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Basel Ballett Richard Wherlock's 'Milk and Honey'
May 26, 2010 -- Monte Carlo During the last "Tremplin Jeunes Danseurs" in Monte-Carlo, I had the pleasure to meet again after a few years, Richard Wherlock, the director and chief choreographer of the Basel Ballett, as well as Catherine Brunet, its Managing Director, who was recently honored by the French government with the decoration "Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres". As a result of this meeting in Monaco, I was invited to Basel to teach and to watch their latest premiere under the gourmet title "Milk and Honey" in order to write an article for our readers. The evening included two pieces by Ohad Naharin: "Humus" and "Black Milk," as well as one by Richard Wherlock: "Milk & Honey".
The second ballet of Ohad Naharin, "Black Milk", was created originally in 1985 for the female dancers of the Kibbutz Dance Company. In 1992, Naharin decided to change it, and he made a new version only for men. This is the version I watched in Basel. Naharin's intension was to show the slim difference existing between delimitation and exclusion or isolation. The five dancers on stage were really able to create an appropriate atmosphere to this theme and to pass the message to the audience through the meditative and sometimes silent music of the New York composer Paul Smadbeck.
"Milk & Honey", the new creation by Richard Wherlock, is based on typical Basel carnival music, but rewritten for this occasion by George Gruntz in a very nice jazzy manner. The result is impressive. This new musical mixture, plus the never ending energy and tension (precisely 50 minutes), coming over the stage all the way to the audience led to a great success from all the excellent artists dancing and expressing themselves. Wherlock's choreography was extremely sexy with a rich sense of humor. It never became boring, banal or repetitive. Wherlock was really able to express in danced feelings his 10 years experience in Basel. Wherlock has been very successful as the head of the Basel Ballett and the Ballet School in Basel since 2001."Milk & Honey", referring to the wealth of Switzerland, is a great dance, which gave the dancers the opportunity to express their high technical and artistic abilities. The choreographic vocabulary was chosen in order to make them look at the top of their form. The union with the magnificent Sinfonieorchester Basel also contributed to the remarkably long applause and satisfaction of the Basel audience.
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by Saul Marziali
"Humus,which means hearth, is a ballet from a cycle of three ("Bellus" and "Seccus" are the other two), which was created for the Batsheva Dance Company in 2005. To the minimalist music of Brian Eno, 13 female dancers of the Basel Ballett started to dance first with small and slow movements. This was speeded up little by little until they started to move in circles around the stage, using the space, and creating their own dynamic. They then began to transfer their force of gravity into other part of the body than usual, and they played with their own balance, adding complex "ports de bras" sequences uncoordinated with the head, legs, upper body and hips! This is, believe me, very difficult, and it was done perfectly and very effectively. Just bravo!
From my 23 years experience as a dancer, I know it is always very difficult to get this togetherness and to find this kind of high quality harmony within a group of artists on stage. Mostly, the problem for someone is the personality, or more precisely, the ego, which can overwhelm professionalism, creativity or respect for the communal work and needs. In Basel, this was not the case at all, and probably that was what the audience and myself appreciated most. The applause rewarding the performance of the 13 women on stage was warm and long.
During the interval, the Basel audience, traditionally the most open-minded people of Switzerland, who were enjoying a delicious glass of Swiss white and dry wine, were suddenly surprised by a performance given by some soloists of the company. The performance occurred on 3 different stages, built especially for this purpose in the foyer. It was an exquisite and fascinating continuation of the evening.