When Philippe Decouflé first introduced the idea of sheer fun into the deadly serious business of postmodern dance-making, sceptics predicted that his comic strip and animated movie-like ideas would soon start to wear off. Almost 30 years later, his stuff is still as provocatively entertaining, and his work holds a special place in the history of choreography.
Panorama is a cleverly woven look at some of his past and much-acclaimed creations. Yet the performance has very little in common with trendy, pompously celebratory and unbearably lifeless choreographic retrospectives. Structured as a sort of music-hall review and compèred like one by the most unlikely of MCs, Panoroma is a kaleidoscope of choreographic and theatrical ideas that amuse, intrigue and captivate. True, nothing is terribly new, but it is the sparklingly humorous and tongue-in cheek way everything is presented that makes the evening flow and take off. Viewers are transported to a fantasy world where the quirkiness of a hilarious shadow play and of a dance-free rendition of ‘Hernando’s Hideaway’ combine with moments of lyrical inventiveness, as in the case of a splendid spiralling solo. A unique whiff of Frenchness lingers, and one expects a grotesque Toulouse-Lautrec cancan girl to appear at any moment (after all, Decouflé choreographed the current review at the Parisian Crazy Horse). Central to the success of the 90-minute-long performance is the bravura of the Compagnie DCA artists, in whose hands good old fun never ages.
Although ‘fun’ is not one of the qualities of the latest Royal Ballet triple bill, the programme is a damn good one, as it presents three different, though complementary, takes on modern ballet-making. I am glad to report that the much-awaited London première of Liam Scarlett’s Viscera is anything but a letdown, and confirms his rapid rise as a trendsetting dance-maker who is well worth seeing.
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