Sylvie Guillem is a diva in spite of herself. Rudolf Nureyev made her a star at the Paris Opera Ballet back in the ’80s, but her technique was still formidable Wednesday, opening night of her tour de force show.
At 47, Guillem has endless, agile legs that still go sky-high, as honed as fine cutlery. Even with her anti-glam hair and simple clothes, she radiates chic.
The program — three works collectively titled “6000 miles away” — premiered last year in London, shortly after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. But the dances are anything but depressing.
Master choreographer William Forsythe makes a welcome foray back into a balletic idiom with a duo, “Rearray,” for Guillem and her tall, shaggy partner, Massimo Murru.
Set to weird, scratchy music by David Morrow, the short scenes, separated by blackouts, recall Balanchine’s strange and mysterious “Five Pieces,” but here there are more like 15 or 20.
Guillem and Murru walk casually, but then do immaculate turns; Forsythe’s distorted classical vocabulary seems like a ghost of ballet. He keeps you off guard, either shutting the lights or having the dancers leave the stage at unexpected times. The audience wasn’t sure that the final blackout was actually the end.
Guillem is solo onstage for Mats Ek’s “Bye,” but she never seems alone because of a door-size screen that shows her on film, minus a hand or head.
The real Guillem peeks around the screen to complete the image: a great gimmick. As she interacts with the portal, it holds other projected surprises — a partner and even a pet.
As a crowd comes together in the film, the onstage Guillem does a headstand and squeezes her way back into the illusion, reappearing in the film to exit in the distance.
A mid-evening duet by Jiri Kylian, “27’52”, is performed by two other dancers, but doesn’t provide enough contrast with the Forsythe piece that preceded it.
Given her cool virtuosity in the latter and the winsome charm of “Bye,” Guillem maintains a star power undiminished by time and tsunamis.