The best of 2019 -
Distant Matter by Chunky Move's Artistic Director Anouk van Dijk was very much my kind of dance: edgy, stylish, cool and witty with a great soundtrack by Jethro Woodward.
Unfortunately for van Dijk this was completely blown out of the water by Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar's Half Life, restaged for Staatsballet Berlin - in the process somewhat re-positioning the company within the European dance landscape (a new team of artistic directors including Sasha Waltz has pulled more contemporary work into this classical company's repertoire to stunning affect and acclaim).
I am already living for Eyals' work and Half Life is remarkable even within her already impressive canon: dark, sinister, sexy, thrilling and completely overwhelming, with another of Ori Lichtik's techno walls of sound powering it relentlessly on. Game-changing stuff.
R A K M D L G D - the name is the initials of the eight L-E-V dancers - was the new work created by the company as the final part of their month-long residency at Peckham Rye's Bold Tendencies. The opportunity to see the eight company dancers up close was a real privilege and really hit home just how striking they are in their physicality, expressiveness and distinct individuality. Eyal said in a recent interview that her dancers 'must have “individuality”, “pureness” ... and “very, very strong technique”'. She does not dissemble.
R A K M D L G D is presented in two halves supported by the sterling work by two DJs: first half by the company's regular music-maker Ori Lichtik, the second by residency collaborator Koreless from the Young Rascals stable (with whom they created a show in their third week at Bold). The show itself - the dancers clad in the same black bodysuits as for NYDC's Used To Be Blonde, with the addition of heavy individual makeup - was classic Eyal: detailed, repetitive, accumulative, shifting from tiny movements to explosive, sometimes flamboyant use of the space. However, the nature of the experiment and the DJ soundtracks also gave the piece a looseness and sense of fun - if a kind of dark, pleasantly-creepy kind of fun. There was a sense of joyous playfulness and excitement that was completely enthralling.
Clearly some of the material had been re-purposed and re-digested into something new but Eyal's work - even at its most familiar (if one has been lucky enough to see her other work) - still aches with a sense of difference, creativity and immersion that is compelling and much-needed.
I have never visited the Riley Theatre - home to the NSCD - in Leeds before, always deeming Leeds 'too far'. But I really wanted to see this show, the first UK appearance for Fouad Boussouf's Compagnie Massala (France). I was not disappointed. NÄSS was like a distillation of everything I enjoy in dance delivered with tremendous energy and passion by seven male dancers. A hybrid of urban, hip hop and contemporary dance (completely avoiding the pitfalls of the first two) NÄSS is a powerful, nuanced 55-minutes of pure joy with all elements - especially the booming percussive Moroccan-inflected soundtrack - working in perfect harmony. Did it remind me of Hofesh Shechter? Yes, a little. Was it distinctively different? Yes.
I saw this on the second day of February and knew it was going to be one of my favourite shows of the year. I keep hoping they will manage to come back to the UK for further dates as the show has been touring internationally throughout 2019.
Travelling to Doncaster to see Rambert2 seemed like an extreme act. I have had a tepid relationship with Rambert but Rambert2, their new 'junior' company seemed like an exciting proposition. But what really excited me from early on was the inclusion of Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar's Killer Pig in the programme. I have been watching clips of Killer Pig ever since I became aware of this remarkable choreographic team. I just needed to see it.
As Rambert2 had not yet been scheduled to visit the north west and it looked unlikely to be included in this tour Doncaster became the most feasible venue once I had missed the London dates.
The entire programme was strong: Benoit Swan Pouffer's Grey Matter was dynamic and exciting and Shechter-ish, Rafael Bonachela's 'vintage' Place Prize-winning E2 7SD was a revelation of quickfire choreography, beautifully performed by Conor Kerrigan and Aishwarya Raut, but oh, Killer Pig was truly amazing. Intensely strange, beautiful, edgy, distinctive and twisted it was the epitome of exciting cutting-edge dance: one of those pieces of dance that creates a permanent notch on your personal timeline; that resets your appreciation of what dance is capable of when unshackled from the past, and makes most other things you see seem feeble in comparison, in ambition, in intensity, in creative audacity. Rambert2's young dancers are remarkable too. Much like Shechter 2, the young talent out there is amazing, if they get the opportunity to demonstrate it.
However, his re-siting of the narrative in the near future within some kind of sinister secure young people's institution - the Verona Institute - and replacing rival gangs and the social impetus to marry and conform with sexual abuse, social control, mental health and the abusive, seemingly-inescapable friction between youth and authority is rather clever. And despite the twists to the narrative this R&J delivers the same unexpected gut punches as the 'classic' versions. Powerful, tender, touching, disturbing, relatable and heartbreaking.
The staging is expectedly strong, and the re-purposed but authentic use of the Prokofiev soundtrack is highly effective (I did wonder if I would prefer a Vincenzo Lamagna-style new-old mashup a la Akram Khan's Giselle but I checked myself during the performance and the music was working perfectly). In summary, Matthew Bourne has really delivered something special and even important. And this from someone who has major issues with his reworking of Cinderella and hated Sleeping Beauty.
I've not seen Wayne McGregor's PreSentient (2002) before but I remember what a game-changer seeing his work for the first time was for me. Now his then-startling dislocations and hyper-extensions look characteristic and familiar, but still distinctively McGregor. PreSentient is packed with enough fluidity and effortlessly-luscious snap and flow that it still looks great and especially so with Rambert's refreshed and re-energised company.
Marion Motin's Rouge is a new game-changer for me: elegantly-wasted, clubby, dark and glamorous, this is exactly the kind of dance I want to be watching these days. I went to see the show a second time mostly to see Rouge again.
I did see Hofesh Shechter's In Your Rooms in 2008, in a blisteringly-exciting double bill with Uprising: my first encounter with the company I have now seen more than any other. Again, with the benefit of hindsight it isn't so alarmingly different but it is still a thrill-ride of dark passion and creative confidence shot through with uncertainty: and no one choreographs the horror of the world and people's redemptive power to endure it better than Hofesh. The live music and Lee Curran's gorgeous and complex lighting design amp it up significantly.
This triple bill was a bold and thrilling programme that mapped really closely to my personal journey with dance and a clarion call to be brave and striking and innovative and challenging. The Rambert renaissance endures.
"Leo Warner, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Lolita Chakrabarti, 59 Productions and Rambert bring to life a series of fantastical places in this world-premiere production. Centred on the edgy relationship between Kublai Khan, the volatile head of a vast empire, and explorer Marco Polo, who must transcend a language barrier to describe it for him, this spellbinding mix of theatre, choreography, music, architectural design and projection mapping imagines a succession of alternative worlds – and reimagines what is possible in live performance."
That was the official blurb and Invisible Cities mostly delivered. An impressive mix of performance, genuinely-epic staging that transformed the remarkable space of Mayfield, and spectacle that genuinely felt distinctive, world-class and experiential. This was a great project for Rambert to be involved in and they are looking really different as a company, their ranks bolstered by the newly-promoted members of Rambert2. Invisible Cities is a show I would gladly watch again but feel no particular need to. This is not a show I felt an especial visceral or emotional connection with: but I'm certainly very glad I was able to see it and in that incredible space.
As in 2018, they performed Marcos Morau's Tundra. Then they lacked the precision required to deliver a piece that is very focused and detailed in its choreography; drawing from Russian history Tundra is very stylised and dystopian with precise movements that ripple up, down and along the line of linked dancers. I loved the design and choreography but the flaws were glaring. Tonight it worked. It was atmospheric, chilling and beautiful.
Fernando Melo's Afterimage made astonishingly-effective use of mirror and was a remarkably beautiful, detailed and emotional piece of dance evoking memory and regret and loss. A truly distinctive piece of theatre that drew on the dancers' acting skills as much as movement.
Finally, Caroline Finn's Reveller's Mass. Last year I said: 'Caroline Finn's The Green House was intriguing but I wished they had pushed the strangeness and surreality further - the staging reminded me of the work of Peeping Tom, who take things to a greater extreme.'Reveller's Mass considers themes of ritual, decadence and excess through the lens of Renaissance paintings and Finn certainly pushed this piece to the extreme. Bizarre, demented, lavish and thrilling, this piece was almost Bausch-esque, and with its gorgeous costumes, dark lighting and more exciting acting from the cast: a fun, lively and visceral piece of disturbia with a glorious soundtrack. Generally, NDCWales looked back on form with some really distinctive individuals becoming apparent.
Unusually for Igor and Moreno BEAT was a solo performance and featured neither Igor nor Moreno. But Margherita Elliot did them proud. I&M describe BEAT as 'a celebration of the fatigue, pain and uncertainty of deciding day by day – moment by moment – who we are. One person. On the spot. Reinventing themselves over and over.' It's a work of two halves, the first whip-smart, witty, provocative, observational, gestural; the second is a play of colour and movement: stripped back, ominous and heavy with unreadable significance - all set to a foot-tappingly compelling DJ mix of beats. In a mini-Igor + Moreno season at The Lowry they also performed the time-shifting Andante again, which was just as enigmatically-tremendous as the first time I saw it.
The Best of the Rest -
Disappointments of the year...
The complete Methods of Dance show-by-show review of 2019 can be found here
Shows seen in 2019: Ballet 3 | Dance 27 | Physical Theatre 4 | Cirque 1 | Total: 35
- Distant Matter / Half Life | Staatsballett Berlin | Komische Oper Berlin, Berlin | June
 |
| Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar's Half Life |
Unfortunately for van Dijk this was completely blown out of the water by Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar's Half Life, restaged for Staatsballet Berlin - in the process somewhat re-positioning the company within the European dance landscape (a new team of artistic directors including Sasha Waltz has pulled more contemporary work into this classical company's repertoire to stunning affect and acclaim).
I am already living for Eyals' work and Half Life is remarkable even within her already impressive canon: dark, sinister, sexy, thrilling and completely overwhelming, with another of Ori Lichtik's techno walls of sound powering it relentlessly on. Game-changing stuff.
- R A K M D L G D | L-E-V | Bold Tendencies, Peckham Rye, London | August [part of: Sharon Eyal, Gai Behar and L-E-V residency at Bold Tendencies]
 |
| R A K M D L G |
R A K M D L G D is presented in two halves supported by the sterling work by two DJs: first half by the company's regular music-maker Ori Lichtik, the second by residency collaborator Koreless from the Young Rascals stable (with whom they created a show in their third week at Bold). The show itself - the dancers clad in the same black bodysuits as for NYDC's Used To Be Blonde, with the addition of heavy individual makeup - was classic Eyal: detailed, repetitive, accumulative, shifting from tiny movements to explosive, sometimes flamboyant use of the space. However, the nature of the experiment and the DJ soundtracks also gave the piece a looseness and sense of fun - if a kind of dark, pleasantly-creepy kind of fun. There was a sense of joyous playfulness and excitement that was completely enthralling.
Clearly some of the material had been re-purposed and re-digested into something new but Eyal's work - even at its most familiar (if one has been lucky enough to see her other work) - still aches with a sense of difference, creativity and immersion that is compelling and much-needed.
- NÄSS (Les Gens) | Compagnie Massala | Riley Theatre, Leeds | Feb
 |
| Compagnie Massala: NÄSS |
I saw this on the second day of February and knew it was going to be one of my favourite shows of the year. I keep hoping they will manage to come back to the UK for further dates as the show has been touring internationally throughout 2019.
- Mixed Bill [Grey Matter | E2 7SD | Killer Pig | Rambert2 | Cast, Doncaster | March
 |
| Killer Pig |
As Rambert2 had not yet been scheduled to visit the north west and it looked unlikely to be included in this tour Doncaster became the most feasible venue once I had missed the London dates.
The entire programme was strong: Benoit Swan Pouffer's Grey Matter was dynamic and exciting and Shechter-ish, Rafael Bonachela's 'vintage' Place Prize-winning E2 7SD was a revelation of quickfire choreography, beautifully performed by Conor Kerrigan and Aishwarya Raut, but oh, Killer Pig was truly amazing. Intensely strange, beautiful, edgy, distinctive and twisted it was the epitome of exciting cutting-edge dance: one of those pieces of dance that creates a permanent notch on your personal timeline; that resets your appreciation of what dance is capable of when unshackled from the past, and makes most other things you see seem feeble in comparison, in ambition, in intensity, in creative audacity. Rambert2's young dancers are remarkable too. Much like Shechter 2, the young talent out there is amazing, if they get the opportunity to demonstrate it.
- Romeo + Juliet | Matthew Bourne's New Adventures | The Lowry [Lyric Theatre] | June
However, his re-siting of the narrative in the near future within some kind of sinister secure young people's institution - the Verona Institute - and replacing rival gangs and the social impetus to marry and conform with sexual abuse, social control, mental health and the abusive, seemingly-inescapable friction between youth and authority is rather clever. And despite the twists to the narrative this R&J delivers the same unexpected gut punches as the 'classic' versions. Powerful, tender, touching, disturbing, relatable and heartbreaking.
The staging is expectedly strong, and the re-purposed but authentic use of the Prokofiev soundtrack is highly effective (I did wonder if I would prefer a Vincenzo Lamagna-style new-old mashup a la Akram Khan's Giselle but I checked myself during the performance and the music was working perfectly). In summary, Matthew Bourne has really delivered something special and even important. And this from someone who has major issues with his reworking of Cinderella and hated Sleeping Beauty.
- Triple Bill (Wayne McGregor | Marion Motin | Hofesh Shechter) | Rambert | The Lowry [Lyric Theatre] | October / November
I've not seen Wayne McGregor's PreSentient (2002) before but I remember what a game-changer seeing his work for the first time was for me. Now his then-startling dislocations and hyper-extensions look characteristic and familiar, but still distinctively McGregor. PreSentient is packed with enough fluidity and effortlessly-luscious snap and flow that it still looks great and especially so with Rambert's refreshed and re-energised company.
 |
| Marion Motin's Rouge |
I did see Hofesh Shechter's In Your Rooms in 2008, in a blisteringly-exciting double bill with Uprising: my first encounter with the company I have now seen more than any other. Again, with the benefit of hindsight it isn't so alarmingly different but it is still a thrill-ride of dark passion and creative confidence shot through with uncertainty: and no one choreographs the horror of the world and people's redemptive power to endure it better than Hofesh. The live music and Lee Curran's gorgeous and complex lighting design amp it up significantly.
This triple bill was a bold and thrilling programme that mapped really closely to my personal journey with dance and a clarion call to be brave and striking and innovative and challenging. The Rambert renaissance endures.
- Used To Be Blonde | National Youth Dance Company | Bold Tendencies, Peckham Rye, London | August [part of: Sharon Eyal, Gai Behar and L-E-V residency at Bold Tendencies]
- Invisible Cities | Rambert | Mayfield, Manchester | July [part of: MIF19]
 |
| Invisible Cities at MIF19 |
That was the official blurb and Invisible Cities mostly delivered. An impressive mix of performance, genuinely-epic staging that transformed the remarkable space of Mayfield, and spectacle that genuinely felt distinctive, world-class and experiential. This was a great project for Rambert to be involved in and they are looking really different as a company, their ranks bolstered by the newly-promoted members of Rambert2. Invisible Cities is a show I would gladly watch again but feel no particular need to. This is not a show I felt an especial visceral or emotional connection with: but I'm certainly very glad I was able to see it and in that incredible space.
- Awakening (Afterimage/Revellers' Mass/Tundra) | National Dance Company Wales | Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield | April
As in 2018, they performed Marcos Morau's Tundra. Then they lacked the precision required to deliver a piece that is very focused and detailed in its choreography; drawing from Russian history Tundra is very stylised and dystopian with precise movements that ripple up, down and along the line of linked dancers. I loved the design and choreography but the flaws were glaring. Tonight it worked. It was atmospheric, chilling and beautiful.
 |
| Reveller's Mass |
Finally, Caroline Finn's Reveller's Mass. Last year I said: 'Caroline Finn's The Green House was intriguing but I wished they had pushed the strangeness and surreality further - the staging reminded me of the work of Peeping Tom, who take things to a greater extreme.'Reveller's Mass considers themes of ritual, decadence and excess through the lens of Renaissance paintings and Finn certainly pushed this piece to the extreme. Bizarre, demented, lavish and thrilling, this piece was almost Bausch-esque, and with its gorgeous costumes, dark lighting and more exciting acting from the cast: a fun, lively and visceral piece of disturbia with a glorious soundtrack. Generally, NDCWales looked back on form with some really distinctive individuals becoming apparent.
- BEAT | Igor + Moreno | The Lowry [Compass Room] | October
 |
| Margherita Elliot: BEAT |
The Best of the Rest -
- Torus | Humanhood - Humanhood built on their impressive debut piece Zero by returning with five dancers and another cohesive piece of creative abstract dance.
- Them/Us | Balletboyz - Them was kind of Balletboyz by numbers, choreographed collaboratively by the company's dancers (as if this was an innovative idea), but the extended version of a previous duet, Us by Christopher Wheeldon, was something of a revelation: exquisitely-performed - especially the central duet by Bradley Waller and Harry Price - Us carried a genuine emotional kick.
- She Persisted | English National Ballet - another female-created triple bill from Tamaro Rojo's ENB featuring the marvellous Frida Kahlo-themed Broken Wings, a new, short ballet based on Ibsen's Ghosts, Nora by Stina Quagebeur, and - the main reason this show gets a mention here - ENB's version of Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring. Not the first time I have seen it but it lost none of its terrible beauty and devastating impact a second time.
- Autobiography | Wayne MgGregor - I have been struggling to retain the love for McGregor;s choreography inspired by my first encounter with Entity in 2012 but Autobiography contained more than enough flash and thrill to reconnect me with some of that excitement.
- Grand Finale | Hofesh Shechter Company - the fifth time I have seen this and it topped the 2018 review and it is still tremendous. Sorry about it.
Disappointments of the year...
- Shut Down | Vincent Dance Theatre - a dance theatre show exploring masculinity should have ticked several boxes and once may have done but I have rarely felt more uncomfortable or less-understood watching dance.
- Pepperland | Mark Morris Dance Group - the legendary Mark Morris is an American great whose work I have wanted to see, someone I needed to have seen. But Pepperland - a bizarre primary-coloured celebration of The Beatles was a baffling appraisal of Sgt Peppers that seemed based on an American view of a Great Britain that has likely never existed and certainly doesn't now. Oddly stilted for all its energy and felt dated in its choreography.
The complete Methods of Dance show-by-show review of 2019 can be found here
Shows seen in 2019: Ballet 3 | Dance 27 | Physical Theatre 4 | Cirque 1 | Total: 35