Dance Review

Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet Choreographic Effect 2 - Suzanne Dellal Center - July 30

By ORA BRAFMAN
Hot Dance aficionados were invited for an evening of six pieces, performed and choreographed by a group of dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet at the Suzanne Dellal Center. First timers’ hopes must have soared, particularly since this is such a rare opportunity and since the company, considered by many to be the top ballet company in the world, never toured Israel.
Suzanne Dellal had hosted the project for the first time last year and invited the group, directed by Bruno Bouche, for a second visit.
The seven male dancers and a single female danced really well – at least most of them. But for the most part, the choreographic pieces had less than exceptional or significant value. Two works by Nicolas Paul were by far the best of the lot that evening. In Gesualdo, he tried to decipher the complex personality of 16th-century Italian nobleman and composer Carlo Gesualdo, who wrote divine music yet brutally killed his wife and her lover and later his child and possibly his father-in-law.
Paul made use of Christian symbolism as subtext and managed to rely on movement, for the most part, to carry out his impressions rather than adhering to the verbal narrative. His high level of esthetic visuals in set, lighting and composition was delightful. The tasteful phrasing and individualistic wide range of the movement’s lexicon produced a most satisfying kinesthetic experience.
The trio sections and elaborate falls were the highlight of the evening, as was his second short work – Akathisie– which was concise, concentrated and accentuated his singular approach.
The evening closed with Aunis, a cheerful dance of folkloric nature set to music from Brittany, France. In its better sections, it brought to mind the young Mats Ek. Otherwise, it was a lightweight, unpretentious Yonatan Carmon style of faux folk dance that had charmed us for years in the past.