Like three guards, they are ready to give us access to gray skies and finallya fierce cloud cover: first soloist James Stout, second soloist Edo Wijnen and(see inset) grand subject Joseph (Joey) Massarelli. One foot placed back,one pointed elbow pointing skyward. Three long beams of light and a risinggauze screen open up the pearly gray sky in complete control. As if theimmeasurable depth of this environment must first be properly estimated. Thethree men begin their exploration, running quietly and then fluttering softlylike energetic butterflies.
This universe, shrouded in fascinating grayscale by set designer John Otto,does not tolerate human bravado with tough jumps and powerful lifting. Herebelongs a gentle and organic scanning of all contours, and that is exactlywhat happens in Legacy Variations , the beautiful world premiere bychoreographer David Dawson for Dutch National Ballet. Alex Baranowski’s newcomposition is equally controlled and subtly performed by Het Balletorkest,with thinly ascending violins above an ever-widening set of instruments.
To this melancholic and wide-sounding music, the three men swing smoothlythrough space, sometimes solo, sometimes synchronously, sometimes in canon.Then again they stop for a moment, intertwining their hands, seekingresignation from each other, only to fan out charged and formulate variationson that stately guard position. In the transparent grey-black bodies (costumedesign Yumiko Takeshima) you can see a thin line of orange on their backs andin their necks, a subtle reference to the national colour. Halfway through, acinematic representation (Altin Kaftira) of cumulus clouds unrolls across thefull width of the backdrop; they seem to herald showers, wind and hail, butthe trio Stout, Wijnen and Massarelli are no longer afraid of that. It flowssmoothly into the natural beauty of this sky.
Joseph (Joey) Massarelli in ‘Legacy Variations’ by choreographer DavidDawson.Sculpture Michel Schnater
Dawson (50) brings with Legacy Variations , he writes in an explanation, ahomage to the majestic Dutch skies and to the Dutch ballet company where hewas a dancer from 1995 to 2000. Here he got his first chances as achoreographer, with acclaimed ballets such as A Million Kisses to My Skin(2000) and The Gray Area (2000). More than thirty companies worldwide nowhave work by the Briton in their repertoire, including the Semperoper Balletin Dresden. There he is, just like with the Dutch National Ballet, associateartist which means regular new assignments.
Dawson likes musical dynamics in a spatial-looking stage set with lightbeacons. This is again evident from the energetic revival of The FourSeasons (2021) on the free and varied adaptation by composer Max Richter ofAntonio’s Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons. In the music, which shoots fromdark to light, from gentle to cruel and from scratchy to heavenly, youautomatically hear various weather conditions passing by. Conductor KoenKessels gives soloist Isabelle van Keulen the space to explore all thoseextremes on her violin. With an occasional short stop as a breather.
Yuanyuan Zhang and Jakob Feyferlik in ‘The Four Seasons’ by choreographerDavid Dawson.Sculpture Michel Schnater
Dawson’s choreography has the same hectic tension: sixteen ballet dancersconstantly regroup in new duets, fours and fives, each time dressed indifferent colored leotards. Striking is the subtle and refined lifting thatcontinues whether dancers walk forwards or backwards and are liftedhorizontally, vertically or in semicircular arcs. All this dynamic takes placeunder a dominant umbrella of four tilting light objects in basic mathematicalshapes: a circle, line, square and triangle. They symbolize Vivaldi’s fourseasons, which are recognisably quoted or even copied by Richter at times.Richter makes thirteen different parts in almost fifty minutes, Dawson followshim in this. Logical, of course, the current weather conditions have longsince ceased to adhere to the limits of the four seasons.