Michael Clark Company - come, been and gone

I feel like I have filled a major gap in my dance experience by seeing the Michael Clark Company at last. And what a vivid and distinctive evening of dance it proved to be.

Show opener Swamp is one the oldest pieces in Clark's catalogue but it certainly seemed as fresh as any new work being produced. It took a while to acclimatise myself to Clark's vocabulary and I found the performance initially icy for all its sculptural beauty and extreme post-modern classicism. But I soon found myself drawn in and by the end was convinced it was one of the best things I'd ever seen.

Benjamin Warbis

The remainder of the show was Clark's latest work come, been and gone from 2009. The first section was a rather mixed bag set to the Velvet Underground, especially after the exhilaration of Swamp. I liked the Venus In Furs section for its sexy, extravagant and perverse imagery and stunning costumes, the slow twisted elegance of the choreography perfectly matching the music. White Light/White Heat is essentially a proto-punk fast dirge and was suitably exciting. Next up was Heroin, a technically complex but rather unappealing solo. A tortured solo choreographed by a former heroin addict by a dance in syringe-studded body suit to a song called Heroin struck me as emptily shocking, over-literal and self-indulgent. Final piece, Ocean pleasantly concluded a difficult section that left me feeling a little deflated. Even Clark's trademark moves had become oddly familiar.

After a second interval we returned for the final sections, set to music by David Bowie and Kraftwerk. Sweet Thing, Candidate, Sweet Thing (Reprise) is actually my favourite track on one of my all-time favourite albums, Diamond Dogs. Again the issue of literalness comes up. This is a song I know so well, have been listening to for more than 30 years, that it is so full of personal meaning and imagery for me that nothing Michael Clark could choreograph could ever really compete. Fortunately, Clark's dancers are so incredibly beautiful to look and to watch and the use of costume is so fascinating - although Benjamin Warbis's cutaway codpiece was overly distracting. The movement is so exquisitely distilled from classical ballet technique that despite what might soon become familiar trademark moves there are always unexpected surprises, some extraordinarily beautiful, others momentarily ugly in their twisted distortion or unexpected placement. The piece ended with the glorious Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family that provided a thrilling end.

After a pause came Kraftwerk's Hall of Mirrors. Elegant and icily watchable, beautifully costumed but seemingly over-literal with its tale of self-obsession and reflection.  Then came Heroes. Again, a song I know extremely well. I enjoyed this although, again, some of the mimed dance actions were too literal and the projection of Bowie himself in the video for the song was distracting, although it did make it clear how his outfit had inspired the cropped leather jackets the dancers wore. Clark's use of lines and shaping is lovely and it was enjoyable if far from transcendent. After a rather throwaway 'Intermission' piece containing some entirely gratuitous nudity - basically a buttock dance by three naked dancers  - and some nice solo work by the wonderfully long and elegant Harry Alexander, we started on the home straight. Again, I had an issue with musical familiarity as Future Legend clunkily edited into a reprise of Chant... rather than the expected Diamond Dogs, but what followed more than made up for the unevenness of the previous experience.  

Simon Williams

Aladdin Sane was mesmerising, with a long featured solo by the beautiful Simon Williams, and finally, their Aladdin Sane shaded orange bodysuits now topped with matelot-style cropped blazers, The Jean Genie made a breathtaking and thrilling finale, music and movement in complete harmony.



I felt like I had seen something important. The exhilaration was restored.

I know I have seen the work of a true original.