Silent Screen

Not intentionally trying to turn this blog into a dance review place buuut I gotta tell you guys about the pieces I see!
Especially when it's by my favorite company in the world annd it was the first time I've seen them live because the company hasn't toured to the US in over 10yrs.
Who am I talking about? Nederlands Dans Theater.
Uh nederlands? Ok ok also known as Netherlands dance Theater. better now? Ok
They came to Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley which honestly I was a bit surprised. Having never seen a show at zellerbach I was skeptical, after all, it's in berkeley, not exactly a mainstream art place, and it's on a campus! But much to my surprise the theater is huge, the seating is ample and comfy (with leg room! sheesh theaters, no wonder people don't wanna go to shows, they barely have comfy leg room for people!)
While the lobby had much to be desired with being flat and sparse, it was made up for by a beautiful auditorium. I think it's a better space in the warm weather for there's more than enough room to mingle outside. Bathrooms are perfectly sized and clean and well stocked. (I have a thing about bathrooms ok? They add or subtract points to a place for me personally)
My ticket was for row ee and I only saw a row e, so I sat there, however during intermission I wandered further up and saw after row a there was a row ee. and guess what? It was a front row seat!
Now I realize I sound a biit dumb (I am blonde...) because I did click on a seat to buy it online so you'd think I would already know I had a front row seat. I didn't, ok? But after moving up to my rightful seat I sat by a delightfully sweet couple who were former dancers. She was perfectly at home in the theatre and I loved it. she was chatty without chatting my ears off, that's always nice. Meeting with new people who are kind and genuine even if it was just during intermission. They honestly made the viewing that much more pleasurable. I hate the awkward glances at the people next to you or in the row.
Anywho dancing, right?
NDT presented Whereabouts Unknown and Silent Screen.
Whereabouts Unknown is by NDT's main choreographer (til now) and former director Jiri Kylian.
Kylian is my absolute favorite choreographer ever. His clever yet almost obscenely simple use of movements can only be described as genius. Whereabouts is a piece that is influenced by our ancestors, (natives, aborigines, etc)
I'm gonna be honest here, as thrilled as I was to see the piece (especially since I had the chance to dance a piece of it many years ago through SF conservatory of dance)  I didn't "get" it.
You know what I mean? You know how you see some works of art, dance, music, photography, etc and you appreciate it's beauty but you just don't get it? It makes no connection? That's how I felt about Whereabouts. However one of my old teachers said, sometimes you don't have to get it. You can just appreciate it for the beauty that it is, like watching a sunset.
But there were some definite jaw-dropping dance sequences and I basically had a dance orgasm because the dancing was so raw and fierce and just animalistic. I just struggled because the influence (the "story) and the dance just didn't flow seamlessly. It just seemed to be a beautiful dance piece with a bit of a "native" influence to it
Silent Screen is choreographed by Paul Lightfoot and Sol León who are NDT's resident choreographers.
All I can say about this piece is HOLY CRAP!
It starts off witha couple facing a huge panoramic screen shot of the beach. You hear the waves crashing and everything. It feels like you're actually looking at people from behind at the beach.
The start dancing and it's sweet, very beach feeling dance. Then the screen transitions and so does the dance style. Everything keeps transitioning until you're in the middle of this very absurd and theatrical scence which feels a bit like insanity. Lightfoot/Leon's choreography boggles the eyes and mind for the dancers seem to do humanly impossible movements and yet here they are doing it! The words Alice in Wonderland came to mind for it's a bit like that; you're taken on a journey, you don't know why these absurd things are happening, or why more dancers came out but you know you feel alive and are experiencing every little thing. There's one pause where it was very serene, I thought if this is the end, it would be almost treason to stand up and clap for the moment called for absolute stillness and almost holiness. It went on however after than and then it almost retrcaed it's steps back and ended up back at the beach. A metaphor of a life perhaps? Only a theatrical version?
We all stood up with thundering cheers and applauses, naturally they deserved a standing ovation. It was the first show actually that I felt compelled to stand right up and clap and cheer wildly.
It was wonderful. Refreshing. Obscene, Absurd. Amazing