A farrago of Blakean mysticism and steampunk twaddle: BalletBoyz’s England on Fire, at Sadler’s Wells, reviewed

It’s nearly a quarter of a century since Michael Nunn and William Trevitt bravely left their safe haven at the Royal Ballet to set up BalletBoyz, a company aimed at developing the underused potential of male dancers and exploiting Nunn and Trevitt’s passion for film technology. At the time this seemed like a useful mission – stereotypes and prejudices lingered around men in tights, and the formats for smaller dance companies needed loosening up.

One measure of BalletBoyz’s subsequent success is that so many of their experiments have been incorporated into the mainstream, and the enterprise no longer seems as edgy or necessary as it did. Look at any major company today and it is likely to be stronger on the male front than the female: the impact of BalletBoyz, coinciding with the popularity of Billy Elliot and Matthew Bourne’s gender-swapped Swan Lake, has made dance a profession that even the most dinosauric of reactionary dads would be happy for his son to enter (well, almost).