© Hugo Glendining 'Dance to Music by Steve Reich' reviews Keersmaeker in reviews Khan in reviews Rosas reviews Richard Alston reviews Akram Khan reviews more Lynette Halewood reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

What the programme demonstrates is that Reich is a much more diverse and complex creator than his minimalist image might suggest to some, and that works set to it can be surprisingly varied but still succeed. Responses varied from a tightly coupled almost literal response to the score to a much looser riding over the waves of it yet still responding to its motoring force.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker presented just two of the original four Phases - Piano phase and Violin phase. This was still by far the longest work of the evening, at more than 40 minutes, and probably the most challenging, musically and choreographically. Phase is a Reich at his most minimalist, hypnotic and repetitive phrases on a single instrument repeated over and over with slight and subtle shifts and variations. The danced response is equally cool, austere and rigorous.

In Piano Phase, the two dancers (De Keersmaeker and Tale Dolven in costumes which quite subtly do not quite match) are illuminated by lights which create three shadow dancers behind then, one of each and one which is a composite. The dance movement is very deliberately restricted – step turn, swing the arms, clench them round the waist. Repeat, repeat, repeat with slight variations which mirror the shifts in the music. For most of the time the dancers remain exactly in sync with one another, with occasional and peculiarly unsettling interruptions where they move to counterpoint each other.

The movement sits very directly on the music and doesn’t break away from its harsh discipline in any way. You can find this mesmeric and compelling in its utterly uncompromising stance. Or if the repetitions of the music grind too much it could drive you crazy. I enjoyed the act of contemplation, though it may not be for everyone. In violin Phase, De Keersmaeker slowly escaped the strictures of some of the movement palette of the earlier section. However, the lighting was the dimmest I’ve ever encountered in a professional production which rather limited appreciation.

The second work could not have been a more complete contrast. Richard Alston had chosen to use Perotin Viderunt Omnes and Reich’s Proverb, such (beautifully) by Theatre of Voices with Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen. The musicians were grouped at the back of the stage and sounded as if they should have been in a cathedral. There was something large and spacious about the tone. And if this was a church then the brightly costumed figures of the Richard Alston company might have stepped down out of a medieval fresco of workers tilling the fields. If the first work had a monochrome intensity this had a lush colourfulness and warmth. Attractive as some of the groupings of the men were in this piece it ultimately seemed to lack a tight focus, and I found myself listening more than watching.

The final work of the evening brought us the massed members of the London Sinfonietta ranged around a modest performance space. Variations for Vibes, Piano and Strings is a recent Reich work, commissioned for the Sinfonietta and the Akram Khan company. Although the music has a characteristic Reich drive behind it, it also has almost a playful quality.
 

Khan’s cast included two dancers who contrasted very strongly with his own compact, intense presence. Young Jim Kim has a frail and almost otherworldly air: Gregory Maqoma is tall, solid and imposing. Even when they dance the same steps, the effect on each body is quite different, a visual equivalent of Reich’s shifts and changes of tone. The movement itself also seems deliberately contrasted at times with the movement, even if in time to it. If you could picture Reich’s music you might imagine it as many neat cross-hatchings of straight lines building up a picture. But the movement is decidedly curvaceous, and the dancers curl and roll their way across the music.

It has quite light hearted moments with the dancers all deciding to “conduct” the orchestra at moments. I commend the self possession of the cellist who played on with Khan semaphoring wildly a couple of feet in front of her, and of the conductor Alan Pierson who calmly kept it all together. It was such a different response to Reich’s music than the opening piece – just as highly crafted, but with a much warmer and looser feel. The work had a pleasingly feel good ending to the evening and had an ecstatic response from the audience.