Lopez Ochoa Chanel premier

[Drew]

For 2023-2024 Atlanta Ballet's  is co-producing with Hong Kong Ballet and Queensland ballet a full-length work by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa --Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon.  It actually has already premiered in Hong Kong -- I found one rather mixed review  of the premier but most of the review was behind a paywall so I only read the opening paragraph.  On Pointe Magazine also had a short feature article about the ballet a few weeks back that I read this evening. The author of the article seems to loathe Chanel, and that takes up a lot of space in the article, but I imagine this  ballet will be a draw and I'm hoping it will be a reasonably substantial work that also manages to garner a lot of publicity.   (Atlanta Ballet danced Requiem for a Rose by Lopez Ochoa during McFall's tenure.)  I'll put the link to the On Pointe article below along with a link to a Hong Kong Vogue feature that talks more about the ballet itself and a video feature with Lopez Ochoa that was posted on Hong Kong Ballet's youtube channel,  but here is one interesting bit for Atlanta audiences. 

"When Atlanta Ballet produces the work next February, the company will partner with the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum to explore the harmful impact of Chanel’s antisemitism and collaboration with Nazis, while providing educational resources and hosting discussions on combating antisemitism today...."  (I support this idea.)

https://pointemagazine.com/coco-chanel-ballet/

https://www.voguehk.com/en/article/art-lifestyle/coco-chanel-hk-ballet-interview/

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Drew
To add the Vogue feature

[volcanohunter]

It still strikes me as unworthy subject matter, but it is likely to be more substantive than the vanity piece Yuri Possokhov made for Svetlana Zakharova. That one received poor reviews when it played in London, and every video I've seen of it made me cringe.

I did notice that Lopez Ochoa's ballet was designed by Jérôme Kaplan. Zakharova's costumes were designed by the House of Chanel, and I'm not surprised it isn't involved in a less hagiographic portrayal.

[Drew]

A panel discussionon of the upcoming local premier of Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon with the choreographer, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Atlanta Ballet's director, Gennadi Nedvigin, and the director of Holocaust Education at the Weinberg Center, Rabbi Joseph Prass. As I understand, the Weinberg Center is under the umbrella of the Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta. As noted earlier, the plans for collaboration with the Bremen Museum were announced when the ballet was first announced--this wasn't a last minute "add on" or a response to critics/current events. 

I'm looking forward to the ballet and glad the company sponsored this panel as well -- it gives quite a bit of background to someone like myself who knows only a few headlines about Chanel--though a lot of questions remain unanswered. And Lopez Ochoa in some ways punts on some of the trickiest issues. Perhaps she feels her ballet should be left to speak for itself. And she must be aware of heightened sensitivities.

Since the company follows the practice of showing short videos before the live performances (sort of "program notes" for audiences that don't read programs) I'm wondering if some small portion of this will be shown.  In any case, looking forward to the ballet!

 

Edited February 6 by Drew
missing letter

[Drew]

Below - from an article by Candace Thompson in Pointe magazine--this appeared a few days ago but I only just read it this morning:

"Of Chanel’s famous relationships, Ochoa includes an episode with Igor Stravinsky, who was married with children, and, more controversially, Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage, who was special attaché to the German Embassy in Paris and known to be a Gestapo spy during World War II. The Stravinsky scene acknowledges how Chanel remained Stravinsky’s patron even after the short affair and nests within it a mini ballet, nodding to both the music of Le Sacre du Printemps and Nijinsky’s work."

https://pointemagazine.com/coco-chanel-atlanta-ballet/

Edited February 10 by Drew

[Drew]

I saw Coco Chanel: the Making of a Fashion Icon last weekend. Overall, I found the ballet engrossing and I was very happy that our Sunday matinee had the opening night cast and very happy to see a full house! (I've never seen that at an Atlanta Ballet matinee that wasn't Nutcracker.) Mikaela Santos as Chanel was terrific: it’s a demanding role, with multiple dimensions, and the ballerina pretty much has to carry the ballet. Santos seems to me a dancer of great imagination --as well as great fluidity and buoyancy, power when she needs it too.  As Helena says of Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “though she be but little, she is fierce.”

The ballet is organized as a series of episodes from Chanel’s life—centering on her growth as a designer from the time she was working as a poor seamstress and dance hall entertainer through her post WWII comeback.  Thus, the ballet is punctuated by scenes in Chanel’s workroom--all quite deftly staged--and ends with a fashion show. But while the ballet centers on Chanel-as-designer, its episodes also insistently thread themselves through a series of her lovers so that we get multiple pas de deux and, at one point, a pas de trois. Additionally, a second, “shadow-Chanel" appears from the ballet’s start as the fully realized “icon” Chanel:  throughout the ballet, she seems to be there both to draw together the various episodes and, perhaps, also to stand in for the audience’s presumed knowledge of where this story is going. At key turning points in the narrative, the “shadow” urges or impels the narrative’s Chanel (Santos) to take the actions that will move her career and her life forward so that she can become “Chanel.” At least that was my take-away.

As philosophy of history, I don’t care for this approach (to say the least) especially since it puts all the moral issues raised by the ballet in the hands of this “Chanel” shadow rather than Chanel the human being: as if the latter's choices were fated or even pressed on her rather than driven from within. I realize one could say the “shadow” represents the inner drive…but that’s not how the synopsis is written and, more importantly, not how it looks on stage. However, as Ballet/theater, the conceit worked better than I had anticipated –perhaps partly thanks to Fuki Takahashi’s elegance and tact in the role (she dances Chanel in another cast) and partly thanks to the way the shadow Chanel ends up functioning as a fairy godmother figure, so that the role sort of riffs off of ballet genre precedents.  

Still the overall architecture of the narrative didn’t always work for me—especially in the first half, where the episodes passed one after another with little in the way of resting places or musical climaxes, so that some of them didn’t land as they otherwise might have. And, throughout the ballet, the only figure who emerges as a genuine multi-dimensional character is Chanel herself—which may indeed say something about the designer’s narcissism but does make the ballet feel even more like a string of episodes. (One lover down, x number to go.) That said, several of the individual episodes, on their own account, were compelling -- effective both as complex dance and as complex storytelling, In the first act I especially liked the pas de trois for Chanel and two of her earliest admirers and in Act II the Stravinsky episode mentioned in the Candace Thompson article I quoted earlier in this thread. It certainly didn't hurt the Peter Salem score to have some Stravinsky whisking through it at this point either--which was, apparently, Lopez Ochoa’s idea.  One almost wishes she could have done the whole ballet to Stravinsky.

During this episode, I was at first a little taken aback by the ballet’s portrait of Stravinsky since Stravinsky as tortured hipster at the piano is not something I had ever imagined, but it kind of worked and the pas de deux between Stravinsky and Chanel had an edge and power that contrasted nicely with the more conventionally lyrical pas de deux with her lover Capel in Act I. Much of the Stravinsky episode took place against the dance background of a shadowy ensemble dance right out of Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring—Chanel helped finance the ballet—and at one point Stravinsky looked almost as much like the choreographer as the composer of that ballet. I ended up being very taken with the whole scene as it had an edge – even slightly over-the-top as it was—missing from some other episodes. (Spencer Wetherington danced Stravinsky.)

Elsewhere in the ballet, there were clever uses of balletic conventions as in dances for the groupings of “flowers” from which Chanel selects the scent for Chanel no. 5. And even when the story telling remained quite literal it carried some charm: In an early scene she rips a belle epoque gown off of the actress Gabrielle Dorziat to replace it with one of her own dresses and then demonstrates though ballet steps the greater freedom her clothes allow—and Dorziat then tries a few steps of her own. The episode is echoed in the ballet’s second half in what the program describes as a dream vision, in which Chanel rips the wide-skirted post war Dior dresses off women to replace them with her own sleeker look. I found all this mostly effective and even winning in its directness. But in a couple of other scenes both  the more literal story telling and the more stylized balletic story-telling fell flat for me—I'm thinking of the car crash that kills Capel and the pas de deux for the Chanel monogram [sic] --C intertwined with C—the latter of which I thought was an ingenious idea but not as memorable in realization. At least not at the performance I attended.

Jerome Kaplan's simple and elegant designs for the ballet were fabulous—a white curtained world for the first act turned black in the second, with moving staircases occasionally punctuating entrances and exits. The costumes captured the shifts in storyline and helped convey the main points about Chanel’s development as a designer, but never overtook or overwhelmed the dancing. One flashier scenic “effect” that the publicity for the ballet actually mentions —when chairs in the workroom where Chanel was a seamstress rise up to become chandeliers at the home of her first wealthy lover—seemed to me completely unreadable from the audience: if I hadn't read the program, then I would have assumed it was some kind of surreal comment on events, not a sign of aristocratic luxury.

On the subject of reading programs: Atlanta Ballet has been nothing if not conscientious about addressing Chanel’s antisemitism and collaboration with the Nazis. The publicity for the ballet and information about Chanel that was posted in the theater lobby even foreground the issue.  And Lopez Ochoa’s ballet does try to confront some of the issues raised by Chanel’s activities during WWII as well as some of her other less pleasant traits. Primarily, she focuses on Chanel’s relationship with a Nazi officer and her willingness to use Nazi Aryanization laws against Jewish businesses in order to settle a score with the Jewish businessman, Pierre Werthheimer, who had partnered with her on Chanel no. 5.  

But if, pace Balanchine, there can be ‘mothers-in-law’ in ballet (it’s not that hard to show), then can there also be ‘complex-business-deals-gone-awry-with-your-Jewish-partner-whom- you-despise-in-part-because-he’s-Jewish-even-if-you-are-repeatedly-willing-to-take-his-money’ in ballet? Can you even try to show that story without leaving the audience a little uncertain as to what exactly is going on and, for that very reason, uncertain as to who or what they are rooting for/against? From what she has said in interviews, I infer Lopez Ochoa wants the ballet to show Chanel as a complex, morally problematic character, but the effect may be less in her choreographic control than is intended.

My specific issue is how the conflict with Werthheimer comes across on stage—as opposed to how it is explained in the program notes which are somewhat better (sort of). That is, if one had not read the program notes, then there is no reason from the staging not to think that, in fact, Wertheimer was a swindler that Chanel had every right to hate even if the staging makes it clear that working with the Nazis to attack him was an appalling choice.  Maybe that is what Lopez Ochoa believes…but I don’t necessarily think so especially as she shows his continued support of Chanel’s work after the war, when Chanel had become persona non grata, and she shows Chanel’s continued hatred of him alongside her continued willingness to take his money. In fact, Chanel’s obvious contempt for him casts a shadow over the triumph of the ballet’s final fashion show --which otherwise reads as a testimony to her creativity and the freedom it gave women's bodies to move.

Lopez Ochoa’s ambitious choices are part of what make her work interesting, but I’m a little skeptical this venture entirely comes off or that the more challenging episodes don't remain problematic, not least because Chanel herself is the only character who seems to get a multi-dimensional characterization.  However, as I only saw the ballet the one time my thoughts about it are not quite settled.  If you have taken the time to read all of this, then thank you--I should say unequivocally that I think this was a high quality collaboration for Atlanta Ballet. I appreciated its seriousness and its popular appeal even if I had some reservations.

 

Edited February 21 by Drew
Cut a few sentences; changed a few words...added some phrases. Main points all the same but some minor differences in emphasis and more to say about some dancers. Returned later for some remaining typos/grammar errors.

[vipa]

Thank you @Drew  your thorough and interesting review. I've long been interested in the very idea of narrative ballets in general, as well as the specific execution. Should a ballet need lengthy program notes so the audience. can understand what's going on? How much of a ballet experience should be spent decoding what we we are seeing, figuring out who is who etc. Coco Chanel, sounds intelligently conceived, ambitious and well constructed. The use of a "shadow" Chanel is intriguing. I'm not sure it would overcome my personal reservations about complex narrative ballets. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. If you see it again, or. have other thoughts, please share.

[Quiggin]

Thanks Drew. Interesting reading your thoughts on the Coco Chanel ballet and the ebbs and flows of its narrative. Wonder if a "shadow" Onegin – or shadow Pushkin character – would help bring that ballet closer to the original novel/poem.

I'm wondering about the Chanel dream of ripping up Dior's dresses. Looking through the images in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar of the forties and fifties online, it doesn't seem as if Chanel's designs would hold up very well against Christian Dior's brilliant work, especially the sleek designs of his 1947 and 1951 collections. In fact Chanel seems to completely disappear from the scene until 1955 when Jean Cocteau of all people tries to rehabilitate her in a 1955 Bazaar article, and she doesn't seem to be much of a player even after that.

Also Dior, always described as a shy and self-effacing man, seems an odd nemesis to have been picked for Chanel. Dior quietly continued to design during the war, while his sister Catherine worked for the Resistance out of their apartment and was later captured and tortured by the Gestapo. The comparison with Dior only seems to point up Chanel's dubious behavior during those years.

Edited February 20 by Quiggin

[Drew]

2 hours ago, Quiggin said:

Thanks Drew. Interesting reading your thoughts on the Coco Chanel ballet and the ebbs and flows of its narrative. Wonder if a "shadow" Onegin – or shadow Pushkin character – would help bring that ballet closer to the original novel/poem.

I'm wondering about the Chanel dream of ripping up Dior's dresses. Looking through the images in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar of the forties and fifties online, it doesn't seem as if Chanel's designs would hold up very well against Christian Dior's brilliant work, especially the sleek designs of his 1947 and 1951 collections. In fact Chanel seems to completely disappear from the scene until 1955 when Jean Cocteau of all people tries to rehabilitate her in a 1955 Bazaar article, and she doesn't seem to be much of a player even after that.

Also Dior, always described as a shy and self-effacing man, seems an odd nemesis to have been picked for Chanel. Dior quietly continued to design during the war, while his sister Catherine worked for the Resistance out of their apartment and was later captured and tortured by the Gestapo. The comparison with Dior only seems to point up Chanel's dubious behavior during those years.

There is a whole miniseries on Apple TV +  entirely devoted to Chanel vs. Dior called The New Look--I've only seen the trailer, but I'm guessing a series called The New Look must be team Dior.   The whole idea of the two designers as, at one time, rivals, with different visions of femininity and different experiences of the war seems to be in the air.

To be clear regarding the ballet though: Dior as a character makes no appearance in it at all, though the synopsis mentions him as the designer of the New Look.  After the WWII episode and Chanel's fall from grace -- she is shown being forced to leave France -- there eventually emerges a line of women in voluminous skirts that are suggestive of his designs. From the ballet's point of view the New Look harked back to the older feminine ideal that Chanel had always fought against, and in these final scenes I mostly enjoyed its staging of the way Chanel's work frees women's bodies from certain types of silhouettes.  But Chanel's personal nemesis in this ballet is Wertheimer--which left me uneasy for the reasons I went into above.

Popularity-wise, at least, I had thought Chanel had something of a mini-come back later in life.  Until prepping to see this ballet, I had forgotten that Jackie Kennedy wore Chanel --and was wearing Chanel the day Kennedy was assassinated. That's the blood covered suit...

Edited February 20 by Drew

[Quiggin]

Yes, as I remember it, it was Jackie Kennedy who helped with the Chanel revival, at least in the US.

Incidentally, Christian Bérard, who influenced and guided Dior through the initial stages of the New Look, also provided the look for the original versions of Balanchine's La Valse and Mozartiana – traces of which still linger in the choreography.

Cocteau interestingly in Harper's:  "the fashions created by Mademoiselle Chanel have never been extravagant ... In a way that is uniquely her own she imposes the invisible. In the midst of the social uproar, the nobility of a silence."

[Drew]

4 hours ago, Quiggin said:

Cocteau interestingly in Harper's:  "the fashions created by Mademoiselle Chanel have never been extravagant ... In a way that is uniquely her own she imposes the invisible. In the midst of the social uproar, the nobility of a silence."

What a fabulous quote!