Tamara Rojo takes her farewell as artistic director of English National Ballet with a triple bill of ballets by three choreographers: American William Forsythe, Belgian Stina Quagebeur and Swedish Mats Ek. Interestingly, most of the dancers were born abroad, too.
BLAKE WORKS ! There are seven, tender, melancholy songs by James Blake from his album, The Colour in Anything. William Forsythe uses pop music because he wants to make ballet popular and less stuffy. He describes the dancers as Olympian athletes. Light, bright, free and casual, they are very watchable. The alphabet of ballet is eternal; and as he says, you just have to do it.
TAKE FIVE BLUES. Created by Stina Quagebeur during the Covid lockdown, it began as a dance film. It has now been newly expanded and is danced to Nigel Kennedy’s reworking of Bach and Brubeck.The dancers mimic and reflect the intimacy of jazz musicians, improvising their way through the piece, playing with music, and classical ballet, and seeing how far they can push it out of the box.
THE RITE OF SPRING. Ever since the riotous premiere in Paris in 1913, choreographers have been attracted to Stravinsky’s score. 28 years on Mats Ek revisits his own past choreography, the music and the drama to create a new version specially for ENB. His young woman is sacrificed to an arranged marriage. Emily Suzuki is the bride. Fernando Carratala Coloma is the groom
Ek’s rite is not as thrilling as the rites by Pina Bausch, Maurice Bejart and Michael Keegan-Dolan, to name but a few. His version is more intimate and enhanced by the exaggerated white foam costumes which give it a Japanese flavour.
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Images:
Main Image: Emily Suzuki and Fernando Carratala Coloma dancing The Rite of Spring.
Text Image: A scene from Take Five Blues.
