Baroque Movement at the Oslo Opera House

Like a smaller version of the Sydney Opera House, the building housing the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet is a tourist attraction in itself. The dramatically sloped roof is publicly accessible and serves as a popular spot for Instagram photos. I never got around to taking selfies on the roof, though. Because the best way to enjoy an opera house is to see a performance. So on my first night in Oslo, I went to see Baroque Movement at the ballet.

A Busy Calendar

They offer tours the opera house every day, but there are performances taking place inside it almost as often. When I first checked the calendar, there were two performances in the Oslo Opera House during the three nights we were going to be in town. There was a ballet on our first night, and the opera Der Rosenkavalier on the last night. Dance is a universal language, while a 3-hour German opera with Norwegian subtitles (although an intriguing prospect for me) seemed like a big ask for my 10-year-old.

Tickets can be surprisingly affordable. About a month before we left, there were tickets as cheap as $12 for the ballet. When I looked closer to the performance date, those seats were gone and the cost was closer to $50 – so plan ahead if you want to go.

Baroque Movement

The ballet we saw was a mixed rep program called Barokk Bevegelse (Baroque Movement in English). It was a somewhat ironic name, since the ballet was very contemporary – only the music was baroque, and even that was … modified. The person sitting next to me explained that Baroque Movement was part of a three-event series partnering a group called Barokksolistene with the National Ballet to focus on baroque music and I should really check out Alehouse Sessions.

Barokksolistene

Barokksolistene translates to “Baroque Soloists.” With the tagline, “It’s just really old pop music,” their focus is making music that people think of as stuffy and academic accessible and engaging to regular folks. If I could only catch one show in Norway, could there have been a better performance for me to see?

Immersive ballet

Celebrity violinist Bjarte Eiki and the other musicians, together with “barokkbarn” (children in Baroque costumes) met the audience in the lobby and played us into the theater like pied pipers.

Since the music began in the lobby, there was no “moment” when the performance started. Musicians wandered the auditorium as people took their seats, gathered casually in front of the stage, and took their places. Slowly, the floor they stood on sank, and the orchestra disappeared from view, settling in the pit. But they didn’t stay there. Born showman Eike often appeared on stage throughout the performance, even changing clothes to match the dancers.  

I’m not going to describe the building or the auditorium in detail – there is plenty of information about the architecture elsewhere online. But I will say that it is beautiful. And it is a fraction the size of McCaw Hall, so even without the blurring of the fourth wall, performances in that space would feel intimate.

Resonance

The first piece was a world premiere by American choreographer Garret Smith called “Resonance.” The music comprised a collection of Baroque’s most frenetic composers.

Movement-wise, this dance was the most Contemporary Eric of the four, but the mood was humorous and irreverent. The costumes evoked the Baroque period filtered through a lens of Prince. It was the perfect start to the program, clearly setting the tone – this evening of Baroque music was going to be anything but stuffy. The dancers used violins as props (kind of stressing me out; I was like “be careful!” every time the violins showed up) reminding us that the violinist was the Baroque era’s lead guitar rock star.  

Bout of the Imperfect Pearl

Another new work, this one by Melissa Hough. Her name seemed familiar, but I don’t think I’ve seen her work before. She is an American trained in the Russian ballet tradition who dances with the company in Oslo.

There was a very feminist feeling to this piece. The lead was dressing and undressed while everyone else danced in nude bodysuits. It wasn’t quite a narrative, but it felt like commentary. The dance was very prop heavy, with the various articles of clothing that imprison the lead also informing a lot of the movement.

The music involved modified Vivaldi and a countertenor, whose effect I liked better than the first time I heard a counter tenor. The slower pace of the music and jet lag conspired against me during this beautiful piece, but the ominous, moody vibe woke my baby goth right up.

How did I get where…

Cina Espejord is another Oslo-based dancer. His world premiere “How did I get where…” was all about group dynamic. Especially with the water noises added to Bach’s music, their interactions reminded me of water molecules. Everyone was dressed in khakis and dingy tees, even Eike, who joined the dancers on stage.

A projection of an old family photo implied that the relationships were more human than chemical, though. That photo appeared so gradually I almost didn’t notice it, then members in the photo start to disappear from it until only the child is left, finally whole thing is gone.

A long middle passage with slowly plucked strings went on too long, but that super-connected style of dance where relationships and placement of dancers trumps specific movements is one of my favorite things to watch in dance.

Vespertine

The program ran a spectrum from most contemporary to most balletic (I thought you always put the toe shoes first?) ending with Vespertine.

Liam Scarlett’s “Vespertine” was created for the Norwegian National Ballet in 2013. Scarlett was inspired by the music of Arcangelo Corelli to create an abstract, sensual work against a backdrop of hanging chandeliers.

To me, it was the most beautiful of the four pieces. It was also the one that looked most familiar stylistically (coincidence? or unexamined bias?). Either way, it was exquisite.

Compare and Contrast

The best thing about seeing art away from home is finding out what you’re missing. How do they do things differently here? What’s universal? Compared to my home company, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Norwegian National Ballet chose dances with different tropes. There was less shoulder-rolling and head-grabbing, more props. They told more of the story with costuming, from fussing with their clothes as part of the choreography to actually wearing props.

The NNB dancers seemed to spend more time in the contemporary space than the PNB dancers do. It might have just been the particular program, but on that night, the dancers had the looser physicality of contemporary dancers instead of the tense verticality and sharpness that PNB dancers maintain even in less balletic pieces. There was more natural movement (no jazz hands ballet running here) but very little pointe work. In fact, toe shoes only appeared in “Vespertine,” and even then going on pointe was for pivots, not a place to hang out.

For all that PNB is improving its body diversity, the variety of body types was a pronounced contrast here, and the casting is unexpected for an eye accustomed to the Balanchine tradition. The waifish dancer took the lead in the more modern “Pearl” while a more solidly built dancer spent the most time on pointe.

Conclusion

Even though I love attending the ballet at home, I have rarely attended arts performances of any kind when traveling. I never pack nice clothes, and my plans are usually flexible enough to be uncertain of actually being in a certain town on a certain day. But getting to see the ballet in Oslo was one of the highlights of my trip to Norway. And actually enjoying art in a theater is much better than just taking pictures of the theater for Instagram. In the future, I might start building my travel plans around the local ballet calendar.

Program Details

Choreography

Liam Scarlett, Cina Espejord, Melissa Hough, Garret Smith

Music

Bjarte Eike, Jon Balke, John Dowland, Arcangelo Corelli, Francesco Geminiani, Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi…

Sound design

Jon Balke

Lighting design Vespertine

Michael Hulls

Lighting Design Espejord, Hough, Smith

Paul Vidar Sævarang

Costume design Vespertine

Liam Scarlett

Costume design Espejord

Sunniva Østerbø

Costume design Hough

Xavier Ronze

Costume design Smith

Monica Guerra

Music director

Bjarte Eike

Artists

The Norwegian National Ballet, Barokksolistene

{I attended Baroque Movement courtesy of the Norwegian National Ballet.}