Norwegian National Ballet takes the plunge

OSLO: Alexander Ekman's mind must be a scary place. I can imagine fantastic ideas hurtling around like meteors and colliding at high velocity. However marshalling these ideas must be something in the order of herding cats. And in this performance many cats went their own way. While there are some true delights in his revisioned A Swan Lake, it is in need of serious restructuring to become the ballet it promises to be.

The most keenly anticipated event of the evening, Act 2 performed on water, was magical: lights, music and movement in a mirrored lake conspired to create heart stopping moments. It was a triumph of imagination powered by technology.

It is best to approach the evening with an open mind, unhindered by ideas of classical ballet or tradition. Act 1 is dated 1877, the year of the less than successful premiere of the Tchaikovsky/ Reisinger Swan Lake. It opens with a video of archive material of the ballet but the stage picture is contemporary in its setting.

The set is a corridor of multiple doors and the cast enter and exit with the wit and speed of a French farce. The individual characterisations, Ekman's vignettes of social manners, are peppered with humour and hold the interest especially Claire Constant as the eccentric ornithologist. A larger than life Diva, Elizabeth Teige, a cross between Mae West and Lady Gaga, is unmissable living out her character at full volume.

The action then moves to a scene that could be borrowed from the film The Producers as a young writer tries, without much success, to sell the idea of a musical about a swan. In the course of the act a few swans are shot, we get a brief trio of neoclassical dance and a foppish Siegfried acting out the story amidst a waltzing ensemble. A pleasant diversion but without much focus.

Mikael Karlsson has contributed a magnificent score. In Act 1 he introduces evocative chords and phrases from Tchaikovsky but in so subtle and inspired a fashion that they take on a new 21st century life. His overture to Act 2 opens with dark percussive sounds accompanied by visuals: a close-up projections of water falling and tumbling, before bringing in the richness of the full orchestra.

The 16 x 16 pool of dark water under Tom Visser's imaginative lighting provides the spur to Ekman's fertile creativity. At times it is whipped into a maelstrom of waves and foam by beating hands and writhing arms, or parted by running feet providing visions of otherworldly fantasy.

The scene becomes lighter and brighter with the introduction of beach balls and a boat in the image of a swan that sails two passengers around the lake. The promised pointe work was there although a little tentative: a brief pas de deux and dancers tiptoeing delicately through the water. Also brief was the confrontational scene between the White Swan, Camilla Spidsøe and the Black Swan, Melissa Hough. The imagination that Hendrik Vibskov invested in the costumes didn’t find a counterpart in the choreography. It was frustrating that Ekman didn’t develop this relationship beyond a few bitchy slaps.

This was an evening not to be missed: definitely not a dying swan, nor even a lame duck, but Ekman needs to develop his ideas to really let this ballet fly. Conductor, Per Kristian Skalstad, deserves a special mention. He inspired the orchestra through the evening then endeared himself to the audience by donning galoshes to join the cast in the lake at the curtain calls.

Maggie Foyer
16 May 2014