For over 50 years, Leonard Cohen’s music has been captivating audiences worldwide, inspiring many films such as Pump Up the Volume, Exotica and the critically acclaimed McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Now his work is being adapted into a dance spectacle performed by Ballet Jazz de Montréal called Dance Me, performing at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
Ihsan Rustem is part of a team of choreographers who bring this production to life. The Indiependent spoke to him about the upcoming show and the various influences across his dance career.
The Indiependent: Tell us a bit about the upcoming production and what can we expect from it?
Dance Me is a seventy-minute dance homage to Montreal’s greatest ambassador Leonard Cohen who is just one of the most profound and prolific songwriters, artists, poets of a generation. The evening is created by three choreographers and one dramaturge Eric Jean – it’s myself, Andonis Foniadakis and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. I thought it was a very interesting choice to have the evening created by three different perspectives on Leonard’s music. We each approach the work from quite a different mind-set because our approaches and our physicality and our styles are quite different. But everything has been very much inspired by Leonard’s songs.
The evening itself is not so much a narrative: we’re going through cycles of Leonard’s life. Andonis’ work is very physical, he’s really taken the rhythm and drive of the music and it’s very exciting. The dancers are phenomenal; what they can do on stage is very electrifying and stunning. I’ve taken a more dramaturgic approach so I was very much inspired by the poetry and the meaning behind all of Leonard’s songs. So some of my sections are quite touching. Like “Suzanne” is a duet where the lady never touches the ground. It’s about a relationship where they’re connected by mind but not really in a physical sense.
I’ve experienced audience members truly singing along and feeling the sense of nostalgia with the music and if you’re unfamiliar with Leonard’s work, it’s a great introduction.
- What was it about Leonard’s work that really captivated your interest?
He’s quite a fascinating one really because when this project was presented to me, we got a list of potential songs that we could use so I really started listening and researching a lot. And it’s very interesting because he is a brilliant poet, his voice is… I mean it gives me Goosebumps. But there’s so much between the lines and there’s so much left to interpretation. I feel that he’s smart because he plants seeds and allows you to do the growing.
It’s very interesting reading fan forums online. It’s quite brilliant to read all these different perspectives so I took elements of that and created my own interpretation of the meaning behind the songs. It’s exciting because each song is so different that the potential that it offers is vast and great. I have six different songs in the evening and I really go in six very different directions so there’s a lot of variety in it, there’s really something for everyone.
- This is a show that features contemporary dance, do you think that we’re seeing more of a lenience towards contemporary dance as opposed to classical ballet?
I do think there’s been a seismic shift in the past 15 years definitely. I mean if you look at the Royal Ballet alone, they’ve got repertoire from Hofesh Schechter and Crystal Pite. These are very contemporary choreographers. Even with English National Ballet they just did Giselle by Akram Khan. So I think there has been a shift. I think ballet dancers today understand that during their training they have to be versatile and adaptable because when they get into ballet companies, there’s a vast amount of contemporary dance.
And I think on the flip side, with Ballet Jazz what you’re seeing on stage is contemporary. It is athletic but I can assure you every single one of those dancers had a highly strong classical background. They do a ballet class every morning before they rehearse these very athletic movements. I think it’s really the foundation for many of us to have that strong technical base in which to fly from.
- Which dancer/ choreographer has been the biggest inspiration to you?
It shifts over time. If I go really back to the early, early days because I came to ballet relatively late, I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do. So I would go to the library and just get videos you know back in the day before YouTube. I remember there was one dancer in particular, Sylvie Guillem, that I was fascinated by. She was first a prima ballerina at 19 at the Paris Opera and then she spent a long time at the Royal Ballet. I had the opportunity to dance with her at Sadler’s Wells actually when I was 16. That was a big deal for me. I think in terms of a dancer she was certainly an influence.
For early inspirations for choreographers, when I was studying at Rambert in London, Nederlands Dans Theater for me were everything. Jiri Kilian and Mats Ek were there as well as William Forsythe and Ohad Naharin. Definitely at those times, in my early stages, they were great influences and I was fortunate as a dancer to have the opportunity to dance their repertoire and work with them which was lovely.
The choreographer I am today or my physical approach has certainly been inspired by probably the hundred different choreographers that I worked with including the ones that I didn’t really love. It’s good to know what you’re not really into but then you’re very drawn to something else and it’s how you develop as a dancer. Also when I stopped the dancing and devoted my full time to choreographing, I recognised the process of transmitting information from my body to those in front of me. It taught me so much more about my own physicality. So I don’t know if there’s one single person but there’s lots of beautiful examples of wonderful humans that I had great fortune to work with and a couple of those I named.
- What advice would you have to anyone looking to get into dance/ choreography?
For dancers just immerse yourself in it. See as much as you can. If you don’t have the means to go to the theatre you’re so fortunate in that everything is online. But really try and find your way in. I was really lucky being in London but most UK cities offer the same. But I would always go to dance school in the evenings and weekends, do all of those youth programmes and just really immerse myself in it and love it. It takes a lot of discipline and there’s a lot of setbacks but it’s the most beautiful profession.
I would say for choreographers, try and fail. Just keep trying, learn from mistakes, try different ideas, get in the studio, find your friends. All the early stuff I did, I didn’t earn anything for that it was just try and discover and hone your craft. Each time you’ll learn a little bit more from the last. The studio’s really a playground and the possibilities are endless so start playing.
Some answers edited for clarity
Words by Katie Heyes
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