Phenomenal ballet needs no message for Holland Festival 2019

With all the socially critical, exotic and personal life art at the Holland Festival, Van Manen, Forsythe, Arqués actually a maverick, a statement without a message. Dance has enough on its own, expresses itself full-length. And how.

Work of overwhelming quality. How much better can it get? At most, by giving it a message anyway. There is room there. The rest is completely finished. At ballet academies worldwide, you can master technique to the extreme, top dancers sign on with companies, influences from modern and urban are handled flawlessly. What remains is ballet of the highest standard, with freedom for personal colouring by the dancers themselves.

Is that why Peggy Olislaegers has been appointed at the National Ballet as Associate on Research and Development? The ballet of the future lies, according to her and the recent ballet conference Positioning Ballet, including in diversity (such as 'gay interpretation of the classics') and adjustments in the working environment (#MeToo, co-creation, less hierarchy). Beyond that, it's anyone's guess what ballet will look like in 20 years.

Phenomenal views

During the premiere evening, councillor Marjolein Moorman knighted costume and décor designer Keso Dekker, stating that a choreographer stimulates the mind and a designer stimulates the eyes. They are at Van Manen, Forsythe, Arqués however, it is mainly the eyes and senses that are stimulated. Just like enjoying a phenomenal view somewhere without thinking or talking too much.

Pass/Parts 2018

That immediately hits home with the stage image of Pass/Parts 2018. Three grey surfaces. So designed, including lighting by William Forsythe himself, that as soon as the curtain opens you are momentarily breathless. The choreographer tries to hold on to that experience with non-stop movements, as if he has a lot of steps saved up. The dancers work through machine-like silence, even in the quieter parts of Thom Willems' captivating, menacing composition. Only once is there a chop, a flexed foot, to be seen stopping all stylised movements for a moment.

It's a good thing Forsythe's ballets were not on the programme when I danced there. I would have found it a tragedy if I had not participated in it. Every dancer wants to be in this. However, you have to be technically proficient, have a strong physical memory, be able to dance jazzy, a little crazy and with whimsical ferocity gracefully. The stars of the Dutch National Ballet do that just fine. From killer ballerina (assoluta) Anna Tsygankova, Maia Makhateli and Aya Okumura to Constantine Allen and Edo Wijnen.

Big impact in Kleines Requiem

'It's mainly about dancers dancing,' argues William Forsythe. A statement that choreographer Hans van Manen, whose Kleines Requiem danced, can enthusiastically agree. Many choreographers would create a melodramatic ballet to Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki's compelling music where the bell of a bell rings commemoratively each time. That is not for the Dutch master. Ratio counts. It is not until the male danced male duet that mystery comes around the corner. You can't explain what you see, but it makes a big impression.

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons

Whether taking a painting as the starting point for a ballet succeeds, we will find out in the retro-classical Ignite by Juanjo Arqués is not behind. Besides, as soon as you see a set with large attachments (often a limitation in choreographic possibilities, or a concealment of artistic capabilities), you should soon give a dance maker the benefit of the doubt. Under smoke and mirrors, however, Arqués makes dancers move beautifully to bombastic music by Kate Whitley: from high jumps directly to rolling low on the ground; lets colourful costumes swirl wonderfully on his mixing palette; lets dancers burst forward like paint from a tube, but that's it.

Ignite is an experience in itself, and I am curious to see how it fits into the above-mentioned vision of the future for ballet. Rather, that seems to lie here on another platform, such as video (see the trailer by co-producer Birmingham Royal Ballet), where the dance emerges more personal and catchy.