United Kingdom English Nationwide Ballet’s The Forsythe Programme: Dancers of English Nationwide Ballet. Sadler’s Wells, London, 10.4.2025. (JO’D)
Rearray (London Version 2025)
Choreography – William Forsythe
Costume design – Dorothee Merg
Music – David Morrow
Lighting design – Tanja Rühl
Dancers – Sangeun Lee, Henry Dowden, Rentaro Nakaaki
Herman Schmerman (Quintet)
Choreography and Costume design – William Forsythe
Music – Thom Willems
Lighting design – Tanja Rühl
Dancers – Aitor Arrieta, Alice Bellini, Ivana Bueno, Francesco Gabriele Frola, Swanice Luong
Playlist (EP)
Choreography and Costume design – William Forsythe
Music – Peven Everett, ABRA, Khalid, Barry White, Natalie Cole
Lighting design – Tanja Rühl
Dancers – Aitor Arrieta, Henry Dowden, Noam Durand, Shunhei Fuchiyama, Giorgio Garrett, Gareth Haw, Nathaniel Ritter-Magot, Ken Saruhashi, Thiago Silva, Eric Snyder, Erik Woolhouse, Rhys Antoni Yeomans, Junor Souza, Shiori Kase, Anri Segura, Emily Suzuki, Alice Bellini, Georgia Bould, Ivana Bueno, Swanice Luong, Treasured Adams, Haruhi Otani, Artists of the Compnay
Beginning with the muted colors and intimacy of Rearray (London Version 2025), ending with the brilliant blues and pinks of the large-scale, joyous Playlist (EP), English Nationwide Ballet’s The Forsythe Programme presents work by choreographer William Forsythe from three levels of his profession.
The unique Rearray was created for Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas Le Riche in 2011. Right here, it’s a work for 2 males and a girl; a piece wherein nothing may be taken without any consideration. Not motion: it opens with the pointe-shoed feminine dancer, Sangeun Lee, in static profile on the stage. Not the recorded music by David Morrow: at occasions the dancers transfer to silence, or to the sound of their very own breath. Not lighting: there are moments when the stage is all of a sudden plunged into darkness.
The costumes cowl the dancers’ legs and torsos, leaving solely their arms naked. The piece turns into a research in higher limbs catching the sunshine as they sweep, bend and hyperlink in opposition to a black backdrop. The whipcord arms of Sangeun Lee go well with this choreography properly. And when, in direction of the tip, she rises on pointe, centre-stage, Henry Dowden and Rentaro Nakaaki sit both facet of her: attendants whose arms transfer softly as if in silent homage.
The origins of Herman Schmerman (Quintet), the work that follows, return to 1992. The choreographer’s second fee for New York Metropolis Ballet, with situations that its 5 dancers put on leotard costumes and carry out on a naked stage. The leotards (calf-length physique fits for the 2 male dancers) are of what seems like orange-red velvet. In brighter gentle, in opposition to a backdrop of pale blue, the dancers transfer with velocity and pressure to Thom Willems’s digital rating. Decrease and higher limbs are each very a lot in play.
Balanchine is there within the flexed fingers and ‘neo-classical’ steps. William Forsythe provides his personal overlapping configurations, his exits and entrances (the ‘Forsythe strut’), his elevated velocity, his shock ending. On this opening evening, although, it appears there needs to be extra pressure, extra velocity. Did one thing go incorrect firstly? Is that why somebody within the stalls set free a loud snicker? For no matter motive, it isn’t till Aitor Arrieta performs his solo midway by means of (and maybe solely then), that the piece actually involves life.
The curtain went up on Playlist (EP) as folks have been nonetheless discovering their seats after the interval. This didn’t matter. A thrill ran by means of the cheering viewers on the sight of twelve, male, dancer-athletes, dancer-jocks, in pink and blue, ready to start their dance. This part of the piece was created on the boys of English Nationwide Ballet in 2018. It belongs to them. It belongs to Sadler’s Wells. ‘I’m a local ballet speaker,’ William Forsythe advised dance author Sarah Compton in an interview that yr. To Peven Everett’s Absolutely Shorty these males might hunker, like athletes, however additionally they execute shunt hops in arabesque.
In subsequent sections Playlist (EP) showcases the women and men of the corporate at their exuberant greatest: Shiori Kase (holding a place for a second or two longer than you may count on); Francesco Gabriele Frola (his pirouette); Ivana Bueno (discovering the facility and certainty that appeared to elude her within the second work of the night). However when everyone seems to be on stage within the penultimate part – males, ladies, principals, artists – there’s a type of poignancy, too. Because the recording of Barry White’s Sha La La Means I Love You involves an finish, the dancers begin to stroll slowly on demi-pointe, arms en couronne. They’re nonetheless strolling, every on their very own trajectory, because the lights fade on Natalie Cole’s This Will Be (An Eternal Love).
John O’Dwyer
Featured Picture: English Nationwide Ballet dancers performing William Forsythe’s Herman Schmerman © Images by ASH
