Culture spring is warming up even though the weather is not. In this week's programme: ballet. I'm not a huge fan of traditional ballet with colourful costumes and too much happening on the stage. This time, the National Ballet of Finland was offering something very different and exactly for my taste.
The evening was composed of three diverse pieces. First, George Balanchine's "Four Temperaments" was a dream-like beautiful ballet that was considered ahead of its time when it was made in the 1940s and it still seemed modern.
The second piece was William Forsythe's ballet "In the middle, somewhat elevated" that he made in the end of 1980s. At this point, Balanchine seemed already a bit traditional, but I wasn't greatly moved by this fast-moving and almost rough dance.
The last piece was extraordinary. It was Jirí Kilián's "Bella Figura" (watch the whole thing below) and I loved it, completely loved it. Beautiful baroque music (a new discovery was Pergolesi's wonderful "Stabat Mater Dolorosa") combined with amazing choreography. Even though I'm normally more amazed by humans' capacity to destroy our planet and act like idiots, watching the ballet dancers on stage, I felt that the human potential for creating something beautiful is truly unlimited.
Not only the choreography was fantastic, but also the fact that the human body can move in such amazing ways and, at the same time, translate to the audience in body movements some very human feelings and our insecurity and vulnerability. The dancers were like broken dolls on stage helping one another to feel better or survive. Maybe the message was that we are dependent on others and that we should care more about them. At one point it is me who needs help and, at the next one, it is the other. I felt that there was a beautiful connection and solidarity between the dancers on stage or the roles they were playing.
I had tears in my eyes at the end and I wished that the dance would have continued and continued. My friends agreed!
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