Desh

Rosas Desh

It is hard, if not impossible, to understand classical Indian music without comprehending the word ‘raga’. This Sanskrit word means ‘colour’ and also ‘mood’. Indian music is based on a complex system of ragas. Each specific raga represents a strictly defined series of notes – one of which is a fixed keynote – and several specific melodic rules. Each raga alters the listener’s emotions by means of a clearly-defined mood. From the many hundreds of ragas traditionally handed down, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker chose ‘Raga Desh’ as the starting point for her new performance. She describes this raga as ‘harmonious’ and as expressing a feeling of balanced harmony and spiritual peace. The name ‘desh’ – which means something like ‘province’ or ‘nation’ (as in Bangladesh – the land of the Bengalis) indicates the rural or folkloric origin of this piece of music, which is traditionally played on romantic, nostalgic evenings at the start of the rainy season. Raga Desh is also often associated with the theme of missing one’s beloved. In De Keersmaeker’s case this raga is the occasion for a highly intimate choreography in which she shares the stage with Salva Sanchis and Marion Ballester. In recent years De Keersmaeker has regularly returned to a smaller format in which she can experiment with total freedom. She has improvised with Jonathan Burrows, created the duet For with Elizabeth Corbett, and danced Small Hands together with Cynthia Loemij. In Desh De Keersmaeker shares her choreographic responsibilities with Salva Sanchis. This ex-PARTS student has made a name for himself as an expressive improviser, but above all as a choreographer. Now he is appearing as a co-choreographer alongside De Keersmaeker. Each composed one basic phrase; together they form the foundation of the entire choreographic work. Marion Ballester also played an indispensable part in the genesis of Desh. This French dancer, who until 1997 was a member of Rosas, had previously been involved in the creation of the solo Once. ‘Marion is the perfect sounding-board,’ says De Keersmaeker, ‘She helps me answer the questions I ask myself.’ Ballester says, ‘I help her create a new vocabulary; I help her give birth.’

The choreographic vocabulary in Desh is first revealed in the opening duet. Accompanied by the sound of Raga Desh (sung by Ustad Sayeeduddin Dagar), De Keersmaeker and Ballester dance the two basic phrases. They show the vocabulary, in fragile dancing that is not quite in unison: occasionally they dance together, but more often they dance not quite together, which gives rise to short canons. This results in solo passages with a sort of ‘shadow’ behind them; the dance phrases are shown against a background of the same elements, in matching tones. Later, in the core of the performance, the same material is shown in a trio formation. On Indian percussion, the dancers explore the rhythmic potential of the Desh vocabulary. In the final part the choreography is rounded off and summarised. Ballester and De Keersmaeker are here playing with the time dimension. Movements are slowed down and speeded up, and sometimes simply reversed in time, and danced back to front.

In between there are two solos. De Keersmaeker dances the first, set to a musical duet by the legendary flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia and his son Rakesh. She created some parts of this solo herself, while other parts were choreographed by Salva Sanchis. This is very unusual indeed; for years De Keersmaeker danced only her own work, but now she is ready to perform material written for her by someone else. The second solo was choreographed and danced by Salva Sanchis, to John Coltrane’s India. Coltrane’s growing interest in world music led him, among other things, to the India ragas, and in 1961 he recorded India. By limiting himself to a single chord he succeeded in creating an Indian “mood”. The choice made in Desh, for a combination of jazz and Indian music, fits perfectly into the course presently being taken by Rosas. Last season the music of Miles Davis provided the basis for Bitches Brew / Tacoma Narrows, and later this season Coltrane’s music and Indian ragas will once again be juxtaposed in A Love Supreme / Raga for the Rainy Season. The constant in this coalition De Keersmaeker is entering into with jazz and Indian music is the passion for improvisation. Just like jazz, traditional Indian music is never written down in full. The musician does not play a melody provided beforehand but concentrates entirely on the mood of the raga, searching for suitable nuances in order to accurately express this mood at that very instant. The same applies to the dance solos in Desh: the structure and the vocabulary are fixed, but the text is improvised. The fixed parameters open up a space within which one can seek out the right colours and shades.

The stage designer Jan Joris Lamers added a gentle orange to the intimate mood of Desh – the colour that had several years previously also dominated the stage setting of Drumming. In Desh the dance floor is covered in a fine coating of orange clay. The glow of the stage combines with the orange in De Keersmaeker and Ballester’s dresses. These costumes, which make the female dancers both fragile and elegant, were designed by Anke Loh. De Keersmaeker appreciates the contrast between strict formality and the unmistakable presence of narrative or theatrical elements that is found in Loh’s work. And this is ultimately what Desh is all about. Behind the formal movements a constant desire shows itself to give emotional colour to the movements with the aid of well-chosen looks, minor hand movements and other details. Again and again one sees the obstinacy with which de Keersmaeker tries to make the movements expressive, and to communicate with her audience by means of formal grammar and spatial patterns. ‘Ultimately I always see it as telling a story. It is always about communication.’

Raf Geenens

ROSAS

11.09.2010: http://www.rosas.be