Inbal Pindo Dance Co © Gadi Dagon BB 'Elegie' reviews BB 'Pas de Trois' reviews BB 'Boogaloo Rooms' reviews recent Ballet Black reviews RB 'Romeo' reviews Rojo in reviews Makhateli in reviews recent RB reviews 'Boobies' reviews recent Inbal Pinto reviews more Bruce Marriott reviews

The new pieces were by Patrick Lewis, long associated with English National Ballet and Stephen Sheriff who, in Poulenc, used the most adventurous music of the evening. I really like Poulenc's work even if it can be wayward at times and Elegie for Horn and Piano proved a good choice for the stage and in showing the 5 dancers in a different way with its cool, reflective and neo-classical approach. A useful acquisition, as is Patrick Lewis' Pas de Trois.

To well-known (ie very hummable) music by Amilcare Ponchielli, recorded by the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pas de Trois is a fun piece for a her, a him and a chair. Denzil Bailey and Florence Kollie were the boy and girl awkwardly trying to impress one another, sometimes failing miserably. Picking up on the theme were some lovely designs by Nobuko Maruyama - loud colours designed as youthful statements of individuality, if vaguely ridiculous to everybody else. Much enjoyed by the audience there is a lot going on in this piece and I think it's a work they will extract more from over the years.

The evening covered a wide breadth of movement style but the closing number, as with their earlier programme, was Cassa Pancho's The Boogaloo Rooms - something of a signature piece for them I think. To Count Basie tunes, played live by a suitably cool set of dudes, this is a piece where the dancers let their hair down and it's nearest in tone to the infectious feel of, say, Dance Theatre of Harlem. It's these dancers doing ballet and dance their way and with a commitment and style that's different and glorious. Cassa Pancho and Denzil Bailey (Director and Ballet Master), together with the four dancers have done a good job and it was gratifying to see them rewarded with a well-sold Cochrane. Where now depends on getting some financial support. I hope they get it because they deserve it.

On Thursday it was the Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet with Tamara Rojo and David Makhateli, a recent company joiner from Houston Ballet. There were some solid performances by Tamara, William Tuckett (Tybalt), Martin Harvey (Mercutio), Edward Watson (Benvolio) but I left at the first interval and so can't fully account. Aside from feeling tired I found Makhateli's Romeo very underpowered - not a king of the pack but more like the quiet one at the back of the crowd. I don't think its a convincing or winning approach. Fans talked much about his second Des Grieux (Manon) being far stronger than his first and I much hope this proves to be the case here also.

The week ended at the Barbican seeing the Inbal Pinto Dance Company in a Dance Umbrella performance. Last year, the first time I saw this Israeli company, I was much enchanted and made sure I could see them this year.
 

Inbal Pinto's Boobies
© Gadi Dagon

The company is the dance equivalent of Salvador Dali, creating weird phantasmagorical worlds. Where Dali is darkly surreal, Inbal Pinto's piece last year (Oyster) was from a much more likeable world and was a show that kids from 6 to 600 (or something like that) could enjoy.

This year's show, Boobies, continues the fantasy but is not so obviously charming and innocent: there's a darker side and you sense some points are being made even if you are not so sure what they might be. But it's a show brimming with invention and while much modern dance takes itself, and its dancers, all too seriously it's lovely to see a company concentrating on theatre. And where else are you going to see a 6ft lobster on stage?! There is little dance here but at 60 minutes it's a bit of madness from a company everybody should see at least once I reckon.