Context unbecoming

Mariinsky Ballet
Sadler’s Wells



Tiago Guedes: Various Materials
The Place: Robin Howard Dance Theatre

I know I am not alone in thinking that an all-Forsythe programme was not an ideal choice for the Mariinsky Ballet’s opening night in London. As the man who dared successfully to manipulate ballet’s centuries’ old principles, William Forsythe is regarded by many as the initiator of a long-awaited and much-needed artistic revolution. It is no surprise, therefore, that a few years back he was invited to stage his most controversial creations for the Kirov Ballet — which is how the Mariinsky Ballet was formerly known — as part of a modernisation campaign aimed at shedding the long-held image of the quintessentially traditionalist ballet company. Whether last week’s performance was also meant to be read as a statement of drastic renewal is difficult to say, though, for the dancers looked awkward and uncomfortable in what came across as an artistically unbecoming context for them.

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Gavin Mortimer

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Things went pear-shaped from the very beginning. Steptext, the manifesto of Forsythe’s challenge to the well-affirmed conventions of ballet-making and ballet-watching, looked unbelievably dull. Yet all the well-known provocative sensory stunts — lights that flood the entire auditorium when people expect to enjoy the ballet in semi-darkness, dancers that intentionally disappear from the viewer’s visual field, arbitrary use of Bach’s Chaconne etc. — as well as all of the choreographic innovations — asymmetrical ideas and quirkily off-balance acrobatics mixed with pedestrian actions — were there, duly performed on cue.

In my view, the overall flatness of the performance stemmed from both a lack of technical strength and a lack of interpretative drive on the dancers’ part. None of the artists seemed to have the technical prowess that all Forsythe’s ballets, and this one in particular, call for.