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Carmen & Paquita
9 and 10 January 2010 Istana Budaya, Kuala Lumpur A Treat for Ballet Fans
Review by Joseph Gonzales On the 9th and 10th January 2010, Istana Budaya was the hub of ballet in Malaysia. In a program organized by Danceworks Production, Ena Ballet Studio and presented by KNM Group Bhd with Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd as the main sponsor, it provided a glorious evening of ballet that will remain with fans for a very long time.
The evening was in fact a double bill beginning with Paquita. This classical repertoire was first choreographed by 19th century maestro Marius Petipa and has enjoyed rejuvenation through the new choreography by Natalia Makarova, another legend of ballet.
This production featured choreography by Jie Choong Wan-Chin, a Malaysian dancer, teacher and choreographer working since 2001 at the Ena Ballet Studio in Nara City in Japan. Wan-Chin’s choreography was based on the original work but included variations from it. This dance is primarily an ode to pure classicism and ballet technique and does not have any libretto. It simply shows off technique displayed through a series of solos, duets and corps de ballet repertoire that is standard fare of ballet choreography of that era – the male dancer performing jumps and turns and being the perfect foil to his female partner who displays ethereal beauty, controlled extensions and lightness usually with a sequence of turns.
This dance encapsulates the desire and the pursuit of every dancer who trains in ballet. The male soloist for Paquita was Connor Walsh, a principal from the Houston Ballet at the tender age of 23. Connor exploded onto stage with immaculate technique that is rarely seen in Malaysia. His elevation was phenomenal and this was demonstrated particularly in his en ménage sequences that took him around the circumference of the stage. His favoured side of pirouettes to the left produced four to seven pirouettes and his double tours en lairs were effortless, consistently throughout the evening. Connor danced with impeccable musicality and princely carriage with his long limbs that easily filled the huge stage of Istana Budaya.
Meanwhile Lei Zhao who danced the female lead in Paquita is a first soloist in the Birmingham Royal Ballet, which is an achievement in the dance world. Unfortunately, the dancing of female dancers or ballerinas has in some way been ruined with arrival in the late 1980s of Sylvie Guillem and Darcey Bussell. Both these dancers changed the world of ballet forever when their superbly trained bodies provided them the facility to extend the leg sideways till it practically touched their ears! They turned and jumped with stunning acrobatic ability and were both extremely beautiful. Therefore they not only burned the dance floors but graced fashion magazines and were compared to Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. They raised the bar and while Lei was not in this league, she was controlled and exuded an air of grace and experience.
Other soloists Rino Fujihashi, Yuki Yashima, Satoko Konishi and Madoka Toguchi were exceptional in their individual solos that showcased various attributes of good dancing such as extensions, pirouettes and leaps. Special mention must be made of Yuki Yashima who recently won the 1st Prize at the International Competition in Perth, Australia who is just 17 years old and will be auditioning for Houston Ballet in 2010. This young lady has exquisite control of her technique and exudes a quiet confidence onstage that belies her tender age. She has beautifully stretched legs and arched feet with a good ability to turn and jump as well. Barring any disaster, she has great potential to go very far as a dancer. Malaysian dancers Chang Huey Sze, Lee Pei Nee, Ellyn Chew and Lee Jia Xi were the Malaysian dancers who auditioned successfully to be a part of Paquita and were a delight to watch as they matched their Japanese counterparts albeit in the smaller sections of the dance.
The second performance was Carmen, set to the gorgeous music of Georges Bizet and Rodion Shchedrin and choreographed by Jie Choong Wan-Chin. This was a contemporary interpretation and can be classified as a neo-classical or modern ballet. Without major changes to the original libretto, the title character Carmen is a woman who is used to getting her way using any means possible. She is a free spirit and has little care for consequences of her actions. Played by the principle of Ena Ballet Studio, Ena Hirose, this Carmen was flirtatious, ambitions, callous, lovable, loving and at times contemptuous. Although Ena Hirose does not have the beautifully arched feet of ballet dancers, which is a disadvantage for any ballet dancer, but because she embodied the character with such passion that was evident from the start to her tragic end, it was immaterial. Ena danced it to the fullest just as Carmen had lived her life to the fullest. Again, Connor Walsh danced the principle male role of Jose, the love struck soldier unable to impose his will on this spitfire woman. In Carmen, Connor displayed another facet to his abilities, bringing passion and tenderness to his role as he marched furiously towards his own cruel finale, unable to attain his true love and consumed by jealously and descending into madness. His technique already in evidence for all to see in Paquita was used in more contemporary dance vocabulary and he attacked this with ease.
In both Paquita and Carmen, Connor Walsh showed himself to be the perfect partner – always considerate to his female dancers taking care that they were always in the right place with their weight squarely on pointe shoes. This is infinitely more difficult than it appears. His love duet with Carmen was exquisite with unexpected partnering or pas de duex work, that was pushed to just the right level without relying on unnecessary dramatic gestures. Connor has a generosity of spirit that was evident right up to the curtain call, when he graciously showed off his leading lady than himself. It did not go unnoticed.
Wan-Chin’s sometimes quirky interpretations also worked extremely well, particularly in the ‘jail solo’ of Connor – beautiful in its simplicity and clear in its futility of an unattainable love with the expanse of the stage left to the soloist and a bright red flower and in another clever scene was when Carmen goes for a swim. She performs a lovely dance that captures the imagination of the audience, performed very competently by the ‘rich men at the pool’ - Fairul Zahid from Malaysia, Pallop Namsom and Chitpon Pleansiri from Bangkok City Ballet. The other featured Malaysian dancers in Carmen - Mohd Naim Shahrazad, Lee Pei Nee, Ellyn Chew, Chang Huey Sze and Suhaili Michelline Ahmad Kamil were absolutely wonderful to watch. In her character as a factory girl, Suhaili especially was able to bring a fabulous energy and style that is uncommon with people trained primarily in ballet. This young lady who won the Boh Cameronian Award 2009, for Best Featured Performer has phenomenal stage presence and versatility in her ability to use her body that is unique. She is a rare performer who transcends genres with ease and confidence. Meanwhile, the entire performance was enhanced with the lighting design by Malaysian Tan Eng Heng who with an extremely limited preparation time, managed to effectively create a evening without glitches and create in use of colours, tones and shadows to transport the audience to new spaces and times.
Danceworks Production’s Carmen was a treat for all dance fans particularly balletomanes who are starved of performances of this calibre in Malaysia. It could not have been easy to bring artists from USA, England, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia together in one performance and it deserves a huge curtain call. What was more important about this production was that it gave local dancers an opportunity not simply to be members of the audience but a great chance to work together with foreign artists in close proximity. This is invaluable as dancers get fired up watching their counterparts or seniors train – from their preparation for class, warm-ups and the manner of rehearsals or discipline to the way they watch their diet! Even young children who had only a little stage time in this production were able to absorb this experience and watch in awe these seemingly impossible feats performed in ballet before their very eyes.
Inspiration is the key to raising standards in any field and that is why the effort of organizations such as Danceworks Productions and The Dance Society of Malaysia is vital to development of ballet in this country. These efforts should be continuous until eventually Malaysia can also boast a professional ballet company aside from purely state-funded traditional dance companies. Although we are a long way away, kudos to the organizers and the sponsors, KNM Group Bhd and Edaran Tan Chong Motors for supporting the efforts to provide Malaysian dancers who are training in ballet a true treat that will be remembered for a lifetime.
Editor’s note: Joseph Gonzales played the General in Carmen.
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Copyright 2010 Asia Dance Channel