Time blunts the radical. Yet when Stravinsky’s Les Noces sounds across the elegantly transfigured spaces of a former fireworks factory in Woolwich, it rings as shockingly original as it did on its premiere in 1923. Giselle, with Adolphe Adam’s tinkling score wafting across the London Coliseum’s gilded auditorium, not so much.
Mary Skeaping’s 1971 production of this great Romantic ballet for English National Ballet, however, has the merit of reminding us just why, in 1841, it too was full of the shock of the new. A story about the exploitation of the lower classes; an eerie supernatural second act; a heroine dancing on pointe shoes, light as a feather, seeming to materialise out of the air; a ballerina taking centre stage for the first time.
It remains a glorious sight, and ENB dance it with loving care. The second act is a wonder of chiaroscuro, shafts of light (courtesy of David Mohr’s lighting design) dappling the skirts of the ghostly Wilis as they pursue hapless men to their deaths; the corps de ballet bring both menace and a graceful uniformity to the scene.
As Giselle, Ukrainian first soloist Katja Khaniukova performs with striking truthfulness. There’s a clip of her on YouTube being coached by Alessandra Ferri, one of the great Giselles, and that learning is reflected in the clarity and directness of the first act, when this girl who lives to dance heartbreakingly dies of a broken heart. In the second, when she returns as a ghost, it’s her honesty that carries her through; you believe this is a woman who would want to save Aitor Arrieta’s remorseful, noble Albrecht.
Fabian Reimair makes a notably tortured Hilarion, Albrecht’s rival, whose jealousy precipitates the tragedy; it’s nice to see him played as a disappointed man in love rather than a meddling baddie. Alison McWhinney is a chilly Myrtha, imperious queen of the Wilis.
Woolwich Works is a happening artistic development in a changing part of London, home to Carlos Acosta’s Dance Centre and Punchdrunk theatre’s base. At the Fireworks Factory, the New Movement Collective, a group of enterprising contemporary dancers, many of whom have worked with Rambert, presented an ambitious hour-long bill built around Stravinsky’s Les Noces (originally choreographed by Nijinska).
It’s extraordinary how this 100-year old piece still sounds more revolutionary than the new music with which it’s surrounded here. Les Noces: The Departure is jointly choreographed by its performers and features new compositions from Andrea Balency-Béarn and Yshani Perinpanayagam. The first contains resounding bells and fiercely plucked piano strings; the second is a setting of John Cage’s love letters to Merce Cunningham, communicatively sung by baritone Ross Ramgobin, accompanied on piano by Perinpanayagam, who is also music director and conductor for the night.
The main event, in Stravinsky’s original version for four pianos, percussion, a choir and four soloists, is compellingly played by musicians from the Royal College of Music, with the chorus of Opera Holland Park. When soprano April Koyejo-Audiger sings the opening bars – “Listen” – from the midst of the gathered dancers at the centre of a long catwalk of a stage, there’s a thrilling sense of anticipation.
If the new choreography never quite matches the challenge of the music, it’s attractive enough, unfolding through groupings of sharply angled arms and curved backs; the dancers alternately supporting one another and breaking away, suggesting a community at one and at war. Clothes are knotted together to hold an individual aloft or to suggest a bridal veil.
It’s interesting but not quite dynamic enough, a thought rather than a propulsion. The evening, gently braided together like the bride’s plait, ends with Chameleon Youth from Manchester moving to MC Zani’s Rhythmic Resurgence, a response to Stravinsky’s rhythm through the mouth of beatboxer Jack Hobbs. The whole thing makes for an adventurous entertainment.
Star ratings (out of five)
Giselle ★★★★
Les Noces: The Departure ★★★
