall

WORLD PREMIERE
November 13, 2008, Lucent Danstheater, The Hague, NDT 2

DURATION
24 minutes

On Clothes, Costumes and Bandages –

We are born naked – with no protection to face life – First clothes we experience are diapers (If we are lucky).
Later on, we are dressed in anything, which is given to us, forced upon us, or which we have inherited from older brothers or sisters.
They protect us from sun and cold and they cover our nudity.
Later in life, we try to influence the way our body is covered by begging and screaming, to convince our parents or foster parents, to supply us with clothes, which would help our self esteem, or at least give us a slightly dignified look, providing us with some respect from a highly critical and often merciless circle of children surrounding us.
Later, when we are able to pay for our own clothes, we face more difficulty, as we must start making our own choices, and we begin to understand, that by covering our body in different ways, we can enhance or even change our personality, and by doing that we can also change our standing within the society we live in.
Unfortunately, we are not well enough equipped to face these challenges. It all becomes a very intriguing but often deceitful undertaking.
We are easily seduced by trends and fashion, influenced by friends, lovers and family, or made to abide the rules of religions, beliefs, sexual orientation and other convictions.
Later in our lives, we encounter illness (mental or physical), when we have to dress our wounds of life (mental or physical) when our body (physical or spiritual) cannot support our daily routine, we need clothes which enable us to do this.
The clothes, (all kinds of supports, bandages, old age diapers etc.) which we put on whenever we are ill, injured or disabled , reveal to everybody, that we are vulnerable, so we are actually an easy prey, easy to be taken advantage of, or be targeted and attacked. But this state of vulnerability might also create a more unusual circumstance under which this garment represents a certain kind of “stigma” or some sort of a “symbolic” value, elevating us to higher spiritual grounds (the loin cloth of Jesus, the shroud of Gandhi or the clothes pilgrims would wear on their journey….).

Dancers love to dress in rags. Their daily wear is of great psychological significance and has much to do with their individual superstitions. No matter how casual their outfits look, they are never chosen by chance. They hide or reveal their body as well as their momentary mental, physical or emotional state allows them.
In the community of artists, dancers always appear to be the fittest – physically and mentally – but the contrary is true. They are more prone to injury – mental, physical or emotional – than any of their artistic colleagues, because they are obliged to exhibit their own body as a work of art !
Surely, I don’t reveal any great secrets, when I say, that none of us was born perfect. We inherit physical strength and resilience , but also weaknesses, or our mental capacity with all its loopholes – inevitably our emotional armoury will reveal cracks, but – we all must live with this heritage from the moment we scream for the first time, until silence.
In the course of our life, psychological twists and turns, acquired or inherited and illnesses will become our constant companions.  And then – suddenly – after having breathed so much life, after being inspired by so many adventures, after being intoxicated by so much living – suddenly, we are declared sick, ill, deranged or dysfunctional.
It is this border, between “normality and insanity”, between “health and sickness” and all the norms which determine the one or the other, which fascinates me.
It can be diagnosed at any moment of our life. But where is exactly this moment, which will ultimately push us over the invisible border into the dark world of insanity and illness, and who will be the “Determinator….?”
It is more than clear to me that I am not the first or the last person to ask these questions, and I think that every emerging generation should re-examine and redefine the borders and the twilight zones of insanity and illness.
But regardless of the borders, within which these human conditions will be confined, surely no positive developments can ever be accomplished without the help of a healthy portion of madness.

Jiří Kylián – November 2008

Discover the wondrous world of the costume atelier, where the best tailors transform design sketches into the most gorgeous costumes, all the while ensuring NDT- dancers can move perfectly.