Up Close
Up Close
Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline
Mary Brennan
From now until the end of October, audiences all across Scotland, from Stranraer to Kirkwall, will have the chance to get Up Close with Scottish Ballet.
On this kind of whistle-stop tour, the emphasis is on a no frills, no fuss package of full-on dance.
Mind you, the lively costumes for Elite Syncopations provide plenty of razzle-dazzle to match the slickly witty footwork that ends the evening on a frisky high.
The first half of the programme is a showcase of short works by "new voices", either choreographers who are new to the company or who are just emerging centre-stage on the dance scene. Some pieces were first seen, at very close quarters, during Scottish Ballet's Dance Odysseys at the Edinburgh International Festival 2013.
Back then, the force-field of proximity gave a specific intensity to duets like Trace (Helen Pickett) or Jealousy (James Cousins). Now, at a slight remove, it's actually easier to appreciate the crafted tensions in the choreography, or take on board how Cousins pinpoints the controlling element in Jealousy by marooning his couple - danced here by Nathalie Dupouy and Lewis Landini - on a small, red-lit square where the Man never once lets her feet touch the ground. The intentions within a touch - and the emotional, as well as the physical impact of distance - are potently explored in Hope Muir's Broken Ice with Luciana Ravizzi and Victor Zarallo.
The sharp, edgy energy of Martin Lawrance's Dark Full Ride kind of predicts the post-interval fireworks of MacMillan's quirky-jazzy Elite Syncopations, where heels are kicked up to Joplin's piano rags with crowd-pleasing humour.
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