Repertory Night with Nacho Duato

The celebrated Spanish choreographer, Nacho Duato, was the artistic director of the Spanish Compañia Nacional de Danza from 1990 until 2010, and these repertoire evenings reveal his twenty years of commitment to making that company contemporary, and to do so without betraying the classical vocabulary and style that has typified the institution since its foundation in 1979.

“Gnawa” transports us to that part of the Mediterranean where Spain and Morocco meet. The title refers to North-West African peoples, while the work as a whole is built on rhythmic steps, powerful hip movements and a free upper body. In a ritualistic, or perhaps metaphysical, atmosphere, the interchange between solos, duets and ensemble pieces ultimately conveys a sense of tribal collectivity.

“O Domina Nostra” is based on the piece by the same name by Henryk Gόrecki and unfolds around the figure of the Virgin Mary, who is flanked by a chorus of ten men. Inspired by the “Black Madonna” of Jasna Gora monastery in Poland, Duato presents the female figure as a link between the divine and the earthly, the mortal and the immortal, and as a symbol of independence but also of faith, reverence and eternity.

Finally, “White Darkness” is set to music by Karl Jenkins. Added to the Paris Opera Ballet repertoire in 2006, it is an open-ended meditation on the pressing contemporary issue of drugs. If the explosively spasmodic quality of the moving bodies conveys a sense of being trapped in a dead end, the lyricism which often ensues calls to mind a state of weakness, dependence and—perhaps—surrender. All three works exude Duato’s singular sensitivity to human weaknesses, as well as his faith in and admiration for the infinite expressive potential of a honed dancer’s body.