Car Men

Exactly 20 years separate Jiri Kylian's solo Silent Cries and his collaboration with the Dutch filmmaker Boris Paval Conen, the 2006 black-and-white film Car Men. What unites the two works is the sheer expressiveness of the dance on the one hand, and the distinctive facial gestures and body language of the dancer Sabine Kupferberg on the other. Kupferberg is the one who pulls the strings in Car Men, victim and plotter in equal measure, prepared at all times to stand up to life's problems as well as to her three co-actors Escamillo, Don Jose and Micaela with humor and enigmatic wit. And so at the end of Kylian's unusual, slapstick-like tragicomedy, she simply abandons her three colleagues, self-assured and incorrigible just like her role model Carmen. It's fun and thought-provoking. Kupferberg is wonderful, and her erstwhile husband's ideas are challenging and powerful. The four young dancers of NDT leave one stunned with their flexibility, strength, and concentration. (Classical Net)