January 26, 2009
Every artform has its equivalent to plain white rice – cheap, necessary to bulk out the meal and a bore to consume on its own. For every fine painting, there’s a thousand splashy abstracts on the walls of hip cafes. For every great novel, there’s a shelf-full of broken childhoods, period costumes and frustrated love affairs. For every episode of The Wire there’s twenty of CSI: Miami.
Modern ballet’s own stodge is harder to describe, but instantly recognisable to anyone who’s suffered it more than once. The bare stage. The oatmeal judo kit. The aimlessly creepy electronica. The polite writhing. The emptily impressive acrobatics. All of this, and sadly not a great deal more, comprised what I really hope wasn’t the Ballet Boyz’ Greatest Hits.
The only major departure was the apparently ‘trademark’ backstage and tour footage that preceded each piece. This was amateurish, unamusing filler – credit-crunch aware readers may wish to know that for their twenty-plus quid they will be getting forty or so minutes of actual dance, about two thirds of which is performed by the Ballet Boyz themselves.
The piece that comprised the first half, ‘Broken Fall’, was an unengaging twenty minute trio which seemed to repeat the same four or five sets of moves again and again as the music boomed, clunked and twiddled on behind it. At some point a drumbeat was introduced, and they did it all slightly faster. Things only got interesting when one of the performers was left to her own devices for an all too short closing solo. Her jerky, sudden movements hinted for the first time at actual feeling rather than mere technical proficiency.
Things became slightly more interesting in the second half. ‘Edox’ exchanged flash for subtlety and was all the better for it. There was a moment at the heart of the least conventional piece, the duo ‘Propeller’, where Oxana Panchenko, standing on top of her partner, performed with dramatic, intimate minimalism – but ultimately many of the same tricks were on display.
The best, such as it was, had been saved for last. ‘Yumba vs Nonino’ was a part-ballroom concoction, complete with staged fist-fight, choreographed to traditional tango music by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood. Perhaps because the dancers had been pushed to consider a new way of moving we began to see evening’s first flashes of wit, interest and drama, just as it was about to end.
Modern ballet’s own stodge is harder to describe, but instantly recognisable to anyone who’s suffered it more than once. The bare stage. The oatmeal judo kit. The aimlessly creepy electronica. The polite writhing. The emptily impressive acrobatics. All of this, and sadly not a great deal more, comprised what I really hope wasn’t the Ballet Boyz’ Greatest Hits.
The only major departure was the apparently ‘trademark’ backstage and tour footage that preceded each piece. This was amateurish, unamusing filler – credit-crunch aware readers may wish to know that for their twenty-plus quid they will be getting forty or so minutes of actual dance, about two thirds of which is performed by the Ballet Boyz themselves.
The piece that comprised the first half, ‘Broken Fall’, was an unengaging twenty minute trio which seemed to repeat the same four or five sets of moves again and again as the music boomed, clunked and twiddled on behind it. At some point a drumbeat was introduced, and they did it all slightly faster. Things only got interesting when one of the performers was left to her own devices for an all too short closing solo. Her jerky, sudden movements hinted for the first time at actual feeling rather than mere technical proficiency.
Things became slightly more interesting in the second half. ‘Edox’ exchanged flash for subtlety and was all the better for it. There was a moment at the heart of the least conventional piece, the duo ‘Propeller’, where Oxana Panchenko, standing on top of her partner, performed with dramatic, intimate minimalism – but ultimately many of the same tricks were on display.
The best, such as it was, had been saved for last. ‘Yumba vs Nonino’ was a part-ballroom concoction, complete with staged fist-fight, choreographed to traditional tango music by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood. Perhaps because the dancers had been pushed to consider a new way of moving we began to see evening’s first flashes of wit, interest and drama, just as it was about to end.