Wayne McGregor’s Entity

I was lucky enough to see Chroma from the front row of the stalls at the Royal Opera House and it totally blew me away. I couldn’t do a review… I was barely coherent. Edward Watson was stunning up close…. the choreography is just superb on the Royal Ballet dancers…. jibber jibber…. blown away.

So, what a shame that Entity was a total let down in its shadow. Or was it? As Webcowgirl says, other people thought it was genius. One of my non-dance friends was gripped by it, for the full hour. Me & her were bored from the start: whilst appreciating the quality of the production, the calibre of the dancers and the fantastic bodily vocabulary of McGregor, we just didn’t get into it at all.

Where does that leave our critical judgement? Can there be an objective opinion about a piece? Eeeek

Check out YouTube vid on Chroma:

ROH2 get dirrrrty

With Firsts. Cheeky beggars.

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.

I wish I could fly

Ockham’s Razor
Arc / Memento Mori / Every Action…
Linbury Studio, 22 January 2007
London International Mime Festival

Ockham’s Razor believe something magical happens when an audience watches aerial theatre. They may well be right. Their triple bill is riveting and innovative yet stripped down and simple, executed with gentle charm and humanity. My mouth remained open for most of the show. It was spell binding, gravity defying movement and storytelling.

“Arc” explores the relationship between three people set adrift. Set on a metal grid of hollow pipes strapped together like a raft and suspended in the air against a blue backdrop and a watery soundtrack the performers travel through fear, boredom and irritation at their situation to playfulness. Cutting away the corner supports of the grid they’re sent rocking and spinning, laced through the bars, over and over in gleeful abandon. Unfortunately, the piece doesn’t hit the dark notes hinted at in the programme. The drama doesn’t spiral into the deep and nobody’s really going overboard despite the intermittent sulks and fallings out but it’s still a joy to watch.

The duet, “Memento Mori”, takes place on a wooden frame, like a static trapeze. A pseudo-nude Alex Harvey, representing death, blankly allows a strikingly scarlet frocked Charlotte Mooney to writhe and climb around him, resisting and teasing him. It’s an intimate piece shot through with Mooney’s sensuality, especially at the moment when she submits to Harvey, bringing moments of beautiful peril, hanging from a human trapeze, utterly trusting in her partner’s grip.

“Every Action…” is a playful and charming climax to the triple bill. Four performers play with four different sized boxes and the implications of their respective sizes. A long rope is rigged up centre stage, hanging like a pair of curtains. The premise is simplicity itself; tug on one end of the rope and see what happens at the other end but the company play with this idea ingeniously, acting out their own comic exploration of Newton’s third law. It’s easy to forget how technically talented, strong and daring these performers are since their execution is so natural and fearless but what’s really compelling about this company is that they seem as amazed and delighted at their abilities and adventures as we are.

Ockham’s Razor’s mix of effortless aerialistics, innocent charm and crowd pleasing artistry is genuinely heartening; the majority of the audience watching, enraptured. On the most depressing day of the year the London International Mime Festival audience at the Linbury Studio couldn’t have wished for a better antidote to the January blues.

Ockham’s Razor

I recommended these here, part of the London International Mime Festival. Read more about them in the Telegraph and then get tickets (22-23 January at the Linbury Studio, under the Royal Opera House).

One woman dangles by one hand from the bottom rung. Another is clamped spider-like to the frame, blood rushing down to her head. It’s like the cliffhanger ending of The Italian Job, but rescripted for extra existential impact by Beckett.