I am a regular ballet.co voyeur but have never posted before, however last nights triple bill at the Opera House persuaded me to take the plunge and appear from behind the bushes.
Polyphonia was a good start to the bill, well danced and nice to see Nehemiah Kish starting to prove himself on the Opera House Stage,( the women I have seen him dance with seem to relish dancing in his very safe hands.) Leanne Benjamin was absolutely incredible, the articulation of her movements and the understanding she has of her body is remarkable. There is never an unnecessary step or extra flourish, her intellect is evident in every move that she makes.
Sweet Violets was disappointing to say the least. Scarlett has some wonderful ways of creating movement which is natural and flowing, but it seemed like the dancers had a wonderful story to tell however it was going to be just there little secret. Reminded me in tone and choreographic mood of Flindt's The Lesson. There is a great talent in Scarlett but I am left feeling as though this particular project was beyond him right now in his choreographic experience and career.
Carbon Life wowed me in the first five minutes, the sequence after the gauze has been lifted with the company dancing a sort of modern tribute to Etudes was absolutely incredible, and it was so nice to see the dancers attacking the choreography with a fresh energy (something I haven't seen at the Opera House for a long time.) The other 30 mins plus i have to say was an absolute waste of time. It is great that McGregor has this opportunity to develop his interesting choreographic concepts, but the piece went nowhere. Even in modern cutting edge ballet there has to be an element of theatre and this was not in evidence after the thrilling section with all the dancers performing a robotic Cunningham like sequence that developed marvellously. The average age of the audience was very young last night but one felt the applause was very underwhelming for something that on paper had the ingredients to thrill.
What happened to the orchestra for Carbon Life? I kept looking for the orchestra pit to suddenly light up full of musicians.
