SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2010
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E3 Colker’s off-the-wall dance was magnet for Cirque colker from E1
who have brought a dance sensi- bility to a Cirque du Soleil show (Mia Michaels of TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance” worked on 2005’s “Delirium.”) But so far, only Colker has the art-house chic and the broad appeal to break down the walls between two worlds that never mix. Colker plans to launch her re- volt, in fact, with walls. Stage- spanning climbing walls are the chief attractions in both “Ovo” and “Mix,” the two-part work her troupe will perform at the Eisen- hower. Turning the stage into a playing field is Colker’s specialty. She has tied her dancers up in ropes (“Knot”) and sent them spin- ning on a giant hamster wheel (“Rota”). In “4 por 4,” seen here in 2003, Colker’s
dancers
swooped, dived and leapt across a stage criss- crossed with large ce- ramic vases, toppling not a one. Freedom despite confinement is, for her, a creative strategy and a metaphor for the human condition — and for her ideas about art.
Audience reaction to her work
is generally strong — “Ovo” has been extended by 24 perform- ances, and Colker’s dance com- pany, founded in 1994, has toured throughout South America, Eu- rope and Asia. It can fill theaters for weeks on end in Rio, where Colker’s troupe operates out of a converted factory near the inter- national headquarters of Petro- bras, the Brazilian oil firm that has been a longtime sponsor. Critical reaction has been mixed, however, with opinion di- vided on whether her work is more muscle than heart, or if it’s a revealing window on human capa- bility. In truth, it can be both, and often in the same work. “Mix” is part of Colker’s interest
in colorful theatricality and dare- devil precision. It combines ex- cerpts from two works Colker cre- ated early in her troupe’s history: “Vulcao,” with erotically charged fantasy costumes and a clubby electronic vibe, and “Velox,” which introduces the wall. The theme of each, Colker says, is passion. “Not love,” Colker emphasizes.
“When we talk of passion, I think it’s more violent, more uncon- trolled, more intense.” With its climbing wall, “Mix” is also about using gravity in a new way. Colker is a former competi- tive volleyball player, and in the original “Velox,” the wall was part of a sports-as-dance concept that also included ball play. In turning her dancers into swinging, syn-
TCircleMirror
chronized rock climbers, Colker was intrigued by the effects of leaving the horizontal plane. “In a vertical space, we need to
find another way to move,” she says. “With the wall, it was a great challenge for the dancers to reach a balance in a different way. ” Back in 2006, it was this sense of
play and aggressiveness that led Cirque du Soleil officials to tap Colker for their new show. Gilles Ste-Croix, Cirque’s vice president for creation, saw Colker’s “Knot” at the Barbican in London. He ap- proached her afterward about working for his brand of concept- driven, all-acrobat circus. “I couldn’t believe it!” Colker gushes hoarsely through the phone. “I said, it’s a great surprise for me since I have never seen a live performance of Cirque. But okay, let’s see — let’s begin to talk!”
Deborah Colker
Cirque officials went to Rio, where Colker’s company was perform- ing “Mix” — the dancers skittering up the wall from one handhold to
another, drawing gasps for their agility and their weightlessness . . . like flies . . . like a circus act. Cirque du Soleil was hooked. “She could move trees,” says
Chantal Tremblay, director of crea- tion for “Ovo” and part of the Cirque team that was smitten in Rio. “She’s so energetic, it’s her personality and her culture. She’s a really intense person. That’s what we feel in ‘Ovo,’ a lot of energy coming out of it.” Colker was intrigued at the
prospect of working with Cirque, but also puzzled. “I ask them, why do you choose me? Why someone from Brazil?” she says. They told her they wanted her wall. They said, “Oh, how did someone out- side of a circus create this?” she re- calls. And they told her they loved the way she works with movement and space — “and my energy.” They also told her they wanted a show about the environment. Colker proposed bugs, and started imagining “many relations be- tween acrobats and insects.” “Insects, they are very small but
very important,” she says. “We’re used to seeing crickets, flies, fleas. But we don’t know them up close.” In “Ovo,” you get to know them up close. The production, which pre- miered in May 2009, unfolds as a
big and go around the world,” Colker says. “I fight for this, I put my head up and say okay, I will do it, because this is art, this is good and I will do. “What I learned, as a Jewish person, is we will find a way,” she continues. “Resistance. Inside is resistance. Even if it’s difficult, we will do. For me, my strong side, which is big” — low, rusty laughter rolls out — “it is part of my Jewish education and sensibility.” Now, having gone about as far as she can go with giant play equipment, having brought Brazil- ian beauty to the big top, she is di- rectly tapping a Russian vein. Her next show will be an adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s novel “Eu- gene Onegin,” a special love of her grandfather’s. She’ll use classical music and a live orchestra, a first. “And also, my first time inside a
BENOIT FONTAINE
REMARKABLE FEAT: “Ovo,” which has extended its run at National Harbor, marks the first production in Cirque du Soleil’s 25-year history to be crafted entirely by a woman.
on
washingtonpost.com
MORE PHOTOS View some scenes from
Cirque du Soleil’s new show by Deborah Colker, “Ovo,” at
washingtonpost.com/style.
single day under a magnifying glass. It’s a biodiversity bonanza: A lithe dragonfly turns his upside- down, one-handed balancing tricks into a zesty samba in early morning half-light; ants spin pic- nic fare on their feet in noon sun; and spiders with spaghetti spines contort themselves in the moon- light. In the finale, nearly two dozen
cricket-costumed acrobats bound onto a 20-foot wall and plunge backward onto huge trampolines and a power track, a massive tramp that extends toward the au- dience for long-distance boinging. (“Many jumps — tack-tack-tack — until they are in the front of the stage. Like a cricket!” says Colker.) Colker brought two of her fre- quent collaborators in Rio into the project: Berna Ceppas composed the melange of Brazilian music, and Gringo Cardia created the sets. If “Ovo” follows the Cirque routine, with shows having life-
spans of 10 to 15 years, Brazilian rhythms, heat, color and emotion are poised to travel the world. “We didn’t say we’re going to
create a Brazilian show,” Tremblay says, “but the flavor and the warmth of that culture is really strong.” For Colker, strong sensation comes with her territory: It was the forests and farms close to Rio that inspired her. “Nature is totally packed with these amazing colors —the sky, blue! And the brown in the earth! All these amazing pinks!” she says. “What is inside ‘Ovo’ is the cel-
ebration of pleasure, the celebra- tion of life,” she continues. “The fact that one day is very important, one second in our life is important. That is the energy, the happiness.”
“Ovo” may capture Colker’s Bra- zilian side, but she credits her Rus- sian Jewish nature for getting her to this point. Colker’s parents emigrated from
Minsk to Rio after World War I, and she grew up in Jewish schools, speaking Yiddish and Hebrew as well as Portuguese. She channeled her Russian roots to deal with the winter she spent in Montreal, working at Cirque du Soleil’s head-
quarters. The snow was in drifts above her head; the temperature was below zero. She bought an enormous Canadian coat — “It’s like a house!” — and because she was always losing her gloves, Tremblay gave her a pair with clips for the sleeves. Otherwise, Colker had all she
needed. “All the things in my life I did with energy, I’m very obsessive,” Colker says. “I learned, okay, you will do this? Okay, you need to do very well. You need to be the best. It was this kind of Jewish educa- tion.”
She studied ballet as a child, spent a decade in piano lessons, played volleyball, majored in psy- chology, then went back to danc- ing. She had two children (and now has a year-old grandson) and threw herself into running a dance company, in a city geared more toward soccer, samba and raucous entertainment than toward a niche form of art.
“Since the beginning, it wasn’t easy to have contemporary dance in Rio — not easy to have money, to do what I want, to do something
book,” she adds. She’s already anticipating jabs from purists, the ones who feel modern dance is supposed to be abstract and who believe you’re selling out if you, say, use a climb- ing wall — or tell a story. “What is the problem to have a
story? To go inside a universe? Why we need to have this rule, that you’re not allowed to have a story if you are a contemporary chor- eographer? I don’t believe this,” she says, with the heat of a driven individualist. “This is my challenge all the
time,” Colker says. “I don’t need to follow this bible. I need to follow Deborah Colker’s feelings and in- tuition.”
kaufmans@washpost.com
Cirque du Soleil’s “Ovo” at the Plateau at National Harbor, Oxon Hill, Md. Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 8pm;
Thursday to Saturday at 4pm and 8pm; and Sunday, Oct. 24 at 1pm and 5pm. Tickets: adults $55-$130, children $38.50-$91.1 800 450-1480, or visit
cirquedusoleil.com/ovo
Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker
at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower
Theater. Oct. 28-30 at 8 p.m. Tickets: $22-$60. 800-444-1324 or 202-467-4600, or visit
kennedy-center.org.
ransformation EXTENDED!
Orchestra Valery Gergiev, principal conductor
The Mariinsky
Choral Arts Society of Washington Orfeón Pamplonés Children’s Chorus of Washington
MAHLER Symphony No. 8
Tuesday, October 19 at 8pm Kennedy Center Concert Hall Partially underwritten by the Dallas Morse Coors Foundation
Gergiev
András Schiff, piano Wednesday, October 20 at 8pm The Music Center at Strathmore SCHUMANN Waldszenen
Davidsbündlertänze Kinderszenen Symphonic Etudes
Underwritten by Betsy and Robert Feinberg U.S. Premiere THREE SISTERS
By Anton Chekhov Directed by Declan Donnellan
October 19 & 20, 2010 Eisenhower Theater
TWELFTH NIGHT
By William Shakespeare Directed by Declan Donnellan
October 22 & 23, 2010 Eisenhower Theater
Tickets from $22 at the Box Office or charge by phone (202) 467-4600
Order online at
kennedy-center.org Groups (202) 416-8400|TTY (202) 416-8524
International Programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.
Performed in Russian with English surtitles. Shankar
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sweet Honey In The Rock
® Saturday, October 23 at 8pm
Warner Theatre WAMU 88.5 FM - Media Sponsor
Ravi Shankar
Anoushka Shankar Sunday, November 7 at 8pm Kennedy Center Concert Hall
WPAS.org • (202) 785-9727
Tickets at the Box Office or charge by phone (202) 467-4600 Online at
kennedy-center.org | TTY (202) 416-8524 | Groups call (202) 416-8400
HAIR is made possible through the generosity of The Adrienne Arsht Musical Theater Fund. Please note: this performance contains strong language, mature content, and brief nudity.
“
THRILLING, INTENSE, UNADULTERATED JOY.”
–THENEWYORKTIMES
STUDIOTHEATRE.ORG 202-332-3300
BY ANNIE BAKER. DIRECTED BY DAVID MUSE.
ART BY AMY GUIP
TUESDAY 8PM! CHEKHO EXCLUSIVE NORTH AMERICAN ENGAGEMENT!
INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL
The Moscow-based Chekhov International Theatre Festival performs acclaimed versions of two classics, directed by Declan Donnellan of Cheek by Jowl.
WEDNESDAY 8PM!
90TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!
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