Baryshnikov!
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CATHY GODEGHESI |
I had never imagined that someday I would see Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing. Actually, I had no idea he still danced.
And to my surprise, he came to Brazil with his new company, Hell’s Kitchen Dance to tour. They opened the Festival de Dança de Joinville - a dance event/competition here that is HUGE, in the south of the country that started last week. I still haven’t had the opportunity to attend it, though.
Yesterday and on the 24th he was here in São Paulo. I had gotten my tickets weeks ago. They were sold out in two days! Something that I didn’t expect because, afterall, ballet is not something very popular around here.
I was pretty anxious and excited during these weeks.
Parts of the Teatro Municipal stage and lights.
So yesterday I headed to the Teatro Municipal (there’s a picture of the building in one of my old posts) - it’s always a delight to go there - in order to see the performance.
The stairs that take you to your seats in the theater
The piece started with Baryshinkov in a solo - “Years Later”, by Benjamin Millepied. I absolutely loved the idea: there was a screen showing a movie of himself when he was very young. He’d do multiple pirouettes, amazing and high cabrioles, entrechats and so on. The older Baryshnikov would stare at it and try to do what was being shown on the screen, with no success. But he managed to dance in a beautiful and captivating way with the music by Philip Glass. His presence is something amazing. It was quite a touching piece.
Then there were two solos - which I don’t have information about as there was a change in the program.
The first was a woman in some sort of 50’s outfit, she started singing (or lip syncing, I don’t really know) and then did her short solo. I honestly didn’t like it very much, first because I couldn’t understand the point of the choreography, it was a huge question mark for me, and second because the choreography itself was somehow poor.
After her, a man did another short solo, however this one was pretty good. He was a great dancer, very musical and he surprised the audience.
The evening ended with a piece by Aszure Barton called “Come in”.
The whole company danced this piece - and so did Misha.
It was a much longer piece and the choreography was excellent. The male dancers showed themselves much more mature and prepared than the girls, their technique was better as was their presence on the stage. The girls lacked many things; I guess because the company is still new and such. So there’s some work to be done yet, I guess.
Although in general the performance was short, it was worth it. It was a unique opportunity to see Misha dancing and it’s something I’m sure I’ll never forget.
The company has potential and I hope they come back here!
My vacations are almost at an end - next week classes are back (ballet and last months ever of school!) and there’s a lot of work to be done: RAD exam coming up and also exam to enter University.
I’ll keep you guys updated! See you!
Cathy
