http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/blog/performance/impressing-mr-forsythe/594/
Since 2005, Australian native Kathryn Bennetts has been artistic director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders, which makes its full-company Manhattan debut with William Forsythe’s Impressing the Czar at the Lincoln Center Festival in the Rose Theater. Impressing the Czar, described simply as a history of western civilization conveyed with humor, was choreographed in 1988, and has not been performed in the US since 1989. Bennetts spoke from Antwerp by phone on July 12, prior to coming to New York.
Impressing the Czar seems like an ambitious work with which to acquaint New York with the company.
It’s a great way to acquaint New York with the company, because it shows the many talents they have. It’s a piece on a very large scale, and it shows off the company very well.
You worked with Ballett Frankfurt for 15 years, as a rehearsal director. How did the dancers in Antwerp take to William Forsythe’s style?
Great. He was here the last four days working with the company before we go to New York. He was saying how fantastic they were. He was so impressed, he loves them. They’ve been doing his stuff now for a few years… Because I’m here, I can look after his pieces. Each time they do another piece from him, they can grow in his style, and get deeper into the movement quality, which doesn’t always happen with other companies. So he’s thrilled that there’s a company that’s performing his work – not only this work, we do a few other ones – the way it’s supposed to be done.
