January
- Aisha and Abhaya | Rambert | Linbury Studio Theatre, ROH, London | 24 January *****
I was never going to be able resist booking a new work in London choreographed by Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar with music by Ori Lichtik - and in collaboration with the newly-on fire Rambert: and I wasn't disappointed. The film elements by Kibwe Tavares were striking and well-made but generally less essential (for me) than the movement delivered by six of Rambert's most striking dancers with the welcome addition of guest artist Maëva Berthelot. All the reviews criticise a significant disconnect between the narrative film content and Eyal's choreography but the programme notes (in an interview with Tavares) indicate that this was a clear artistic choice and the show was so exciting and physically on the money that I don't really care about whether there was an 'issue' with the narrative.
- Child (Kind) | Peeping Tom | Barbican | 26 January *****
While down south for Aisha and Abhaya I was lucky (and sensible) enough to catch Peeping Tom's Child at the Barbican. The third part of a trilogy (with Mother (Moeder) and Father (Vader)), Child was a strikingly odd and eccentric show about childhood imagination and trauma set in a creepy Americana-inflected forest at the edge of some cliffs with an appealingly bizarre cast of misfits and oddballs, a tree-baby and some aliens. Dark, funny and technically audacious, Peeping Tom are like no one else in the arena of dance theatre.