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The dancers are entirely equal to the challenge. They tear through the choreography with glee, speeding across the stage, flinging their legs heavenwards through 180 degrees and more. The women’s legs are weapons. They look most at home in Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude which is the closest to all of the works on offer to a classical model and possessed of recognisable ballet steps. But they looked as if they relished all of it, both men and women. Andrei Ivanov, a compact dancer who dances the jester in Swan Lake, appeared in two works here and looked a different and more versatile individual, freed from the responsibility of endlessly cranking out pirouettes. Then women, particularly in In the Middle, were ferociously Amazonian.

This is presented as a very bold new step for the Kirov and Forsythe described by the publicists as “the future of ballet”, heir of Balanchine and so on and so forth. It’s true that this is a big step for the Kirov, and for the image they present to the world, but the works presented here are by no means new. Steptext is 20 years old, made originally for Aterbaletto. In the middle, somewhat elevated was made for Paris Opera Ballet in 1987. Approximate Sonata and The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude were both made for Forsythe’s own Ballett Frankfurt in the mid 1990s. Forsythe himself has moved on, Ballett Frankfurt has closed, and the works he makes now have much less discernable relationship to ballet.

The works on the programme have already been taken up by a number of companies world wide, and most of these works are already familiar in the UK. In the Middle has been in the repertory of the Royal, with Sylvie Guillem, on whom the role was created, appearing in an except from this just a couple of years ago in coruscating form. Vertiginous Thrill was also done by the Royal, as was Steptext some time back. More recently Steptext has been very extensively presented up and down the country by George Piper Dances. They also managed to coax a cut down and partly rechoreographed version of Approximate Sonata from Forsythe largely by dint of camping on his doorstep.

So the experience for the audience here is not necessarily the shock of the new. But that begs the question, just who is this programme aimed at ? How many of the audience here will also be attending the Forsythe Company’s performances at Sadler’s wells in September ? There seem to be two constituencies here that are difficult to reconcile. Firstly, there are those who come to see the Kirov because it’s the Kirov and who don’t necessarily come to see any other ballet performances in the year. (That would probably include someone I heard confidently telling her friend how unique the Kirov were – “I don’t come to see the Royal but they couldn’t possibly do anything like this”) . This is something of a stretch for them – no nice music or costumes, nothing traditional, no orchestra, Even at prices substantially less than the rest of this eye wateringly expensive run, there were a fair number of empty seats.

For those who have followed Forsythe, this is probably a bit old hat now, not where he is currently headed. And it’s still (even at reduced prices) a very expensive ticket compared to Sadler’s. It’s possible too that Vertiginous Thrill and Approximate Sonata would be better seen in a more intimate venue. So although the programme may be interesting and stretching for the dancers (in every sense), it isn’t one that would seem to have a substantial future as a touring programme in the west. Whether this is a worthwhile direction for the company to be taking is another and quite separate question. Forsythe has an interesting dance future without doubt but not necessarily a ballet one.

Steptext on these bodies looked unsurprisingly somewhat more classical than on others in the past, particularly in the opening section in silence, which is usually an improvisation. Daria Pavlenko in the lead role had changed the costume from the usual very brief red leotard to one that covered her legs. In Middle, the women all wore the brief leotards with no tights, the better to show off the muscles in the legs (it’s a bit like the exterior of the Pompidou Centre or the Lloyds building – Forsythe likes to make a feature of what normally is decorously hidden). Pavlenko looked fearless, and was well partnered variously by Ivanov, Lobukhin and Shishov. However I missed the sense of teasing and sexual tension that other protagonists have brought to the work. It all looked a little careful.
 

Approximate Sonata was perhaps the most problematic work on the programme. It’s a series of four duets in sequence, and by the time the third and fourth come around a certain impatience has set in. This does have a live piano accompaniment (music by Thom Willems, Forsythe’s long-time collaborator), but it’s not exactly a comfortable aural experience. This begins by Ivanov walking forward slowly pulling strange faces (not very visible to most of the auditorium, I guess) and engaging in dialogue with an offstage female voice. This then moves into the first (and most interesting duet) with Evgenia Obraztsova. This reprised at the end where is slips into dialogue and a discussion about the piece as if they had moved from performing to rehearsing it in front of us.

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude would have been a great title for a Frank Zappa album. (Wonder if Forsythe is a fan…). What we get is the closest Forsythe has come to a conventional ballet, with music from the finale of Schubert’s Symphony no 9 (amplified rather badly) danced by two men and three women in various combinations at fearsome speed. The women wear yellow tutus made of a rubber like material. This is one of the few points where Forsythe’s much trumpeted relationship to Balanchine does seem to emerge in terms of the discipline of the steps as well as the speed and attack. Sarafanov and Fadeyev (both with disconcertingly blond hair, I’m not sure I recall this from previous visits) looked to be thoroughly enjoying themselves in this. This seemed to be the audience favourite of the evening, and got a very much stronger reception than anything that had preceded it.

The cast of In The Middle all worked flat out to deliver the goods. Irina Golub, though she can certainly do the steps didn’t dominate the proceedings the way that Guillem did in this work, and there was much more a sense of a group performance here, rather than a dominating star presence and authority. The piece still works well presented this way, a forest of bodies in green advancing over the stage like a conquering army. The redhaired Ekaterina Kondaurova caught the eye.

The dancers looked excited by the programme and their reception, and all applauded one another. It was a display of considerable power and authority, but quite where it takes them is another matter.