Taipei Times has already written extensively about Lin Hwai-min's (林懷民) Cursive trilogy for Cloud Gate Dance Theater. But the magnificent DVD of Cursive II contains a great deal more. In addition to the ballet itself, filmed without comment, you have remarks about the work by Lin, various dancers and TV director Ross MacGibbon. And before everything you see a long documentary, Floating on the Ground, about Lin's entire career. It's this wide-ranging film that makes this Opus Arte DVD unique, and indeed something in the nature of a major historical document.
The film begins with footage of Lin coaching members of the Zurich Ballet in his work Smoke. He was a new experience for most of them, working from the ground up rather than from the head down, as several of them remark. Then you see him in his home on the banks of the Danshui River talking about his career, plus dance and Taiwan's history.
The offspring of southern Taiwanese gentry, beginning life as a writer, founding Cloud Gate without any previous professional experience, gaining inspiration at the site of the Buddha's enlightenment at Bodhgaya in India, contemplating the harm done to Taiwan by the KMT after 1945 — Lin's testimony, spoken throughout in English, is both spiritual and political.
The shorter film specifically on Cursive II focuses mainly on John Cage's music, culled by Lin from the huge resource of his collected CDs. Dancers initially complained it lacked any tempo, but discovered that after creating their dances, and then having the music played alongside them, something bigger than either was created. MacGibbon comments that the music, hard to listen to on its own, becomes accessible when experienced alongside Lin's creations.
This DVD is an important introduction to the whole phenomenon of Lin's work, some of the most impressive in the contemporary dance world-wide. One Swiss critic comments that though he's seen good and bad work from all other choreographers, he's never seen anything except the best from Lin.
The Art of Pierre Fournier, with mono sound and filmed in black-and-white, consists of two programs made for Canadian TV in 1959 and 1960. Fournier, who died in 1986, was acclaimed in his lifetime for his smooth tone and self-effacing mastery. You appreciate these qualities immediately when watching this fine DVD — somehow all excitability vanishes from the system and Fournier's seriousness and commitment take you over.
He plays at first in a pool of light against some studio drapes, and his equilibrium, together with the serenity of Bach's Suite to Solo Cello No:3, stills all vagrant thoughts. He continues with some Kodaly, and then you see him with a pianist (Guy Bourassa) playing Schumann, Debussy and a melodic sonata by the rarely-heard 18th-century composer Francois Francoeur.
Fournier is the opposite of someone like Mischa Maisky — utterly reserved and undemonstrative, but as enduring as stone. This DVD, from the pioneering US company Video Artists International, is one to be cherished.
From the same company comes Masters of the Keyboard: The Next Generation, Volume 1. This features five young pianists who appeared at the Miami International Piano Festival in 2000 — Piotr Anderszewski, Denis Burstein, Kemal Gekic, Ilya Itin and Francesco Libetta. Each is seen briefly talking in English about what music means to him — in every case a lot — and then you watch each of them playing a couple of short items. At 53 minutes it's slightly short measure, but is nonetheless informative and engaging.
RSS