Walking Mad was first created in 2001 for the Netherlands Dance Theater by prominent choreographer Johan Inger. It has since become a dance culture phenomenon, with nine dancers and a tenth star- a massive wooden wall that also moves, divides, shifts, and turns. Set to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, this breathtaking piece mimics the sinuous composition with its sensuous, but frenetic choreography.
“The famous Bolero by Ravel with its sexual, almost kitsch history was the trigger for me to make my own version," said Inger. "I quickly decided that it was going to be about relationships in different forms and circumstances. I came up with the idea of a wall that could transform the space during this minimalistic music and create small pockets of space and situations. Walking Mad is a journey in which we encounter our fears, our longings and the lightness of being."
The piece is extremely physical; dancers are climbing on the wall, hanging on it, dismantling it, latching it, and pushing it over- all while dancing. The collective power of movement of these nine dancers allows the wall to come alive onstage, soaking up stardom as its own character.
Keep reading to find out more about Walking Mad and why Ballet Idaho Artistic Director Garrett Anderson chose this piece to go in conjunction with Carmen next spring.
CM: What drew you to Walking Mad?
GA: What drew me to it is the memory of dancing it. I am sometimes hesitant to program pieces that I loved dancing because I know I’m not as objective to the piece anymore and often when you have this emotionally rich memory of it, you can’t evaluate it in the same way. You're more precious about it because you know what it felt like to you and it can be hard to let go of that. Of course, a director also has to think about the audience experience as well as the dancers’ experience. And of course the way we experience a performance is unique to that time and place, art should also evolve and change and adapt to the people who are interpreting it and the audience that’s receiving it. In the same way, when you’re performing something, you’re sometimes surprised by how it is received.
After asking Johan for the video of the full piece, which I had never seen, only performed, I got goosebumps. I can’t wait for our dancers to experience it, and for our audience to be impacted by it. There is such incredible tonal range in this work. There are moments throughout that that feel tender, or even ominous, others that are hilarious, and jubilant. That’s what drew me to it. It is a very unusual piece, it starts with someone crawling up from the orchestra pit and lifting up the curtain and walking into the performance space. There is this senes of curiosity throughout and it definitely takes you for a journey. This combined with the pure physicality of it was appealing to me as a dancer and a director.
CM: What is the challenge of putting on a piece like this where the set is so instrumental and the dancers are in charge of it?
GA: You rehearse the wall maneuvers as much, if not more, than the dancing. Because as dancers, we are training, always, how to learn choreography and how to refine our movement. We are not as often in charge of scenic properties or technical elements. So, there is a different level of stress that goes into this. The wall is heavy, there are lots of bolts and releases and pockets and costume changes that happen back there and doors that need to be secured. At one point it pivots to become a platform and if one latch or pin isn’t put in correctly, things can go really wrong. There is as much choreography behind the wall as there is in front of it. The wall needs to be in the studio on the first day of rehearsal and be there for the whole process. This isn’t something you can just figure out when you get to the theater.
CM: It’s as if the wall has its own choreography.
GA: Absolutely. And it’s clear that the piece was built around this wall, it wasn’t an afterthought or a decorative element. It is not just scenery, in that way, it is instrumental to how it is choreographed. And you’re climbing on it, going over it, it becomes a room, doorway, a platform, the panels can come apart.
CM: Why should this piece not be missed?
GA: I think it is going to be a really great compliment to Carmen because Carmen is going to be the story ballet and has a similar intensity yet with the classicism and refined aesthetic that classical ballet is known for as well as the storytelling that comes with that. Walking Mad does have a lightness to it at times but purely from a dance aesthetic point of view, Carmen will feel like a neoclassical ballet and deliver a clear narrative whereas Walking Mad from the beginning feels like a world we are discovering and interpreting as we move through it. There are characters and yes, there are human interaction through the various scenes, but there isn’t a story per se. With this abstractness the movement vocabulary is very contemporary. In the later part of my career, I got to dance some of the roles that were created for Johan Inger. I was of course humbled by the fact that I was dancing the parts that he did, he was an incredible mover with a captivating stage presence. I was enamored with the whole Netherlands Dance Theatre world and getting to dance this piece that Johan created for NDT at the beginning of his choreographic career was such a gift. It’s just such an enjoyable theatrical experience- you could know nothing about dance or about Johan Inger and it wouldn't matter.
It is entertaining, it is poignant. It’s a ride.
