A Pukish Spirit

One of the most memorable highlights At Bangkok's 5th "International Festival of Dance and Music" was the Zurich Ballet's "Goldberg Variations" - a pure dance ballet inspired by JS Bach's composition. Now, four years later, the critically acclaimed company is all set to thrill Thai audiences again with a dramatic ballet and one of their largest productions to date, William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

"Mr JS Uberoi [president of International Cultural Promotions] asked for a story ballet. He wanted something different from what the other companies were presenting," says Heinz Spoerli, who's been the Company's artistic director since 1996.

"This production is really quite different because it plays on three different levels - reality, dream, and dream within a dream. First, there's the reality during which the stage hands, performed by [professional] actors, are preparing the stage. After that, we have ballet dancers preparing for the show. Then, once they clear the stage as the rehearsal finishes, one actor starts to dream of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' - he's the donkey dancer, Bottom. He goes through the whole show and at the end wakes up where he's fallen asleep and wonders whether it was all a dream."

"Originally I tried giving the acting parts to dancers but the younger ones weren't good enough with theatrical expression: It was pantomime. But now, with professional stage actors, we talk. The contrast between dancers and actors works very well."

This bold version of "Dream" has been presented in Helsinki with the help of Finnish actors, in Lisbon with Portuguese actors, and in Athens with Greek actors. Bangkok audiences will be watching British actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company deliver Shakespeare'soriginal lines, with Thai translations provided on side screens.

Apart from the acting experiments, Spoerli has also made changes to the music. In the traditional version of this ballet, only Mendelssohn's compositions are used.

"I think [Felix] Mendelssohn is a very fine composer, but when you have a whole evening of the same music, it tends to dominate. [In this production], I have oppositions between reality and dream, and all the compositions [Mendelssohn's, Steve Reich's, and Philip Glass's] come together without killing one another."

Spoerli is delighted that the Ekatarinburg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Tuggle will be accompanying his dancers.

"It's wonderful that we have live music at this festival because it adds so many dimensions to the ballet. I have a source who tells me that the [Ekatarinburg Symphony] Orchestra is very good and the dancers from the National Ballet of Portugal confirm that, so I'm not worried."

Spoerli firmly believes that classical ballets should never be "museum pieces", a conviction his "Dream" will set out to prove. And despite his frequent creations of new abstract works, he confirms, "I'm still working in the field of classical ballet. At the end [of "Dream"], when Philip Glass's [30-minute] Violin Concerto is performed, audiences will understand that dance can still bring dream alive and carry a story to its proper denouement. That makes it very interesting."

Of course, what's most important about a ballet company is neither the production concept nor the music, but the dancers.

"I have 54 dancers from 26 nations in the company. I have stars, but really the whole company is my star," says Spoerli, who is recognised as one of Europe's leading choreographers.

During auditions, apart from dance skills and body physique, Spoerli always considers "whether the dancers can fit into the system of the whole company and whether they are comfortable with one another.

"That's very important for a company that travels as much as ours. It's not that we go [on a tour] for several weeks [in a row], but that we go so many times a year. That's why they have to be prepared to be in different situations."

Thai audiences can rest assured that Spoerli's "Dream" will match their highest expectations of the piece.

"Reactions have been very positive to the action moving back and forth between a ballet and a theatre piece, [perhaps surprising many ballet aficionados]. We've had very good reviews and that's why it has been performed about 200 times [since its premiere in 1992]."

After two performances of "Dream" in Bangkok, Spoerli, who's apparently fallen in love with our Land of Smiles, will take his whole company to Phuket for a short vacation.

Afterwards, the 36 dancers will fly to the Merlion City to join the "da:ns 2007" festival, where they'll perform new abstract ballet "Cello Suites: Wind in the Void", again inspired by Bach's music.

"He's one of the most perfect composers. His music works all the time and it can be played in any context - classical or contemporary. Although this ['Wind in the Void'] is the second part of the 'Cello Suites' [he used the three elements earth, water, and fire in the first], it's a complete piece in itself. The set is not as big as that of 'Dream' so we can handle the two productions - which are after all just four days apart - without too much trouble."

"This art changes every day. That's what's interesting about the dance world today.

"Today, there are thousands of people dancing many different styles. That's why we want to be part of the international scene so we can see what's going on.

"Dance has no language barriers so you can bring it across the world."

And luckily for us, Heinz Spoerli has brought the Zurich Ballet to this part of the world.

Presented by the Embassy of Switzerland, Zurich Ballet performs "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Thailand Cultural Centre tonight at 7:30pm and tomorrow at 2:30pm.

As part of the Esplanade's "da:ns 2007" festival, Zurich Ballet will make their Singapore debut with "Cello Suites: Wind in the Void" next Thursday and Friday at the Esplanade Theatre.

Special thanks to Egasith Chotpakditrakul, president of Media Transasia Thailand, for his help in arranging this exclusive interview.

The writer can be contacted at Pawit.M@chula.ac.th.

Pawit Mahasarinand

 The Nation