Riding the wave of success of the first edition of Bonjour India (2009-2010), the Institut Français en Inde and the French embassy in India, in association with the Alliance Française India network and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, unveiled the second edition of the festival in Delhi last weekend with contemporary ballet “And then, one thousand years of peace". First created by Angelin Preljocaj for the Bolshoi Ballet in 2010, it takes inspiration from the vision of apocalypse conjured by St John in the biblical The Book of Revelation.
Choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj and presented for the first time in India, this 140 minutes ballet is a huge, ambitious monolith of a work. Travelling from an intense, dramatic and primordial opening through to a serene, contemplative finale, Preljocaj throws you into the beating heart of our existence. Set to a lively soundtrack by French DJ Laurent Garnier, And then… features a number of striking images. Dancers moving inside plastic sheets, dancing with large chains, wrapped in flags of the world and even holding two small lambs in the final sequence.
Preljocaj, a choreographer and artistic director of the Ballet Preljocaj, is known for his innovative creations. He is a clever choreographer, superb at eliciting a raw, uninhibited physicality from his dancers, yet equally skilled at distancing the images of lust and anger he creates, and making them strange. However, as a child he was not much interested in contemporary dance, but much in judo.
Speaking about his transformation from a judo learner to contemporary dancer, Preljocaj says, “Yes, I practiced judo ‘to calm down’. One day, I saw a picture of Noureev. It was written ‘Noureev, transfigured by dance’. At this point, I said to myself ‘I want to do that’.” He adds, “But there is no split between judo and dance. Practice of judo teaches you how to control points of your body. The action can be fast, and then you drop the other person, but if you slow down, it is almost ‘lap dancing’.”
The ballet And then… works in a poetic vein. The word apocalypse (from the Greek apo, which means “to lift”, and calypsos, “veil”) evokes the idea of revealing, unveiling, or highlighting elements that could be present in our world, but are hidden from our eyes. It, thus, evokes what is nestled in the innermost recesses of our everyday rituals, rather than prophesising about compulsive waves of catastrophe, irreparable destruction, or the imminent end of the world. Preljocaj says while choreographing a new piece it’s not about the choices one makes in one single moment, but the mixture of different things she/he has encountered in his/her life. “I think my style is really a complex mix of different bodies of work, like judo, ballet and modern dance.”
Preljocaj says his training and work with a varied class of dancers made him think beyond normal dance and come up with works on bodies and their movement. “My training with people such as Karin Waehner, Zena Rommet or Merce Cunningham, and later my experience as a dancer with Dominique Bagouet gave me many different choreographic languages, as well as many ways of seeing and feeling dance. Maybe that’s why I quickly felt the need to create work with bodies around the movement. I created my first piece in Aventures colonials (1984) and then I created my company.”
Preljocaj adds that he doesn’t think too much before choreographing a new dance, as he likes to surprise himself, too. “I don’t think too much about defining my own style. I try to do what I like. Sometimes by working on big productions, and other times working on duets, quatuor, or by collaborating with other artists. The most important is to continue to surprise yourself, to avoid your own ruts.”
Preljocaj frequently collaborates with other artists, too. For this show he has collaborated with Subodh Gupta for set design, Laurent Garnier for the music and Igor Chapurin for costumes. Commenting on the reason behind choosing Garnier for music in And then…, Preljocaj says, “I really like Laurent Garnier’s work. I’ve even worked with him within an inaugural event, the opening of our venue in Aix en Provence, the Pavillon Noir, and I really appreciated this collaboration.” For Preljocaj the best choreographer in the world is Nijinski. “It was someone instinctive. His choreographies, like L’Après-midi d’un faune (1912), were inhabited by an innocence and sensuality almost disturbing.” Bonjour India will be travelling to other parts of India in the coming days and showcase more dance and music performances.