by Susan Kepecs
One hundred years ago avant-garde art broke
the back of bourgeoisie innocence. In
New York, the Armory Show introduced European Cubist painters – notably
Picasso, and Marcel Duchamp – to Americans just beginning to embrace the modest,
democratic, industrial age realism of the “Ashcan” school most famously
represented by Edward Hopper. Duchamp’s
Cubist / Futurist rendering of the female form in motion – “Nude Descending a Staircase”
– utterly scandalized viewers accustomed to naked ladies depicted strictly in
classical repose. By 1913 you’d think the
Europeans would’ve been more blasé about the new century’s creative
innovations. But as testimony to the
power of live performance, Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes – Russians
recently transported to Paris – shattered the sweet dreams of the Belle Epoch,
causing the upper crust to lose its cool in the brand-new Theatre des
Champs-Elysées. The ballet that pulled
this trigger was decidedly un-balletic – Rite
of Spring, an imagined pagan ritual to propitiate the Slavic gods in which a virgin is chosen to dance herself to death, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky
to Igor Stravinsky’s unprecedented, explosive score.
Lacking modern recording
tools Nijinsky's choreography
was lost, though the score was used by dozens of twentieth-century
choreographers, including Martha Graham and Pina Bausch. And in 1987, in Los Angeles, the Joffrey
Ballet staged the full ballet, painstakingly reconstructed from dispersed scraps
of information. Now, in its centennial year, homages to Rite of Spring are popping up like daffodils. One blooms in Madison next weekend (May 3-5),
when Li Chiao-Ping Dance premieres “Riot of Spring” in Overture’s Promenade
Hall. The similarities to Nijinsky’s
ballet will be slim, but Li, a wizard of intellectual wit, says “Riot” is
inspired by the “étonné moi!” spirit of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes.
In an interview with
CulturalOyster Li spilled a few beans – just enough to whet the appetite –
about her upcoming program:
CulturalOyster:
Partly because nothing shocks us any more, and partly because of today’s
insidious social conformity, which I blame on Ronald Reagan, there’s not much
experimentation in art any more. Is that
part of what inspired you to do your own Rite
of Spring?
Li: The
power of the music itself is the main reason – it just coincided with the
centennial. A few years ago I began
listening to the music intently, and it just drew me in. The other thing is I started teaching an art
historical class on classical and modern dance forms that brought my attention
to the question of what’s radical, and how hard it would be to be shocking any
more. I talk about Diaghilev’s spirit, I
ask my students to put themselves out, to do something new and astonishing. So it isn’t surprising that I’d come around to
the idea of doing a piece related to Rite
of Spring myself.
CulturalOyster:
There are so many attempts to honor Rite
of Spring on its 100th anniversary – did you anticipate that
when you set out last year to do this piece?
Li: I
can’t help but be affected by the other works – it would be irresponsible not
to be aware of them – but I try not to let them influence me. I brought Molissa Fenley in [to the UW Dance
Department, of which Li is the current chair] for a panel discussion. She had done a solo to Stravinsky’s entire
score – what an incredible feat, to sustain that by yourself – and that brought
up a question for me, a chichen-and-egg thing – how much of what I’m doing with
this piece is embedded in the music, and how much is memory? The story is universal, and I saw the
Joffrey’s reconstruction when I was a grad student at UCLA, so the evolution of
my piece began way back then.
CulturalOyster:
Does your “Riot” just imply Rite of
Spring, or does it bear some real resemblance to the original ballet?
Li: I
could just say wait and see – but there’s some resemblance in the music. The
score is still there – the skeleton of it – but it’s performed, live, by just three
musicians. Carol Carlson [violinist] and
cellist Maxfield Wollan-Fisher put a couple hundred hours into rearranging the
music; the third musician is percussionist Sean Kleve.
For the choreography, what I did was deconstruct the idea of the “chosen one,” and then I considered selection – how people are included or excluded or part of a group or not, “the one” or not “the one.” Those elements of the original ring loudest in my piece. I appreciate diversity, I embrace it, but I know that difference is the very thing that keeps people separated. The idea of “the other” threads through the piece, and lots of people are chosen.
CulturalOyster:
Is there anything shocking about “Riot”? Are you anticipating riots in the
theater?
Li:
Wouldn’t that be fun? I really did think
about it, and I asked myself – do I want to do something shocking, just to be
shocking? I went through reams of paper
thinking about how to do something to get the audience to throw tomatoes at the
dancers, or if we should throw tomatoes at them instead, but I moved away from
that. I decided to do a more
straightforward, more elegant, simpler piece.
I moved away from the burden of trying to shock and just made my own
rendition – my treatment of the music and how I feel it and want to move to
it.
CulturalOyster:
Who’s in this performance?
Li: I
have some new dancers in the company, and I’m bringing in a guest, Christina
Briggs Winslow – she and I danced together in a Heidi Latsky piece. Christina’s been based in New York for the
last 10 or 15 years and she happens to be a visiting artist in Milwaukee right
now so it’s not so far to bring her in – I’m very excited to have her in this
piece. She’s a beautiful dancer, she was
with Richmond Ballet and then became a modern dancer – she’s powerful, and
she’s able to give me the clarity of line and athleticism and full-body
movement I love.
My community group is in the piece too, you’ll see
them mostly in the beginning, And I
needed a lot of dancers, I wanted the impact of a large group, so “Riot”
includes some of my students.
CulturalOyster:
Is “Riot” a full-length work, or are there other dances on the program?
Li: “Riot”
is about 40 minutes long – the length of the music, with an interlude and a
prelude. There are three other pieces on
the program. I’m performing a solo set
on me by [experimental New York choreographer] Sally Silvers, “L’Altra Notte,”
which I premiered fifteen years ago and that was it. I’ve always loved that piece, so I’m bringing
it back. It fits into the overall feel
of “Riot.” There’s a solo of mine, “Fin
de Siècle,” that [Li Chiao Ping Dance soloist] Liz Sexe is performing. And I’m screening a piece I made for my
mother called “Daughter” – you’ve seen the live work, but I made a for-camera
version that recently premiered at the Oklahoma Dance Film Festival and was
chosen among the “best of the fest.” I’m happy to be able to share that here.
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