Cultural Arts

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San Francisco Ballet U.S. Premiere of John Neumeier’s ‘The Little Mermaid’

By Lydia E. Ringwald

Originally commissioned for The Royal Danish Ballet and stages in Copenhagen and later revised for The Hamburg Ballet, John Neumeier’s mesmerizing production of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ premieres for the first time in the United States in a San Francisco Ballet production March 20-28.

Although derived from the famous Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, Neumeier’s ‘The Little Mermaid,’ offers an intriguing deviation away from famous traditional fairy tale storybook ballets like ‘Swan Lake’ or ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ Neumeier’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ plunges deeply into the submerged psychology latent in the fairy tale and unraveling it’s often sinister meaning in its exploration of the human psyche.

                                                                                       In real life, Hans Christian Andersen biographical documentation reveals his deep love his a close friend who is depicted in the ballet as a rather handsome, superficial, egotistic and wealthy Prince. The soon to be married Prince seems to be most concerned about his ‘golf swing’ than his personal relationships.
 
The persona of Hans Christian Andersen takes its shape in the character of the Poet in the ballet. The Poet creates ‘Mermaid’ as a surrogate for himself, a symbol for his unrequited love for his young male friend, the Prince.  The surrogate symbolism plays itself out in the brutal scene where the Mermaid must sacrifice her tail for human legs, creating a strange parallel to the personal self-castration involved when one tries to conform to the standards of a lover at any cost.

But alas!  When one distorts oneself to please another, the relationship is doomed to inevitable failure. The wealthy, egotistical Prince nonchalantly casts the Mermaid’s love aside, even though she has completely sacrificed her identity because of her love for him; sacrificing her self as a ‘fish’ to gain human legs.

All Fairy Tales have a lesson and Neumeier’s ‘Little Mermaid’ follow suit:
   For a relationship to function, we must be loved for who we are.

Before viewing this thought provoking and hauntingly unique ballet, viewers should read the synopsis to understand the story and connect the cues of gesture and drama to the psychological tale it unfolds.

'The Little Mermaid’ as a ballet choreography also explores and redefines innovative and unique features in the art of ballet.

In her sea habitat, the Mermaid is beautiful. Her shoulders undulate in harmony with the waves and currents of the ocean. Her tail is a huge fin that slowly fans the air as though it were water. In the first act, Yuan Yuan Tan as the Mermaid masterfully replicates the underwater movements of her bizarre half human fish form. In the second act, she dramatizes the awkward, confused and humiliating movements of a Mermaid who must experience of legs and feet for the first time on dry land.

When compared to the elegance of traditional ballet movement in ‘Swan Lake,’ Neumeier’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ again differs.  Ballerinas over the ages, have prided themselves on their ability to imitate the flutter of swan’s wings when portraying the ‘dying swan.’

But the role as the Mermaid presents unique challenges as a dancer. The Mermaid must make a transition from her elegant gestures as a sea creature to the awkward and painful gestures of underwater creature on land. The dancer must explore suffering and pain, ugliness and self-loathing in movement and dance. The transition from Mermaid to woman is somewhat violent in Neumeier's dramatic psychological ballet, whereas in 'Swan Lake' we are spared such a violent metamorphosis.

True to all fairy tales, ‘The Little Mermaid’ also has an evil sorcerer.  The deceitful Sorcerer in 'Swan Lake; substitutes the evil Odile for the sweet Odette, but in ‘The Little Mermaid’ the sorcerer performs almost a much more violent act, a ‘rape’ of the Mermaid when he defrocks her of her tail. Neumeier does not retreat from depicting violence and cruelty through dance.

In ‘The Little Mermaid’ however, Neumeier offers hope of redemption in the end through art. The Poet, Hans Christian Andersen, and his Character, the Mermaid, are intimately entwined.  Theirs is the ultimate love relationship; the poet to the poem, the artist to the artwork, the writer to the character he has fabricated out of his own psyche and soul.

Although Neumeier in ‘The Little Mermaid’ creates a crowd pleasing ‘happy ending,’ an uneasy malaise lingers after experiencing this unique ballet masterpiece. The ultimate redemption would be for the Mermaid to regain her lost identity, with her fish tail healed, so that she could return to the sea to be a mermaid once again.  But in the end, Neumeier shifts us out of the fairy tale, placing us on another platform. The subtext, the story of the poet and of the artistic projection of his psyche into his character, predominates and seizes the ending.  In the last scene, Poet and Mermaid are united and twinkle triumphantly amongst the stars in the inky blue night sky.

Interesting to note that Neumeier completed a degree in literature in college before embarking on an amazing career as a dancer, dance choreographer and Director of The Hamburg Ballet. Perhaps his early passion for literature has endowed him with the power to penetrate fairy tales and truly unravel their mystery and meaning. In ‘The Little Mermaid’ Neumeier shares his insights and invites the viewer to plunge with the Mermaid into the depths of the literary and artistic dream.

For tickets and information about the San Francisco Ballet’s performance of ‘The Little Mermaid,’ visit www.sfballet.org
 

Lydia E. Ringwald is the Laguna Journal's  Cultural Arts Columnist and photo-journalist, as well as a Southern California based artist.  Click on any of her articles below:

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