Tribute Challenge Daunted Choreographer

The Age

Monday August 27, 2007

Robin Usher

The Australian Ballet's latest offering remembers Leonide Massine, writes Robin Usher.

THE Polish-born choreographer Krzysztof Pastor is used to big projects, but even he was daunted by his first commission from the Australian Ballet.

He is following in the footsteps of the legendary Leonide Massine, providing new choreography to the music of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

"I sometimes surprise myself by taking on such a huge challenge," he said.

He was commissioned by the company's artistic director, David McAllister, and Pastor says while he appreciated McAllister's vision and courage, it took him a long time to be convinced.

He was "really scared" of Berlioz's music at first, even though he has choreographed to the music of such giants as Mozart, Wagner and Shostakovich.

"It's a big piece of music that is not easy to choreograph," he said of Symphonie Fantastique.

"I discussed with David the chance to do something else, but he persisted."

Now the choreography is finished, Pastor is glad that he took on the challenge.

"The company is inspiring to work with," he says in the ballet's Southbank canteen. "It was prepared to take a risk with such a big new commission and it has been a real pleasure working with the artists."

Symphonie Fantastique is half of the Destiny program which honours Massine, who rivalled George Balanchine as the world's greatest living choreographer before World War II.

It will accompany Massine's pioneering Les Presages which was the world's first symphonic ballet. Les Presages was choreographed to an abridged fifth symphony by Tchaikovsky accompanied by set and costumes designed by early surrealist painter Andre Masson.

It proved controversial, but was so popular on the Ballet Russes' Australian tours that it was performed more than 100 times.

Destiny is part of the Australian Ballet's continuing tribute to the impact made by the tours which brought contemporary art and music to Australia, often for the first time.

Pastor has never seen Massine's original 1936 choreography to Berlioz's music.

"This is not an homage. I started with a clean sheet, although I did follow the synopsis that Berlioz wrote to accompany his score."

The resulting work is a Gothic tale of opium, obsession, black magic and death.

Pastor says that each of the work's five movements are different, although dancers representing a male artist and his female muse appear in each.

But he says the work represents his response to the music rather than an attempt to illustrate Berlioz's synopsis. "For example, the last movement is called the Witches Sabbath and people today would laugh if witches appeared on stage."

Pastor left Poland in 1983 and has been resident choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet since 2003, after dancing with the company for a decade.

He stresses the company works within the legacy of classical dance, and is very different to contemporary companies such as the Pina Bausch group.

The dancers always wear shoes, for example, and the women dance en pointe.

Before Pastor arrived in Melbourne, his long-term collaborator, designer Tatyana van Walsum, visited the company to oversee the design process for the work, using mostly coloured projections.

Pastor has choreographed orchestral arrangements of operas such as Wagner's Tristan and Isolde and Mozart's Don Giovanni, as well as works by Stravinsky and Shostakovich. In 2000, he was awarded Poland's medal of merit.

The Australian Ballet's music director and chief conductor, Nicolette Fraillon, worked with him at the Dutch National Ballet in the 1990s and recommended him for the commission.

"I knew what a good job he did with Don Giovanni," said Fraillon. "There are few people in the world who could handle a job of such scale."

She knew that choreographing Symphonie Fantastique would require someone who could think about the structure of the work, as well as look after the narrative.

"Few people today understand the imperatives of the music," she said.

"I think Krzysztof is one, based on what I saw him do when we were at the Dutch National."

But she agreed he faced "an awesome task".

She said the project's aim is to introduce new choreography to the Australian public, just as the Ballets Russes' tours did.

Destiny is at the State Theatre from Thursday until September 10.

Bookings 1300 136 166.

© 2007 The Age

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