Dancers don’t just pay tribute to the past, they can inhabit it. In this solo(ish) triple bill, Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova steps into the shoes of two great female icons of modern dance, Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan, perhaps absorbing some of their pioneering spirit along the way.
In Graham’s Errand Into the Maze, Osipova is quelling demons – explicitly Marcelino Sambé’s Minotaur, but inner ones too – with the power of her mighty ankle-to-ear kicks. It is a dance of strength and sharp accents, geometry and gravity, and Osipova’s character simmers with power as well as trepidation. Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan is a homage by Frederick Ashton, presented here in a new film by Grigory Dobrygin, spiritedly shot and beautifully lit. A handheld camera chases Osipova under a flowing chiffon scarf, capturing her giddiness and wild freedom while closeup detail sees the vulnerability at heart. The voluptuousness of the movement is womanly but there’s a childlike quality too, in its abandon and in the certainty of one’s own presence at the centre of the world. It’s a film that does the ballet justice.
