Running Time - 6 minutes

Music: Michael Nyman String Quartet #3, Excerpts

Dancer Requirements

Four Women

Two Men

All women must have strong pointe work and acting ability and be comfortable with modern dance movement.  All men must have strong partnering skills as well as soloist level technique.

Technical Requirements

Stage Size: 30 x 20 preferred

Crossover needed

Costumes:

Women: Originally set with burgundy and gold dresses with skirts of feathery strips.

Men: Originally set burgundy shirts and black slacks

  Owned by: Fort Lauderdale Ballet Classique, Florida

Description

The beautiful score of Jagannat was written by the composer Michael Nyman after seeing photographs and video from war-torn Romania in 1989.  Inspired by Nyman's poignant and painfully emotional string quartet, this ballet presents the tragically indiscriminate brutality of war through the more familiar metaphor of careless lovers.

In this contemporary ballet, the women helplessly fall into love affairs with indifferent men, who nonchalantly leave them for new opportunities at romance - not through deliberate cruelty, but through a lack of concern... just as the juggernaut of war indiscriminately kills some and leaves others to live - by chance.

As the ballet begins, the men haphazardly charm each lady with a contemporary and passionate pas de deux (or trois), then, one-by-one, abandon them - some are left on the floor in disbelief, while others are left to fall into the arms of other empathetic ladies.  No dancer ever exits the stage - they are intrinsically linked through their incestuous affairs and remain in the background, alternating complex partnering with reflective poise as they await their fates.  Each pas de deux is full of long, reaching lines and unusual floor work, lifts and pointe work.

The dynamic allegro reflects the women's anger for their mistreatment and the urgency they feel - both to be loved and to escape before being hurt.

In the finale, three of the women - in a line of solidarity with their former lovers, sink to the floor to be abandoned a final time and the last lady standing confronts her fate - emotionally abused and dropped onto the pile of those who came before her.  The men, having finished with these women, depart for other prospects.

History

Kristy Nilsson was invited to choreograph a piece for Georgia Ballet's professional company in 2004, but due to scheduling conflicts, Jagannat was not choreographed until 2006.  It was premiered at the last show in Georgia Ballet's 2005-2006 season, the InMotion new works concert.  Jagannat received much attention many kudos - particularly for its beautiful, yet unusual lines and lifts and "expert use of organized chaos" creating a "powerful jigsaw puzzle" and "eye-candy."  Jagannat was invited to be performed in another concert the following week.