The enchanting Snow White

THE CURTAIN ROSE on the Bangkok’s 16th International Festival of Dance and Music on Saturday night with Teatro Lirico Italiano of Rome and Macedoia Opera’s world premiere of “Don Giovanni” and many of us are returning to the Thailand Cultural Centre tonight to watch their “La Boheme”.

Since the programme announcement of the festival a few months ago, dance fans have been thrilled by the news that Ballet Preljocaj, one of the most internationally acclaimed dance companies in the world, will be making their long-awaited Thailand debut. Two years ago, the French Embassy notified the Bangkok festival organisers that Ballet Preljocaj’s “Blanche Neige” (“Snow White”) would be performing at the Macao Cultural Centre this month and the Bangkok festival promptly booked them. 

In an e-mail interview with The Nation, founder and artistic director Angelin Preljocaj explains how he chooses his dancers.

“I look for someone who dances very well and that’s different from looking for a dancer, which tends to trigger a pre-conceived image. Dance companies can sometimes be compared to bouquets of flowers – some will only feature roses and others only tulips. My company is like a flower arrangement. I like variety, which is also necessary because my works vary greatly in style,” he says.

Those differences were immediately apparent when I watched “Blanche Neige” on DVD and further underscored when I caught the company’s “Ce que j'appelle oubli” at the Biennale de la danse a Lyon two years ago. Studying the company’s repertory in greater depth reveals a unique mix of both narrative and abstract works. 

“Yes, I need this balance,” Preljocaj says. “My writing is rather graphic. My tools are bodies, space and time. In science, fundamental research is an abstract field and some people think it will never be useful but after a while it becomes medicine or technology. I like to work on both sides with my choreographic work: fundamental and abstract research like ‘Empty moves’ [which recently premiered at Festival Montpellier Danse] feed other projects like ‘Snow White’ or ‘The Nights’ [his 2013 creation]. It’s essential to diversify your working methods and themes.”

Preljocaj says his inspiration for the work came from the Grimms Brothers’ tale, Bruno Bettleheim’s “La Psychanalyse des contes de fees” and Mahler's symphonies..

“I wanted to tell the ‘real story’, not the ‘myth’ or the ‘legend’, of ‘Snow White’. From the very beginning, I decided to follow the version by the Grimm brothers, with just a few personal variations based on my own analysis of the symbols in the tale.

“It’s the most contemporary fairy tale of all, because the beauty of today’s women makes the cross-generational conflict very sharp.

“Bettelheim describes Snow White as an Oedipus in reverse. The wicked stepmother is without doubt the central character in the tale. I examine her through her narcissistic determination not to give up on seduction and her role as a woman, even if it means sacrificing her stepdaughter.

“As for the music, the magnificent excesses of Mahler’s symphonies are of a romantic nature. This music matched the production concept perfectly.”

Adding to the excitement are the costumes, designed by none other than couturier Jean Paul Gaultier. 

“The generational dispute, which is at the core of ‘Snow White’, is very modern and has a lot to do with the image of woman conveyed by magazines,” Preljocaj explains. 

“Nowadays, some mothers fight their age with cosmetics. In becoming rivals of their own daughters, they somehow resist their emerging young beauty, like the wicked Queen, a complex and extreme seduction figure. I wanted this conflict to come to light through the costumes and Jean Paul was the ideal person to do that for me.” 

“I also wanted to present an enchanting, magical and fantastical piece and he embodies fancy and fantasy better than anybody else. Each of his creations tells a story. They aren’t simple dresses or sweaters – they are characters.”

The costumes meld perfectly with the sets by Thierry Leproust.

“At the beginning, I had the idea of a palace, a ball and a magic mirror. Thierry proposed several scenery settings to represent each place. That gave us a first track on which to build the story,” he says.

Since its premiere at the Biennale de la danse a Lyon in 2008, Ballet Preljocaj has performed “Blanche Neige” more than 200 times around the world, receiving a great deal of praise and becoming an audience favourite.

This is notwithstanding New York Times’ Roslyn Sulcas comments that it’s “exactly what you don’t expect any self-respecting contemporary-dance choreographer to do. It’s a literal retelling of the fairy tale, fit for a ballet company that needs something safe for the box office."

Culturekiosque’s Patricia Boccadoro differed, writing of the performance in Paris a few months after the premiere, “Preljocaj's pas de deux are amongst the most beautiful created this century, and those in this ballet were no exception.

“The chic and tasteful decor by Thierry Leproust swept one instantly into a magical land, from the evocative beauty of the sombre forest, leading to the glittering mountain of enchantment worked by the seven dwarfs, who came down from the heights, spiralling through the air on wires in a ballet of immense beauty.”

Commenting on the ballet when it was performed in Hong Kong as part of the French May festival four years ago, South China Morning Post’s Kevin Ng said: “Preljocaj’s narrative is clear, and the drama unfolds logically; the ballet is strong on theatrical effects.”

Preljocaj shrugs off both praise and criticism. “I think the legend of ‘Snow White’ has no boundaries. I hope that Bangkok audiences will be enchanted by the magical and romantic interlude I’ve been willing to share with my dancers.”

 

Bangkok’s 16th International Festival of Dance and Music is supported by Bangkok Bank, Crown Property Bureau, BMW, B Grimm, Bangkok Hospital, Dusit Thani Bangkok, Indorama Ventures, Nation Multimedia, Beiersdorf, PTT, Singha Corporation, Thai Airways, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Ministry of Culture, with additional support for “Blanche Neige” from the French Embassy and BNP Paribas.

 

ONE MAGICAL  EVENING

Ballet Preljocaj performs “Blanche Neige” at 7.30pm on September 24 at the Thailand Cultural Centre.

Tickets are from Bt800 to Bt3,000.

Find out more at www.BangkokFestivals.com.