01
June
June
2011
The Choijid Tara (“Buddhist Goddess”) is a revered figure in Mongolian Buddhism, and a production of a new contemporary ballet for the State National Ballet of Mongolia – it’s first in over fifty years – has delivered a contemporary masterpiece. Based upon the Buddhist story of the young girl Choijid, this completely new commission, to music by Mongolian composer E. Choidog, scored for Western orchestra, and with choreography by B. Jamyandagva (libretto by Sh. Surenjav) represents the essential Buddhist beliefs of this deeply religious country, and provides what may well be the only Buddhist ballet currently in performance. As a devotee of Les Ballets Russe, I am always mindful of Serge Diaghilev’s famous words to new works by composers and choreographers - ‘Astonish Me!” The ballet Choijid Tara has astonishment, beauty and drama that really I felt was up there with the best of Stravinsky’s marriage of music to movement. Russian trained Jamyandagya himself is Mongolia’s first ballet master and the Father of contemporary ballet in the country today.
Telling the relatively simple story of Choijid, a young Mongolian woman who becomes faint, dances to cheer herself up, but then dies, we are plunged straight into a Buddhist Thangka painting bought to life. Two powerful spirits appear to argue over her fate; the envoy from Hell, the Nomin Khan, and the envoy from Heaven. Choijid is taken down to hell in a spectacular first act that has the Nomin Khan, master of his startling crimson fiery domain, cursing the wicked as they live out their torments. The Mongolian national ballet company, in a fine display of choreographed movements, display their physical anguish in appalling contortions and a magnificent display of dance one can quite imagine as being straight from the realms of the underworld. Nomin Khan is fierce as the Lord of Darkness, and shows no mercy to his subjects in what amounts to a dramatic display of danced torture and implied violence. The brimstone surges to the powerful score, and the dancers evoke an underworld one would never hope to meet. The fierce and gruesome Buddhist Gods, full of vengeance, wrath, and dressed in necklaces of skulls very much look the part as Choijin is taken on tour of the dark ravines of hell. The score, in true Stravinsky fashion, is never less than stirring and dramatic, the dreadful howls of the wicked leaving no doubt as the dreadfulness of this place.
Act Two commences with Choijin being taken to Heaven, where she meets the compassionate Buddha and the many Bodhisattvas that dominate the realm of the righteous and good. Silver and gold tutus provide a sense of purity against a massive backdrop of the enlightened, and the music drops in tempo to take on a rather more melodic and peaceful air. It may lack the outrageous power of the first acts demonic nature, but Act Two provides us with a much needed sense of calm and tranquility as Choijin herself dances with the divine in nirvana.
The finale brings us neatly back to Choijin’s body, where we left her, by a tree, as she expired prior to embarking on this Dante–like journey. The Gods decide she is pious, and she is resuscitated, brought back to life, with a new mission to bring humility and love to mankind. She is reborn, and dances happily in honor of her adventure and the task of love she must now embrace.
The ballet was commissioned five years ago and at a total cost I am told – music, choreography, sets and costumes, of just USD12,000. No doubt in today’s Mongolia it would be considerably more; however this production is now firmly in the Mongolian National Ballet Corp repertoire and is a must see. Hopefully one of the other major ballet companies will experience this quite extraordinary production and introduce it to a wider audience. It deserves such attention. Meanwhile, to catch this masterpiece one must review the programme at the State Opera House in Ulaan Baatar.