Les Liaisons Dangereuses
/Yomi
Adam Cooper is old. I don’t know when, he no longer pays attention to those special dances, he began to write scripts, he began to direct, he came to dominate everything. When I saw him two years ago, I gave him a painting with the words on the back-To the most outstanding performer in my heart, I used a performer instead of a dancer. Because he said that he doesn't want people to think that he is just a single ballet dancer, he wants to develop in all directions. Earlier I admired his piano skills and singing in On Your Toes, and then I saw Singing In The Rain, Solder's Tale, and today's Liaisons, I suddenly began to hesitate. His all-round performance is naturally his genius, but without the difficult dance moves, it just makes people completely lost the amazing sight of seeing a swan ten years ago.
Cooper is famous because of his Swan dance, and his excellence is because of his dance-his beauty, his sexy, his temperament, all his charm comes from his godlike dance. The kind that has broken through the highest realm of beauty, surpassing all the limits of imagination, that kind of dance can make me tremble, make me cry, and make me forget all the joys and pains in the world, and completely indulge in the white feathers of the swan to sleep. And his current dance, a mix of drama and musical, no longer serves as the soul of any performance-the person is still that person, close at hand, the same sweat fell on the water blue stage, and the same moved me No longer exists in his heart.
Recalling the first time I saw him, I just walked into the performance hall. I almost fainted when I saw his poster. In the end, I was even more excited when I signed and I wanted to bend down and kiss his fingers-and now I am sitting in the first place. The position of the row was so close that I could clearly see the ring on his right index finger—but after the performance, I didn’t even have the desire to talk to him again, but slowly followed the flow of people with an expressionless face. Out of the lobby.
Although he didn't want to believe it, he couldn't move me anymore.
If he doesn't dance, he is just an ordinary person. Live an ordinary life like us every day. And I used to treat him as a god before. It's like listening to Grandpa David's mellow and sexy voice becoming old and hoarse, or going to a Placebo concert, watching Brian on the stage wash away the lead, and have to throw away the exaggerated and charming voice due to hair loss. Everything-the greatest sorrow in the world is not that beauty is late, but that the followers of beauty have lost their faith.
Dangerous Relationship (Les Liaisons Dangereuses)
Just three days after the second terrorist attack in London, I booked the most expensive ticket to see Dangereuses , Cooper's new drama this summer. The performance is still in Sadler's Wells, north London, and it was first performed at the Swan Lake theatre ten years ago. Matthew Bourne seems to have spotted the theater. I saw AMP's Nutcracker there two years ago, and around Christmas this year, his new play "Edward Scissorhands" will also be performed there.
The dangerous relationship comes from the epistle novel of the same name 200 years ago by the French Choderlos de Laclos. The story tells the story of a pair of social devil lovers, the Marquise of Merteuil and the Viscount Valmont, using their respective charms to deal with their love scene: the relationship is very chaotic in the play, in order to avenge the Count Gercourt, who abandoned her, the Marquise of Merteuil introduces each other's fiancee, and the innocent and pure Cécile falls in love. A young music teacher Danceny. At the same time, the love veteran Valmont also found another target, Mrs. Tourvel, and Valmont tried to destroy the latter's piety and innocence. After being rejected, the resentful Valmont used Danceny's letters to intimidate and lure Cécile.
At the beginning of the second act, Mrs. Tourvel could not withstand Valmont's stalker and finally compromised. Under the pressure of Merteuil, Valmont felt terrified and uneasy. He left Tourvel, who committed suicide in despair in the heavy rain. The desperate Valmont returned home and sought comfort in Cécile's arms, and the marquise, who had been on the side for a long time, took the opportunity to call the music teacher who loved Cécile to see this scene. The angry Danceny immediately took out his sword and duel with Valmont. But at the moment Valmont's mind was full of Tourvel's shadow. Knowing that he had lost the only true love in his life, he committed suicide by the sword of Danceny. Seeing Valmont's corpse, the marquise realized that he had lost everything he had originally in the fight-lover, power and status, so the whole person collapsed. The whole play ended.
The protagonist Marquise is played by Sarah Barron, who was also a member of AMP, whose name appeared in the original version of Swan Lake in 1995. In addition to performing, she is now also a choreographer. Viscount Valmont is naturally played by Adam Cooper, and his beloved Lady Tourvel is of course Sarah Wildor. Since Cooper left the group and flew solo, he and his'beautiful wife' (Cooper) often perform together. Cécile starred in Helen Dixon, who he had collaborated with in Singing In The Rain. It's worth mentioning that Adam's brother Simon is acting as a priest in the play. Although it is only a small role, this is the first time the two brothers have appeared on stage at the same time, and Simon is also Valmont No. 2 just in case.
The background of the story is set in France in the 18th century, so the costumes are extremely gorgeous and complicated. Cooper changed three sets of dresses alone. At the end of the first act, he took off his wig, two waiters changed his clothes, and finally put on a robes of pure black velvet naked and slid into Cécile's bedroom like a ghost. I think of our traditional ballet repertoire "Hanging the Red Lantern High", which also has a plot of rape, but it is expressed through the shadow behind the curtain, which is very subtle; and here in Cooper, from On Your Toes to Liaisons, everything he choreographed In repertoire, the way of expressing lust is often very direct.
I feel that the most exciting scene of the whole play is here. After he pretended to leave, he suddenly appeared behind the top of a bed that was as high as a person, then grabbed the railing and turned upside down, with his legs crossed on the bedpost and slid down. Compared with the climax of the duel between the two at the end of the play, this section with music can better express the fear of the character (Cécile), and for Cooper, it is more original, and the action is more dynamic and beautiful. Then he changed into a long black leather trench coat, and the dance was quite Stranger style.
Probably because of the choice of material (Liaisons is a repertoire he planned for ten years), Cooper always likes to mix a lot of erotic factors in the performance to tease the nerves of the audience. His dancing posture is very sexy, but he has lost the eye-catching holiness of the original swan. I remember the first time I watched his live performance, I laughed with all the audience, watching his body stretch bring the world's most perfect line, sighed with satisfaction, but when the performance ended, the dance moves were in my mind. Blank.
Once upon a time when the second act appeared, the white swan jumped up and made the whole of Europe and even the whole world fall under his feet; and in the third act, the stranger in black jumped off the guardrail of the terrace with a sky full of stars on his back. The hem of the black trench coat is flying in the night breeze; the lingering double dance of the swan and the prince; the grand ball of the stranger and the queen indulging in carnival... It has been a matter of many years, and the sharp sight of the swan is always lingering in the mind. go. I think everyone who really loves Swan Lake will leave a piece of pure land in his heart. The swan stretches its arms from the fingertips to the shoulders, neck, and A piece of back muscle is working flexibly with the dance-it is the sexiest swan in the world, it is the most perfect human body in the world.
And now, we can see nothing. He keeps making up new plays, keeps touring around the world, keeps accepting interviews from various media, and keeps getting countless awards. I will watch every new performance of his religiously, sitting among the old people who are twice as old as me, but I have watched it after seeing it. I laughed, applauded, and applauded, but the emotions I moved never came back.
I don't know if it is a wise decision to let him be a director and screenwriter, or maybe he is no longer satisfied with being a single dancer. But coordinating the overall situation will inevitably weaken the weight of focusing on one's dance moves, which is beyond doubt. I want to see a great performance, but I would rather see Cooper's dance. If Cooper doesn't dance (or rarely), then this is just an ordinary musical. I will not spend 45 pounds to watch a musical.
This fall is the 10th anniversary of AMP's Swan Lake, and they will continue to tour. The dancers have changed several batches, and I don't know anything about the new cast. But of course I will go. I want to see if other people can recall the memory of the swan in my heart, which was as amazing as a god when I first saw it.
Yomi
24/07/2005 Luton
Cooper’s dancing was as extraordinary as I'd remembered it-Not quite human. Divine. ——OBSERVER
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