The new work has no title as yet. Apparently that often happens, I was told. Maybe that makes sense – first see how the piece works in its totality when it’s finally finished, as you can only really judge it during a real performance in front of an audience. And then a name will surface of its own accord. Indeed, it seems there are some people who only decide on their baby’s name a couple of days after it’s born. “So we’ll send out the cards a bit later”. But it seemed quite unusual to me. I was also surprised to discover that Lock creates his choreography without hearing the music. So the steps have already been made by the time the music – a new composition – is finished. And there was I thinking that dance was primarily about moving to music. You learn something every day!
Whatever the case, things work a bit differently at La La La than they do here. Apart from the fact that the title of the work was unknown and remained so, the company couldn’t say for ages who the costume designer was – which was a real challenge for our publicity people to get the programme printed in time. (Incidentally, one of the La La La publicity staff fell two metres down into the orchestra pit from the stage just before a rehearsal – while holding a cup of coffee. There were no serious injuries; just a few coffee stains). And the publicity photos came to Amsterdam so late that all the newspapers had to postpone their previews for lack of visual material. It was good that all the papers paid a lot of attention to this important occasion, but ticket sales did suffer from the fact that the articles were only published just before the premiere. And even that was sometimes difficult enough. One interview with Mr. Lock planned for five in the afternoon eventually took place at almost midnight, because the choreographer was still busy creating his piece. The journalist must have worked through the night to meet the deadline for her paper.
But what did we think about the new work? Of course, that was the hot topic of the afterparty, where all the guests – many dance connoisseurs as well as laymen like myself – were curious as to each other’s opinions, as always. Without going into too much detail, I often heard the observation that the piece was ‘interesting’, but there was ‘still room for development’. Lock is in any case an artist who can stir up strong emotions, even in his colleagues from the dance world, and this time proved no different. While one person described his idiom as ‘movement diarrhoea’, the next extolled it as pure genius. There are no hard and fast truths in art. However, something that everyone agreed on was the importance of this sort of creation, as well as the fact that they are presented in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Music Theatre’s unique position as a production house provides it with the opportunity of giving an artist such as Lock a few days’ time to finish mounting his production on stage. And yes, when it moves on to be performed at the other co-producing theatres (Dresden, Antwerp, Ottawa and Singapore), it will probably have developed further. And maybe it will also have a name by then...