Power to the goddesses

Ballet comedy ‘Eternally Bad!’ has a serious side

By Jennifer de Poyen
DANCE CRITIC

April 1, 2005

K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune
Choreographer Javier Velasco went through the moves for his new ballet, “Eternally Bad!,” inspired by feminist comic-book author Trina Robbins’ updating of several ancient myths.
Javier Velasco, the most gleefully eclectic ballet choreographer in town, has always maintained a wide range of interests. But even he is surprised that his new ballet, about some of history’s most infamous bad girls, came to him by way of a Wonder Woman chat room.

“When I grew up, I put away childish things,” he said recently, paraphrasing St. Paul’s famous message to the Corinthians. “But fortunately, I haven’t given up Wonder Woman.”

It was in a small corner of cyberspace devoted to the ’40s-era comic-book character turned lesbian icon that Velasco found the feminist comic-book author Trina Robbins, whose tongue-in-cheek tome “Eternally Bad!” updates ancient myths featuring figures like Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, and Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt.

For Velasco, who read Robert Graves’ “The Greek Myths” when he was 6, and counts mythology (and Wonder Woman comics) among his childhood hobbies, Robbins’ book suggested an intriguing approach to some of the world’s oldest stories.

“Trina’s book is written in sort of a gossipy, contemporary style,” Velasco said. “From the very first page, I thought, ‘This is a theater piece.’ ”

A musical-theater director as well as a ballet choreographer, Velasco tackled a theatrical adaptation first. But “things being what they are” in the world of arts funding, he decided to produce the work in-house at San Diego Ballet, where he is resident choreographer. He cut the singing, expanded the dancing and brought in some actors to narrate the stories. His “Eternally Bad!” opens a single-weekend run tonight at Copley Auditorium as part of the San Diego Museum of Art’s dance series.

As the title suggests, Velasco’s vehicle is comedy; the rehearsal-room joke is that the piece’s subtitle is “Sex in the Sumerian City.” But there’s a serious side to the choreographer’s enterprise as well: “In so-called primitive societies, the goddesses were powerful, complicated beings. Our theater (tradition) has neutered the goddess, made her politically correct. But goddesses are much more interesting when they’re behaving badly.”

DATEBOOK
San Diego Ballet presents “Eternally Bad!”
8 p.m. today and Saturday, and 7 p.m. Sunday. Copley Auditorium, San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park; $10 to $18. (619) 294-7311 or (619) 220-8497.

The evening opens with a story about the Sumerian queen Inanna, who steals power from the god of wisdom by getting him drunk and seducing him. From there, the piece travels all over the world, and through a universe of all-too-human behavior.

In the course of the evening, the audience will encounter, among others, the Japanese goddess Uzume, who performs history’s first striptease; the volcano goddess Pele, who competes for the attention of a king; Circe, the Greek deity whose sexual jealousy fuels the nasty transformation of a nymph into a monster; Grizzly Woman, the ravenous native American goddess who kills off a village of women so she can have the men to herself; and the Aztec Coatlicue, who dismembers her lovers and wears a skirt made of their severed penises.

How audiences will react to all of this is anyone’s guess; empowered females have a way of attracting strong opinions, not all of them friendly. Already the company has heard from one irate fellow who has dismissed the work (sight unseen) as filth.

“People often ask me, ‘What messages are you trying to put out there?’ ” Velasco said. “I don’t think in terms of messages. I’m putting out questions, and I hope they’re interesting enough that I don’t also have to tell people what to think. I’m trying to engage people.”

K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune
San Diego Ballet dancer Noriko Maruzoe in rehearsal.
And entertain them. Musically and choreographically, Velasco has drawn on “everything in the book” for his new ballet. Classical and modern-dance steps will take their place alongside the Charleston, which struck Velasco as a fitting idiom for an escape from the underworld. A classical Indian dancer, Uma Suresh, will tackle the part of the vengeful goddess Kannaki. And there are roles for Jack Tygett, an old musical-theater hand, and Andrea Feier, a former Paul Taylor dancer.

Strains of Candye Kane’s “The Toughest Gal Alive” will accompany the Grizzly Woman’s Act I closer. Don Tikki’s contemporary Polynesian lounge music has been conscripted for Pele. “The Munsters” theme song, Ennio Morricone’s famous music from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and Bananarama’s “Venus” all figure in the choreographer’s all-embracing aesthetic.

“I don’t like to be bored,” Velasco said of his post-Cunningham “any step can follow any step” philosophy. “The more bad-girl energy I can bring in, the better. I want to see an audience full of screaming women out there.” He paused, then smiled. “The men are welcome, too, of course.”