Musical Choices: A trio of young choreographers continue the Noverre legacy - Vancouver Ballet Society
By Elaine Gaertner
The Noverre Society — Friends of Ballet, founded in 1958 by ballet enthusiast Fritz Höver, was named to honour 18th-century dancer and choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre, whose treatise, Lettres sur la dance and sur les ballets, revolutionized the art of ballet. In 1961, Höver joined forces with Stuttgart Ballet director John Cranko and the Young Choreographers project was born. Over the past 60 years, the project — and its highly anticipated annual performances — has bolstered the careers of young dancer/choreographers, with luminaries such as John Neumeier, Jirí Kylián and William Forsythe among former participants.
Although the Noverre Society dissolved in 2018, the project continues. Today, under the name Noverre: Young Choreographers, it is supported by current Stuttgart Ballet director Tamas Detrich, and is under the management of retired Stuttgart principal dancer Sonia Santiago.
The three young Noverre choreographers profiled below — Shaked Heller, Aurora De Mori and Alessandro Giaquinto — are tightly wound bundles of energy, creativity and ambition, and a part of an ongoing legacy that has helped propel the evolution of choreography. All interviews took place on Zoom.
Shaked Heller
Shaked Heller grew up on a kibbutz in Israel, a sensitive youth at odds with his loud, boisterous classmates. To escape, he created imaginary characters with whom to interact. The 25-year-old playfully asserts that he “can now give life to these characters on stage.” Heller studied at the Kirov Academy in Washington D.C., and danced with the Israel Ballet and with Ballet Zürich’s junior company before joining Stuttgart Ballet in 2016.
When Heller listens to music, he “sees pictures, images and scenes — not movement.” Drawn to the timbre of the guitar and harp, which invoke a “nostalgic feeling” in him, he hunts for arrangements played by these romantic-sounding instruments. “Music gives me so much inspiration. I hear it, see the whole piece in my head, and have an instant connection.” He observed, too, that “the music tends to find me at odd times when I’m not specifically searching.”
Heller remembers practicing the piano as a child, when he would literally fall asleep because he was so bored. Though drawn to music, he needed to funnel his energy into movement, not piano scales — a quintessential trait of many future choreographers.
The titles of his Noverre choreographies are words of his own invention, flowing from a fertile imagination, such as Arpatruf (2018), set to music by Israeli composer Ran Bagno, Russian singer Elena Kamburova and Norwegian composer Edward Grieg; and Polosma (2019), set to Bagno and a quirky polka by Finnish a cappella group Loituma. Mehlberg, created in 2020 during the quarantine and set to music by Antonio Vivaldi, Jean-Philippe Rameau and British singer-songwriter Graham Coxon, portrays “being stuck in your own head and fighting emotions that never leave.” The music for Mehlberg includes important Baroque works he had previously been reluctant to use for his creations because of their grandeur. “I was afraid to use some of the music I loved the most, afraid to ruin it!” he admits with a shy smile.
Heller says that as he choreographs “the music takes over my body and gives me the steps.” On other occasions, “the dancers become the instruments.” By “mixing musical textures and twisting the music in unexpected ways,” he “stirs the pot” in his choreography, while remaining grounded in music to which his audience can relate.
When he risked using his beloved Vivaldi (a lute concerto), Heller’s choreography — with only three dancers — rose magnificently to the beauty and scope of the music.
Aurora De Mori
One senses within Aurora De Mori a heartfelt artist with emotions very close to the surface, poised to leap out of her chair and piqué into an arabesque. During our interview, she replied to my questions thoughtfully, with an engaging smile, her voice intense and expressive.
Born in Italy, De Mori attended the Academy Teatro alla Scala in Milan, graduated to the John Cranko School in Stuttgart and joined Stuttgart Ballet in 2015 at age 19.
De Mori studied music history in ballet school, played the violin and learned basic solfège. She retains a preference for the sound of stringed instruments, especially the violin and cello, as in her 2017 Noverre creation, Devenire anima (Becoming the Soul), set to a string orchestra playing the devotional minimalism of Arvo Pärt. The choreography, she says, is “a representation of spiritual evolution throughout our life’s journey.”
Aliunde Levi (Source of Light), set to percussion and to folk flautist Angelina Voloshenko, was created during the first COVID lockdown in 2020 and represented “reconnecting with our inner light and awareness.” The music begins with a primal percussive pulse, followed by the shimmering sounds of a flute playing in a rainforest, a compelling accompaniment that palpably illustrated the underlying significance of the work.
Quintessenz der Vielfalt (2018) — vielfalt, the German word for diversity, inspired the piece — is set to Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht, a jumbled Rubik’s Cube of harmony played by a string ensemble that required her to engage with the dancers to help them decode and “feel” the music. The score, rich with complex harmonic contrasts representative of the end of the era of pure romanticism, is an ambitious and sophisticated choice for a young choreographer.
De Mori’s process for choreographing has two versions. “Sometimes the music guides me, becoming the source of inspiration; it provokes strong feelings within that I develop into movement.” Other times, an abstract idea drives the process. In either case, she says, “I love when choreography and music become a whole.” De Mori observed that Neumeier and Kylián sought this unity with the music, a prominent goal in her own creative process.
A firm advocate of “making an authentic connection with the audience,” these words are more than just disingenuous hype to De Mori. Her work connects with audiences wholeheartedly and viscerally, with her musical choices fundamental to forming this connection.
Alessandro Giaquinto
Alessandro Giaquinto is an articulate and focused dancer/choreographer who has a vision for his future in the dance world. At 23, his chronological age belies his maturity and artistic acumen.
In 2017, Giaquinto joined Stuttgart Ballet after completing his training at the John Cranko School. In his very first year, he was chosen to choreograph for Noverre and has since created pieces every year. After his 2019 Noverre showing, he received a commission from the Spoleto Festival in his native Italy. Giaquinto hopes to broaden his contacts throughout the world as he continues dancing. “Being a choreographer makes me a better dancer,” he says.
His choreography uses a wide range of accessible and evocative music, as with Alba Mendax (2018), set to Italian pop/jazz singer Ornella Vanoni, and Homem (2019), to music by Brazilian pop singer Zeca Veloso and Australian composer/pianist Luke Howard. In Elegia (2017), he used the more challenging music of Igor Stravinsky, the composer who has most intrigued him.
Just Sometimes (2019) is set to the 20th-century music of Luciano Berio, the romantic music of Manuel de Falla and the haunting voice of jazz singer Norma Winstone, as well as speech and a train whistle. The varied score, which accompanies a narrative based on existential exploration inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel, Nausea, progresses through unsettling modern harmony to the familiar resolution of romantic chords, and then to a sultry female voice.
Giaquinto prefers the human voice, the piano and wind instruments for his choreography. His musical choices have also been strongly influenced by a music teacher from his youth, Alessandra Anceschi, with whom he consults before starting a project. “She is a tough critic,” he asserts.
Music is typically Giaquinto’s initial inspiration for movement. While listening, he explains, “I can picture a movement or a specific scene that would be fascinating to create.” He admires the way that Kylián’s choreography is completely immersed in the score, but doesn’t look artificially “guided.” Giaquinto’s astuteness has enabled his own choreography to cling to the music adeptly while retaining a Kylianesque unpredictability.
How to apply to Noverre: Young Choreographers 2022
Applications are accepted from within Stuttgart Ballet as well as from dancers worldwide. Dancer/choreographers receive studio time, technical and lighting support, costumes and a cast from among Stuttgart Ballet company members. Find more details here.
