By james art Tthere are four ballets, two by women choreographers and two by black choreographers; add two conductors, one male, one female, and four living composers, including a woman who plays strings for Brian Eno. Sometimes a recipe that looks tempting on paper delivers on its promise—and Meetingswhich contains all these ingredients makes for a sharp, exciting evening of dancing.
Different perspectives offer different feelings, different thought patterns. The feeling of the night was Or Forever by American Pam Tanowitz, who brought a sassy wit and virtuosic intelligence to the steps that matched the blasting brass and sudden thrusts of Ted Hearn’s backing score.
Her sequel Sending a duet (2022) for Anna Rose O’Sullivan and William Bracewell, begins with these dancers in suede tracksuits made to match the stage curtains of the Royal Opera House, but with PT stamped in gold on the back rather than an emergency room. This irreverent humor continues throughout the piece, which takes the sophistication of classical dance and constantly subverts it.
It’s full of fun – a boy bouncing high in a series of jumps behind a chorus of dancers in brightly colored two-tone leotards; disembodied hand emerging from wings to offer support in arabesque; a row of women perched prettily on the backs of men on all fours, like so many stools. But it’s also dotted with moments of beauty, particularly in the sections where Bracewell and O’Sullivan catch and lure each other in strides of elongated shape and sharp speed, somehow suggesting mystery amid their playful, magnificent boldness.
This is what Joseph Tunga does Duskthe other new work on the program, seems positively polite by comparison, but it’s the most interesting incarnation yet of his experiments in mixing his own hip-hop vocabulary with classical technique, as two men and five women infuse tender, familial emotion into a choreography , which contrasts powerful, curving arms with graceful legs. The score by Marina Moore, which includes sound and birdsong, envelops the piece in an evocative richness.
The show is rounded out by the tender, brooding Kyle Abraham Weathering (2022), which suggests love and loss, especially in haunting solos by Melissa Hamilton and Joshua Junker, as well as by the percussive, terrifying Crystal Pite The statementan indictment of a political class that promotes the conflict and tries to wash its hands of its effects. Created in 2016, its movement is syncopated to Jonathan Young’s text, only increasing in power over time, and is danced with sinuous precision here by Joseph Sissens, Ashley Dean, Kristen McNally and Calvin Richardson, slipping and sliding around a conference table under the charge of Tom Visser light.
Fresh thinking is key for Birmingham Royal Ballet too Moonpremiered in Birmingham earlier this month. It brings together five female choreographers under a thematic umbrella that generally emphasizes female empowerment, with decidedly mixed results. Some very talented dance creators – Wubkje Kuindersma, Seeta Patel, Thais Suárez, Arielle Smith and Iratxe Ansa – seem constrained rather than liberated by the moon theme, with the choreography only occasionally springing to engaging life.
On the other hand, Kate Whitley’s score, which features Fauré’s arrangements and the theme tune of Victimis ambitious and compelling. The sections for the children’s choir are rousing and beautifully staged, and the dancers seem both powerful and liberated in a work that, for all its flaws, is undeniably amiable in its attempt to do something new.
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Star ratings (out of five)
Encounters: Four Contemporary Ballets ★★★★
Birmingham Royal Ballet: Luna ★★★