Sunset Boulevard

“All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.”

The final line of Billy Wilder's Academy Award-winning classic Sunset Blvd is legendary. This at-the-time revolutionary film portrays Hollywood during the 1940s and ’50s as a shadowy, hypocrisy ridden world inhabited by an army of wannabe's and has-beens.

Gloria Swanson was immortalized as the beautiful yet tragic Norma Desmond, a faded film star who tries to make her comeback by tricking up-and-coming screenwriter Joe Gillis to create a script that will make her go down in history. She falls madly in love with him in the process. And then, despite her foolproof plan, trouble turns up disguised as the lovely Betty Schaefer.

Sunset Blvd became a milestone in movie history because it dared to take a look at the darker side of Hollywood and humanity while combining several genres such as black comedy, drama and film noir.

In 1993, musical legend Andrew Lloyd Webber, responsible for The Phantom of the Opera, Evita and, of course, Cats, sunk his teeth into the material and added another genre to the mix. Aided by writers Don Black and Christopher Hampton, Sunset Boulevard was transformed into a stage musical that went on to win numerous Tony Awards. After its première at the Adelphi Theatre in London, it ran for 1,529 performances and soon made its way to The United States where Glenn Close embodied Norma Desmond.

Over the past 16 years, there have been many international productions, and now Dutch theatre and media mogul Joop Van Den Ende has translated it to Dutch and brought it to Belgium. Paul Eenens, who directed Dutch versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and The Sound of Music was called in to do the staging. It’s nowprobably the most-anticipated musical of the year in Flanders.

Musical fans should be impressed by the requisite glamour of the stage: A rotating set alternates between Norma's lavish mansion and the film studios where the cast plays out the love affairs and betrayals. The cast is all Dutch, and the Netherlands two biggest musical-theatre stars, Simone Kleinsma and Pia Douwes, will take turns portraying the larger-than life Norma Desmond.

Flanders Today June 3 2009

Ashes

After a well-received performances in Zürich and Paris, choreographer Koen Augustijnen returns to Flemish soil with Ashes, his latest production for the Ghent-based Les Ballets C. de la B. The subtitle reads “Nothing lasts forever”, which eloquently sums up the central theme of mortality.

The much in-demand Flemish alto Steve Dugardin sings a contemporary adaptation of Händel’s beautifully expressive love duets together with a soprano (either Amaryllis Dieltiens or Irene Carpentier), while eight acrobats and dancers provide the visual feast illustrating how far people will go to maintain what they have achieved. For the storytellers, the outcome is sadly inevitable. Holding on is easy; letting go is an art. Ashes illustrates the intricate relationship between these dual forces.

Founded in 1984 by Alain Platel, whose role fluctuates between performer, choreographer and artistic director, Les Ballets C. de la B. is the Belgian leader in theatre dance fusion. They were in part responsible for “the Flemish Wave” – a turning point in the late 1970s and 1980s when Flemish performing arts took off internationally, thanks to the groundbreaking work of choreographers like Platel, Wim Vandekeybus and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.

The company’s full name is Les Ballets Contemporains de la Belgique, which served as a commentary on both Belgium’s infamous language divide (which hasn’t changed much in 25 years) and ironic recognition that modern dance was outshining and outselling ballet, which had become characterized as being stuck in tradition and unable to re-invent itself for a modern audience.

Les Ballets soon became famous for its eclectic and often surreal mix of dance, theatre and music. It is an artistic platform that reaps the benefits of not only the collaboration between various choreographers (which is unique in Flanders) but also of a wide variety of talented young artists with diverse backgrounds.

Far from a vanity project for Platel or anyone else, dancers’ personal contributions make each performance a vital entity with a distinct social conscience. These constant and blossoming influences result in a unique contemporary mix that might be summed up by the company’s motto: “This dance is of the world, and the world belongs to everyone”.

Flanders Today March 18 2009