Aurélie Dupont, Manuel Legris and Nicolas Le Riche in O zlozony / O composite by Trisha Brown / Photo credit: C.Leiber
Trisha Brown never ceases to expand the range and potential of her work. The endlessly innovative choreographer gracefully segued from experimental Judson Dance Theater pieces during the 1960s—in which dancers moved across roofs and along walls—into more presentational, large-scaled works designed for the proscenium. Along the way she collaborated with major visual artists and composers. More than a decade ago, she further expanded her scope when she began directing operas, in which her company members danced.
These days, she is also gaining recognition as a visual artist. She has been drawing for years, but only recently has she begun having exhibitions of her work. Her first New York solo exhibition opens May 9 at Sikkema Jenkins & Company in Chelsea.
One thing she had not done, until 2004, was to choreograph for members of a classical ballet company. When she took up that challenge, it was, fittingly, at the Paris Opera Ballet (POB). It’s a company that has, in recent years, welcomed a broad range of choreographers, and is located in a city where Brown, as with many of New York’s great choreographers, is highly venerated.
A celebratory retrospective of her early works took place last summer. Her company often performs in France, and that nation has showered her with honors, naming her to the elevated rank of Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Letters.
Brown’s major, wide-ranging program at BAM this week includes—along with a world premiere and two major revivals—performances of her POB work performed by the original, stellar cast: Aurélie Dupont, Manuel Legris and Nicolas LeRiche. All are leading “étoiles,” as the company’s top echelon is known. In addition to the fascinating opportunity to see how Brown choreographs when working with dancers whose training and experience are so different from those in her company, these performances of O zlozony/O composite give New Yorkers a rare glimpse of this celebrated troupe, which has not performed locally in years.
The 25-minute ballet reunites Brown with Laurie Anderson, who composed an original score incorporating texts by Czeslaw Milosz and Edna St. Vincent Millay. A haunting, semi-whispered text dominates the music for this luminously elegant trio, which Brown’s penchant for both intricate rigor and supple sensuality is artfully adapted to the dancers’ classical technique.
The day after arriving in New York, Legris spoke by phone from his Brooklyn hotel, in charmingly accented English, about working with Brown. “For me, it was a real new step in my career to work with her,” he said. “It’s another world. It’s really something very special.”
He explained that, rather than having Brown come to Paris to create the work, the three étoiles spent an intensive period in New York working with the choreographer. “I think it was a very good idea to work this way. When you come, and you are really in the world of the choreographer, it’s much better.
Brown devised an alphabet of movements and gestures based on the texts of the poems. Attempting to explain the process, Legris described it as “a translation of the poems with steps. It was a special language for the ballet. At the beginning we were not so secure. I lost all my reference points. At first it was more like mathématique,” he said. “But at the end, it made the opposite effect. It was so floating and so natural. Everything at the end fits together. I think that’s why this ballet is magical. So the construction was strange at the beginning, but very beautiful at the end. For me, it’s more relaxed—something quiet. On the other hand, it’s also difficult—but peaceful.”
Long a favorite with New York audiences—since the POB’s 1986 season here, during which Rudolf Nureyev announced his elevation to the rank of étoile from the Metropolitan Opera House stage—Legris has been one of POB’s most elegant classicists and subtle dramatic performers. These are likely to be his final appearances in New York City: In two weeks, he will give his farewell performance in Paris. He will, however, continue as a guest artist, with his home troupe and internationally.
Legris clearly returns the high regard in which local dancegoers have held him. “I always really enjoy dancing in New York. We are very happy to be here, for sure.”
April 29-May 3, BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, 718-636-4100; 7:30, $20-$45.
