Mark Bruce Company

Sea of Bones review on londondance.com.

Sea of Bones

I’ve just written a review of Mark Bruce Company’s performance of “Sea of Bones” at The Place from last Friday. It took me 5 days to be able to think about it coherently because I loved it so much that I went out and got gloriously drunk after the show and could get no critical distance whatsoever. It’s been a while since I went out for a fag at the interval beaming like a loon. Course, it’s not perfect, but I just love his work. I really do and the dancers were exceptional.

Am considering going to Bracknell in October for another dose. Will post link to the review on londondance.com when it’s up.  Read Judith Mackrell’s excellent review here. She got all the mythy stuff that went over my head.

Other opinions

Jenny Gilbert in the Independent yesterday:

“For male-bonding rituals with insights, and minus the skirts, check out another Israeli choreographer, Hofesh Schechter. Hardly anyone knew his name until the managements of the Place, the South Bank and Sadler’s Wells decided to remedy things. Between them, they have come up with a plan they call an Escalator, a fast-track schedule of performances of the same double bill, starting with a small venue (the Place), moving up to medium scale (the QEH), and ending, triumphantly they hope, at Sadler’s Wells in September.

The major flaw in this idea is that, faced with the question “Would you like to see a work in progress?”, most of us would answer “No thanks, I’d rather see something finished and fabulous”. That said, last week’s mid-point showing was highly enjoyable, not least for its gut-thumping live account of the music (some of it written and performed by Schechter), emanating from a high platform cut into the set.

Uprising is a piece for seven feral-looking males, who storm about in packs as if bent on bagging an Asbo, twitch and jerk in ways that suggest factory labour, and scamper on their knuckles like menacing chimps. Schechter cleverly knits these motifs into a densely textured fabric, creating pattern and rhythm on both a micro and a macro scale.

The newer In Your Rooms, which comes with an even more terrific score by the fiddler Nell Catchpole, takes as its theme the difficulty of making true personal connections in a busy-busy world. It shares the thrilling troglodyte thump of the earlier piece, but needs a narrower focus if it’s to say anything.”

Salute Hofesh?

I respect Luke Jennings very much but his assertion in the Observer today that “In Your Rooms” is “probably the most important new dance work to be created since the millennium” troubles me. His review lacks any negative comment at all and I just can’t agree that there’s no room for improvement in this piece. He has found a depth and sophistication in the work that I have yet to register.

Shecter: Part II

Read my review of the second airing for the “Uprising/In Your Rooms” double bill on londondance.com.

Sin and melodrama at the House

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS/PIERROT LUNAIRE
Friday 4 May, 2007
Royal Opera House

I’m a modern girl with an open mind so imagine my surprise when I spent a good part of this performance wondering whether it was right to see Royal Ballet principal dancers in sexy black undies and suspenders? It seems sacriligious, somehow, as if those childhood notions that ballet dancers are in fact magical princesses, beyond time and sexuality are still frighteningly present. Zenaida Yanowsky, however, kicked ass (having her ass kicked) as the innocent Anna, sold into the sex industry and passed coldly from man to man on her way up the pole to Hollywood fame, flirting dangerously with all seven deadly sins along the way. Her opposite number, half or sister, played and sung by Martha Wainwright, pockets the ill gotten cash and narrates other Anna’s sad story through Kurt Weill’s dark and harsh operetta. Wainwright sounds good and it’s genius to have her on stage amidst the action – she’s a brave one to move side by side with Yanowsky but there’s only one point tonight when she’s caught out inelegantly with bent legs in the air… just for a second.

What was odd about this “ballet chanté” was that although Lez Brotherston got the look was perfect; sleazy, glamorous and stylish the production also reeked of Bournesque aspirations. At times hammed up and verging on the cartoonesque we could have been having an immoral Christmas at Sadlers Wells but with less of a sense of humour.

As for the choreography, Yanowsky spends most of her time legs splayed, upside down being carted around without subtlety but then, this is about fucking your way to money and fame so maybe it’s absolutely perfect. Her provocative dancing with Mariela Nunez in the strip club is ace – bet they love being able to push all those boundaries of modesty on stage for once.

This was an enjoyably dark and dramatic piece. It doesn’t totally work and is perhaps over ambitious but the mix of live sung score and fresh choreography made it engaging and interesting enough. For more, read this Telegraph article here.

Edward Watson. Sigh.

Pierrot Lunaire is a simple short ballet about the loss of innocence and, tonight, was just superb. The Schoenberg score sung live by Linda Hirst was mindblowingly good – her voice swooping and shrieking, lamenting and cooing; now that’s what I call singing. On stage, Alexander Zaitsev was a spritely, mournful Pierrot and Mara Galeazzi his shy love object, Columbine. Then along comes Brighella. A man has never looked so good in a green catsuit. Edward Watson was rivetingly villainish, seductive and full of leggy evil. If it weren’t for the sorry fact he had a crappy costume sword I would have been genuinely terrified. Columbine’s reappearance as a flame attired harpy helps fulfil Brighella’s evil plan to corrupt Pierrot and kill him and the excellent performances all round, topped off by Hirst’s wonderfully characterful, disturbing storytelling soprano made this totally enthralling.

We couldn’t stay for the final piece. We knew we’d only be disappointed.

Read more about Edward Watson here.

Londonist mentions… Breakin’ Convention

Bank holiday hip hop hooray.