Helen Kim performing in West Oakland’s 16th Street Station for Robert Dekkers’ Playing Changes (still shot from video created by Ben Tarquin, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony and Post:ballet)
Readers may recall that Helen Kim, Associate Principal Second Violin with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), first came to my attention when, at the beginning of this year, she played John Cage’s “Eight Whiskus” in a film of a solo dance created jointly by its dancer Emily Hansel and Robert Dekkers, Artistic Director of Post:ballet. About a month later, she was one of the first SFS musicians to contribute to the Chamber Music Series of videos being streamed through the SFSymphony+ service. On that occasion she played the first of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 9 string trios, composed in the key of G major, with violist Jonathan Vinocour and cellist Sébastien Gingras.
This past Thursday Kim appeared on a new video on SFSymphony+, this time returning to her work with Dekkers. Dekkers created Playing Changes, a program consisting of seven works for violin and dancers. Each of those works involved either one or two dancers, and each was set to music by a different composer. All of the performances were filmed by Ben Tarquin in the vast space of West Oakland’s 16th Street Station. In each dance Kim played from a fixed position in that space as the dance unfolded around her. Each dance had a costume design by Christian Squires; but, for the most part, they were similar in appearance. Kim wore a different outfit for each of the dances.
Three of the musical compositions were given world premiere performances: Elizabeth Ogonek’s “Cradle Dance,” a solo performed by Caitlin Hicks, Mary Kouyoumdjian’s “Water and Dust,” danced by Charmaine Butcher and Babatunji Johnson, and Ambrose Akinmusire’s “kodo,” a solo performed by Jenna Marie. The oldest of the musical compositions was the second “Knee Play” from Philip Glass’ first opera, Einstein on the Beach, danced by Cora Cliburn and Dekkers. The other contributing composers were as follows:
- Samuel Adams; “Playing Changes” from Violin Diptych; Landes Dixon, dancer
- Daniel Bernard Roumain; “Filter”; Christian Squires, dancer
- LJ White; “fly, into the light…”; Emily Hansel, dancer
Where content is concerned, this is very much a “high-bandwidth” experience. While each of the pieces is roughly five minutes in duration, there is so much novelty in both the music and the choreography that even the most attentive viewer may end up struggling with overload. Fortunately, the Playing Changes Web page on SFSymphony+ has not only the video of the entire performance but also seven additional videos, allowing the viewer to experience each of the seven dances in isolation from the others. This is probably the best way for any viewer to establish familiarity with the music itself, the title the composer selected for that music, and the choreographic approach to interpreting the performance of the music.
In that context I am probably best equipped to write about the Glass selection. I have seen Einstein twice; and I value having the “original cast” recording in my collection. “Knee Play 2” is best approached as a challenging exercise piece for the violinist: Imagine a trajectory from Niccolò Paganini to Eugène Ysaÿe, and then try to extrapolate it beyond the bounds of imagination.
In the opera’s staging the violin is performed by Albert Einstein (who did, indeed, play the violin). In the two performances I saw, Einstein was impersonated by Paul Zukofsky and Jennifer Koh, respectively. When I saw Zukofsky, I was just beginning to get my bearing in the entire opera. By the time I saw Koh, I had much better orientation and could appreciate the dynamite in her execution. While Dekkers’ choreography had nothing to do with the original staging by Robert Wilson, Kim performed as if she were seeking to take past executions of this music to the next level. The result was an intense dynamism that seemed to prompt similar intensity from the dancing by Cliburn and Dekkers.
I look forward to becoming better acquainted with the remaining six individual selections in the Playing Changes collection.
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