The Moscow Times<br/>
Arts & Ideas<br/>
Body Language<br/>
An adventurous quartet of
contemporary dance troupes converges
on Moscow for the annual Grand Pas
festival.<br/><br/>
By Raymond Stults<br/><br/>
Published: October 15, 2004<br/><br/>

Of the many fine evenings of dance seen in Moscow last season, my vote for the most fascinating and
exciting goes to the events of Grand Pas, a new festival that kicked off in August, 2003. Companies from
Britain, France and Israel brought to town what was surely some of the best contemporary dance ever
witnessed here, with Israel's Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company topping them all in the marvelously lifeaffirming
"Screensaver."<br/><br/>
Grand Pas makes a return appearance from Saturday to Oct. 25, this time bringing to the Maly and Bolshoi
theaters four companies from Britain, the Netherlands and the United States that hold promise of matching
last year's festival in quality and interest.<br/><br/>
Leading off Grand Pas at the Maly Theater on Saturday and Sunday will be Britain's Random Dance
Company, a newcomer to Moscow and probably the most radical-minded of the four troupes to appear.
Saturday's program consists of a 70-minute multimedia show called "Nemesis," to which the company's
principal choreographer, Wayne McGregor, has brought a post-apocalyptic vision of humans transformed
into a lost and forgotten race of insects. Costumes for "Nemesis" were fashioned by the Jim Henson
Creative Workshop, best-known for creating "The Muppet Show." Musical accompaniment is the work of
Robin Rimboud, also known as Scanner, and incorporates bits of talk scanned from cellphone conversations
into the score. On Sunday, also at the Maly, Random Dance Company follows "Nemesis" with a
piece entitled "Polar Sequences."<br/><br/>
Next on the schedule comes one of Europe's most distinguished dance companies, the National Ballet of the
Netherlands, with a single program Tuesday and Wednesday on the Bolshoi Theater's New Stage. Likely to
appeal to a broad segment of Moscow's dance lovers, both evenings present choreography by the great
Dutch balletmaster Hans van Manen and by Britain's David Dawson, whose "The Gray Area," excerpted last
year at the Bolshoi, earned him the 2003 Benois de la Danse choreography prize.<br/><br/>
Like the Netherlands' National Ballet, Complexions Dance Company from the United States has enjoyed
previous successes in Moscow. On its program for Thursday and Oct. 22 at the Bolshoi's New Stage are
seven works, including a solo performance by star dancer Desmond Richardson, and stagings by
Richardson's fellow artistic director, Dwight Roden, considered by some to be the most experimental
choreographer active today.<br/><br/>
Last in the Grand Pas lineup of visiting companies will be Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo, which
makes its Moscow debut at the Bolshoi's New Stage Oct. 23 and 24 and, despite its name, also hails from
the United States. An all-male troupe, it gives a new slant, combined with much humor, to classics of the
ballet repertoire and contemporary dance. Next week in Moscow, it will present excerpts from old standards
such as "Swan Lake" and "Paquita," together with an original work called "Go for Barocco."<br/><br/>
On Oct. 25, the Bolshoi's main stage plays host to the festival's finale, including an awards ceremony and
performances by all four of this year's Grand Pas guest companies.<br/><br/>
The Grand Pas contemporary dance festival runs Saturday to Oct. 25 at the Bolshoi Theater (1 Teatralnaya
Ploshchad, Metro Teatralnaya, Tel. 250-7317) and the Maly Theater (1/6 Teatralnaya Ploshchad, Metro
Teatralnaya, Tel. 923-2521).