The Garden’s Gates
Choreography: Robert Bondara
Music: Szábolcs Esztényi
Set Design, Costume Design and Light Design: Robert Bondara
World Premiere:
19 March 2010 [Creations 2, Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera, Polish National Ballet, Warsaw]
Bondara’s choreography The Garden’s Gates was very interesting – and this time combined with the music by Szábolcs Esztényi. The dancer remains faithful to Polish contemporary music (which is not the lightest, easiest or most pleasing to the ear) and to a peculiarly understood idea of contemporary dance which combines the elements of “literary” dance by Martha Graham with postmodernist removal of barriers between dance and non-dance movement. This intimate parable about human helplessness in the face of death has more in common with pure theatre than with a codified language of ballet. The dancers paint evocative and lively images with their bodies interfering in the space around them, creating an illusion of the world not dependent on the law of gravity, and with gestures full of expression they make us aware of our inability to resign ourselves to the inevitable. A beautiful, artistically sophisticated étude which is perfectly performed.
Ruch Muzyczny, Dorota Kozińska
