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Category: Reviews
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Published: Tuesday, 17 April 2012 13:19
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Written by Chantal Guevara
It's normal to throw a party and to ask for specific presents when reaching a milestone birthday. But Bob Lockyer chose to go that little bit further for his 70th birthday: the presents he requested were new works commissioned by some of his friends - some of the most influential names in dance, and performed over two evenings, raising money for two charities close to his heart: Royal Philharmonic Society Drummond Fund and The Place’s Pioneering Fund. While few may know him by name, his work touched the lives as many in his 40-year career as director and producer of dance programmes for BBC television, and his role in setting up and contributing to the running of many dance organisations including Dance UK.
The advertised programme featured new works by Richard Alston and Mark Baldwin, with additional works commissioned by Wayne McGregor, Monica Mason and Siobhan Davies - a veritable treat for contemporary dance lovers! The result was a celebration of contemporary dance, with the eight bite-sized pieces ranging from five to ten minutes in length.
The evening opened with works from two final-year students: Drone, by Andy Macleman, in his final year at London Contemporary Dance School, followed by Papillon by Seb Golfin, a graduate-year student at the Royal Ballet School.
The first work, Drone, was one of the most impressive of the evening. Drone was a understated work which used simple movements and gestures to mesmerise the audience. Drone was of an impressively high standard: Andy Macleman is a choreographer to watch out for.
Papillon, commissioned by Royal Ballet's Artistic Director Monica Mason, featured the 2011 winner of the Prix de Lausanne, Mayara Magri. Nevertheless, his duet - about a man trying to distract his girlfriend from her book - felt very generic and while it was pretty to watch, it did not appear to have anything new or original to show. The "park musicians" - Rebecca Herman on cello and Andrew Saunders on piano - were a lovely touch, however.
Mark Baldwin's offering, 'Prayer', was a rare intimate performance for Rambert's dancers, in an abstract work for four women. Prayer was a succession of solos, toying with shifting weight and balance in isolation. As always with Rambert, the dancers are lovely to watch, especially in a work as abstract as Prayer.
The final work of the first half of the programme was The Way It Works Is This..., a work commissioned by Siobhan Davies and choreographed and performed by Charlie Morrissey. Exploring the earliest attempts to record movement photographically by Etienne-Jules Maray, using a stuttering voiceover, Morrissey sought to recreate the early processes and imagery of Maray's works, with frequent blackouts to suggest the capturing of photos.
Rob Binet, a young Canadian dancer, was appointed as a Choreographic Apprentice at the Royal Ballet in January; Lake Maligne, a solo created for Daniela Neuegebauer of Random Dance, showed a very different voice from his work for Draft Works in January, At The River Styx. While conforming to Wayne McGregor's trademark costume of a vest and briefs, the choreographic style was Binet's own, using beautiful, languorous movements, at time enacting the lyrics of the accompanying music. Although McGregor's influence became more pronounced towards the end of the piece, Binet's developing voice is interesting and confident - we hope we'll see much more from him.
Richard Alston was perhaps the most generous friend of them all, presenting not one but two new works, and also reviving an excerpt of Robert Cohan's 1989 work 'In Memory'. Isthmus, the first new piece, was a very playful work, with Alston's dancers endlessly leaping through the air in enthusiastic leaps to offbeat abstract music by Jo Kondo. At only four minutes in length, Isthmus was definitely too short!
Richard Alston Dance Company last performed Robert Cohan's 'In Memory' in last year's Dance Umbrella, and the excerpt performed in this programme worked well, offering the audience a taster of the work without introducing any of the work's more complex themes. In Memory is a phyiscally and technically demanding work for four men, a precursor of the current "boy bands" of contemporary dance, and his creative influence on Richard Alston was clear from stylistic similarities.
It's often rare in contemporary dance to see pieces performed more than once, so it was interesting to revisit In Memory after six months; the highlight of the extract was the passionate duet between Pierre Tapon and Nancy Nerantzi, although In Memory elicited impressive performances from each of the piece's five dancers: Nathan Goodman, James Pett, Liam Riddick, Pierre Tappon and Nancy Nerantzi.
As the final piece of the evening, Alston's Shuffle It Right (excerpt) was a jazzy number, working with radio performances of two of Hoagy Carmichael's earliest songs. With costumes evocative of the '20s, Shuffle It Right showed the company lindy hopping, with a fine duet between Pierre Tappon and Andres de Blust-Mommaerts, however without sufficient momentum from Carmichael's songs, the piece was somewhat halting. But it found its way to a rousing finale - a fitting end to an evening of celebrations.
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Category: Reviews
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Published: Saturday, 07 April 2012 01:06
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Written by Chantal Guevara
Whatever I expected of Eifman Ballet's Onegin, it certainly didn't include snorts of laughter from the people around me for most of the show, and muffled laughter from elsewhere in the auditorium. Yet once you accept that your neighbours won't let you take the show seriously, you realise that Onegin is brilliantly hilarious - which is much-needed in the Trocks' prolonged absence.
Boris Eifman brings a whole new meaning to "there's something for everyone", with hints of Matthew Bourne, Broadway, Saturday Night Fever, Hofesh Shechter and MTV in the opening two scenes alone, with throwbacks to Grease, Center Stage, Britney Spears, Thriller, Pina Bausch, the '99 film Kick, The Ring and Martha Graham in the rest of Onegin - as well as a surplus of jazz hands.
From the opening scene, there's no doubting the modernity of this production, as we see several LBDs (little black dresses) and pairs of sunglasses among the dancers; rather than working with the original score for Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Eifman has chosen a medley of Tchaikovsky's greatest hits alongside contemporary rock music by Alexander Sitkovetsky. The effects of the electric guitar sections, combined with Onegin's red and purple clothing, and Oleg Gabyshev's longish hair gives the ballet an unshakeable '80s feel.
Like Eifman's Anna Karenina, the storyline of Onegin has been dramatically simplified, focussing only on the central characters of sisters Olga and Tatyana, their suitors Lensky and Onegin, and Tatyana's husband-to-be The General. Also like Anna Karenina, the storytelling itself is minimal, however unlike Anna Karenina, the choreography has less impact. In fact, the choreography often borders on the ridiculous, for example Onegin's wooing of Tatyana coming to an abrupt end when she finds his hand up her dress, however she responds to his kiss with jazz hands. Later, we see Olga and Lensky frolicking happily while Tatyana, behind them, appears to drown herself on a bench. In the second act, we see Onegin bring out the Martha Graham in Tatyana, while her husband's mere touch makes her break out in an attack of jazz hands. And it's really best not to know what Freud would make of her dream.
Unintentional comedy aside, there are some beautiful dance sequences, predominantly in Onegin's many anguished solos, performed by the truly amazing Oleg Gabyshev, as well as the bromance scenes between him and Lensky, performed by Dmitry Fisher.
While the programme notes state Eifman's intentions to define the Russian soul in Onegin, it's best to appreciate the accidental humour - and you'll end up enjoying it far more than you could have anticipated. Just imagine, if MTV made ballets....
