REVIEW: Bruce's Ghost Dances returns after 14 years to Rambert triple bill

Sat 20 May
Sadler's Wells
Aletta Collins - The days run away like wild horses
Didy Veldman - The 3 Dancers
Christopher Bruce - Ghost Dances

Rambert's triple bill promises the triumphant return of Ghost Dances, one of the company's most requested works, and triumphant it is. 

The evening features the premiere of Aletta Collins's The days run away like wild horses, which takes inspiration from 80's Oscar-winning director Zbigniew Rybczynski's animated film Tango. Interlacing repeating mundane snapshots of life, Collin's protagonist sitting in her house becomes crowded by her memories- a boy retrieving a lost football, a woman smacking her head mid-romp, a bored school girl doing homework. Designer Katrina Lindsay's colourful staging and vibrant costuming is reminiscent of some of Matthew Bourne's bright productions.

Ghost Dances is showing in Salford, Southampton, Norwich, Bath and Bradford in the upcoming months. See more here.

Didy Veldman's The 3 Dancers draws upon Picasso's painting The Three Dancers. Veldman ties cubism, love and pain into dance, with it's geometric set design and sharp, clean lines. The dancers knot their hands and arms, creating images of lusty and intertwined relations.

Finally, Bruce's moving Ghost Dances doesn't disappoint. It's known that Bruce handles socio-political issues with sharp precision. So, the revival of Bruce's protest to Pinochet's brutal regime in Chile and the systematic persecution of around 35000 civilians still feels relevant today. 

From the outset, the trio of masked ghouls, who stalk and glide, landing silently out of their muscular jumps, contrasts eerily to the folksy playfulness of the dead. Every tender duet, spirited antics of ordinary people and moments of yearning are interrupted by the slinking ghouls. Nicholas Mojsiejenko's haunting arrangement of traditional Andean folk music drifts off, replaced by the desolate sound of wind, as the ghouls lift their victims from the ground.

Having established himself as a politically vocal choreographer in the early 70s, Bruce's works are excellent examples of how art- and specifically dance- can and should, challenge politics. 

Maya Pindar

REVIEW: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan mesmerise with Songs of the Wanderers

Fri 6 May 2016
Sadler's Wells
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan - Songs of the Wanderers

Founder and Artistic Director, Lin Hwai-min brings Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan (CGDT) back to Sadler's Wells with a mesmerising work from his back catalogue. Songs of the Wanderers is a warm landscape of rolling mounds of rice, tall desert branches and hypnotically slow movement. The work has a deeply ritualistic sense, reminiscent of the ancient Buddhist and Hindu traditions of East Asia. 

Downstage right a monk stands in stillness, his hands folded in prayer, as a stream of rice falls upon his head. The grains collect around his ankles and spray across the space. Emerging from the darkness, ten dancers creep through the rice-ridden stage, crouching and clutching onto tall desert branches. The image reminds us of a journey- of wanderers desperately seeking enlightenment. 

The Cloud Gate dancers move with their well-known precision and fluidity, slipping into careful moments of unison, before throwing the rice in curving ribbons. Later, a woman writhes and shakes on the floor, reaching and straining with frustration. The men's muscled backs extend as they pass through inversions into quiet floorwork. 

Hwai-Min constructs gorgeous moments of contrast between the serenity of the lone monk and the unravelling group formations of the other dancers. Four men lay motionless, each flanked by a woman standing at his head. The women hold a desert branch in each hand- the effect is beautiful.

The work comes to a close as five dancers appear from the darkness carrying large bowls of fire. The flames flicker in the darkness, reminding us again of the ancient Buddhist and Hindu rites of East Asia. 

At this point, the monk, still in perfect stillness, is knee deep in the falling grains. Like a human hourglass, he is the embodiment of time and patience.

Songs of the Wanderers continues at Sadler's Wells until Sat 7 May.

REVIEW: BalletBoyz - Life

Fri 22 April 2016
Sadler's Wells
BalletBoyz - Life
Pontus Lidberg - Rabbit
Javier de Frutos - Fiction

Returning to Sadler's Wells after Young Men, Artist Directors Michael Nunn and Willam Trevitt commission another brilliant double bill. Structured like two ends of the same argument, Rabbit and Fiction are brimming with rabbit imagery and tragicomedy.  

Swedish choreographer, Pontus Lidberg's Rabbit marries surrealism and loneliness, against the cool landscape of gently wafting lengths of cloth and tolling bells. Clad in vaguely 1940s shirts, vests and braces, dancers with furry rabbit heads invade the space, hopping, skipping and cartwheeling. The tone is tender, with sudden outbursts in  Górecki's score, which seem to initiate an exaggerated running motif that rocks back and forth. Later, a couple of rabbits linked hand to ankle, roll by like tumbleweed, as a fragile and inward solo unfolds in front of us. 

We can't escape the niggling feeling that Lidberg's rather nordic choice of imagery in Rabbit is far more significant. As in Watership Down, The Animals of Farthing Wood and Of Mice and Men, Lidberg's rabbits seem to connote persecution and death. Coupled with the images of men draped over the shoulders of rabbits, like parachutes caught in treetops, there are poignant undertones of anguish as the bells toll over Lidberg's stage.

From Lidberg's surreal realm, we move to Fiction, by Venezuelan choreographer Javier de Frutos. Wanting to create a work about the death of a choreographer, de Frutos imagined his own (rather inventive) death, since it 'seems impolite to kill anyone but himself'. Fiction sees a stark change in its stripped set design and the welcome use of comedy.

The dancers move with confused expressions to critic Ismene Brown's words, unfurling a canon of rippling arms and torsos beneath a large ballet barre. A throbbing mass of bodies follows shell-shocked dancer Marc Galvez, as he struggles to come to terms with the fictitious death of his choreographer. De Frutos creates gorgeous kaleidoscopic formations around the ballet barre, as the men slice the air with blade-like arms. He takes full advantage of the BalletBoyz's precision, and risk-taking athleticism.

The curtain comes down on de Frutos' work with Galvez spinning, arms open to Donna Summer's anthem Last Dance. De Frutos is at once dead, resurrected and alive. 

Maya Pindar

Life is at Sadler's Wells until Sunday 24 April.

REVIEW: BalletBoyz - Young Men: clichéd, shallow, but beautiful

BalletBoyz The TALENT – Young Men 

Sadler’s Wells 

Thursday 8th October 2015

At first glance, choreographer Iván Peréz’s response to the World War One centenary, Young Men is an emotionally charged, dazzling tale of war and friendship. Yet beneath the stories of love and survival, Young Men only glances fleetingly at the unpalatable truths of war.

The opening is heartfelt; a woman wafts about the stage like an autumn leaf, faltering and falling into sumptuous deep lunges. The dancers’ bodies are sinuous in the strings of explosive jumps and whirling arms. The men dive, kick, crawl and roll with the organisation of an army. Peréz drives his dancers in uninterrupted unison, building power, before spilling in waves that peel across the stage. 

However, it is Peréz’s romance with war and death that causes issue. Young Men touches on PTSD in the ‘Shell Shock’ passage, which sees white-faced Andrea Carrucciu naked but for a pair of black shorts. But with Keaton Henson’s overwhelming score of sirens and thundering cello, we not only feel uncomfortable watching Carrucciu’s awkward contortions, but also at the brevity of the exploration. 

While glossy images of freefalling soldiers, with dancers lying face down, arms and legs suspended in the air are aesthetically pleasing, they don’t confront the gritty horror, or the callous sacrifice of a generation of young men. Repetitive tender cradlings distort the senseless loss and mental illness, whilst cliché scenes of dancers torn apart are comforting in their familiarity.

Despite the beauty of the Balletboyz and their commitment to the choreography, Peréz fails to discuss the causes of this tragedy. Clichéd motifs and shallow investigation re-establish an idealised memory of war. Young Men allows us to forget the experience of the generation who died pointlessly under the command of the wealthy. 

Maya Pindar

REVIEW: Akram Khan & Israel Galván's TOROBAKA

Torobaka - Akram Khan & Israel Galván
Sadler's Wells
Tuesday 30th June 2015 

Using their respective backgrounds in Kathak and Flamenco dance, Akram Khan and Israel Galván come head-to-head (quite literally) in the return of Torobaka at Sadler's Wells. Torobaka, meaning "bull cow", is the coming together of two animals that are sacred to the dancers' two nations. Fundamentally, Torobaka is the coming together of two dance styles.

The work begins with Khan and Galván sitting on the edge of a large, deep pink circle, which acts as a sort of bullring for their duelling and wrestling. Khan whirls, throwing his arms above his head with the same luxurious quality as ever. Seville-born Galván moves with power and electricity, stamping his heels and cutting through the space with a perfectly poised torso.

The men take turns taking the stage, demonstrating the similarities between Kathak and Flamenco- complex rhythms, ferocious passion, and rapid stamping footwork. In fact, Galván's feet move so fast, they seem evocative of the fluttering wings of a hummingbird. Contrastingly, Khan's lines and movements are softened into recognisable South Asian curves.

Interestingly, the three musicians are almost equally as involved as the dancers. Two vocalists perform eclectic Andulsian folk songs and a man sits at the back playing the tabla (drum) and the sitar (stringed instrument). Despite the beauty and talent of the music, the excessive eclecticism begins to feel repetitive.

While Torobaka presents some exceptional talent and technique, both in the dancers and musicians, it does feel incomplete. It is definitely worth watching Khan and Galván tumble around each other, but it might be wise to approach it as a draft of that could evolve into something even more exciting.

REVIEW: The Surreal Fantasy of Pina Bausch's 'Ahnen'

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch - Ahnen
Sadlers Wells
Friday 24th April 2015

Whisked away into a strange fantasy world, Peter Pabst's cacti ridden set seems to remind us of a futuristic or alien realm. With the addition of sand, straw, an enormous ladder, a great tank of water and a wind machine, Pabst's set allows the dancers to interact with a range of natural and distinctly man-made structures. Yet the randomness of the head of lettuce, the remote controlled helicopter and the large rubber walrus sitting at the back of the stage, remains distinctly surreal.

Busy is the best way to describe Pina Bausch's Ahnen. Driven by the pulsating and changing hypnotic music, the dancers go about their activities on stage with a sense deliberation and conviction:

Perched on a small wooden stool at the front of the stage, a woman busies herself grating a white substance into a bucket throughout the majority of the first act. A man, handcuffed and gagged with an orange, receives a shave from a man in a smart suit and gloves. Later, a man with an outrageously large white feather headdress (which later appears to actually be a tutu), clad only in blue underpants, sits completely still staring into space. Elsewhere, a smartly dressed manservant continuously irons newspapers for a blind woman, as she abruptly fires a pistol into the audience.

Behind the action centre stage, a woman in a black dress and heels unloads wheelbarrows of bricks to carefully build a wall. The crashing sound of the bricks interrupts the action downstage, breaking up the confusion and repetition of the dancers in view. Despite Bausch's renowned reputation in Europe, the disconnection of the dancers arbitrary actions during first act left me feeling bewildered- and cold.

However, the work progresses and the actions of the men and women become more coherent, as they begin to interact with one another and with the audience. Rather than performing their activities separately, without acknowledgement of one another, the dancers are now seen in group formations, united by a prop or a movement.

During a storm created by a wind machine offstage, a man pushes an enormous wardrobe through the cacti, offering blankets to the dancers. Later, a woman addresses the audience, demanding they 'straighten up!', in between amusing discussions of the sound of flies and how to paint water. A man and woman mime a barbarous cartoon fight, stretching each others faces, switching limbs and removing each others guts. While still remaining seemingly random, the connection between the dancers allows meaning to exude from their actions.

It appears that amongst the randomness of the dancer's actions and the indiscriminate objects onstage, Ahnen is a surreal commentary on human life. Are our human desires and activities as futile as the blind woman's request for her ironed newspapers? Bausch's intriguing dreamscape seems to point towards the pointlessness and futility of our own human activity.


Ahnen continues at Sadler's Wells until 26 April 2015

REVIEW: Breakin' Convention's Open Art Surgery

Breakin' Convention's Open Art Surgery
Hosted by Jonzi D, with DJ Psykhomantus
Lilian Baylis Studio - Sadler's Wells
Saturday 7th March 2015

Breakin' Convention's Open Art Surgery is an exciting opportunity for six young hip hop artists to dissect and sharpen their choreography. All six artists were given a week to devise a piece of dance under the guidance of hip hop mentors before Saturday's performance. As well as being a platform for performance, Open Art Surgery also provides the opportunity for invaluable audience feedback.

The show opened with The Rebirth Network's exploration of schizophrenia. The strength of the work lay in the beautifully structured opening. Choreographer, Daniel 7 sits alone on a chair, his intricate hand movements matching the complexity of the music. The rhythm changes abruptly, initiating a sequence of movements that seems to suggest a fracturing of his identity. The dancers clutch, touch and rub their ears, suggesting the characteristic hallucinations and voices associated with the condition. With the strength of the opening, and hopefully with an equally strong ending, Daniel 7's angst ridden discussion of personal turmoil is an insightful work.

Other brave performances included Xena Gusthart's emotional and intimate study of her brother's disability and the sacrifices and compromises involved. Xena's full bodied performance is enhanced by her bold speech, proclaiming that she can't wait to meet his wife, and his child. Until the tone changes, with her sorrowful and desperate demand that she 'can not wait' any longer, before quickly exiting the stage. Xena's moving work carries the important message of acceptance, which is universally understood by all.

During the second half, Tali & Jack presented another deeply moving piece delving into the issues of dysfunctional relationships and substance abuse. Simultaneous images of suffocation and desire thread throughout the dance. Tali and Jack entwine, interlace, tangle and weave around each other, their limbs sticking as their bodies slide across one another. The lyrics of Ella Fitzgerald's Fairy Tales helps unlock meaning and nuance in the carefully constructed choreography. Overall, an incredibly solid work, with a huge amount of depth and subtlety.

All six performances were considerably unique, bringing themes of struggle, youth, obsession, desire and pain. Comments from the audience were insightful, highlighting exactly how fresh and current each of the artist's ideas were. Finally, it seems there is nothing more sincere than the voice of our youth.

Artists include: The Rebirth Network, Xena Productions, Twin Peak, Tali & Jack, Ivan Blackstock, Sigh

REVIEW: Sadler’s Wells The Associates: Kate Prince, Crystal Pite & Hofesh Shechter

Sadler's Wells
Thursday 5th February 2015


Sadler's Wells Associate Artists are central to the artistic direction and vision of the theatre, marking it as the leading venue in Britain for dance. Associate Artists have the opportunity to collaborate with other choreographers and artists to develop ideas for large-scale works. The triple bill produced tonight by Sadler’s Wells director Alastair Spalding presented three choreographers in the midst of choreographic changes. However, a clear gulf is apparent between Crystal Pite’s mysterious An Image Of You Falling and Kate Prince and Hofesh Shechter’s pieces, which felt limp and clumsy.


Directed by Prince, SMILE opened the evening with a seemingly light-hearted exploration of the ‘dark side’ of Charlie Chapin’s showman smile. Ridden with repetition and bland clichés of sad clowns, SMILE does little justice to dancer Tommy Franzén’s exceptional technical and performance abilities. The narrative drifts aimlessly through images of overt showmanship to deeply rooted sadness, without consideration for the reality of Chaplin’s complex psychology.

Additionally, Shechter’s The Barbarians In Love stumbled through its transitions from tight baroque score to Shechter’s contrastingly loose physicality, as the dancers stomped around the stage like beasts. But somewhere in between the clean ballet lines and weighted contemporary movement, the work loses its way. Shechter seems to make an attempt at postmodernism, using a cold female voice to narrate what appears to be a rather intimate therapy session. The woman repeatedly asks Shechter: ‘what do you want Hofesh?’, culminating in Shechter’s frank confession of a mid-life crisis and marital infidelity. His words cut through the built up tension, leaving little for the remainder of the work.

Finally, Pite’s An Image Of You Falling, second in the program was a much-needed relief. Pite’s choreography glides through dark fragmented images of the disturbed relationship between a man and a woman, danced by Peter Chu and Annie Plamondon; from the moment they met to their violent end. Another cold female voice repetitively narrates the piece; ‘this is where it began’, ‘this is the sound of your heart hitting the floor’, ‘this is the room where it happened… a bed, a table, a lamp, no curtains’. Pite’s use of second person is particularly discomforting and emphasises the eerie tone well. The dancers move soundlessly around each other, only making contact towards the end of the work. Their limbs intimately linger, slide and wrap around each other. In the background the sound of machinery, wind and passing cars fills the moments of silence. Was it a car accident that brought the couple to their violent end? Or was it a domestic dispute, as alluded to by the movement?

Pite remains the clear winner in tonight’s triple bill. Of all three choreographers, Pite has total control over her choreography and the direction that it takes. Whereas Shechter and Prince’s choreography felt incomplete and considerably blander.