Cubism Survives Intact at Arts Center in Massine’s ‘Parade’

Leonide Massine’s “Parade” has become known as the ballet that brought Cubism into the theater.

A stellar collaboration between Satie (music), Cocteau (scenario), Massine (choreography) and Picasso (sets and costumes), created in 1917 for the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, “Parade” fell out of the repertory for nearly 50 years and was revived for the Joffrey Ballet in 1973.

Massine supervised this revival. Reportedly, Picasso himself had to approve the new sets and costumes.

Massine taught his role of the Chinese Conjurer to Joffrey’s Gary Chryst, who in turn set it upon several next-generation Joffrey dancers, including Philip Jerry (seen locally last year), Peter Narbutas and Edward Stierle, who will dance the role this week in Orange County. (A review of the opening performance of the Joffrey Ballet’s Orange County engagement is on Page 1 of this section.)

Chryst helped the two focus on the elements of Cubism in the role.

“He emphasized the feeling of weight and solidity and squareness,” Narbutas said in a recent phone interview. (Narbutas will dance the Chinese Conjurer tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.)

“The shoulders are kept very flat to the audience,” he said. “All the angles, relative to the shoulders and to the body, are very square and angular. There is a certain tension that is created, similar to (that in Nijinsky’s) ‘Afternoon of a Faun,’ which has similar stylistic points.”

Narbutas finds other contrasts built into the role.

“Another fairly prominent counterpoint is between a certain softness--some movements are almost geisha-girl like--and this very hard, very grotesque side to the character,” he said.

“There are moments where the face is completely distorted. . . . The tongue is extended fully down and out of the mouth, and the eyes rolled back into the back of the head, so you see nothing but the white of the eyes.”

For Narbutas, however, the central contrast is that between “moments of complete stillness and Zen-like serenity” and “incredible, dynamic explosiveness.”

“There’s a sense of being completely withdrawn, or internalized, and then absolutely spewing out and just exploding both in movements, like huge leaps, the biggest leaps you could possibly manage, coming out of nowhere, or in this big, screaming face.”

To achieve what Narbutas calls “almost a humming stillness” from which the explosions must occur, he meditates between 20 minutes and an hour each day.

“Knowing how still still can be helps in a piece like this, especially,” he said.

“To really get any tension, anything that draws the audience in, mesmerizes them, the stillness has to be something, not just a lack of movement. It has to be utterly, absolutely, completely stone still. . . .

“You could be a rock--that inanimate--then all of a sudden become a gushing waterfall. That’s what makes the piece so unusual and fascinating for the audience, if that is achieved.”

Stierle, who will dance the role at the Saturday matinee, also focuses upon the Cubist quality of the choreography.

“There is a sharp, clipped quality to the movements, coming from nowhere and going to somewhere,” he said. “You can go into something with no preparation.”

He said the role presents “an incredible challenge to an artist, a dancer, to achieve the intricate details it requires.

“The role is the ultimate of coordination,” he said. “Not only are you creating this aura of mystery, but also it entails a great deal of coordination between your hands, arms, your eyeballs, your expression. It entails so many different things.”

For Gerald Arpino, artistic director of the Joffrey, the Cubist elements in “Parade” become metaphors.

“ ‘Parade’ is one of the most sophisticated ballets,” he said. “It is almost like a T. S. Eliot cocktail party in its approach.”

“Metaphorically, Massine was . . . showing man in his appetites--his avarice, his greed, his attitudes. They are all portrayed. Everything in the ballet, to me, is a comment on the horseplay of the humans.”

Massine’s “Parade” will be part of two Diaghilev programs presented during the Joffrey Ballet’s current run at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Peter Narbutas is scheduled to dance the role of the Chinese Conjurer tonight at 8. Edward Stierle will dance the role at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets: $13 to $39. Information: (714) 556-2787.