The Best of 2018 (in no particular order)
- Grand Finale - Hofesh Shechter Company | HOME
I make no secret of loving the work of Hofesh Shechter. I saw Grand Finale four times in 2018 and never tired of a single moment of it. His best, most complete work since Political Mother, Grand Finale is a dark history of the world that celebrates humanity's remarkable capacity for resilience and joy. I look forward to seeing it again in 2019.
- British Ballet Columbia aka Ballet BC | The Lowry (Lyric Theatre)
This was Dance Consortium's first (and more interesting) tour of the year. A seemingly rare opportunity to see a different international company in the regions. An evening of all female-choreography with work by Ballet BC Artistic Director Emily Molnar and my first encounters with the remarkable Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite (the exquisite Solo Echo) and Israeli choreographers Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar (in the shape of Bill). The dancers were beautiful, the production was outstanding and the work was gorgeous. Ballet BC made The Lowry's Lyric Theatre feel like a very special place that night.
- Toro: Beauty and the Beast - DeNada Dance Theatre | The Lowry (Quays Theatre)
- Love Chapter 2 - L-E-V | Sadler's Wells
- OCD Love - L-E-V | KIngs Theatre, Edinburgh
The opportunity to see OCD Love prompted my first trip to the Edinburgh Festival: I saw OCD Love and Dam Van Huyhn's wonderful DEP for a second time. As I expected I loved OCD Love a little more than Love Chapter 2. The austere extravagance of their ascetic choreography is devastating. Their work is the very essence of pure choreography and music distilled and distorted into the most exquisite kinetic perfume.
- The Great Tamer - Dimitris Papaoiannou | Sadler's Wells
I have been following Mr Papaioannou's work for some time and took the opportunity to catch his Sadler's Wells debut with The Great Tamer, performed by 10 beautiful (Greek) humans. Not dance as such, more a creative hybrid of visual art and physical theatre, this was an incredible experience. Dark, imaginative, painstaking, detailed and tremendous fun.
- The Silk Road | Jose Agudo/Mavin Khoo | The Lowry (Compass Room)
This looked interesting on paper but was unexpectedly enjoyable, combining and redefining two genres I have an interest in but little passion for.
Silk Road is an emotional, spiritual – and educational – journey that showcases and contrasts Flamenco and Kathak in a quietly-spectacular way. Agudo and Khoo are masters of their craft but don’t perform for effect or for applause. This show is communicative, humble and welcoming, and exquisitely put together with all the texture, strength, beauty and skill of fine silk.
SHOW - Shechter 2 | HOME
Shechter II are in many ways as impressive as the main company. An extremely charismatic bunch, they have a different energy that fizzes and theatens and seduces differently to the impressive and seductive worldweariness of their seniors. SHOW revisits a section of Sun in more (and more extreme) detail but also has a suggestion of Grand Finale revisited. Witty, seductive, violent, joyous and unsettling, Hofesh Shechter continues to make work that shifts the lens on the world we live in. Shechter's own score (with some classical references) perfectly underpins and ignites and manipulates the action. Lee Curran and Richard Godin's lighting is gorgeous. These clowns are impossible not to love. Robinson Cassarino especially demands attention as he wheels vividly through every emotion; but all eight are standouts. SHOW did not diminish on second viewing. In face, if anything, the company's energy was even more focused. Thrilling stuff.
Despite award-nominations and good reviews I didn't have great expectations of Ballet Black, having found them technically-impressive but rather underwhelming on my only previous encounter. But this double bill entirely justified the hype. Cathy Marston's The Suit, based on a 1963 South African short story, was sharp and detailed with impressive central performances by Cira Robinson, José Alves and Mthuthuzeli November. Arthur Pita's distillation of Shakespeare's midsummer comedy - much like the Frederick Ashton version - was joyfully silly and celebratory but authentic, with appealing notes of queerness. Outstanding lighting designs and impeccable music choices created a vivid magical and nocturnal world on a bare stage with just seven dancers.
Having seen Aakash Odedra produce two Kathak-flavoured solo double bills on previous occasions I was somehow not expecting his collaboration with seven Turkish dancers on the theme of political outsiderness (which sounds very much my kind of thing) to be quite so devastatingly compelling and powerful. Odedra and his team have managed to produce a show that is original, politically significant, exciting, bold, technically audacious, Shechter-ish in tone but entirely distinctive in delivery. I would like to see this work reach a wider audience as it is important and tremendous. Every aspect of this production was viscerally and visually exiting.
The Best of the Rest...
Zero: Humanhood | The Lowry (Aldridge Studio)
Skin: 201 Dance Theatre | Waterside, Sale
Knot: Nikki and JD | The Lowry (Aldridge Studio)
Contagion: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance | Imperial War Museum North
Swan Lake / Loch na hEala: Michael Keegan Dolan & Teaċ Daṁsa | The Lowry (Lyric Theatre) - this made the best of 2017 and was no less impressive on repeat viewing
Swan Lake: New Adventures | The Lowry (Lyric Theatre) - it still has its flaws but it is still a game-changing triumph that packs a devastating emotional punch, And those swans...
Disappointments of the Year...
Life Is a Dream: Rambert | The Lowry (Lyric Theatre). All the signs were Rambert were having a major creative renaissance but this was just boring.
Jane Eyre: Northern Ballet (The Lowry (Lyric Theatre). Cathy Marston's work for Ballet Black was crystalline but even she couldn't save this mess from Northern Ballet's pedestrian touch.