Dancing with
myself: Mark Haim’s The
Goldberg Variations at On the
Boards
By
Julia Voss
Mark
Haim
The Goldberg
Variations,
composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
as a set of 30 pleasant-sounding
variations for accomplished piano
students to practice on. A
variation is a repetition
of a musical
composition with changes in
harmony, melody, counterpoint,
rhythm, timbre, or orchestration.
Haim
first conceived of his Goldberg
Variations project while
studying at Julliard when he heard
the piece of the first time.
From the beginning,
Haim planned to choreograph The
Goldberg Variations as a solo
performance. However, the piece is
over 80 minutes long, far too long
for one dancer to perform without
breaks, which would ruin the
continuity of the composition.
In designing The
Goldberg Variations, Haim
dealt with this problem by
choreographing the piece as a
corporate solo: he divided the
solos among a troupe of dancers,
preserving the integrity of the
concept while giving the dancer
the rest they needed to perform
well.
The result was a
labor of love for Haim decades in
the making, which, if the
well-received Saturday performance
I saw was any indication, was
worth the wait. Each of the solo
is distinctive, but they retained
an underpinning concept reflected
not only in the dancing, but also
in the set design and costuming.
True to the origins
of The Goldberg Variations,
the dancers acted as if the
purpose of each solo was to test
out their body’s range of motion.
They were practicing on
stage. The entire show unfolded as
if the audience wasn’t there, with
the dancers just focusing on their
own movements and bodies. It was
amazing, like being granted a
window into the life of dancer.
“Want to see how dancers work and
how choreographers create
performances?” Haim seemed to be
saying.
Haim shows you what
you’d see: the dancers wore plain,
work-out clothing, like in
Flashdance and Center Stage;
the stage was completely bare,
like the studios in All That
Jazz and Save the Last
Dance. The routines, just as
in Bach’s musical Variations,
were tests or exercises. The
dancer would perform the same move
repetitively, changing angles or
timing, watching his or her body
move critically to see which
variation worked the best.
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2006 All content property of European Weekly unless where otherwise
accredited
