INTERVIEW: Nederlands Dans Theater 2 prepares for NYC debuts
Photo: Nederlands Dans Theater 2 will present Sad Case at its New York City Center performances. Photo courtesy of © Rahi Rezvani / Provided by Helene Davis Public Relations with permission.
The world-renowned Nederlands Dans Theater 2 will play a special engagement Jan. 16-19 at New York City Center in Manhattan. Over the course of a few evenings, the dance company will breathe life into the work of choreographers Sol Léon, Paul Lightfoot, Marco Goecke and Edward Clug.
Lightfoot wears many hats for NDT2. He is the artistic director of the company, which includes its main ensemble, and choreographed, along with Léon, the pieces Sad Case and SH-BOOM!
SH-BOOM! is a unique dance that dates back to 1994 and will be having its New York premiere at the City Center engagement. It is the first collaboration between Léon and Lightfoot, a combination that has continued strong for many years. The piece, inspired by Francisco de Goya’s black-and-white sketches, examines how people from different backgrounds relate to one another.
Joining SH-BOOM! will be mutual comfort by Clug, a Romanian choreographer and artistic director of the Slovenian Maribor Ballet; Sad Case, by Léon and Lightfoot, which dates back to 1998 and is set to Mexican mambo music; and Wir sage runs Dunkles (Darkness Spoken), choreographed by Goecke, an associate choreographer with the company.
Lightfoot has been at the helm of NDT since 2011. The NDT2 ensemble consists of 16 classically trained dancers in their late teens and early 20s. They serve in the second company for three years, and then a determination is made on whether they are ready for the first company.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Lightfoot about the upcoming City Center performances. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
When did you first fall in love with dance?
It happened on the school field, when I was pretty young, like 8 years old. I could play the piano, and once a year at our little village school they would bring out the maypole, which is this English folk dancing tradition, with all the ribbons. And I had to turn the pages for the piano player.
The piano was out on the field, and I remember seeing all the boys and girls skipping around, making these patterns, and I was really interested. At that time I wanted to be an actor, but I was always sort of creative. And anyway, that was when I first saw dancing. I went home to my mom and dad, and said I’d really like to do some dancing, and that’s really when it really began.
What was it like when, in 2011, you found out you would be artistic director of NDT?
It was a huge moment. It was quite daunting because the proposition came pretty quickly. I was approached just a couple of weeks before I actually took the position and started almost immediately, but, of course, I’d been with NDT since 1985. So in a lot of ways I knew the ins and outs of the company very well just by being there.
I had no idea what being in the actually position would mean, but I had such a passion for this company and I still do and realized it was a now-or-never moment. I decided to try and hit the ground running and make some artistic changes, which I thought would be necessary for NDT to reestablish itself and in some ways re-identify itself.
What do you believe sets NDT and NDT2 apart on the contemporary dance scene?
The first word that comes to mind is quality. I think that for all the years that we have been a company, and it’s nearly 60 now, the one thing that NDT has always focused on is its creative processes. Within that, is has developed itself, highly I think, top amongst the world of contemporary dance companies.
I think what is really most important is the artistry of the dancers, the artists that have come together, within the dances themselves. We are all classically trained. So there’s a great level of technique — classical technique, which is then used and abused somehow, so that we can go in whatever direction is needed, keeping a core of high-quality, high understanding of your body.
We also learn how to deal with other choreographers because we don’t have one choreographic face — we have so many, and it’s that chameleonic identity of the company really sets us apart.
For the program at New York City Center, what can audiences expect from the four pieces?
The program has been put together as an eclectic quartet of work. We wanted to highlight the youthful exuberance of this company. We wanted it to be [a] positive program, really jam packed with works that are all bursting with energy in different ways. It’s fantastic.
We open with mutual comfort by Edward Clug, who is really almost unknown in North America. He’s a fantastic choreographer, and he made this jewel of a piece for us — all of the works are made for NDT2, by the way — he made this jewel of a piece in 2014, to composed music by a Slavonian composer. It’s only 12 minutes long, and it’s a quartet. It has such a beautiful sort of charming, teasing quality to it. It’s [a] fantastic way to open.
Then, after a very short break, we blast into Sad Case from Sol León and myself. It’s a mad universe of Mexican music, which has been a massive inspiration for this piece. It is very physical. It has been seen in New York before, but this is a newer version which we have extended. I’m really looking forward to bringing it back and also on the City Center stage which would be great.
Then we move to an absolute jewel from Marco Goecke called Wir sage nuns Dunkles. He uses music from [Franz] Schubert, but also from the pop group Placebo. This was created in 2017, so it’s just over a year old now, an absolutely piece of genius from Marco, our associate choreographer. It uses 11 members of the company, to their utmost best. It is passionate, it’s sensitive, it’s very moving and wonderful.
We finish with SH-BOOM!, also from Sol León and myself. We are the house choreographers, so it was nice to bring this piece back. It is an older work, but at the same time full of vibrance. I think the idea of where we are on the planet right now is a time when we need to come together. This is a piece focused on the international side of the diversity of the world. All of its pieces of music, which were written after the war, are reflecting on positivity. They’re from the ’50s, and there are all kind of songs that are designed to encourage people to think more beautifully about the world we live in. We thought that it was a great way to close the evening, particularly because with the amazing energy of NDT2 on the City Center stage they can really blast these pieces out. It’s going to be magnificent night to remember. I hope that as many people as possible come because it will be a shame to miss it.
What inspired your Sad Case and SH-BOOM!?
Sad Case by Sol and I was made when Sol was pregnant with our little girl. We decided to pick the Mexican music because she was actually conceived in Mexico, but more importantly, we were driven by the dance rhythm. This music is so ingrained in the Mexican culture, and these mambos are just magnificent. They don’t allow you to be still, and that’s what we liked.
Because, of course, the hormones were flying around between Sol and the baby in her belly, and we were at a point in our lives where everything could change. We wanted to make a work that was abstract but at the same time reflected on this idea of what’s coming — what creature is going to come into our lives now. This turned into Sad Case, which somehow feels very animalistic. …The language of the movement is not clean; it’s vibrant, it’s earthy. The five characters within it all embody themselves and have their own little stories within this strange and exciting world.
SH-BOOM! actually started in what we now call Switch, but used to be a choreographic workshop that I set up years ago. It was not meant to be a real ballet in the beginning. I took some of these songs from of all around the world, and we designed these love songs around members that we knew in the company. We made four sections, developed it, and it went into the repertoire. We kept adding and adding to it, and now there are nine sections.
So this is a bigger section than people have seen before. It’s one of the few ballets where we have constantly been augmenting it. It’s a great piece to do because everybody has their moment. Each song is related to a man and usually a woman, and the women remain on stage the whole time. They are dressed exceedingly different from the men — it feels almost religious in tight black dresses, very beautiful, very sensual, and at the same time very austere. The men are almost more the fools, most of the time in their underwear or even less, and they are sort of the buffoons of the piece. This mix of the black and the white — Sol was extremely inspired by the black and white drawings of Goya, which were almost satirical and cynical. And that was the beginning of the cartoon moment there, within his paintings, so there is something almost cartoon-esque, something very real, but at the same time very human and joyful.
What’s it like choreographing with Sol León?
That is the most common question we get. We’re both extremely different, and it’s not always easy. But that’s the beauty of our creativity — we challenge each other in many ways. It’s a dialogue, and we’re equally as important as the other. We’ve had have almost 30 years choreographing together, and of course our relationship has been through many, many stages.
I think where we are now is more about trying to give each other the space and the support. But if one of us has an idea, the other one might come in with a suggestion to it, and then the other one comes back with a response to that. And you start to build up the dialogue. I think dialogue and sharing is what our work has always been about. I think that’s what people recognize — perhaps the femininity, the masculinity, or whatever metaphor you want — the Ying and the Yang, the opposite — are very necessary within our work, and we cherish that.
It’s not always easy, but there’s something exceptionally beautiful about working together with someone. As challenging as it is, it’s well worth it.
What’s the difference between NDT1 and NDT2?
NDT was the first company to introduce a project like this, almost 40 years ago, because students coming out of school as young professionals found it very difficult to get into NDT1. The idea of NDT2 was to be a sort of a springboard between NDT 1 and school, but it grew rapidly because all of the works it presents are its own, made on them. So the companies have separate repertoires.
They are within the same building, but living completely different lives, and the works they do are not connected. We rarely perform together, except on very special occasions. Dancers can only stay in NDT2 for three years. By that time, it should be clear whether you are coming to NDT1 or if you should be moving your career off to something else. The age range is between 18 – 21, so it’s very youthful and very vibrant, with a young drive and ambition, which is so infectious. It’s fantastic to see.
Whereas in NDT1, the dancers are really moving into the time in their career when they are enjoying themselves and their artistry, and they are maturing in many ways. That doesn’t mean to degrade NDT2 — they are also mature, but of course their process time has been given a bit more room. The whole thing is about the stages of transformation, each as important as the other. But the drive and the vigor and the ambition — it sounds like such an old-fashioned word, but it’s not. It’s very valuable. It’s a very beautiful quality that they have at this age. They feel a sort of [awe] when arriving at NDT — it is a big company, it is an important company in the dance world. So coming to NDT2 is always a crucial moment for many people in their artistic careers.
So I think visualizing that, and seeing them in performance, is always overwhelming.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Nederlands Dans Theater 2 will perform Jan. 16-19 at New York City Center in Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
