'There Where She Loved' reviews 'Continuum' reviews 'Rush' reviews Maffre in reviews Tan in reviews recent SFB reviews more Jeffery Taylor reviews Web version held on Ballet.co by kind permission of Jeffery Taylor and the Sunday Express Express Website

At 30 years old Yeovil born Christopher Wheeldon is pushing it a bit to fit his current international title, the wunderkind of neoclassical choreography, but boy, can he make dances. An enthusiastic San Francisco Ballet devoted its visit to the Edinburgh Festival last week exclusively to three of his works, including a world premier, so there is no doubt about SFB’s thinking there, then. With no hint of a retrospective overview of Wheeldon’s output to add variety, the works span only the past three years and as each piece is essentially a celebration of pure movement, run the risk of highlighting shortcomings in a whole evening of similar balletic essays. In fact Wheeldon’s inventiveness is truly dazzling, and apart from a draggy middle section with the overlong Continuum (2002) sliding from tooth tingling fresh to self indulgence, the evening was a triumph for the ex Royal Ballet dancer who found his choreographic feet in the USA.

The evening’s opener, There Where She Loved (2000) was created for Wheeldon’s home Covent Garden company but was dropped after its initial studio presentation. One can see why in the episodic treatment, to Chopin and Kurt Weill songs, of the theme of women disappointed in love. Though the steps flow, almost too self consciously, in an optical feast, the scenes – the misogynist male, the giggly duet – are too sentimental for an Opera House stage, it looks like a young man’s work until the final duet when an affair is ended by a woman bored with love, or her man. Wheeldon fingers their pain with devastating economy. The wunderkind goes from sugar to find the citric acid in Gyorgy Ligeti’s score for Continuum and the spectacular Yuan Yuan Tan precisely mirrors Wheeldon’s reaction to the cold, spikey music. Her technique goes everywhere, splintering space with a diamond precision and my goodness isn’t Muriel Maffre long? When she stretches out all four limbs into a deep arabesque she fills half the stage. But there is a surfeit of Wheeldon here, no matter how brilliant the steps the magic slips as you gradually concentrate on the music and hear how empty it can sound.

Rush, the title of the programme’s world premiere, says it all. Lighting designer Mark Stanley drenches Jon Morrell’s costumes in an infinite shading of Ribena while Wheeldon gallops his dancers through Martinu’s “La Jolla” Sinfonietta. The music is lush and melodic with Hollywood embellishments that Wheeldon attacks with relish, confidently filling the stage with his dancers in full flight or perched stock still as individuals fill the centre stage. Perhaps first night nerves prevented a clearer definition of mood from the dancers at last Thursday’s performance, any sophisticated dance symphony such as Rush needs a run in period. But Wheeldon nevertheless makes a statement of maturity and strength in this short but important work to build on an already impressive natural ability. San Francisco Ballet is, after all, right to showcase Wheeldon in any way they choose – this is a talent to be nurtured by us all.