Three national companies present three very different new works as the UK's dance-makers carry a torch for the spirit of the London 2012 Olympics.
Our own home team, Scottish Ballet, open this triple bill on a high with Run For It, a brilliantly dynamic abstraction of athletic endeavour, stamina and prowess imaginatively choreographed by Martin Lawrance to a seethingly rhymthic score by John Adams and strikingly staged under a canopy of metallic fins designed by Turner Prize-winner Martin Boyce.
At first, the canopy (with its off-centre Doric column) suggests a tree, but when a red glow plays over the 'foliage', this sculptural installation is like a flaring Olympic torch. Lawrance's richly-textured movement answers those images with a stirring mix of sharply-etched angularities and curving sinuosity – both sit well with the geometric cut of Boyce's work. And yes, there are echoes of ancient and modern track and field in the way the dancers' limbs cut and thrust, or bodies leap, whirl or soar upwards in high lifts. But Lawrance has an elegant touch and the dancers simply revel in the challenging details of his duets and ensembles.
Christopher Bruce's Dream, for National Dance Company Wales, makes the most obvious use of sporting motifs, but tweaks them deliciously into a witty, tender evocation of a 50s rural community where happy-go-lucky races morph into tit-bits of Olympic events to the tune of Ravel's Bolero. The clever humour, however, is a tribute to how ordinary folk – now, as then – embrace the romance and aspiration of the Games... even when hopping in a sack!
Itzik Galiili's And the Earth Shall Bear Again sends English National Ballet into dramatic realms of light and shadow, the dancers eddying in and out of formations to works for prepared piano by John Cage. A larger stage would serve his patternings better, but the sense of ritual and of cyclical energies – heightened by a painterly use of colour washes and focused beams – catches at how Olympics come and go, and are here again...
HHHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article