Northern Ballet - Three Short Ballets

With Northern Ballet’s Three Short Ballets series, the audience is treated to an evening of dance that incorporates a broad range of styles.

Arriving late to the theatre, I had no time to read the programme before the first half, meaning that I had no idea what to expect. I usually prefer to be a bit better-informed before a performance, but going in completely clueless has its benefits. Not knowing anything about the performances beforehand let me create meanings of my own, rather than being influenced by other people’s ideas and objectives.

The first piece, Four Last Songs, presented a series of melancholic pas de deux with couples costumed in colours that seemed to me to represent the changing of the seasons. In Rudi van Dantzig’s 1977 classic, each couple is introduced by a solo figure who commands respect as the couples enter and exit under his guidance. This figure’s authority over the couples is powerful yet gentle and he could have represented nature, the earth, love, or a god - in the programme he is named as an angel - and at the end of each piece, he calls the dancers back to himself before leading them offstage. Performed to songs by Strauss, the soft german sibilance of the vocals creates a soothing soundtrack for choreography that was fluid and luscious. It’s so easy to overlook the strength and power required by every dancer as their bodies appear to move effortlessly around each other, and our ability to forget that is testament to the skill of Northern Ballet’s dancers. Four Last Songs is described as ‘a breathtaking expression of love, loss and the human experience’, and even without reading it in the programme before watching it, these themes were clearly evident.

The standout piece for me was Victory Dance. The shortest dance in the triple bill, this inclusive performance was brimming with joy. Choreographed by The Royal Ballet’s Principal Character Artist, Kirsten McNally, and set to Ezra Collective’s joyful Latin American soundtrack, two NB dancers, Kevin Poeung and Yu Wakizuka, partnered with guest artist Joseph Powell-Main in a thrilling ride. The driving rhythm of the music powered the dancers' exuberant celebration of life, and the chemistry between the three was palpable. The choreography allows the dancers to be fully themselves and my enjoyment of it was fueled by the fun all three dancers were clearly having on stage. This piece isn’t what you’d normally consider to be ballet, but it’s even more compelling because it’s so unexpected in a ballet repertoire.

Inspired by R.L. Peteni's novel Hill of Fools, the final performance of the evening was Mthuthuzeli November’s Fools - a familiar Romeo & Juliet-style tale of young lovers caught in the crossfire of family feuds in a South African township. Though short, this is fully-formed story-telling, complete with fantastic set design and costumes. The stars of the story were Sarah Chun and Harris Beattie who expressed all the hopeful naivety of love-struck youth. However, with music and choreography infused with African rhythms and movement, the scenes where the whole cast danced together as they partied the night away really shone. November’s choreography celebrates people’s inherent capacity for love and laughter, but it stands in stark contrast to the anger and violence that surfaces so quickly when a threat is perceived. This tale may be hundreds of years old, but it never loses its relevance to the world in which we live.

With such a varied programme, Northern Ballet’s Three Short Ballets is a brilliant way to explore dance and all it offers to its audiences, whether you’ve seen everything NB has ever produced or you’re a complete newcomer to ballet. It’s on at Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre until the 14th September, but if you miss it, you can catch it at the Linbury Theatre, London in January.

Sarah Chun in Fools. Photo Emily Nuttall©

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