LEIMAY’s BECOMING-CORPUS explores the nature of the human body (photo by Yara Travies)
BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
Through September 15, $20
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.leimaymain.cavearts.org
Becoming-Corpus is another mesmerizing, meditative multimedia production from director and choreographer Ximena Garnica and video and installation artist Shige Moriya, the principals behind the Brooklyn-based LEIMAY company (Floating Point Waves, Furnace). The seventy-minute piece opens with a breathtaking scene in which seven dancers (Masanori Asahara, Andrew Braddock, Andrea Jones, Liz McAuliffe, Denisa Musilova, Eija Ranta, and Savina Theodoru) stand still onstage, louvered black-and-white shadows projected across their bodies. Slowly they begin swaying, giving the impression that they are gently rocking on the sea. Meanwhile, Tommy Schell walks imperceptibly slowly across the back, a trip that will last all seventy minutes. Soon the dancers, five of whom are topless, start exploring their bodies as if they’ve just been born, in intricate ensemble movements that feature solos created by picking out individual dancers with spotlights. At one point they balance with their shoulders on the floor, their backs facing the audience, making them appear headless, arms and legs emerging as if they are hatching out of an egg. Birth is one of the subjects of the piece, as the dancers learn what their bodies are capable of by learning and experimenting with their limbs. The piece features an electronic score by Roland Ventura Toldeo, Christopher Loar, and Laddio Bolocko, with light projections by Moriya that create fascinating meshlike and shadowy elements directly on the dancers’ bodies and futuristic computer visuals on the floor and backdrop. A beautiful, elegant piece expertly performed with a playful dose of humor, Becoming-Corpus continues through September 15 at BAM Fisher’s Fishman Space, supplemented by an art installation in the Peter Jay Sharp Lobby that includes mixed-media representations of the creators’ and dancers’ faces, heads, and bodies as well as casts of Garnica and Moriya dangling from the ceiling, in addition to a specially designed “artifact” publication that details the development and process of the work. (There will be a post-show audience roundtable on September 13, the preshow “Tracing the Art” talk with Garnica and Moriya on September 14, and a closing night toast on September 15. To see our 2012 interview with Garnica and Moriya, please go here.)
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes is a lush, gorgeous examination of the creative process and living — and dying — for one’s art. Sadler’s Wells dancer Moira Shearer stars as Victoria Page, a young socialite who dreams of becoming a successful ballerina. She is brought to the attention of ballet master Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) and soon is a member of his famed company. Meanwhile, composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring), whose music was stolen by his professor and used in a Lermontov ballet, also joins the company, as chorus master. As Vicky and Julian’s roles grow, so does their affection for each other, with a jealous Lermontov seething in between. Inspired by Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, The Red Shoes is a masterful behind-the-scenes depiction of the world of dance, highlighted by the dazzlingly surreal title ballet, which mimics the narrative of the central plot. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, the fifteen-minute ballet takes viewers into a completely different fantasy realm, using such cinematic devices as jump cuts and superimposition as the drama unfolds well beyond the limits of the stage. To increase the believability of the story and make sure the dance scenes were effective, Powell and Pressburger enlisted players from the international dance community; the film’s cast includes Russian choreographer and dancer Léonide Massine as Lermontov choreographer Grischa Ljubov, French prima ballerina Ludmilla Tchérina as Lermontov star Irina Boronskaja, and Australian dancer Robert Helpmann as Ivan Boleslawsky; Helpmann also served as the film’s choreographer.
