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Monday, May 5, 2014

In Context: Lyon Opera Ballet

Photo by Michel Cavalca

The Lyon Opera Ballet performs Christian Rizzo's ni fleurs, ni ford-mustang at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House from May 7—9. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles, videos, and original blog pieces related to the show. For those of you who've already seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.



On the Blog


Christian Rizzo’s Quiet Daring (BAM Blog)
ni fleurs, ni ford-mustang is a continuation of my work on obsessions,” says Rizzo.

Christian Rizzo on Love, Doubt, and David Bowie (BAM Blog)
What does it mean, as Rimbaud asked, to be “truly modern?” Rizzo ponders this and more.

Red Shoes: from Louis XIV to Christian Rizzo
A look at red shoes in history, art, and pop culture, inspired by ni fleurs, ni ford-mustang.


Around the Web


A Surreal Dream, Dark and Deeply Melancholy (The New York Times)
"Their precision was virtuosic." A review of ni fleurs, ni ford-mustang.

An Artist’s New York Moment (The New York Times)
Yorgos Loukos of Lyon Opera Ballet on Christian Rizzo: "He has a very specific and personal concept of the space, and how it works."

DANSE: A French-American Festival of Performance & Ideas (FrenchCulture.org)
Lyon Opera Ballet appears as part of this festival organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy from May 1—18.

A Choreographic Cross-Pollination (The New York Times)
A preview of the citywide DANSE festival.

Interview: “Christian Rizzo in Conversation with John Jasperse” (MovementResearch.org)
The two choreographers discuss the formal vs the conceptual, dances as diary entries, and much more.


Now your turn...


So what's your verdict? Once you've seen the show, tell us what you thought about the performance, the costumes, or anything else that might be on your mind in the comments below.

57 comments:

  1. By far, the worst piece of euro-trash I have ever seen at BAM. Fifty minutes of monotony. How could you present such rubbish. Your curator should be demoted, tortured and then fired.

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  2. The worst modern dance worst I have ever seen. And I have seen a lot all around the Globe! Nul comme tout! Nul!

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  3. Sometimes a program is not to my taste, or sometimes I don't get it. But the entire audience could not wait for this piece to end. Hardly any applause, no curtain calls. I felt sorry for the dancers. How could you present this in good conscience? BAM should refund the ticket price. I think it will be difficult to attract audiences after this presentation. We expect better from BAM.

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  4. Quite frankly, one of the worst shows I've ever seen in my life. Absolutely, Unforgivably pretentious. Thoroughly uninteresting and an insult to the audience. BAM should be ashamed of itself for putting on such a show and frankly should really refund all of us our money.

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  5. Death was long, boring and with no dance aesthetic. Well, perhaps a reference to a bad yoga class, which one does not need to pay to see. Only after all dancers were beings of light did the peice take off. But alas that was only the last 5 minutes, you lost your audience about 10 minutes into the piece. We have been BAM fans for 30 years now and enjoy dance all over the world. This performance was very disappointing. BAM we expect so much more from your programing.

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  6. I must respectfully disagree with my fellow patrons of BAM. This evening's performance was sublime. I, too, felt discomfort from the weight and pace of the dancers movements - it is not an easy thing to move slowly and deliberately in space - but I appreciated this unease as an integral part of the experience. For me, the piece resonates as a bold counter statement to our frenzied times and a reflection on how we numb ourselves to the realities of life, death and going home though our attachment to the almighty Screens of our devices that have taken deep hold of our collective consciousness. This may not be at all what the artists intended but I think the piece works so well because the rich visual vocabulary allows for multi-layered interpretations. It is a piece made of and from the haunting score. Bravo BAM for keeping us on the edge of our seats!

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    1. If only the company had moved slowly and deliberately through space - they spent more time lying still on the floor.

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    2. I hope this is intended as comic relief and a tongue in cheek review. Query: are you really that pseudo?

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    3. The performance exhibited the worst excesses of "conceptual art" - no skill, no grace, no emotion except boredom, dread and ennui. How can you ask trained, committed dancers to literally "not dance" for 95% of a piece and call it dance? It was the triumph of a banal idea replacing art - it was anti-art. I can't remember the last time I heard booing at a dance recital. Beyond disappointing.

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  7. After the first 5 minutes, I gave my verdict: "This isn't going to get better" and dozed off. What a difference between Rizzo's and Maguy Marin's choreography (Coppelia) for the Lyons Ballet. A tragic waste of time (ours) and talent (theirs). You have had misses in the past two seasons but this ranks with the worst. Who booked it?

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  8. To the person who liked the show, I applaud your ability to find worth in that performance, but I believe everything you note you brought and I would guess you could find as much of worth watching any New York City street.

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  9. Captivating show. Clearly not to the liking of mainstream American audience, it was a daring piece of are with beautiful, graceful and touching moment.

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  10. Apparently I'm in the minority (and thankfully not in the mainstream). Brilliant all around and very much in keeping with the mission of BAM. Edgy. Raw. Contemplative. And very very sexy!

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  11. To my taste, the piece was certainly not what the philistines above (probably still raving about watching Swan Lake or Mark Morris or Alvin Ailey or similar 'dance' which is neither modern nor even remotely beautiful or interesting) make it sound like; but I too found myself hoping over and over that something would prompt more than glimpses into what the dancers clearly were able to do. Expect it to be a mood piece: supported by dark, industrial, hammering music, you watch something...dark and might get sucked into that mood if you're the type; but there's only about 5 minutes of actual dancing.

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    1. Pray tell, sir, whom are we allowed to like?

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  12. You can point to American audiences or mainstream all you want. You paid money to watch dancers walk in slow motion instead of dancing.
    Pretentious is as pretentious does.

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  13. I have been going to BAM for 30 years. I have seen many performances that crossed the line between dance and performance art, that transcended traditional notions of what dance is 'supposed to' be, that were modern, that were minimalist, that disturbed, that fell short, that pushed me to redefine my taste. I do not judge last night for failing to deliver 50 minutes of 'dance.' I do not fail it for being different. My disappointment comes from its failure to move or inspire me in any way, in any direction. There were moments, particular movements or images that worked for me. But a handful of such moments was not nearly enough. I did not clap at the end. I have never done that before. BAM should continually push the boundaries and invite its audiences to do the same, however in my mind this was a clear miss.

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    1. Yes, and nicely said. I also didn't clap, wasn't hesitant not to, and have never done that at BAM in 25+ years. That's called disappointment both in the performance and in the programming. That said, I wouldn't want BAM to stop reaching either.

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    2. I actually booed, and I've never done that before. I was not alone.

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  14. The piece was awful. Attempts at decrying the audience as "mainstream American" or "Philistine" are absurd. You defend a piece on its merits, not by blaming an audience for not getting it. This mindset elevates anything that is edgy or difficult as being worthwhile simply because it is those things. Not even close. BAM audiences (myself included) appreciate edgy, outside of the mainstream pieces, but they still have to work. This piece seemed to have no interest in connecting with an audience.

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  15. Walking out of the theater tonight I listened to comments. Not one person enjoyed it. You should be ashamed of yourself, BAM, presenting this type of material. Fire your program manager, and quickly before you lose your audience. It has no artistic merit at all and if this is the type of "art" you want to showcase, beware!!!

    This is without a doubt the worst thing I have ever seen, anywhere!!!

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  16. I love it! Sensual and alluring show. A daring piece of brilliance and beauty. Clearly not easy to digest by most...

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  17. I agree with most of the people above this was one of the worst performances i have seen .
    BAM you should be ashamed of yourself for presenting this kind of material .

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  18. I enjoyed this piece although it took me a good 10+ minutes to settle in to its deliberate rhythms. At that point I locked into my meditation practice and past pieces I've seen by Japanese geniuses Eiko & Koma (at BAM and elsewhere). The end of the piece was absolutely thrilling but I agree with many comments above -- if you are going to offer it, give us more to feast on. All in all kudos to BAM for keeping us challenged towards the end of an otherwise easy and enjoyable season.

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  19. This was probably the worst performance we have seen in the past 15 years at BAM. "Contextual" and "challenging" are fine, but having dancers wander around the stage for 45 minutes, before 5 minutes of actual dance, is not a good mix.

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  20. Derivative and unnecessary. I fell asleep and laughed out loud at the end. Goodness, why bother? And to have the tall Black male dancer put on a mask and do pseudo-African movements was insulting and bordered on racist. The conclusion looked like something out of Star Wars. I did, however, find the music compelling.

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  21. a great disappointment in every respect. I also note a troublesome tendency at BAM to shorten dance events. in the old days there would have been an intermission and a second shorter work. at least then maybe we would understand what is so hot about mr Rizzo which was certainly not obvious from the work presented. And the lyon ballet is so good. one of the worst presentations at BAM in a long time.

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  22. Awful, boring and ruined my date night. The only thing that could have made it better was if the animal carcass woke up and walked off with a pair of those ruby slippers.

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    1. Maybe that animal had been forced to sit through several of these performances and decided to drop dead in order to avoid sitting through another!

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    2. Love it...not the performance but the wit of the above replies.

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  23. I love going to dance performances at BAM and the one aspect of this one that didn't make me totally miffed about the money I spent was seeing the disgusted looks on people's faces as they huffed out during the light applause. The dancers were clearly able to do amazing things and the costumes at the very end for those 2 minutes of dance were phenomenal in the light, but otherwise this was the most forgettable piece I've seen in NYC. Even if I don't "get" the more avant garde pieces, I feel like they were interesting or "good weird", but not this one.

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  24. Probably the most excruciating piece I have ever seen at BAM. Fortunately I was able to fall asleep. I would wake occasionally and see that nothing had changed. The last five minutes was very good - but certainly not worth waiting for. I don't always like everything I see at BAM - but I always feel that it was worthwhile. THIS WAS NOT.

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  25. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/09/arts/dance/lyon-opera-ballet-dances-a-work-by-christian-rizzo.html?ref=dance

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  26. Jaw-droppingly pretentious, empty and boring. Having suffered through this and Aurelien Bory's "Sans Objet," I am swearing off dance at BAM forever.

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  27. I cannot believe the time and money spent by me and by you on this pretentious piece.
    This is not avant garde or modern or comtemporary. This is absolute crap.
    I fetl quite sorry for the misuse or underuse of dancers of such pedigree. You could have had a company of amateur actors doing this piece for all it was.
    I will not renew a susbcription again. I will just buy single tickets to whatever I really want to see, even if I have to wait a bit longer to purchase tickets.
    With the charming but childish, sophomoric and lazy production of Rossellini's bug show and now this, I am truly disappointed with BAM.
    Who is the programming executive or curator of your shows?
    I used to see incredibly interesting theatre, dance and music before.
    Oh well, you lost one subscriber here. Lincoln Center has begun to be much more exciting lately. Has your old programming director moved to Manhattan, perhaps?

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  28. Pretentious and tedious. I have a very open mind, but this emperor is buck naked. Please BAM administrators, not everything a European company or director comes up with is worth presenting. Your audience is very sophisticated; we are not give you a blank check for the dull and lazy conceptual work.

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  29. I do not belong to the mainstream American audience but I felt embarrassed to be French tonight. Christian Risso was neither inspired nor inspiring... it was extremely disappointing... et tellement pretentieux!

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  30. I was going to come on here to share my opinion with BAM about tonight's performance, but it looks like I don't need to. Yes, it was THAT bad, and apparently everyone else thought so too. I am a member of BAM, and yes, this is the worst experience I have ever here. I felt cheated and embarrassed all at the same time. Usually I feel pretty confident buying tickets to BAM for a show I may not be familiar with because I trust the curator's taste. Not so much anymore...

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  32. It's interesting to look at the photos that were released to the press to market this performance. A fair number of them suggest a kind of hyper-kinesis – frenzied movement in long exposure, a single performer's legs extending skyward as if lunging in front of her, even the photo above which is captured several stops brighter than any moment of the actual show – that only materialized in the final seconds of the piece. It feels almost like whoever's in charge of promoting these events at BAM is willfully deceiving the audience. With Hofesh Schechter's "Sun," for instance, the gorgeous trailer on BAM's website suggested a brightly lit space with contemplative music, while the actual show provided almost none of either.

    Only incompetence or, again, a sort of deliberate, cynical manipulation could lead someone responsible for conveying what a performance is about so far from the reality of the thing itself. As for the show, "ni fleurs" hardly counts as dance. It's like staring at row upon row of Ferraris in a parking lot – the promise of gorgeous, powerful movement is there, but constrained by the context in which they rest, it never happens. I too can lounge about on the floor and occasionally stand up to adjust my surroundings, only I call that Sunday morning and don't charge admission if anyone wants to see it. As a proud supporter of BAM, this one was a real let-down.

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  33. I thought it was fun, a mystery with clues that dropped slowly. I only wish someone had put on a pair of those red shoes. If all BAM did was program Mark Morris performances, it wouldn't be a very interesting place.

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  34. Never before have I seen people of the audience filing out during a performance at BAM. What a waste of time.

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  35. I felt sorry for the dancers when the curtain call came. It was obvious to me when I watched them move during the performance that they were talented. I may be in the minority, but I was intrigued by the slow, deliberate movements and the anxiety that these movements — along with the industrial music — provoked. It must be very difficult to move so slowly and so gracefully with such precision. The masks and the costuming were compelling as well. If there was a concept, however, I could not find one. Nor could I find any mention of a concept in the program. Overall, the piece fell flat and will not be one of the more memorable evenings I have had at BAM. It felt like being at a dance version of a there without a there.

    I like it when I occasionally meet up with a piece of work that does not resonate with me when I attend my BAM performances. I am not giving BAM free license to present shoddy work, but I expect BAM to go out on a limb and take risks. The inevitable result of this is that some performances will not be as well received as others. I am not a dancer but I am a devoted BAM audience member and have seen a lot of dance performances. I would be curious to hear from actual dancers and to know their thoughts on Lyon Opera Ballet's piece.

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  36. Terrible show, a huge waste of time and money for us, and a waste of talent for the dancers.What was BAM thinking? No one in the audience was happy, and some were downright pissed. Was really looking forward to a great date night, will need to plan a redo, but not at BAM.

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  37. As I sat there, I honestly wondered if anyone in the audience was enjoyng it. Kind of insulting, actually, to have been lured in by a dynamic photo of the company that looked as if they were really dancing only to have to sit through almost of hour of what looked like a yoga class gone rogue followed by people dragging limp bodies from Pont A to Point B. Did anyone at BAM preview this piece? Yes, your audience is adventurous, but we're not idiots. This was a huge waste of money and time. If there was one redeeming characteristic of the event, it's that it was less than an hour.

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  38. I felt snookered. There should have been more of an indication that this was "performance" art rather than dance. It is hard to believe that this was representative of the best of the Lyon Opera ballet and contemporary French dance.

    Programming for the spring season was very weak this year, which was partly how I got Lyon Opera to complete a four performance subscription. Hope it is better in 2015.

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  39. I really wanted to like this performance, but I can't say that I did. I didn't need a linear plot, but this was a bit much. I could have spent my money on much more fulfilling performances, but I suppose that is the risk you take with attending performances like these. Sometimes they are wonderful and sometimes they are, well, like this.

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  40. I was ready to gag myself with the femur bone of that cheesy skeleton, poke my eyes out with the glitter pumps - all 20 pairs - and microwave their wigs into a soup for the choreographer's reception. If this is is the kind of response Christian Rizzo was intending to elicit, then he succeeded. Experimental, risky, body-based performance is my life-long passion, and I can only congratulate Mr. Rizzo for showing me that a work this pretentious and insulting can actually make it all the way to the BAM Opera house . . . or actually, for showing me this entirely new dimension of BAD, no mater what the venue. Yes, the Emperor is buck naked with toilet paper stuck to his butt.
    I would like a refund. I would like a complimentary ticket to a future performance with the capacity to restore my faith in the decisions of the curators. I would like to think that crucial audiences for true innovators are not getting annihilated by exposure to this piece.

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    1. . . .and I would like to think that if the Empress were buck naked with toilet paper stuck to HER butt, BAM would be just as willing to present the bullish*t from a female choreographer.

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  41. "The food is awful...and such small portions!" goes an old Jewish joke. Well, next to nothing happened and it was too dark, most of the time, to see it. I could probably have worked with the nothing if the lighting had been a little more generous. As it was, I napped through about half of it. But the cheese and cookies at the reception were sublime.....

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  42. This was a night of many first for me...the first time I wanted to cuss out loud at a performance and performers, the first time I saw someone using a cell phone (I guess looking for a review of the performance to justify his being there. He was not told by the ushers to put the phone away. They probably felt he was calling for help.), I napped; perhaps snored which would have gone un-noticed considering the ear-splitting dirge that the dancers were slugging through, and finally when they were done I didn't applaud. I saw nothing to applaud to. I was confused as to the why of the performance. I wondered what the was being 'served' when this was conceptualized and then...then...I was excited. Why? It all stopped. At first I though, "Intermission? Dear God please don't let it be intermission! My prayer was immediately answered. It wasn't intermission. This assault of my senses was over. It was over! It's my deepest hope that this group is never, ever (Taylor Swift voice) ever invited back to BAM unless its to watch another dance group do what they failed to do...dance!

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  43. glad I'm not the only one that hated it

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  44. I was seriously disappointed in Lyon Opera Ballet. It was boring on every level, and not particularly creative. I am a musician and an aficionado of modern dance, nevertheless, I can't report anything positive about the experience.

    The marketing for this event was deceptive, and that is EXTREMELY dangerous in this climate of dwindling support for the arts. You are likely to turn off a very fragile audience who will never come back.

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