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I ~ /\ IVI bill Contents April 2003 A Cinderella Story 6 Choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot brings his unique sensibility to the classic fairy tale. By Jon To/ansky Th e Rites Stuff 10 BAM 's "Dance Africa" festival continues to march to its own distinct drummer, with works from all over the world . By Lesley Alexander Le s Boreades 38 After 240 years , Jean-Philippe Rameau's rarely seen 18th-century opera, "Les Boreades ," finally makes it to American shores. By Ellen Lampert-Greaux The It List 4 Prog ram 21 Th e Movies 25 Upco ming Events Top: Muntu Dancers. Photo: Kwabena Shabu 35 Bottom: William Christie BAMdi rectory 38 Co\/pr Arti,t Cecily Brown was born in 1969 in London. She earned a BA in Fine Arts at the Slade School of Art, and a B-TEC Diploma in Art and Design at Epsom School of Art in Surrey, England. Brown is represented by Gagosian Gallery (New York and Los Angeles), where she has had annual solo exhibitions since 1999. Her work has been featured in solo shows at Victoria Miro Gallery (London), Contemporary Fine Arts (Berlin), and Deitch Projects (New York). Brown has participated in a number of group shows at locations including Museum fur Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt am Main); Center Cecily Brown on Contemporary Art, Seattle; P. S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Figure in a Landscape, 2002 Island City, NY; Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Jessica Fredericks Oil on linen, 80" x 80" Gallery, and David Zwirner Gallery (New York City), among others. Courtesy of Robert McKeeever/ Brown's short animated film , Four Letter Heaven , premiered at the Gagosian Gallery Telluride Film Festival. Her work is in public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York) , Albright-Knox For BAMart information, Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY), and The Tate Gallery (London), and is contact Monika Wunderer at the subject of several books and catalogues, including essays 718.636.4174 x8 or by Klaus Kertess and Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen. Brown's first [email protected] museum solo exhibition will take place at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC . Her new work will be shown at a solo exhibition at Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, in early spring this year. 3 A Cinderella StorY By Jon Tolansky also the centerpiece of Monaco Takes New York, a celebration of the principality that In 1993 Princess Caroline of Hanover invited takes place here from April 28-May 3. a charismatic and imaginative young chore­ ographer to become the new Director of the Maillot's quest to blend fantasy and reality is Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the descendant of realized both through his interpretations of Serge Diaghilev's legendary Ballet Russes de ballet scenarios and his general approach to Monte-Carlo. It did not take long for Jean­ dance movement. In particular, his produc­ Christophe Maillot to bring the company tions of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella have major international success with his bold new radically reconsidered the ballet's traditiOnal artistic agenda and the high technical level of fairy-tale elements. In these works, Maillot the ensemble under his direction. seeks to create a deeper experience than some of his colleagues. Maillot is fundamentally preoccupied with the relationship between the past and today. In "It is much harder to give a dramatic dimen­ many of his own creations and also in some sion and a really interesting level of experi­ of the works of the distinguished guest ence in Cinderella than it is in Romeo and choreographers he has invited to the Juliet because there is no Shakespeare," he Company- William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, admits. "So most of the time this ballet has The forms and aesthetic codes have changed, but I don't see any difference in the human emotions of the time of Napoleon and those of 2003. Lucinda Childs, and Jacopo Godani-there been shown as a caricature, for instance as it has often been a discreet fusion of tradition is with those two big ugly sisters in the and experimentation. Ashton version, taken by men. That combination will be on display when his "But you know there is a dramatic dimension production of Cinderella (Cendrillon), set to in Cinderella. That poor girl has to face a the music of Sergei Prokofiev, comes to BAM new mother. And that is happening allover from April 29-May 3 , with a special gala the world all the time, especially in Europe performance on opening night. Cinderella is where two out of every five marriages break 6 A Cinderella StorY up. This re-composition of the family unit is very important," he adds. "In my production of Cinderella I have wanted to keep the double level: the duality of the magical fantasy and the disturbing reality." In short, his ballet is not exactly Disney-esque -and that is just how Maillot wants it. "I hope this does not upset anyone, but Walt Disney, although he was a genius, was a huge pollution for the world-in the way that great geniuses are always a pollution. People want to copy achievers. With me it is the opposite. No matter how much I like something, how much I am inspired by it, I like to go away from it so that I can find myself," he says. "If you say 'Cinderella' to most people, they will say or think 'Walt Disney' and in ballet terms that means divertissement. If you go to see it and you just want to enjoy yourself ~ watching a nice show, you certainly can . But if !!! ~ you want to read further and have another a kind of experience, you also can do so ," he that guy, or else .. .', then she would take her continues. "That is always the way I like to bike and leave home. " present dance and it's also how I like to live. With a friend, one moment I like to have a While circumstances and mores may have good relaxing time with cheese and wine and changed , admits Maillot, audiences still talk about the weather, and five minutes later I respond to the basics, whether it be a six­ like to have a searching reflection on life. I teenth-, eighteenth-, or 20th-century story. give both these levels in my work. I do believe "The forms and aesthetic codes have changed, every human being is made this way-it is but I don't see any difference in the human nothing exceptional. " emotions of the time of Napoleon and those of 2003," he notes. "It's an obsession with me to In his productions of great classical ballets, give a theatrical reality to audiences so that Maillot has often maintained the historical they see something on stage they can identify period in the staging and yet simultaneously with in the here and now, and yet when they made contemporary style innovations in the leave the theater they know they have seen manner of dancing and acting. "If you want to something different from the past." _ make a story of the eighteenth century realistic for today's dance audiences, I do not believe it Jean-Christophe Maillot will speak at BAM is a solution to displace it in time. Jerome Rose Cinemas on May 1, preceding the Robbins brought the theme of Romeo and performance of Cinderell a. Juliet forward wonderfully by creating a totally new scenario with new music in West Side Jon Tolansky is an arts and entertainment Story," he says. "But when you stage writer based in London. His in terview with Prokofiev'S Romeo and Juliet, based on Jean-Christophe Maillot will be broadcast on Sha kespeare's original play, it is far less the WQXR radio series, Making Music in straightforward making it work for today. My Monaco, this spring daughter is called Juliet and she is sixteen years old . If I were to tell her 'you must marry 7 DanceAfrica 2003 The Rites Stuff "We come together and show respect for one another because we are preserving the By Lesley Alexander traditions born in Africa and spread throughout the Diaspora," explains "Baba" Chuck Davis, Imagine a rainbow of colorful costumes and the festival's founder and artistic director. elaborate headpieces. Bodies sway to the "When you go out to a village in Africa, dance rhythms of distant drums from a far-off land, comes from the community." moving with acrobatic gyrations and pounding feet, culminating in a joyous outpouring of Davis knows whereof he speaks. He founded affection. There are shouts of "Agoo" (attention) the Chuck Davis Dance Company in 1967 in from the stage and "Amee" (I'm listening) from New York and went on to create the African the rapt crowd in one of the languages of American Dance Ensemble in Durham, North Ghana , West Africa. Carolina in 1982. Equally important, Davis has traveled extensively throughout the world Fortunately, there is no need to just imagine. searching for authentic African dance, folklore, These elements are all part of DanceAfrica and traditions. Many of the dancers he dis­ 2003, Rhythmic Rites and Rituals: Connecting covered along the way have been invited to Cultural Borders, to be held at BAM 's Howard participate in DanceAfrica festivals throughout Gilman Opera House from May 23-25. the years. This year 's festival , sponsored by AT&T, Morgan One such company, appearing in this year's Stanley, and Con Edison, continues a 26-year festival, is the Resurrection Dance Theater of tradition of African and African-American dance Haiti, a troupe of young men (ages nine to 26) performances at BAM , and includes other from the St.

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