Amal Choucri Catta is dazzled by the red music of pirouettes "Que ma joie demeure" by "Compagnie Fêtes Galantes", France. Choreography Beatrice Massin, music Johann Sebastian Bach. Venues: Main Hall, COH 10 January 8pm; Sayed Darwish Theatre, Alexandria, 13 January 8pm Reminiscent of palaces and princes, of intrepid heroes and dazzling knights in shining armours, "Compagnie Fêtes Galantes" was a promise of refinement and elegance, and the dance "Que ma joie demeure", beautifully performed for one single hour in one single evening at Cairo Opera's Main Hall, an impressive performance of Baroque entertainment. "Compagnie Fêtes Galantes", established in Cergy-Pontoise, France, in 1993, has concentrated on Baroque dance, studying the various choreographic scores while discovering the dances' vast liberty of interpretation: the steps are indicated, whereas the movements of arms, hands and head are left to the dancers' imagination. Choreographer Beatrice Massin has made good use of her research, developing a style and an interpretation of her own. She compares the dancing body to a musical instrument, selecting Baroque because "its music is movement, energy and vitality". For her latest creation Que ma joie demeure -- "May My Joy Remain" -- she has chosen the second, third and sixth of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos" and the BWV 78 Cantata Jesu der Du meine Seele -- "Jesus thou hast taken my soul." The latter is beautifully recorded and sung by the choir and orchestra of Chapelle Royale, conductor Philippe Herreweghe, and the former a fascinating record by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, conductor Ton Koopman. "May My Joy Remain" is a dance of mirth, of sunshine and love: its colour is red. Spotlights shed red rays onto the stage, while the dancers in red, orange and yellow costumes came on single, then double, adding one or two newcomers to each bar until the entire company of 10 was performing. The dancers' steps were light, their bodies alert and their movements stripped of all superfluous gestures. They were Bach's musical notes and their dance, reminiscent of hallowed sites and sacred halls, was breathtakingly unusual. It was a solemn pilgrimage across the Cantata, starting as a lonely madrigal and culminating in a polyphonic apotheosis, while the dancers' steps were forming abstract designs on the floor. There was a pattern to the dance and a pattern to the music, and the choreography adapted one to the other, creating a dialogue between both. The blending of steps with musical notes in a delicate, almost conventional approach, was masterly. Likewise were the genteel sarcasm, the light irony, the happy smiles and joyful laughter expressed by form and movement and by Bach's music, covering an extraordinary range of human experiences: from the holiest to the silliest, from his 106th Cantata "God's time is the best of times", to his "Coffee Cantata", composed with a mischievous wink at the growing fondness for coffee, and created in the form of a brief opera, sometimes performed to a Libretto by Picander. Bach did love a good joke, as did his entire musical family: when he was a boy, his many relations would organise annual get-togethers where they met, shared family stories and made music of one kind or another, mostly ending these yearly celebrations by improvising joke pieces on popular tunes (such as those ending his "Goldberg Variations", of which one tune seems to be treating a certain familiar digestive problem: "Cabbage and turnips have driven me away. Had my mother cooked meat, I would have stayed longer"). Furthermore, his variations, as most of his other tunes, are strewn with 18- century dances, such as the "Gigue" and the "Sarabande", an ancient dance in three-time and the stately predecessor of the waltz. Famous as an organist virtuoso, Johann Sebastian Bach's reputation as a composer was restricted in his lifetime to a fairly narrow circle, and his music was regarded by many as old fashioned. The revival of interest in Bach's music gathered momentum with certain publications of his works in 1801, followed by Felix Mendelssohn's conducting of "St Matthew Passion" in 1829, thus paving the way to further performances of Bach's musical creations. Born in 1685 to a large musical family, Johann Sebastian was orphaned at the age of 10 and went on to live with his elder brother Johann Christoph Bach, where he received his organ lessons. He was organist at Arnstadt when he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach in 1707, who gave him seven sons, three of whom died at an early age while, of the remaining four, two -- Wilhelm Friedmann and Carl Philip Emanuel Bach -- turned into famed composers. In 1720, a year after the death of his wife, Johann Sebastian married the singer Anna Magdalena who gave him 13 children. Two of them became musical celebrities: Christoph Friedrich and mainly Johann Christian Bach, often called "the Bach of Milan" or "the Bach of London", according to the city in which he was pursuing his musical activities. After a rich life, filled with travels and musical creations, Johann Sebastian Bach lost his eyesight in 1749, though he continued to work with the help of his son-in-law. When he died in 1750, aged 65, he was surrounded by his wife and the remaining nine -- six boys and three girls -- of the 20 children he had from his two marriages. Bach was one of Chopin's and Debussy's idols and Camille Saint-Saens compared his work to an immense Gothic cathedral "with colossal proportions", while Wagner considered it the "most stupendous miracle in all music". The experience of his astonishing masterpieces is often compared to that of a man who remains most of the time in one and the same spot; and the longer he remains there the more deeply he understands where he is, what he is. While creating her dances, Beatrice Massin clearly saw in Johann Sebastian the jovial boy, the prolific father, the eminent musician and the devout Cantor of the "Thomaskirche" in Leipzig. Four different conceptions in one single body, diffusing a variety of colours and moods into one single work. With every change of climate the music stopped and into the red light of the silent stage the tapping heels of a dancer suddenly led the rhythm, announcing the following dance. The soloist, however, never remained alone and his tapping never ceased: gradually joined by the group, he paved the way to music which finally came on with each of the three chosen "Brandenburg Concertos". These are Johann Sebastian Bach's six "Concerti Grossi" for various orchestral combinations, dedicated to Christian Ludwig Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1721, though it appears they were never played for him. Of the six Concerti Grossi, Beatrice Massin chose the second, in F-major, BWV 1047, comprising the tune of a trumpet soaring into the highest pitches with extreme virtuosity, while dancers silently move on their toes, before opening a colourful Andante in D-minor and finally resuming their joyful tapping in the dynamic Allegro. Silence was once again required as the red lights lowered, turning into a misty grey hue, the dancers' toes reflecting a new expression with the third Concerto Grosso in G- major BWV 1408, exuding a feeling of luxury and fortitude, perfectly expressed by the steps that gradually turned dramatic before regaining the binary form of a dynamic dance. Brandenburg's sixth Concerto in B-flat major BWV 1051 is a splendid combination of sound and tune, of ancient and modern instruments culminating in a sublimely meditative "Adagio ma non tanto", with a vivacious "Guigue" as final Allegro. The dancers closed with pirouettes, jumps and somersaults, their toes on fire and their heels loudly pounding on the crimson floor. They were as free and as joyful as the music that filled the air. Theirs was undoubtedly the most unusual, the most fascinating of spectacles and one of the most beautiful.
