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Images Of Dance8th June 2003 Buxton, Buxton Opera House by Trog |
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There is a varied program on offer for the 2003 tour by the Images Of Dance company. I caught up with them last night in the beautiful Buxton Opera House. I very much like this venue; it sits like a jewel (following the restoration in 2000) in the centre of an elegant (if fading spa town). Some of the once grand buildings of the town are sadly bricked up, but they still retain their beauty. In the summer it worth getting their early for a look around; the Pavilion Gardens, which are attached to the Opera House, are quite pretty. The Opera House has a very fine tradition of ballet. Anna Pavlova danced there in 1925, watched by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford no less. But enough of the history... The evening opened with Paquita, danced in costumes borrowed from the BRB. One day, perhaps, I will get to witness a performance of the whole of the ballet, rather than selections, which I think come from Act II, scene 2. Perhaps we only see these selections, because the entire ballet isn't that good? On the whole the dancers weren't very together in the group pieces. The solos looked much better. Some of the footwork was very untidy and the final pdd lacked pizazz, although it was better than the rest. There were plenty of smiles from the dancers though and on the small stage they looked almost larger than life. Next came Salon, choreographed by Oliver Hindle to Chopin's Piano Concerto in Em (2nd movement). This is the second Hindle piece I've seen in a week, and this is a much better than Seagram, which is being danced as part of Ballet Central's tour. Salon is set in a dance class, which is a very natural setting for the music. I've taken a few classes to this music and it is used in Les Sylphides. The work is for 3 couples and there are some interesting combinations of movements. Sometimes pdd's, sometimes canons and sometimes completely unrelated combinations. As a technical work I found this most enjoyable. The dancers where much, much better in this piece. The audience quite liked it. Glass For 12 is a loser from go to woe in my opinion. Firstly we have the awful score by Philp Glass. I once heard a critic describe his Violin Concerto as sounding like two cats fighting in a 44 gallon drum; I quite concur, and I extend this to all of his music. This is a hair down, bare legged, modern dressed work, comprising of steps that really don't fit the music, not that you can really find a beat in the background noise. This was just an endless series of pirouettes, low arabesques and coupé fouetté raccourci. Even the change to blue lightening and the appearance of the chaps did nothing for this piece.
Finally came Dances from Elite Syncopations; I don't know if this means there were some bits missing. I'm not all that familiar with this, but it was complete as far as I remember. You really can't go wrong with this piece; it is bright, colourful and has boppy music, which is exactly the sort of thing audiences love. There were a couple of minor slips and stumbles, but they really didn't detract from the overall look. For this piece, the backdrops are flown out, leaving the bare wall of backstage. As with most theatres, this is very scruffy. The Opera House has an appeal for backstage renovations, and this work was ideal in displaying just how bad things are. I liked the stuffed frog sitting on top of the ladder. No doubt one of the dancer's lucky mascot. It certainly worked as the audience were really with them throughout this piece.
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