One quartet, two visions of life and death

The Seoul Metropolitan Ballet celebrated its second anniversary with a double bill, "Death and the Maiden," which ran Friday to Sunday at the National Theater of Korea's Haeoreum Theater in Jung-gu.

The program took Franz Schubert's celebrated string quartet, "Death and the Maiden," as its central motif, setting signature works by two international choreographers side by side: Christian Spuck's "The Seventh Blue" and Alexander Ekman's "Cacti."

Though both works began with Schubert's music, the two choreographers took the dance in very different directions.

Spuck's "The Seventh Blue," which premiered at the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany in 2000, is a lyrical meditation on death, drawing on the poem by Matthias Claudius that inspired Schubert's string quartet.

In a visit to Seoul ahead of the performance, Spuck described the work as "an abstract ballet" with a few moments of storytelling. What drew him to the poem, he said, was its rare depiction of death not as something frightening, but as something "beautiful and embracing."

"I find that this has been stunningly captured in the music. So it was important that the choreography be very, very close to the music," Spuck said during a press conference on Aug. 5.

While the second movement carries a melancholic quality, it also leaves room for irony and an embrace of life's positivity. The final movement is energetic and playful.

"So the whole ballet is actually a celebration of life," Spuck said, "and of learning to understand that we all have our time and we all have to learn to say goodbye at one point. This is something very beautiful."

Ekman, on the other hand, uses only the fourth movement ("Presto") of Schubert's quartet alongside passages of music by Haydn and Beethoven.

Rather than focusing on the narrative of death, "Cacti" turns its attention to contemporary art and art criticism, using humor to poke fun at the ways art is analyzed and interpreted.

Ekman described the work as "a rhythmical game between dancers and musicians, which became the score for the work."

"It was created during a period of my life when I was very upset every time someone would write about my work," he wrote in the program book. "But I believe that there is no right way and that everyone can interpret art and experience it the way they want."

Two years in, a new chapter

At a previous press conference, Ahn Ho-sang, president of Seoul's Sejong Center for the Performing Arts who helped establish the ballet troupe, reflected on the company's first two years.

"It's been two years of running at full speed, and it feels like so much has happened," he said. "When we first set out to create a new ballet company, there were many worries and fears. What frightened me most was entering this new territory of contemporary ballet in Korea. I wondered whether it could really work."

Ahn recalled that when the company was being founded, he dreamed of working with renowned choreographers such as the late Hans van Manen, Johan Inger, Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal, as well as Spuck and Ekman.

"I wondered whether it would ever be possible. Being able to work with artists whose names once seemed so far out of reach, and to do so within such a short period, has been a major achievement for us."

Spuck also said the creation of a new ballet company that focused on contemporary ballet was "extraordinary."

"In Germany at the moment, a lot of money is being cut for culture, so it was really nice to see that in South Korea, in Seoul, people are investing in culture and making culture even more important," he said. "I think this is something that brings us all together."

But above all, Ahn said, the audience's response was the company's greatest source of encouragement.

"We want to continue broadening the horizons of Korean ballet and giving audiences new experiences."

The company's next production will turn entirely to the work of Hans van Manen. "All for Hans van Manen," a triple bill featuring "Kammerballett," "Grosse Fuge" and "5 Tangos," is scheduled for Nov. 19-22.