A
Sensual Intellect at Play
Mosaic
Nejla Y. Yatkin / NY2 Dance & Guests
Dance Place
Washington, DC
Saturday, November 8, 2003
by George Jackson
copyright © 2003
George Jackson
Nejla
Yatkin brings to the stage an exotic air, an erotic note and an artistic
intellect that's stiletto sharp. Even in something so modern dance classical
as Chaconne, the solo to Bach violin music that Jose Limón
choreographed for himself in 1942, Yatkin's qualities were apparent. Surprisingly,
they didn't seem impositions in this context but functioned in harmony
with the human nobility and sense of duty to art that Limon likely wanted
to convey. After all, back when Chaconne was new, Limón
himself was an unusual import and, for a male, an exceptionally sensual
figure on the American stage. When Baryshnikov danced this solo here a
couple of seasons ago, one became aware of his superb precision, phrasing
and dynamic but the only life traits were the nobility and duty. Baryshnikov's
was a very pure embodiment of the Limón
and, of course, he also had to deal with his own, quite different body
-- short and compact. Yatkin's tall frame is closer to Limón's,
yet I suspect that her performance was very much her own, even though
she wasn't the first woman to have ventured onto this choreographic ground.
I'd never seen her dance so fully as she did Saturday night. Almost all
of her anatomy was brought into active, coordinated motion with only the
mid-torso sometimes seeming restrained. In the solo's famous tilting pose,
Yatkin leaned and stretched an awesome length. Throughout the piece, she
engaged surrounding space, embracing it in her arms, furling it as she
struck attitudes, brushing against it with confidence and perhaps even
pleasure as she reached upward. Her long arms were softly strong. In the
footwork section of the solo in which heels seemed to click and ones attention
was drawn to what was happening at the ankles and toes, Yatkin seemed
not to be cutting through space but gathering it in and folding it at
ground level, executing this task as if she were arranging cloth at the
base of an altar and doing it quickly, expertly without having to stoop
and use her hands. Chaconne was a welcome surprise and I look
forward to Yatkin hosting more choreographers from the past.
Both of the Mosaic program's two other pieces were by Yatkin. Journey
to the One, a Tango seemed familiar in part but I didn't remember
it being as developed before. Its title was quite literal. Heard were
tango music, tango silence and other music (by Cesaria Evora, Astor Piazolla,
Sezen Aksu and Elliot Hugenthal), and more dancers appeared more of the
time at the work's front end than in the last extended scene in which
their number was whittled down to one. This was a playful work as it opened,
some of the fun being not strictly tango but full of the tango's teasing.
A red rubber ball served as a unifying device although by the time of
the finale its presence was rather a disservice. We first saw the ball
when it was rolled out and taken by a young, not very dressed woman. She
moved through cubistically angled positions on the floor, tied her body
into knots, loosened them and ran the ball sensually over herself as she
stretched. It reminded me of Eve and the apple, as Gaugin might have painted
them on a south seas island. Three other women joined Eve and each wanted
the apple for herself. They strutted like smart chicks, they preened like
Hollywood goddesses and, when Paris entered they tossed him the apple.
He was a Paris less from Homeric legend than out of West Side Story,
who played basketball of a sort, first alone and then with two buddies.
Alone again, Paris experienced his great encounter -- She. Their relationship,
more serious than what happened before, was shown in a rapt duet and positions
caught in flagrante delecto between blackouts. She, left alone, pondered
about herself in an intense solo. In a brief finale, balls, apples, cherries
and all sorts of round objects rained down on the full cast.
There was bright, intelligent choreography throughout Tango,
from the Eve solo through the Great Encounter and into the concluding
solo for She. Yatkin, as the She figure, explored her technical abilities
systematically, although they never came together as completely as in
the Limón work. She had strength -- holding balances, shifting
weight and even supporting her man -- but remarkably it was matched with
a softly cushioned quality. Never absent were the slightly foreign air,
the sensuality, and that one saw her thinking. As the man, the Paris figure,
Rafael Perdomo used to be dominated by Yatkin. He had emancipated himself
this time, but at what price? The mustache he wore had the effect of pulling
down his face so that he seemed shorter than before, if sturdier. There
was more weight on his torso. Mostly, though, he had abandoned the gentle,
contemplative quality that was so distinctive but a short while ago. As
a composition, Tango deserves further work. The shift from the
playful to the more serious seemed half hearted. The red ball became superfluous
in later scenes and dropping all those balls in the finale made a cheap
ending. Fixing these things would help to give the actual choreography
its due.
Dearriving was about journeys of discovery. The concept undoubtedly
owed a nod or two to African coming-of-age quests and the German Erziehungsroman,
the education novel. The piece opened with a terrific solo for Yatkin
but its group sections were even less finished than anything in Tango.
Yatkin was first seen behind her shadow on a screen, as the shadow's dim
Dopplegånger. The pair moved slowly across the stage from right
to left, halting on occasion like figures in a frieze. We saw them as
silhouettes in profile and they had an antique quality due to their swastika
poses and high Egyptian headgear. When Yatkin emerged fully into the light,
the headgear was seen to be a patterned cloth turban. She wore an elaborate,
ample garment of similarly printed cloth. Her movement, to the plaintive
tones Harold Anderson's mix of natural and man-made instruments, looked
ancestral. It was like the ritual that had evolved later to become bellydancing,
snake charmer's dancing and other supple forms. In this piece, which called
for a more apparent breaking point at the waistline, Yatkin's torso wasn't
restrained. The cloth she wore was involved in the choreography and a
very effective passage consisted of steadily unwinding her high turban.
In the group sections of Dearriving, the idea seemed to be showing
journeys of individuals and small groups in contrast to each other. However,
the choreography ambled and then dragged. The counterpositioning of movement
vectors wasn't clear. Yatkin might find it worthwhile to look at films
of Massine's symphonic ballets and Laban's motion choirs to see what precedents
there are for solving counterpoint and simultaneity problems.
The guests hosted by Yatkin included four musicians: Nathan Bartley, violinist
for Chaconne; Harold Anderson, composer and bass player for Dearriving,
and his ensemble, clarinetist Darryl Harper and percussion player Nantambu
Milton Russ. The two visual arts guests were lighting designer Catherine
Eliot, and Lenita Williamson Reeves who was videographer and designer
for Dearriving. A bright presence among the NY2 dancers was Lesole
Maine; he's from South Africa.
Originally
published:
www.danceviewtimes.com
Volume 1, Number 7
November 10, 2003
©2003
George
Jackson
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George Jackson
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