Unbound Dreams

Sometimes art comes together. I got a whole-body shiver for the performance of The San Francisco Ballet at The Kennedy Center on Thursday evening, October 25, 2018 that I will never forget. Program B of “Unbound: A Festival of New Works” started with The Infinite Ocean by Edwaard Liang. According to the program notes, the concept for the ballet came from a Facebook message from a dying friend that read, “I will see you on the other side of the infinite ocean.” What really struck me was Liang’s question:

“Who would you like to see? [before you go]? And it doesn’t have to be who—what would you like to see? What touches and moves and inspires you about the unknown?”

I have never seen a ballet that moved me so much. All my thoughts about the brevity of life and immortality and mortality were danced out before my eyes in shapes and forms made by bodies that reached out from their toes to their fingertips with grace and truth. I kept thinking that each moment was my favorite moment, but then the next movement transported me even closer to that space Liang wanted to show us, with the final disappearing of the last dancer. It was a disappearing into an abyss, but an abyss of hope that made the audience audibly gasp. Tears of joy gathered in the corners of my eyes as I contemplated the fact that I will never witness this dance again, even as I will never see those that have passed on, yet something remains. An essence. I did buy a pink San Francisco Ballet t-shirt from the kiosk outside the Opera House, because not only did I want to support the arts, but I wanted a tangible reminder of that experience.

The second piece was Snowblind, based on Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, which I remember watching a film version of in 1993 after reading the novella written in 1911. The ballet, driven by the three characters, was also driven by the 11 dancers representing the elements of snow, pushing and pulling the principal dancers. Choreographer Cathy Marston added the 11 dancers to be a metaphor for Ethan’s impassioned torment. Who doesn’t enjoy a tragic love triangle?

My friend Abby had to leave the performance early, and there was something about witnessing the last piece alone that made me cry with the beauty of it, knowing I could never fully express to someone else how the dancing made me feel.

I think that ballet should be for the people, and Justin Peck of The New York City Ballet is trying making that happen. Dancers in the dark, in sneakers, moving to the music of M83. Some of the genres that describe M83 are “shoegazing” and “dream pop” which are decades old, but feel new and innovative, edgy, but beautiful. “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” came out in 2011 as a double album with 22 songs. It’s the kind of futuristic music that The Wyld Stallyns would have loved. Justin Peck’s dance takes place in a clean, well-lit warehouse full of dreamers. From M83’s Intro:

We didn't need a story, we didn't need a real world
We just had to keep walking
And we became the stories, we became the places
We were the lights, the deserts, the faraway worlds
We were you before you even existed

Carry on, carry on, carry on
And after us the flood
Carry on, carry on, carry on
Our silver horn it leads the way
Banners of gold shine
In the cold, in the cold, in the cold
Footprints of snow
Blind from the road
Hail!

We carry on, carry on
Follow us, we are one
The battle's fought, the deed is done
Our silver hum runs dark and strong
Hand to the heart, lips to the horn
We can stand ?
Hand on my breast, I'll keep you warm
Hail!

It was freeing. It lifted me up to a place I had never been before. It was Unbound. Unbound by space and time. Pure magic from beginning to end.