Galanteries reviews Tidelines reviews Soft Underbelly reviews Masquerade reviews All 99 Dance Bites Reviews

The programme opens with a revival of Bintley’s Galanteries, originally made in 1986. It’s an abstract piece, for twelve dancers, set to Mozart - wonderful music, which just seems made for dancing. The cast went through this rather dutifully, and though there weren’t any very obvious errors, they didn’t really communicate much joy. It’s a nicely constructed work, with good opportunities for dancers to shine, which weren’t perhaps seized with as much zest as they should have been. There’s a pas de trois with one girl passed in a series of very typical Bintley lifts between two men, which Tuifa and Sasaki looked good in, but the overall effect was a little tentative.

Tidelines is a new commission from Cathy Marston, who has made works for previous Dance Bites tours, including Words Apart, whose central pas de deux was revived in a memorable performance by Bull and Cope at Sadler’s Wells last year. This work culminates in another interesting pas de deux, again very tricky and imaginative in its holds and balances. What is interesting about Marston is that she does seem to be working out her own agenda: unlike so many other new works you see this is not derived from Forsythe. Although it’s difficult it’s not bonecrunchingly fast or athletic. I’m not quite sure where her influences come from - possibly Kylian in terms of some of the balances. The work opens to the sounds of water: the music was commissioned from Peter Sculthorpe. The designs were in general a distraction from the choreography rather than a contribution to it: some of the costumes were downright ugly. A central mirror slowly pivoted above the dancers, sometimes reflecting multiple images. The work is set on three somewhat dysfunctional couples, with a theme of the attraction of opposites. In the final pas de deux Chloe Davies coiled herself bonelessly in ever more unlikely ways around the stoic Tuifa, like a sea anemone. This was well done: I’d like to see the final section again. I thought it merited a warmer reception than it got from the audience.

Soft Underbelly is another work from Ashley Page, the only choreographer commissioned who actually works for the Royal. This is an abstract work for three dancers, short (12 minutes) and uncomplicated. Page is much better dealing with three dancers than he is with two dozen, and I found his abstraction easier to cope with than the usual dark brooding about human sexuality. I thought the writing for the men in general more interesting than for the girl. Peter Abegglen (who has created roles in a number of Page works) looked very good in this. I couldn’t recognise the girl: checking the programme afterwards I saw she was Naomi Reynolds, who has recently graduated from the RBS and only just joined the company. (She was the Clara in The House TV documentary in 94). She tackled the role with impressive confidence and looked very competent.

So far, the tour has been generally received a little more favourably than in previous years: but I would say that a majority of the Woking audience were still unconvinced by some of the pieces. What they wanted was something more conventional, preferably involving a tutu: immediately the curtain rose on the final work, Michael Corder’s Masquerade, with its bright and cheerful costumes, the woman sitting next to me said ‘that’s better’ before a step had been taken. Masquerade is set to Stravinsky’s suite for chamber orchestra from Punchinella. Its costumes refer to the commedia della arte and although there is no plot, the characters of Columbine and Harlequin are present. It was a good choice as a closing item - bright, vivacious, happy, and performed with much more panache than some of the previous items. Corder’s dance vocabulary is more purely classical. It was interesting to see Abegglen enjoying himself greatly as the Harlequin figure, dancing in such a completely different idiom to that of the earlier works. He was partnered by Mara Galeazzi who looked in great form: these two really did make a strong impression, conveying both force of personality and strength of technique in a way that few other performers had done. Mayuko Maeda also looked good as one of the soloists: she carries herself very beautifully and her posture always seems just right. It was an enjoyable and lighthearted piece, which I think will be very popular - I suspect we may see this again.