"Manon" as a literary ballet
Ballet |
It is now around fifty years since the world premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s full-length narrative ballet “Manon” (1974) – and it has long been regarded as one of the canonical works of literary ballet. At the same time, the production marks a high point of this genre in the second half of the 20th century.
MacMillan himself, one of the key innovators of narrative ballet and Scotland’s most significant choreographer, stands alongside Frederick Ashton, John Cranko and John Neumeier, represents that generation of choreographers which re-established the dramatic narrative ballet following a phase of aesthetic upheaval, whilst at the same time developing it further in a decisive manner. In her works, the tension between the literary source material and the nature of dance is made particularly clear and transformed into a distinct artistic form.
A defining feature of MacMillan’s own choreographic oeuvre is the consistently psychological nature of his characters. They do not appear as idealised stage heroes – as was particularly the case in the narrative ballets of the 19th century – but as ambivalent, internally conflicted subjects, whose actions are caught in the conflict between individual desire and social norms. Central to this are themes such as the search for more intense – often physically painful – as well as the existential isolation of the individual. In Manon, based on Abbé Prévost’s 1731 novel, these aspects coalesce into a dance drama of great emotional and dramatic intensity, which highlights the intersection of the literary source material between the adventure novel and sentimental drama.
Within MacMillan’s oeuvre, “Manon” occupies a paradigmatic position – comparable literary adaptations can be found, for example, in “Las Hermanas” (1963), based on Federico García Lorca’s La casa de Bernarda Alba; in Different Drummer (1984), based on Georg Büchner’s “Woyzeck”; or, above all, in his Romeo and Juliet adaptation (1965) based on William Shakespeare – as the quintessential literary ballet. Each of these works illustrates that works of this genre are not merely scenic retellings of literary material, which would lead to artistic emptiness, but rather represent a holistic, intermedia process of transformation.
Literary ballet should therefore be understood as a specific form of choreographic adaptation, in which a source text composed in language is translated into a primarily non-verbal, body-based system of signs. The semantic structure of the literary text is not reproduced, but transformed into a new aesthetic order constituted by movement, music, space and light. The challenge facing every choreographer is to create narrative, psychological and affective dimensions tangible without resorting to language – a complex undertaking.
The fundamental tension between literary text and physical performance is central to literary ballet. The ‘text’ of the dance exists solely in the moment of its performance and is inseparably bound to the performers’ bodies. Every adaptation therefore implies a medial and semiotic shift that aims not at reproduction but at transformation.
It is precisely in this adaptation, however, that the distinctive aesthetic quality of the literary ballet lies: Works such as Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon open up an approach to literary material that is conveyed not primarily through discourse, but rather through the senses and emotions. They make narrative structures physically tangible and unfold their effect through the inseparable connection between choreographic design and performative realisation – a field of tension, which has lost none of its appeal, even in the face of the current dominance of abstract contemporary works in dance.
You can read the full text in the Manon program booklet.