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Pacific Northwest BalletJuly 2002 London, Sadler's Wells by PhilipB |
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I'm really sorry not to have enough time to write detailed reviews on the two programmes I saw by the PNB last week. My headline would have been - "Will the real PNB please stand up?" Briefly - Silver Lining was awful. The music was samey, the choreography even more so. The dancing was occasionally passable (Olivier Wevers is exempt from any of this criticism), but the level of partnering was abysmal - dangerously so at times. It was a self-indugence of grand proportion and so sugary in places I worried about my diet. So, with a grim countenance, I braved the mixed programme on Thursday, hoping that world-class choreography would remove at least two of the major weaknesses of Tuesday evening. I was not quite alone in turning up, but not too far off. I've been to quieter evenings at Sadlers, but not many. In fact, the programme I had left behind in the cloakroom two days earlier was still there! Ann covered all the pieces above, but my own feeling was that Divertimento was tentatively danced, possibly through nervousness but also through lack of technique of the highest order, which leaves a dancer unable to convey the emotions of the piece in question. It was a great piece, competantly danced. Then we had Duato's Jardi Tancat and suddenly it all became very confusing. This was remarkable - of course, the choreography is first class, extremely involving and thought provoking. Quite how the RB missed some of Duato's many nuances is a a question for them and their rehearsal schedule. Personally I enjoyed the two pieces they did recently, but it is a hard task, this of taking on pieces designed specifically for other companies who have a very individual style. Are you trying to sing a respectable cover (why bother unless you take it in a different direction?), re-interpret it altogether (not Forsythe of course!) or simply imitate it to widen access to the piece. Um, back to the subject, sorry. Here, with Jardi Tancat, the PNB (admittedly only 6 of them) elevated itself to being a real professional dance company and not some semi-pro outfit you couldn't take too seriously and thus criticise too harshly. There was passion, subtlety and bags of drama. The dancing was good, not Nacional standard of course, but quite good enough to convey the piece to the very receptive and enthusiastic (and relieved?) audience. Particular praise to Ariana Lallone and Kaori Nakamura for showing that, while the PNB's talent doesn't extend foreever, it exists in real measure in a few. Then we had Le Corsair which Ann commented on accurately, and finally Fearful Symmetries which sparked in fits and starts but I enjoyed it and went home quite happy, a marked improvement in my mood from 2 hours previously.
OK, so it's just as well I don't have time to write more as that seems like plenty of text! Mind you, I had to suppress a large amount of vitriol after Silver Lining so maybe it's just as well!
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