Japanese performers impress more than the Western ones in this merging of Kabuki with “Giselle.” (Ian Douglas)
In Yasuko Yokoshi’s “Bell,” East meets West — and almost everyone wins.
The Hiroshima-born, New York-based choreographer incorporates traditional Japanese dance and drama into her work. “Bell” is inspired by an 18th-century Kabuki play, “The Dancing Girl at the Dojoji Temple,” the story of a young maiden who, after being spurned by a priest, turns into an avenging serpent.
But Yokoshi goes a step further and layers the drama with music from “Giselle” — Western ballet’s great tale of a young peasant girl’s death following a nobleman’s infidelity.
In traditional Kabuki, all the parts would be played by men. Here, there’s a mix. The cast includes three Western female dancers and two Japanese women, including Yokoshi. A violist and a singer perform on one side of the bare white stage; on the other are four Japanese musicians and riveting young Kabuki actor Kuniya Sawamura.
There’s some great gender-bending here: Yokoshi acts the part of a maiden while the male Sawamura provides her voice. Later, while the violist plays a solo from “Giselle,” Sawamura plays a woman as he might in Kabuki, only without makeup. Holding a fan, with his weight pitched back and his head bobbing softly and shyly on his neck, you’re looking at a man but seeing an essence of femininity.
Yokoshi performs two solos as a dancing girl and a demon, both personified by enormous wigs, one black and one white.
Later, she draws an even wilder parallel when the Western cast sings Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Yet it’s right in line with the other tales of love gone wrong.
References bounce back and forth: Kabuki poems are sung like Western arias, and the dancers speak lines in Japanese — with American accents.
The concepts in “Bell” are whip-smart. Traditional Kabuki is so rarefied, it can be exhausting. The parallels give it a framework and context for Westerners — but you’ll enjoy it more if you know something about Kabuki and “Giselle” beforehand.
Where “Bell” doesn’t ring true is in the execution of Western dance. Yokoshi sought out the most authentic Japanese artists she could find. Her Western dancers are good, but they’re modern dancers approximating ballet. To honor “Giselle,” she needs top-notch ballet dancers.
If you’re curious about “Bell” but can’t make it to the theater, catch Saturday’s performance when it’s live-streamed at newyorklivearts.org.