There’s something about Pam Tanowitz. A bright-edged clarity fills her works, illuminating the space around the steps, making you see movement just a little differently. It has taken the American choreographer, now 54, a long time to find the kind of success that sees her making work for companies such as New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet. But the waiting seems to have distilled her vision, giving it a rare beauty, wit and sense of purpose. She compels attention.
The Royal Ballet has to date commissioned three of her works, shown here in a programme – two live and one on film – that lasts just over an hour but feels full of riches. It opens with a new piece, Secret Things, to a score for string quartet by Anna Clyne. At the start, dancer Hannah Grennell saunters through the musicians, looking at them thoughtfully before she begins to turn, eyes searching a fixed point, at the start of a lengthy, intricate solo full of contrasts between the graceful movements of dance and more natural notes when feet flex or bodies flop.
