Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève

(Palais Royal, 16 August 2010)

It has taken Alfred Hitchcock twelve hours to set up the scene in the flower shop in "Vertigo." The scene is less than a minute of the film. This is all one must know about the creation of art in order to appreciate it. "Jours étranges" insists on telling substantially more. It puts the creation of art into the perspective of life. The result is neither art nor life, but fundamental science---as opposed to engineering. The result is a model, not a final product. The model's value is in teaching the audience to recognise art and to avoid artless life.

"So schnell" subtracts from the conventional art form element after element: music, grace, narrative. The exercise helps the viewer define his own boundaries of art and of beauty. Beauty is economy, purpose, and communication. When intentional, beauty is art. A dance without music (as a poem without rhyme) can be art---liberated, uncompromisingly precise, and direct.

Often, however, a choreographer benefits from the discipline imposed by music. Music reminds dancers to coördinate with each other because they must coördinate with music. Harmony in music (as rhyme in poetry) enables the viewer to anticipate imminent moves, thus turning the viewer into a collaborator. Anticipation amplifies movement by making it seem inevitable. The inevitability distinguishes dance from sport.