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I saw both performances of this double bill yesterday. I really enjoyed Rosie Kay's reinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet for the modern knife-crime age. It was full of life and the dance movements incorporated hip hop and contemporary. The set consisted of what looked like giant tv ariels and satellite dishes. The lighting was excellent - the stage was dark but you could see all the dancers. There was a gorgeous duet in the middle of the piece for Juliet and Romeo, full of the tenderness and yearning of youth. Fabulous! After the interval we finally got to see Birmingham Royal Ballet performing Edward Clug's Radio and Juliet. The seven dancers (one cast for all 4 performances) were, without exception, absolutely fabulous. Some of the choreography for the men's ensemble was great. Again there was a lovely duet for Juliet and one of the Romeos (Yaoqian Shang and Tyrone Singleton). The music was by Radiohead. Sadly despite the abundance of talent on stage it felt a bit flat for me compared to the vivacity of the preceding Rosie Kay piece. This was an interesting programme but if I am booking for Birmingham Royal Ballet I am sorry but I would like to see more of them and less of guest companies. (Rosie Kay - 75 mins vs BRB 55 mins). The last 2 weeks were an intriguing idea of presenting 3 different Romeo and Juliets but I think it was only partially successful. I await with interest to see what is programmed beyond Don Quixote in 2022.

Edward Watson is appearing in a triple bill at the Coliseum on 7th and 8th December 2019. He is dancing in a world premiere by Wayne McGregor with Olga Smirnova: https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/A-Thrilling-Triple-Bill-Comes-To-The-London-Coliseum-20191108 The programme also includes Radio and Juliet and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Faun.

This mixed programme premiered last Thursday, inspired by the 100th anniversaries of both the creation of the Bauhaus and the events surrounding the adoption of the Weimar Constitution. Katarzyna Kozielska’s piece IT.Floppy.Rabbit draws on designs created by artists at the Bauhaus. The lamp designed by Wilhelm Wagenfeld is depicted through a white, semi-translucent lamp shade with a dancer in shiny black as lampstand underneath who does lots of bourrees. A dancer crawls along the floor, moving towards the lamp (a metaphor for searching and finding the iconic design?). A PDD makes use a Bauhaus design for a cloth, the performing couple is linked by the fabric, making for intriguing choreography. A video shows a figure from Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet being drawn. Other than the initial solo, lots of PDD and dancing in groups, with female dancers on pointe. Costumes and hairstyles are inspired by those at the time, too – bobs for the female dancers and identical tight tops & shiny shorts which are tight at the waist and pretty wide at the legs. The music is rhythmic, pulsating a well as soft with strings and percussion. The piece ends with lots of small lamps lit behind a semi-transparent screen (an indication that the Bauhaus has been fully established & the designs have been made widely available?). The introductory talk explained that Edward Clug got inspired for his work Patterns in 3/4 by paintings created at the Bauhaus. The work is design oriented and playful. Tall light grey movable structures that look like the mirror image of the letter “L” illustrate what I think are the bottom right hand corners of window frames (a plant is put on one of them later on). Lots of arm swinging in front of the body in combination with (quarter) turns each. A dancer moves one of those small red push birds that are designed to help toddlers learn to walk across the stage. Heads bob along the lower part of the window frames. Dancers wear identical black pants and white shirts with a red line along the spine, female dancers in ballet flats this time. The music in three-four time (hence the title of the work) incudes Steve Reich’s Tokyo/ Vermont Counterpoint (so that was a good dose of music by Steve Reich at the weekend, I don’t hope it’ll be before long that I’ll have that pleasure again). If the first two pieces referred to the Bauhaus, Revolt by Nanine Linning took its inspiration from the tumultuous times surrounding the adoption of the Weimar Constitution. The choreography portrays how protest movements, based on the right to free speech, arise and develop, starting with the activities of individuals who then carry others with them (while still others initially walk past without paying attention) to form groups that then increase in size. Movements just as the music pulsating, moving forward, combative. Again the same costumes for female and male dancers, in shades of blue, with face masks towards the end, and no shoes this time. I found this programme convincing in a number of ways - based on historical events, the link to another art form, the clear and straightforward stage designs, the identical costumes for female and male dancers, the fact that most of the choreography doesn't reflect the dancer's positions in the company, and that there lots of members of the corps on stage. So the programme was really interesting, and it was also positively life affirming. Thinking about the works that I had seen – in Stuttgart and elsewhere – over the previous months, I had started to wonder where the sparkle had gone. This programme has shown that it is still there and very much a matter of choreographic styles and musical choices. Fingers crossed for tickets for performances of this programme towards the end of this season. Link to pictures https://www.swr.de/swr2/kultur-info/ballett-abend-aufbruch-in-stuttgart-ueber-100-jahre-bauhaus-und-weimarer-verfassung/-/id=9597116/did=23750942/nid=9597116/1hhyjbj/index.html Link to extracts from the three works https://www.swr.de/kunscht/ballett-aufbruch/-/id=12539036/did=23431918/nid=12539036/30wbqs/index.html

I saw the new triple bill „Night pieces“ on Tuesday evening. It was also a great opportunity to meet Angela before the performance, to put a face to a name and catch up on ballet and things. J Edward Clug’s Ssss… provides the atmosphere of a quiet late-night bar – a pianist playing Nocturnes by Chopin live on stage, lots of empty low chairs, a few guests/ dancers sitting on some of them. All dressed in midnight blue, the dancers in loose smart clothing and the pianist in a beautiful long evening dress. The piece depicts a number of temporary relationships, focussing on (the following all my own interpretation) isolation and yearning (e.g., a long introductory solo), keeping someone at a distance (e.g., a female dancer stretching out one foot at 90 degrees in front of her), attraction/ holding on to someone/ not letting go (e.g., a male dancer holding the ankle of that foot, or lying on the floor and holding on to the ankle of a female dancer standing next to him), a relationship triangle where two male dancers struggle over the same woman, with her getting bored about it, etc. The relationships don’t hold – at the end of a Nocturne, a dancer either goes off stage or back to one of the chairs. I really enjoyed this piece and its calm, contemplative atmosphere, and in fact much more than when I saw it for the first time, back in 2013. Qi by Louis Stiens stands for atmosphere/ breath/ energy and was premiered last Friday. Reading the programme notes, the link to the term “night” stems from the calmness, depth and creativity that night-time brings. Also, the clothing is elegant black sleepwear. The choreography alternates between solos/ duos and group scenes, in particular the latter with smooth/ round and synchronised movements, especially for the arms. The music is electronic at the start and very end (which is also where movements are a lot more angular and hectic) with a long phase of music by baroque composer Schmelzer in-between. I really liked the choreography to Schmelzer, being soft, melodic and rather hypnotising in its parts for the larger group. There were lots of loud and prolonged cheers for the dancers. Jiri Kylian’s Falling Angels also had music live on stage and was simply stunning. The all-female cast walks towards the front of the stage in slow motion. One dancer after the other, they start to dance to the rhythm of the drums (the first part from Steve Reich’s Drumming). From time to time, one or two of the dancers break out from the group to perform a variation and then go back into the group with its synchronised movements. The movements come with an amazing creativity – different ways of walking, turning one’s head, flexing one's arms, pulling one’s costume, lying supine on the floor and raising one's upper body and legs as in a fitness routine, … and many more. None of the dancers leave the stage, and they all dance non-stop from start to end. Kudos to the dancers for their stamina and memory. The applause erupted like lava from a volcano last night. I had hesitated for a long time before I bought a ticket for the triple bill, thinking that it might be too contemporary for me. I would have missed out on a great evening. There is a photo gallery from the triple bill on the company’s web site https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/night-pieces/images/.