✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Dance

Modern Masters, English National Ballet at Sadler's Wells ★★★★★

10 Mar 15 – 15 Mar 15, Also at 14:30 on the 12th and 14th. No 19:30 performance on the 15th

Tried & Tested: English National Ballet prove themselves masters of modern choreography in a programme celebrating three of its greatest creators.

By CW Contributor on 29/11/2014

3 CW readers are interested
Ksenia Osvyanick and James Forbat in Petite Mort, (c) David Jenso
Ksenia Osvyanick and James Forbat in Petite Mort, (c) David Jenso
Modern Masters, English National Ballet at Sadler's Wells 4 Modern Masters, English National Ballet at Sadler's Wells Ruth Mattock
Culture Whisper says... ★★★★★


If this first performance of the new English National Ballet/Sadler’s Wells partnership is anything to go by, Artistic Director Tamara Rojo has made a clever decision in bringing her dancers to the new, open-minded audience of the North London dance house. It is a treat and a half to see the likes of lead principal Alina Cojucaru and Rojo herself at such close quarters, in all their sinewy glory.
Each a milestone in the evolution of contemporary ballet, the evening’s works form a programme it’s difficult to argue with. The careers of Jiří Kylián, John Neumeier and William Forsythe have made a vital contribution to the development of contemporary dance, and ENB’s powerful performance does them justice.
Petite Mort, Jiří Kylián
Drawing on the Freudian link between love and death, Jiří Kylián created Petite Mort, ‘Small Death', a piece where everything plays against its opposite. Six men dance opposite six women. The male dancers balance fencing blades on their fingers, while the female dancers float behind exaggerated, wooden black gowns. An entire cast vanishes beneath a sheet of black, only to reappear in their Gaultier-like, boned undergarments, the barest unisex cover.
To the soft and instantly recognisable melodies of Mozart’s Piano Concerti in A Major - Adagio, and C Major - Andante, Kylián laces this balance of sex and death with rare elegance. Every note is taken up with trailing arches of limb and body, and little ecstasies of feet and hands.
As the piece splinters into duets, every dancer is a curved and sinuous triumph (although in the first night cast I found it hard not to pick out the lovely Tamara Rojo) and the audience was captured from the start.
Spring and Fall, John Neumeier
As ENB pushes forward its reputation for modernity, they add the claim of being the first UK company to take Spring and Fal into their repertory, making this a UK premiere. But, like Kylián, Neumeier is a classic of modern dance. Spring and Fall edges away from traditional ballet: palms flatten and parallel arms are straight and strong, but this note of change is rung against a lyrical background of pointe shoes and pliés.
Danced in loose white, there’s a hint of cyclic, seasonal change. A gentle pas de deux plays out a courtship and the corps gather with a sense of community to Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings in E Major.
While the piece is without plot, Neumeier is a story-teller, and first cast lead Alina Cojucaru draws out a winsome sense of drama. It’s a piece that has infinite respect for the traditions it slips away from, and the ENB dancers capture both tradition and innovation naturally.
In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, William Forsythe
This is an evening of superlative dance, but the final work was utterly flooring, and the audience were barely able to restrain their cheers until the curtain dropped.
Nine dancers of Nureyev’s Paris Opera Ballet, Sylvie Guillem among them, brought this radical departure from classical ballet to a bare stage in 1987. Guillem’s long limbs and hyperextension are remembered as the ultimate performance of this work, but the smaller dancers of the ENB bred a new, compact and cocksure swagger into the movements.
Petite Mort revealed some variation in the dancers’ musicality, but any untidiness was banished here, every dancer striking against the rigid rhythm of Thom Willems’ score with force and precision. They dance with spectacular, aggressive athleticism, but never without supreme control.
If Spring and Fall innovates quietly, American deconstructionist Forsythe throws tradition into the air and juggles it. ENB pull off every taught bend and lithe kick with slick assurance: a breath-catching addition to the repertory.
This is likely to be some of the best contemporary ballet London will see in 2015, so ballet-lovers should not miss it.


What Modern Masters, English National Ballet at Sadler's Wells
Where Sadler's Wells, Roseberry Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN | MAP
Nearest tube Angel (underground)
When 10 Mar 15 – 15 Mar 15, Also at 14:30 on the 12th and 14th. No 19:30 performance on the 15th
Price £12-45
Website Click here to book via the Sadler's Wells website



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 24th - 26th June
Things to do in London this weekend: 24th - 26th June
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022
London's loveliest indoor swimming pools
London swimming pools you can visit without membership

A little more

  • John Neumeier Interview

    The choreographer in an interview with Timeout:

    You’ve said in describing the essence of dramatic ballet, “There’s no point in a story that is told artfully but that doesn’t reach the heart.” As a choreographer how do you reach the heart?

    First of all, no story you tell in a ballet is the story. If I am doing a play by Shakespeare, if I’m doing Othello, the ballet that I do is not Othello. It cannot be because those are words. That is great literature. You have to feel what touches you. I could never try to do characters that I read about, or had the book next to me like a recipe book and say, “Okay, now he does this or he does that.” 

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Petite Mort

We recommend nearby

  • Sushi Tetsu

    Feast on top-notch sushi, sashimi and udon at the sophisticated Sushi Tetsu. This tiny shrine to the best of Japanese food has only half a dozen seats at the counter, so advanced booking is definitely necessary.

    Read more...
    Book Map
3

Sadler's Wells

English National Ballet

Tamara Rojo

William Forsythe

John Neumeier

Jiří Kylián

Alina Cojucaru

Sold Out

You might like

  • Mikhail Baryshnikov - Untitled #20 2008 print on canson, Contini Art UK

    Mikhail Baryshnikov, Contini Art UK

  • Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Ahnen and Auf Den Gebirge Hat Man Ein Schrei Gehört

    Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Ahnen and Auf Den Gebirge Hat Man Ein Schrei Gehört

  • Sylvie Guillem, photo by Lesley Leslie-Spinks

    Sylvie Guillem’s Farewell tour: ‘Life in Progress’, Sadler’s Wells

  • Babelle Canelés, Fortnum & Mason

    Babelle Canelés, Fortnum & Mason



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×