Post:Ballet’s ‘Do Be’ does something new
Ballet in 2010, he wanted to take ballet beyond expectations.
If he has bent the rules through high-concept collaborations with composers, painters and sculptors, he’s breaking them now with “Do Be,” Post:
Audiences may recognize the components: “Pasturing,” “Family,” “Tassel,” “Double Happiness” and “The Bell, the Ball, the Bow-Tie & the Boot” have premiered individually over the past three years.
[...] no one has seen them like this — sequenced in an abstract narrative, performed in an otherworldly atmosphere and embellished with cuisine, retro-futurist notions and sensory surprises.
“Do Be” has taken Dekkers and his co-creators into ambitious new territory, and they are enthralled by the adventure.
In a series of interviews, they revealed their inspirations, inventions and delight in doing and being together.
Ballet’s musical director, perform eclectic scores by Chris Cerrone, Jacob Cooper, Nicole Lizeé, Anna Meredith and Jonathan Pfeffer.
Manifesto: “We play classical music on the wrong instruments,” says Meyerson.
[...] there’s vibraphone, cymbals, mixed percussion.
If you’re looking at the score, a violinist would play a G. But to me, it means ‘Smash this cup.’
The 30-year-old danced in the original “Do Be” pieces, but this time is playing a backstage role as designer of the costumes and 1970s-inspired sets.
Togs of future past: “My Pinterest board was Catholic garb and a circus-clown outfit and black-and-white Gothic clothing,” he says, adding wryly, “I think what’s going to make it cohesive is the randomness of everything.”
Desert vision: A Burning Man devotee, Squires takes inspiration from seeing this tribe that comes together and creates all this beautiful art.
The experimental composer and instrument maker built four “vertical fretless Appalachian dulcimers” for the audience to play.
Based on how close an audience member gets to it, it changes color and changes sound, like a theremin.
San Francisco Ballet’s lighting supervisor recently designed Amy Seiwert’s “Sketch 6” and RawDance’s “Double Exposure.”
Using a light hand: “There’s all of this metaphor going on, and all this visual information, so the most successful approach is to keep it clean,” says French, 39.
Perspective: “There are a lot of similarities between ballet and architecture,” observes Gilson, 30.
The projection is largely composed of lines and small volumes and shapes; if a body moves across this field, the dots move, and you can see the force that was once invisible.
Food for thought: “Instead of just watching and listening, Robert really wants everybody to feel as much as possible,” says Darby, 25.
Appetizers include cured egg yolks and mushroom fried moss on a string.
For the finale, I’m creating a trio where two people are bringing in movement from ‘Double Happiness,’ and the other person has phrase work that’s completely different from anything that’s been in the show.
Feel the burn: I’ve been influenced by my experiences at Burning Man and other festivals, where the whole thing is the experience.