By james art 
Surrender to me. I imagine Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet companies and school, would be delighted to have Carlos Acosta at the helm of Birmingham Royal Ballet. I also believe that she will be extremely happy that the latest work of the company Moon is for women by women.
What I don’t think she would be so happy about is the standard of the choreography or the fact that it should be considered acceptable by a company of this caliber performing in a venue of the rank of Sadler’s Wells – because it’s not by a long shot .
Moon is the final work in a trilogy commissioned by Acosta. I haven’t had the pleasure of watching the first two episodes (City of a Thousand Deals, Black Sabbath), but I would assume that everyone involved wants Luna to be considered capable of standing on her own.
The premise is promising. It is inspired by Once upon a time in Birmingham: Women who dared to dream – a book by Louise Palfreyman that recognizes and celebrates 30 female pioneers from the great city, but I’m afraid that’s where the positivity stops. Actually, that’s not entirely true – I was impressed by the company’s female dancers, all dancing with presence, power and palpable physicality. however Moon for the work is as weak as things can get.
Acosta hired an all-female creative team, including original music by Kate Wheatley. One play and five choreographers immediately worries me, and what we end up with are six different sections spread over two acts. What I found mostly was a poorly structured, empty dance that didn’t say much, bordering on nothing in relation to Palfreyman’s original quest.
BRB is a travel company so Moon no physical set. Instead, the evening features a backdrop of Hayley Egan’s video designs. They’re innocuous screensavers that lack a lot of gravitas, but still don’t annoy or detract too much from the ‘dance’, so that’s kind of a win.
A choir of young people also participated in the work. In fact, they discover the evening, which immediately takes her to a strange place – is this a children’s ballet? A community project? It might be considered a very high-level proposal coming from the company’s education department, but as a major order it is quite the opposite.
Of all five choreographers, Wubkje Kuindersma’s work is the strongest. She created the opening and closing sections and once you watch the finale you realize that her language is similar in both with the addition of slippers to close the ballet.
Quindersma worked a lot in Amsterdam and it shows in her lexicon. Terra, her choreography for the big group is what I would call “European”. This is a loose statement both in meaning and in nature, because European “work” tends to be just that. Which means one often finds similar pieces, devoid of obvious linguistic identity, wherever you go across the continent (and beyond!). It’s the lost child of the previous generation (van Manen, Killian, etc.) that works for the masses because they think they recognize it and don’t necessarily know any better.
Men are men; women, women. There are many partnerships where the women are either in induced ecstasy or stretched out like a rag doll. Deep chassis abounds, neoclassical wavy arms are de rigueur and there’s a constant facial expression that sits somewhere between loss and pain.
Kuindersma definitely gives the dancers something to do, but her structural capabilities leave a lot to be desired. Eight couples in relentless unison isn’t interesting in my book, and it also doesn’t allow for any level of serious analysis to take place because it can’t. The environment is like the inside of a washing machine – it spins without stopping to consider the value of silence, form or finesse.
And she’s not alone. unwavering by Thais Suarez and Empowerment by Ariel Smith suffer similar fates. Smith’s stage is reminiscent of an orange vortex where nothing much happens. A solo woman is joined by seven others who move in an elegant, Neanderthal way that gets us exactly nowhere.
Suarez uses Gabriel Faure, which is nice but also a mistake, like someone watched Kenneth Macmillan Requiem that’s all you see, especially during Pie Jesu. Beatrice Parma is absolutely dancing for her life, but is doomed to the same fate – the endless movement becomes empty very quickly, especially when it is heavily associated with hyperextension. It’s nice to have singers on stage though, even if it looks a bit Sarah Brightman.
Parma is back Overexposed by Iraxte Ansa, who sees her reservedly traumatized by eight mummified men. does anyone know whats going on Does anyone care? The whole thing is a pretty watered down version of The Judas tree (Macmillan). Of course, the narrative doesn’t play out in the same way, but there’s an air of manipulation nonetheless. And Parma is on a spin cycle setup with hyperextension as before.
There is an earlier section choreographed by Sita Patel about the importance of education for women. And as vital as the subject is, what Patel suggests is very hard to take seriously. Smiley face books and light sources are the opening before we go to random places like a thank you to the NHS (backed by a surgical mask and snippets of the Casualty theme from composer Ken Freeman!?) and a nondescript demo. I could handle medical care myself during the experience. Focus on mental health.
As you probably figured out, this is a jumpsuit no from me, but it’s also very “are we really here?” BRB at Sadler’s Wells presents this kind of work in all seriousness…
I feel a heady mix of disappointment, indifference and doom. Disappointed that this is the level of work done. Indifference to the mainstream acceptance that getting kicked out of town isn’t so bad. And doomed, because Jennifer Homans was right after all. In short – the epilogue to her 2010 book Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet was basically an essay about how the evolution of ballet is dead because we don’t have master choreographers to lead the unknown way forward.
I used the conclusion of my own thesis to challenge her damning prediction. Yet here we are in London, 2024, and it all feels very “I told you so.” I wonder if Homans has a cure…
Connected
Matthew Paluch gained a place at the Royal Ballet School in 1990, graduating in 1997. His first four years as a professional dancer were spent working with London City Ballet, Scottish Ballet, K-Ballet and English National Ballet, becoming a full ballet . a member of the ENB until his departure in 2006.
Matthew graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance, Diploma in Teaching Professional Dancers in 2007 and was previously a teacher at the Royal Ballet School. He completed his MA in Ballet Science at Roehampton University in 2011, has been a freelance writer since 2010 and currently works in the legal sector.