Like the dolphins, Like dolphins can swim...
You may have been following the progress of Michael Clark's latest work on these pages: 03.10.2009 NEWS: NEW MICHAEL CLARK WORK CELEBRATES, BOWIE, IGGY & LOU & 04.23.2009 NEWS: SCHEDULE FOR MICHAEL CLARK'S NEW WORK ANNOUNCED & 07.09.2009 NEWS: MICHAEL CLARK'S NEW WORK DETAILS
Some details have begun to emerge via interviews and reviews a few of which I've pasted below. Fist up is an excerpt from a recent interview by Susan Mansfield in The Scotsman...
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Clark's work pits the precision and rigour of classical dance against the anarchic energy of rock, in this case in creating a tribute to the triumvirate of the 1970s: David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. He was a student at the Royal Ballet School at the time, playing truant to see punk bands in London. Somehow, in the clash of these opposing forces, he found his own alchemical creativity.
To understand the importance of both, you have to put yourself in the dancing shoes of Clark aged 11, growing up on a farm in rural Aberdeenshire a long time before anyone thought of Billy Elliot, watching Bowie on Top of the Pops. "It was like 'Oh my god, maybe other people are a little bit like I feel, inside'. When he put his arm round Mick Ronson on Top of the Pops, it was like a moment of epiphany, it was something I didn't see men do where I came from. It wasn't even a homosexual thing, it was realising there were kindred spirits out there, I just had to find them."
He found them through dance, and, for all his rebellion, eagerly embraced his classical training. One teacher at the Royal Ballet School said he was the best student they'd ever taught. "I'm a funny mixture. I'm incredibly traditional, there are things I was taught which I know inside out physically, and love. So if I choose to break a rule, it's a choice, but it's never done in a way that I know better, because I was very well trained. I embrace a lot of tradition, but I also love the opposite, like Stravinsky, Nijinsky, everything inverted."
He has just spent three years choreographing Stravinsky in a residency at Barbican. In taking on Stravinsky, he knew he couldn't avoid pitting himself against the ballet greats with whom he is associated: Balanchine, Nijinsky, the ballerina Bronislava Nijinska. In fact, that's part of why he did it. "I knew everyone was going to compare mine, probably unfavourably, to the classic versions, but you have to keep challenging yourself. This is a similar trilogy for me, Lou Reed, Bowie and Iggy Pop. I guess Iggy Pop would be Nijinsky, Lou Reed might be Nijinska. Would Bowie be Balanchine? No, I think not. Anyway. It was, you know, that idea. I'm actually wholeheartedly enjoying working with this music, I'm thrilled that I've been given permission to." He adds that he hopes Bowie will see the show. "It's a dialogue with the music, it always is. Sometimes you fight things, sometimes you go with it."
Clark makes a brief appearance on stage in Thank U Ma'am. The moment worked well in rehearsals and covers a tricky costume change, he says, as if he needs to make excuses. He dances largely with his back to us, as if deliberately avoiding our gaze, daring us not to pay attention. But he's still riveting, fluid, dancing mercury.
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You can read the full interview here.
Other details from the show have been described in the following excerpts, the highlights seeming to be during "Heroes" and The Jean Genie, both represented pictorially on this page.
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IrishTimes.com
In the second and more successful work, Thank U Ma?am, the music is again at the centre of Clark?s creation. This time, however, it is Iggy Pop and David Bowie who receive the homage.
To this soundtrack of 1970s rock excess, the dancers (including Clark himself) create a futuristic world of emotionless clones. Stiff-limbed mannequins are reminiscent of something from movies like Blade Runner or Metropolis. These androgynous aliens are overwhelmed by the power of Bowie?s original performance, however. Particularly when he is projected performing Heroes on the backdrop ? the dancers are almost incidental in the face of the great rock icon?s looming, on-screen presence.
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From the Independent.ie by Judy Murphy
The second half [Thank U Ma?am] is far better, and that's related to the quality of the music from Bowie and his collaborators, Iggy Pop and Brian Eno. Michael Clark, who choreographs more than dances these days, later appears, attired in a bizarre soccer outfit.
The costumes and lighting in this part are far more vibrant, and the red Jean Genie leotards and jackets especially lend a great sense of fun and style. However, the decision to flash film images of Bowie onto a background screen is a double-edged sword...it's difficult to concentrate on the dancers while he's 'onstage'.
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IrishTimes.com (Again, but from a different review to the snippet above)
The second dance, Thank U Ma?am , was a different story. What that story might have been, I am clueless of, but it was good, old fun. When the first, thrilling bars of David Bowie?s Heroes filled the room, for a few seconds everyone was 17 again. The Thin White Duke appeared in cinematic black and white, wearing his leathers and looking unreasonably glam, while on stage, the dancers went through a dreamy routine in time with the pop classic.
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For the record, at the moment Thank U Ma?am includes: Mass Production from The Idiot, ?Heroes", The Jean Genie and both Future Legend and Chant Of The Ever-Circling Skeletal Family from Diamond Dogs. These were the only songs mentioned in reviews.
However, I imagine the rest of the songs we mentioned last month, Sense of Doubt, After All and Aladdin Sane, are also utilised somehow. (07.09.2009 NEWS: MICHAEL CLARK'S NEW WORK DETAILS)
