Chopin Imaginaire

I attended a fantastic performance at the Cottbus Staatstheater (State Theater)last night. The program was titled "Chopin Imaginaire" and was a combination of Chopin's piano music and original ballet dancing! That there, my friends, is an amazing combination!!!

There were two people on the piano performing live but invisible from my seat on the first floor. I have no complaints at all about my seat though because it provided a great head-on view of the dancers, which were also not too far away as this is a relatively cozy theater (seating for ~ 260 on 3 levels). There were 4 female and 4 male dancers.

Chopin's compositions vary in length from barely a minute to several minutes long. The dancing performances ranged from classical pair dancing to comical skits. One of the wonderful things about ballet is how open it is to creative movement and expression. As the title of the program gives hint, the dancers brought to life what one may possibly imagine when listening to Chopin's pieces.

I cannot recreate in words the fantastic things they did on that stage, but I will give a few hints so you may develop a little bit of an idea of why I sat in that theater gladly smirking. For one of the pieces, the dancers wore socks and gloves which showed up in the black lighted stage. As they danced around and interwove their arms, all we really saw from the audience were free-floating hands and feet! In another piece only the men danced together and created with their legs raised up on one another what I thought of as a caterpillar marching around!

The stage and costumes continued to change as the show progressed. At the start there was a glossy black wall with 4 doors in it across the stage. The dancers spent a while "dancing" with the doors. Eventually the wall and half of the doors disappeared and only two doors remained but further back on the stage with a new, shear curtain as the wall. Since their were only 8 dancers, the dancers themselves used different additions and subtractions of black clothing to keep their characters fresh in each scene.

Although I could have easily attended this program on my own, I found out about it through the International Office listserv (emails) and attended with other students from BTU. The International Office coordinated a tour of the theater before the performance which was pretty sweet. We got to go under the stage and see the mechanics for how the center of the stage turns (which they used during the show) and where the doors are for actors to disappear through the stage floor. The guide also told us the history of the building. The most important fact for you to know as to the history is that this is the only large theater in the state of Brandenburg and it is supported through state funds. (Don't we have a theater in Detroit called "the State Theater"? Is it supported by state funds? Was it once upon a time?) In order to attract theater-goers from around the region, the theater has a different show each night covering the whole gamut of live performances like operas, plays, ballets, and orchestras. Many of the shows are put on by visiting performance groups since Cottbus is not such a major city as to have its own opera company, ballet company, orchestra...

One of the delightful aspects of this Chopin Imaginaire was its combination of live music and frequently changing visual entertainment. With a classical ballet there is one story line and one musical theme for a couple of hours. This can be wonderful, but a little tiring. I wasn't sure what to expect from this Chopin Imaginaire, but I was greatly pleased with what it turned out to be!