Les 4 Saisons is brilliantly performed and presented.
A giant mobile of oddly proportioned, childlike objects and meteorological ideograms slowly revolving overhead, and the beautiful lighting of a minimalist stage, creates a surrealist set for this fantastical celebration of Vivaldi's music and pure, joyful, unadulterated dance.
Twelve dancers - six male, six female - inhabit this
bright and magical space, in an interesting variety of body types and skin, and a range of gorgeous costumes.
The combined result is like peering into a giant and extravagant kaleidoscope of sparkling colour and intricate patterns of movement, folding and unfolding, seamlessly changing, hypnotically beautiful - and playful.
The opening ensemble for two men sees them in flesh-coloured underpants beneath clear plastic spacesuits, with the rest of the cast swirling and twirling naked beneath huge black cloaks. Then it is rainbow-bright T-shirts and brief shorts; bikinis, one scarlet, several luminescent lime green, and a set of sparkling white ones, accompanied by rattling wrist and ankle bands; trousers for a male duet with chair legs, hilariously attached; rubbery hooded body suits in that green again, which transform this band of talented movers into classic Martian figures, with huge black eyes.
Then there is the definite piece de resistance in the last scene, where two marvellously kinetic hedgehog-like creatures, possibly crossed with a giant sea anemone, make an undulating and frond-furling finale.
Les 4 Saisons is a brilliantly presented and performed collaboration between choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, and sculptor Fabrice Hyber, who has labelled his weird and wonderful props - that randomly descend from the mobile above - POFS. ("Prototypes d'Objets en Fonctionnement" or Prototypes of Functioning Objects).
POFS are his major tool in creating "chaosgraphy" or the signature of chaos, which he aligns with the unpredictable changes of weather, and colour and design is at least one half of Les 4 Saisons' artistic equation.
Free of the imposition of narrative and deep, dark meaning, the dancers instead pour 110 per cent of their energy into a zestful, warm-hearted and witty interpretation of the most familiar of all - but still splendid - violin concertos. The result is a vibrant, technically impressive and positive expression of the dancer's art - and humanity.
Review
What: Les 4 Saisons, AK07
Where and when: Ballet Preljocaj at the Aotea Centre, to March 18
Reviewer: Bernadette Rae
