Snow White as You've Never Seen Before
By admin on 2015-01-08

A hauntingly dark and ambiguous take on classic fairy tale Snow White sees the magical story come of age with the collaboration of choreographer Angelin Preljocaj and couterier Jean Paul Gaultier presenting audiences with a brilliant and complicated contemporary ballet based on the Brothers Grimm work. The production will begin its China tour in Shanghai this weekend.

The modern adaptation sees Snow White depicted as an Oedipus-like figure, with Gaultier daring to dress her in shock-value outfits with low-neckline lingerie-like garments scantily held together, a fitting interpretation of Preljocaj's work.

"I have followed the Grimm Brothers' version, with just a few personal variations based on my own analysis of the symbolism in the tale," Preljocaj, a self-professed lover of fairy tales, told the Global Times.

Born in Paris in 1957, Preljocaj is a master of both ballet and modern dance. His creations are in many repertories of world-famous dance companies, including Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris and his own company, Ballet Preljocaj.

Internationally acclaimed and most recently picking up the Best Dance Show of the Year award at last year's Les Globe de Cristal in Paris for this version of Snow White, his work is distinctly modern and full of originality.

Preljocaj concentrates on the dancer's bodies, the energy and space to create indirect narration and guiding the audiences predominantly through evocative gestures.

"I do not melt theater and dance," Preljocaj explained.

"I usually add color in the movements, to enhance the narration. For example, when the huntsman has to kill Snow White, I have imagined a certain body language to express unkindness, cruelty."

Preljocaj uses all of his imagination to do justice to the classic fable. In the pas de deux between Snow White and her wicked stepmother - where she is seduced into eating the poisoned apple - Preljocaj has the stepmother shove the apple into the young girl's mouth and hold it there slowly and cruelly. It is "perfectly in its sadistic voluptuousness," he said.

He also uses acrobatic movements when the seven dwarves first emerge from the forest, while the prince's desperate duet with his lover's lifeless body elicits strong emotions.

Targeted at an adult audience, both Preljocaj and Gautier had to employ much more than simple choreography and design to achieve their modern-day masterpiece.

"The wicked stepmother is without doubt the central character in the tale," Preljo-caj explained. "She is the one who I examine through her narcissistic determination not to give up on seduction and her role as a woman, even if it means sacrificing her stepdaughter.

"This is very contemporary. Nowadays, women are more and more beautiful and look younger. Mothers don't want to be considered as mothers only; they don't want to let go their status as women, as lovers. It's the internal conflict of a mother who, seeing her daughter growing up, is afraid of losing her position in society."

Preljocaj said he also wanted to create a more lustful version of Snow White. "In my performance I've created a lovers garden," he commented. "Couples meet and seduce each other: I wanted some-thing carnal. Jean Paul created costumes with lingerie. The clothes are sublimated; dreamlike…It's really sensual and poetic at the same time."

Esteemed couturier Gaultier, who designed all of the costumes for the 24 dancers in the show, is a legend in the fashion industry. His work for performers Mylène Farmer, Kylie Minogue and rocker Marilyn Manson have garnered a lot of attention over the years, as has his long term contribution to fashion label Pierre Cardin.

"When Angelin contacted me for Snow White I couldn't say no," Gaultier told the Global Times with pride. He explained that his aim was to free Snow White from her traditional high-collar blue puffy dress. The costumes he designed show plenty of bare flesh, setting the girl's legs free and reveling in the transparency of her skin from her feet to her hips.

"Angelin's vision of Snow White was not the same as the Disney one. He wanted to portray her as very sensual. That is why we were looking for a costume that would express her pureness but also her sensuality," Gautier explained.

Among all of the costumes Gaultier created for the show, his favorite is the one of Snow White's evil stepmother, who is wrapped in black chiffon and perched on top of wickedly-high heels. "I think it's not only my costume, but the way that role is performed which makes it very strong," he said.

While rewriting a classical ballet is not new in today's art world, successfully pushing the boundaries between modern dance and ballet seems to have become a com-mon thread among many leading contemporary ballet companies. However, with powerful choreography and cutting-edge design, Preljocaj has managed to set his Snow White apart. The piece is embedded with real jealousy, aging and sexuality in a timeless fairy tale and without kitsch - it is a show you simply don't want to miss.

Snow White, by Ballet Preljocaj will play in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou this month.