United Kingdom Balanchine/Graham/Forsythe/Dawson – R:Evolution: Dancers of English National Ballet, English National Ballet Philharmonic / Maria Seletskaja (conductor). Sadler’s Wells, London, 1.10.2025. (JO’D)
From the chandeliers, tiaras and peach-coloured tutus of Balanchine’s Theme and Variations (1947) to the monochrome austerity of David Dawson’s Four Last Songs (2023), English National Ballet presents a programme of work by four ‘visionary creators’. In between are the stark Errand into the Maze, choreographed by Martha Graham in 1947, and William Forsythe’s ironic Herman Shmerman (Quintet) from 1992.
The company danced the Balanchine in its Our Voices programme at Sadler’s Wells two years ago (review here). Lovely to look at (the audience cheered as the curtain rose), but not without its moments of awkwardness on this opening night. It came together in the central pas de deux. Guest Principals Alice Mariani and Ricardo Castellanos sounded the emotional depths of Tchaikovsky’s music, as if this really was the ‘classical’ ballet (Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty) to which Balanchine’s choreography so frequently refers. English National Ballet Philharmonic, under the baton of Maria Seletskaja, provided the depths.
With only two protagonists in its pared back, mythical, American setting, Martha Graham’s Errand into the Maze does not allow for awkwardness. Emily Suzuki, ‘The Woman’, brought a ballet dancer’s lightness and precision to the grounded, core-based movement of the Martha Graham technique. Rentaro Nakaaki matched her for intensity as the threatening presence, ‘The Creature of Fear’, who accosts her. The music, by Gian Carlo Menotti, is insistent. Yet when it stops, when Nakaaki lies as if dead on the floor, ‘The Woman’ seems ambivalent, regretful.
English National Ballet is familiar with the work of William Forsythe. They performed Herman Schmerman (Quintet) at Sadler’s Wells in April of this year (review here). To the aural challenge of Thom Willems’s arrhythmic, electronic score, five dancers present the visual challenge of their burnt orange leotards and body suits, their constant, strutting (even jogging) entrances and exits, the fact of their being five rather than a symmetrical four or six. Irony is there in the exaggerated roll of Aitor Arrieta’s shoulders, in Alice Bellini’s knowing arms, in the frequently flexed wrists (a reference to Balanchine) of all the dancers, in the double surprise at the abrupt ending.
David Dawson’s Four Last Songs was also on the Our Voices triple bill in 2023. Soprano Madeleine Pierard returns to perform the valedictory songs that Richard Strauss composed at the age of eighty-four in 1948. Standing in a midnight blue dress outside the proscenium arch, the singer shows an occasional awareness of the dancers through a gesture of an arm, or the exchange of a significant look with one who comes near. The stage itself is a background cloudscape in black and white, above a canopy of what resembles concrete.
Clothed to look naked, the dancers gather and disperse under the canopy; the men (Daniel McCormick in particular) more expressive than the women, whose job is largely to be lifted and carried (at which Sangeun Lee excels), lifted and tossed. ‘I believe in beauty,’ David Dawson says in the programme notes. ‘I try to offer that to the world in the ultimate way.’ A cold beauty, perhaps, rather underlit, given warmth by the dancers, the voice of the soprano, and the music.
John O’Dwyer
Featured Image: ENB’s dancers performing Balanchine’s Theme and Variations © Photography by ASH
Theme and Variations
Choreography – George Balanchine
Music – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Design – Roberta Guidi di Bagno
Dancers – Alice Mariani, Ricardo Castellanos, Precious Adams, Jung ah Choi, Ashley Coupal, Hatice Çağla Ertürk, Martinho Santos, Ken Saruhashi, Eric Snyder, Lorenzo Trossello, Artists of the Company
Errand into the Maze
Choreography, Costume design – Martha Graham
Music – Gian Carlo Menotti
Set – Isamu Noguchi
Dancers – Emily Suzuki (The Woman), Rentaro Nakaaki (The Creature of Fear)
Herman Schmerman (Quintet)
Choreography, Stage design, Costume design – William Forsythe
Music – Thom Willems
Dancers – Aitor Arrieta, Alice Bellini, Carolyne Galvao, Swanice Luong, Rhys Antoni Williams
Four Last Songs
Choreography – David Dawson
Music – Richard Strauss
Libretto – Hermann Hesse/Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff
Design – Eno Henze
Costume design – Yumiko Takeshima
Soprano – Madeleine Pierard
Dancers – Sangeun Lee, Emma Hawes, Katja Khaniukova, Minju Kang, Precious Adams, Angela Wood, Daniel McCormick, Aitor Arrieta, Gareth Haw, Lorenzo Trossello, Rhys Antoni Yeomans, Martinho Santos