Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas on CBC Gem

[volcanohunter]

Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas is available free of charge on the CBC Gem streaming service. It is part documentary, but mostly a complete performance of Pite's Angels' Atlas filmed in November 2021, as the National Ballet of Canada returned to the stage after a year and a half of Covid-19 restrictions. 

(All behind-the-scenes documentaries should include a complete performance of the work being created/rehearsed!)

Presumably, the program is available only in Canada, but a VPN might do the trick from abroad.

https://gem.cbc.ca/media/crystal-pite-angels-atlas/s01e01

 

[volcanohunter]

I watched the film on Monday, after three days of seeing Wayne McGregor's MADDADDAM, and the comparison did McGregor no favors. His ballet looked vacuous and silly in comparison.

Pite's piece is extraordinary, dealing in existential questions in a completely unpretentious way. Her theme is lofty but quintessentially rooted in dance, which is literally corporeal but simultaneously ephemeral. It may offer an inkling of the eternal (perhaps even a glimpse at the glorified body of the world to come), but is doomed to disappear. We are keenly aware of our mortality while desperately wishing for permanence. This tension is further present in the two choral pieces that frame the ballet: Tchaikovsky's Cherubic Hymn, which ends with the text "now lay aside all cares of life," in complete contrast to the highly agitated choreography for the soloist, a sort of desperate, high-speed mourning, as though she were trying to breathe life back into her partner's body; and Lauridsen's setting of the Christmas chant "O Magnum Mysterium," which accompanies choreography with a closer resemblance to paintings of the descent from the cross. (The foreshadowing of the burial shroud in the swaddling clothes of the Nativity is an ancient idea.)

But viewers don't need to be familiar with the texts, and as I recall they weren't printed in the programs. And if the lighting loses its magical three-dimensional quality on film, there's nevertheless an indication of its appearance. 

What I didn’t like was the jerky camera work of the "documentary" section of the film. If that's what makes the film "groundbreaking," then I'd rather do without that innovation. 

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by volcanohunter

[mom2]

Thanks for this volcanohunter!  I will check it out.  I did see Angel's Atlas last season, and would appreciate seeing the documentary.  I also don't recall that the lyrics were printed in the program.

 

mom2