Steered by Tragic Power

The Leipziger Ballett dancing to Beethoven’s 7th Symphony during the Triumph des Tanzes at the St. Pölten Festpielhaus - Photo:

“I need the gaiety of Mozart, his beauty, his objectivity and his melancholy,” wrote choreographer Uwe Scholz of Mozart’s Piano Concerto E-flat major, KV 271, “…not steered by any sort of narcissism, but by a tragic power.”

Scholz’s choreography of the Piano Concerto was presented by the Leipzig Ballet Jun. 6 at the Festspielhaus in St. Pölten, accompanied by pianist Wolfgang Manz and the in-house orchestra, the Tonkünstler of Lower Austria. The evening, entitled “Triumph des Tanzes,” was indeed a triumph of deep visual beauty and emotional impact.

Uwe Scholz’s description of Mozart could as well describe his own work: gay, beautiful, objective, melancholic. And tragically powerful. The program did not promise anything particularly new: a Mozart piano concerto and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. But the brilliant choreography by Scholz not only reflected a radiant mind – musical and eloquent, flirtatious and witty, exuberant and captivating – it reawakened the impact of Mozart and Beethoven, the strength in their compositions that we intuitively still hear but have long relegated to the humdrum.

The piano concerto long known as Jeunehomme now bears the corrected title Jenamy and was composed in 1777 for Louise Victoire Jenamy, pianist and daughter of Jean Georges Noverre, a famous dancer and ballet master from Paris who sojourned in Vienna at the time. Is it merely a coincidence that Uwe Scholz chose this concerto, composed for the daughter of a dancer?

And Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, of all nine symphonies perhaps the most dance-like, the one that the (in)famous Isadora Duncan, the “mother of modern dance” and one of the first to render concert classical music in movement, chose for one of her daring, revolutionary improvisations that defied the rigidity of the late Victorian age.

Scholz studied dance from the age of four, but as a child dreamed of becoming a conductor; in his hometown Darmstadt he also had instruction in piano, voice, violin and guitar. But the fascination with the expressive possibilities of dance took the upper hand. Accepted as a student at the ballet school of the Staatstheater Stuttgart at the age of thirteen, with twenty he had become, under the tutelage of Marcia Haydée, a member of the company. She also saw his choreographic ability, giving him the first opportunity to create his own works. This must have been a monumental chance: with twenty-one Scholz retired from the stage, devoting all his talent to choreography. At twenty-four he was named “resident choreographer” of the Stuttgart Ballet, the first permanent choreographer after the death of John Cranko. After a few years in Zurich, he then became director of the Leipzig Ballet in 1991.

A list of the great ballet companies of the world certainly includes the Royal Ballet of London, the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theater. In continental Europe, one thinks perhaps of Paris or Amsterdam. But in Germany, great dance companies have emerged in less likely places: in Stuttgart with Cranko, Hamburg with John Neumeier (also discovered by Haydée and an offspring of the Stuttgart Ballet), in Wuppertal with Pina Bausch. And in Leipzig, which rose from a large provincial ballet company drenched in classicism to a world-class international group of stars under the directorship and through the works of Uwe Scholz.

Uwe Scholz’s life was tragically short; he was not quite 46 when he died of exhaustion in 2004. He nevertheless left behind more than a hundred choreographies, which continue to be performed throughout the world. To compare, even George Balanchine, founder of the New York City Ballet and perhaps the greatest choreographer of the twentieth century, in the nearly 60 years of his career created about 120 works. Scholz’s blaze of creativity, combined with his perfectionism and untiring fanaticism for detail, left him burned out and unable to repel the infections rife in hospitals.

Although Scholz œuvre includes intimate works for small groups or solo dancers – Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater: two women’s voices and two women dancing, or Stravinsky’s Piano Rag Music and Tango: a solo pianist and a solo male dancer together on stage – he was a master of huge ballets with the complexities of a large corps de ballet together with groups of soloists. And his greatest works used large pieces such as Bruckner’s 8th Symphony, Haydn’s Creation, or Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Clearly Scholz could read a score with the exactness of a great musician. His choreography has been composed with the musical form of the entire piece in mind, together with an understanding of the implication of each note. The dancers are not dancing to the music, but dancing the music. This has nothing to do with the rhythmic banality of so much classical ballet: and one and two, right leg left leg. Here each accent is a leap, each syncopation a surprise, each legato a sweeping extension. Crescendos are reflected by increasing speed and numbers of dancers, fugue entrances mirrored in the replication of figures. The dialogue between piano soloist and tutti is precisely represented by the solo dancer and the group. The danced recapitulation of the sonata form brings us not only the expected return to the familiar, but also its subtle shifts of dynamics and harmony.

The composition and choreography are so intimately linked that if the music were to stop, the dance would let it continue in the mind.

But Scholz’s greatness is more than his musicality. He captures some of our infinite need to communicate what cannot be said. He is able to find the gestures to fill the lexical gaps spoken language always contains, the area of meaning that we understand but can’t say. The language of movement provides a meaning for the music, a significance that needs no words, a spontaneous comprehension.

How refreshing Scholz’s wit: Two male soloists, the powerful Giovanni Di Palma and the spry Kiyonobu Negishi, daring one another to jump into the orchestra pit. Rows of women who have just landed in splits pulled off the stage by unseen hands, evocative of the hook routine dragging a long-winded comedian into the side curtains.

How subtle is his portrayal of the sensual gestures of love and love-making, of separation, passion and longing in the pas de deux between the statuesque Itziar Mendizabal and her perfect partner, Jean-Sébastien Colau: The final resolution of a chord and the ultimate gesture of the embrace.

And how stunning the emotional impact of the entire group of dancers suddenly frozen in a hand-holding circle, listening to the climax of the music.

Luckily Austria, which never had a great tradition of dance, has, in the last twenty or so years, begun to take more interest. In Vienna, the culturally quiet summer months now have the ImPulstanz festival. The Staatsoper and Volksoper have profitably, not only financially but also artistically, combined their ballets. The Theater an der Wien includes performances of the Hamburg Ballet in its stellar season.

And the Festspielhaus in St. Pölten, emerging out of provincialism, has also commendably picked up the slack. From September on, it will offer its eighth season of top quality international dance theater. For those hesitating because of the hour drive, a convenient shuttle bus from the Staatsoper is available for larger events.

The 2009/2010 season includes the Eun-Me Ahn Company Seoul, a collaboration between the Akram Khan Company and the National Ballet of China, the New York company of Aszure Barton and many others. Regrettably, however, the Leipzig Ballet has not been included in the upcoming program.

After its director’s death, the Leipzig Ballet saw a large turnover in its dancers. Perhaps rightly so: the dancers feared becoming a mere archive of Scholz ballets. Paul Chalmer, the present ballet director, has however continued to build on the strengths of this company, and while maintaining the Scholz legacy, is keeping creative energies in Leipzig vibrant with his new interpretations of classical ballets and his Stravinsky Project, evenings of Stravinsky by various choreographers. Despite cut-backs in recent years, the company is still world class, breathtaking in its precision, each dancer clearly a soloist in their own right.

Was there a storyline? No. As Scholz described his choreographies, they were landscapes of the soul. The dance triumphed. Beethoven became elation and Mozart, joy.

Uwe Scholz on DVD
at www.medici-dvd.com:
The Great Mass: A Ballet
Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps: A Ballet ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival
Jul. 12 to Aug. 16: www.impulstanz.com
Festspielhaus St. Pölten: www.festspielhaus.at