Subject
"Sting" & Vladimir Nabokov
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Subject: the only pop artist to use Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov in
one of his lyrics
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2002 11:46:42 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
To: chtodel@gte.net
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[A & E]
http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/20020505pbt0505fnp2.asp [A & E]
Brand new ballets
With Sting's music and sensibilities as their guide, three
choreographers create works for PBT
Sunday, May 05, 2002
By Jane Vranish
Anywhere else you could imagine being impassive, even momentarily
immobile -- lazily listening to a classic rock song by Sting and his
Police pals. Soon, though, you'd be moving to the music, at first easy
and smooth, then pumped up to accommodate that oh-so-sweet bass line
..."Every breath you take,
"Every move you make,
"Every bond you break, every step you take
"I'll be watching you ..."
But in a dance studio? Impassive? Immobile?
Impossible.
Yet here we are in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre studios, where a group
of dancers are, indeed, standing around, waiting for some inspiration,
watching ...
Watching the choreographers, actually, each of whom begins his
rehearsals with unusual deliberation. At stake is PBT's ambitious season
finale, "Brand New Day," a tribute to Sting's music and the title of his
most recent album. Performances begin Thursday.
Rehearsals are often tense, and the nervousness here is manifested in
the rare passivity that accompanies new work. "Brand New Day" comprises
three world premieres. There is much to learn, and at least at the
outset, listening trumps movement.
But these choreographers are adept at relieving the pressure. Kevin
O'Day has the broad shoulders and extensive experience -- Paris Opera
Ballet, New York City Ballet -- to handle it. And, oh yes, he was a
member of that terrific trio (with Lynne Taylor-Corbett and Dwight
Rhodes) who contributed to PBT's jazz ballet success, "Indigo in
Motion," a couple of seasons ago.
Still, O'Day says he's just trying to "stay out of the way of the
success of the music" and those familiar lyrics in "Every Breath You
Take," so eminently singable, so personally intrusive for anyone
familiar with obsessive love.Then there's Matjash Mrozewski
(Mur-tchef-ski), who apart from dealing with the multitudes who cannot
pronounce his name -- "Just Mat," he says -- is wrestling with how best
to project the popularity and larger-than-life image of Sting. His task
is to connect with artistic director Terrence Orr and his PBT dancers.
Obviously, he has impressed the powers that be on his home turf, the
National Ballet of Canada.
Robert Hill seems the odd man out. Still a principal dancer with the
prestigious American Ballet Theatre, where he has authored several
ballets, Hill, too, is creating a new work. His ballet, however, is more
in PBT's "traditional" mold -- less a Sting thing than a jazz encore.
With the help of Marty Ashby and the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild,
Hill's piece, while not necessarily following in the footsteps of PBT's
"Indigo in Motion," does celebrate jazz. Its tenuous connection to Sting
is through style rather than the pop star's music.
Sting, you see, once played in big bands. He also plays Miles Davis
recordings once a week ("because I find it intellectually stimulating")
and confesses to reading Pittsburgh jazz musician (and "Indigo"
participant) Ray Brown's book about the bass four times.
All in all, Sting may prove one of the best pop artists to use as a
subject for the normally confining realm of classical ballet, which was
born in the theaters of Europe. The eternally inquisitive
singer/songwriter/musician, who has performed on stage and in the
movies, delights in being the only pop artist to use Russian writer
Vladimir Nabokov in one of his lyrics.
And why not? Sting clearly likes to "seduce an audience slowly."
So, too, these choreographers, who in their separate rehearsals with the
dancers eventually move them beyond passivity, nudging them into
movement and into the moment.
"Brand New Day" represents a brand-new program for PBT -- three
premieres, two of which bookend the remarkable career of the pop artist
formerly known as Gordon Matthew Sumner and one that serves as
tangential transition.
This is, then, one Sting operation where the principals are more pro
than con.
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