I first met Krzysztof Pastor, director of the Polish National Ballet, when we were panellists at a seminar in St Petersburg about the future of choreography. Unsurprisingly, a principal issue to arise was the lack of opportunity for female choreographers. So, hats off to Pastor for programming this double bill of substantial work by two women, utilising the music of Wojciech Kilar and Karol Szymanowski, which for full measure was also conducted by a woman.
Anna Hop’s Exodus and Bieguni-Harnasie by Izadora Weiss are contrasting works that enjoy certain similarities. Both choreographers utilise a massive cast of 120, including a sixty-strong opera chorus: Hop framed her dancers with them, fanning the chorus out onto the farthest fringes of this massive stage, while Weiss choreographed their movement, integrating the chorus amongst the dancers to great effect. Both choreographers also designed the costumes and made a very good job of it: I particularly liked Weiss’ motif of long kilts for the highlander bandits (the harnasie) making them appear like Rob Roy’s army.
Hop is a revelation. There are, of course, many corps de ballet dancers (as she is, at Polish National Ballet) who are emerging choreographers but I can’t think of any entrusted with a big-budget, large-scale production while still dancing. Exodus begins impressively with the curtains opening on a backdrop impressionist painting depicting a rural scene with a large group of shadowy figures huddled in the foreground.
As the slow opening to Kilar’s Exodus builds gradually in intensity, the figures begin to tremble, their movement expanding with the music. One realises that this is a painting being brought to life by the dancers embedded within it: clever lighting design masks the fact that they are suspended high above the stage by means of small spikes, like mountaineering pitons. It is a remarkable coup de theatre, which is followed later in the work by a striking mobile structure housing 32 compartments linked by staircases and walkways, adding an extra vertical dimension to the performance as 40 dancers occupied this human insectarium. Małgorzata Szabłowska’s integrated set and lighting designs gave an impressive visual scale to the work but there were also aspects that could have been reigned in: a large mobile lightbox seemed superfluous and my pet hate of being blinded by strong light shone into the audience was sadly prevalent.
Hop’s fluid choreography was well dispersed with sections of uniform ensemble work expertly punctuated by solos and duets and a strong mid-section trio. I don’t yet know enough of her work to discern a particular style but she has an excellent eye for structure and pace and provides an eclectic mix of classical and contemporary movement. Exodus demonstrates her strong, lyrical musicality and an undoubted capability to move bodies pleasingly on a large scale.
By contrast, I am very familiar with the repertoire of Izadora Weiss and she has a unique style that is amply demonstrated in a palette of movement motifs that are distinctly hers (eg multiple jetés en tournant with legs and arms bent to her trademark angle). Although Weiss is greatly experienced at main stage work, having directed the Baltic Dance Theatre in Gdańsk for many years, she had also not made a work of this scale. The hybrid title represents a fusion of two inspirations: Szymanowski’s Harnasie written for ballet in the 1920s about the abduction of a bride by the bandit, Harnaś; and the novel, Bieguni (Flights) by Olga Tokarczuk, concerning a mother’s escape from the overbearing tensions of family life (superbly represented in a prologue by monolithic soviet-style blocks looming over an over-crowded apartment). Weiss routinely uses psychological and social concerns to fuel her work and this is no different, using choreography to express a quest for personal freedom against external repression. The emblem of a rainbow in the concluding moments spoke volumes for that intent.
Individualism also looms large in her choreography with as many as 40 solos happening simultaneously amongst the ensemble, all in some way interlinked through repetition or canon. It is incredibly complex creativity made all the more difficult through the multiple relevancies to Szymanowski’s music (Weiss uses his fourth symphony as well as Harnasie). The orchestra performed superbly, in both works, under the ebullient direction of Marta Kluczyńska who appeared to handle the particular challenges of Szymanowski’s music very well.
The final duet is a unique combination of dancer (Natalia Pasiut as the heroine, Annuszka) and tenor (Zbigniew Malak, as her husband). Weiss altered the musical structure to meet her intention of giving freedom to the husband’s voice in this splendidly counter-intuitive finale that contrasted with the magnificent epic scale that had gone before.
For many years, Weiss has remained Poland’s best-kept dance secret. Mentored by none other than Jiří Kylían, her work (and now that of Hop) deserves international acclaim. If the world is short on female choreographers then there are two in Poland just waiting to be discovered!
