The Party's Over!
SShall we talk about responsibility? Vicky Evans knows about all that. She is currently in charge of the world tour of Matthew Bourne's 'Swan Lake" finishing up at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London and poised to travel all the way to Australia. Bourne's psychodrama, a magnificent turnaround of the famous ballet as we know it, has become a mega hit in the ten years of its existence. As a dancer on leave from the barre Evans has taken over the job of getting 37 dancers and all the trappings across Europe. Her portfolio of schedules, time sheet, casting lists, flight information, keeps the company in order and her in a continual state of nerves. Yet it all manages to get done, and the reviews are more glowing than ever before.
I sat with Evans in her dressing room the morning after the opening night in Paris. She had her sweats on with hopes of joining the company for the morning class. "Barre, at least," she said, rather wistfully and probably already knowing she hadn't a chance at pointing her toes this morning. "What a stressful night," she said, carefully unpacking reams of paper, notebooks, and discs. It was a surprise to me. The audience had leapt to their feet the night before with a standing ovation and many curtain calls. It was difficult to understand the worry frowns in her forehead. "We were eight hours behind schedule yesterday," she began, a stiff upper lip smile softening the worry lines on her pretty face. "Because of problems with the set we had to start rehearsal with our orchestra at two in the afternoon," she began. "However, they walked out of the theater at five. We had begged them to stay, but the orchestra union will not give in. That was that. For us it was the worse thing. It is always necessary for the dancers to have one full rehearsal with the orchestra in a new theater."
But anyone involved with live theater will tell you that orchestras have strong union rules all over the world and do not frequently budge from them. The company ran the first half of the show with the orchestra and the second act with the disc. Evans fretted about the tempi. "I just freaked," she said. "It was such a risk and on opening night. Our show is sold to presenters with a light (medium small) orchestra, so we must be ever so careful in negotiating with them. But I feel we are not working together with them. The orchestra has no invested interest in the dancers presenting a good show. For them it is a job. Thankfully, the dancers were in the right place at the right time. They heard the bad tempi, but they adjusted quickly." Although Evans gets frustrated when elements are out of her control she knows she must walk away and stay calm, because she is at the helm.
Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake" is all style. The intent of the piece is to show that these animals are beautiful but aggressive and often mean. In preparation the company watched videos and documentaries of Swan behavior, studying especially the voluminous wing expanse, then transforming the dancers, some of whom are small and thin, into powerful and menacing animals. "That's my job, too," Evans said, laughing. Well I do have an amazing team of people working with me towards the same goal. All know the show well. I have been here since the beginning, first as a dancer, then as a dance captain/rehearsal director, and finally the resident artistic director. Most of the company has done the show before. So I must draw on their memory and expertise to help me teach steps and intent."
This is only one of the many obstacles that can befall a company, much less one on tour in strange theaters, strange lands, and dealing with strange languages. Bourne drops in every so often, checks out a performance, makes notes, but Evans is the day-by-day person.
Evans is a dancer, and at age 34, is hardly at retirement age. At present she finds herself wearing two hats. As a dancer she longs to stay in shape as the other dancers do, taking class regularly, but as "the boss" she knows that the minute a crisis occurs she is called out of class and must administer to the moment. The show must go on, and it won't without her intervention. "There are roles for the so-called older lady in Matthew's work," she admitted. "I have not put myself out of performing completely, and because Matthew begins a piece, lays out the idea, creates a sequence out of it, there is always room and space for a dancer who has a history with Matthew's way of working to contribute. In the meantime I keep my lists and work my jigsaw puzzle until curtain time."
Injury and illness are an "Achilles heel" for Evans, and with a touring company they can become a nightmare. Because Evans cannot draw from a school or audition new dancers on the road all the dancers in the company have two roles. "It takes me hours to put together lists like 'this person dances Swan one four times a week, and this person will do Swan four and Swan two twice. If someone is injured," she said, throwing her hands upward in a graceful pleading gesture to a higher power, "I must start all over again."
Newest crisis for Evans and company has occurred in Greece. Arriving there one sunny afternoon the company soon realized the newly constructed theater was not ready to cue the sets. The situation went so awry that one performance was stopped in the middle. After an hour of stopped time Evans was fearful that the dancers had become cold, often a prerequisite for injury, and the audience, imbibing at the bar in the lobby for over an hour, were not willing to return to their seats. After discussions with the stage manager Evans decided to cancel. This was by no means her fault, but she has to look out for the dancers. Traveling on a tight schedule across the continent was about to pose some heady problem solving for Evans and company. At this writing all the dancers were resting in hotel rooms, watching Greek TV, awaiting the outcome, except for Evans whose wit and knowledge was, once again, being challenged.