This is a review I hadn’t, initially, intended to write.
Some days prior to attending the performance I watched a run-through at the company’s studio in Kingston, southwest London. Guests sat in front of the wall-width mirror on hard chairs, feet tucked under as dancers in practice clothes hurtled past or skidded to within inches. Rehearsals are intimate, casual encounters.
The following week I attended a public performance at Sadler’s Wells. Costumed, with architectural lighting (mainly Andrew Ellis’s designs), and with music pumping through the sound system, each piece was transformed. From my far-off seat the same ten dancers became smaller figures, but choreographic patterns were easier to establish. It might have been less emotionally involving, yet wasn’t, with the production retaining its intimacy due to how it was framed.
It was only towards the end of the performance that I thought, oh, I wonder if Dance for You is covering this? The company deserves to be profiled… So here we are.
This review of Still Pointless: Balletboyz at 25 comes without reference to notes I would normally make during a performance, so think of it more of a mulling over the company’s achievements. Arlene Croce, American dance critic, once spoke of ‘After Images’, the impressions we retain after experiencing the ephemeral artform that is dance. My big take away from Still Pointless is the dancers – all of them outstanding in their different ways. My second take away is the generous spirit that emanated from stage to audience, that the audience returned.
Pointless was the title of the company’s debut production in 2001 so it is apt this production is titled as it is. Think of it as a celebration of still-performing, and (knowing how uncertain arts funding can be) of still being alive-and-kicking a quarter of a century on. So, hats off to founder artistic directors Michael Nunn and William Trevitt – they’re still around, still passionate about what they do, and… still dancing into their 50’s. Yeah, go older dancers! During the rehearsal I attended, the two of them were elsewhere finishing editing videos that feature in the show, but at Sadler’s Wells I was surprised and delighted to see ‘the boyz’ open the show with Critical Mass – the piece they’d first danced all those years back. It’s got a bit of history that work. When Russell Maliphant didn’t think they’d be up to it, they “borrowed” the DVD, learnt the piece then presented themselves to the choreographer with ( I imagine) a youthful, cocky “who says we can’t?” Persistence pays off.
Still Pointless is, in part, a retrospective showing work created over the company’s history, along with a new commission: a ‘favourite things’ kind of showcase. Sections of choreographic collaborations are performed by the current company of fabulous dancers whose steely spines can morph into melting jointlessness.
Snippets of film between each dance provides context, and time for the dancers to change. Filming is second nature to Nunn and Trevitt so their obsessive recording of choreographers at work in their studio over the years gets put to good use. Voice-overs are chatty and personable, reaching out and connecting with the audience.
Eight choreographers are platformed in Still Pointless: Balletboyz at 25, with Russell Maliphant getting two shots. Following Critical Mass was Motor Cortex, choreographed by company dancer, Seiran Griffiths, then the splendidly amorphic Ripple by Xia Xiu. This was followed by a section of Maliphant’s Fallen, and prior to interval came a harrowing section from Ivan Perez’s Young Men. Some years ago, I saw the complete narrative of Fallen both staged and filmed, even so, this one scene works in isolation: an example of the company’s ability to embrace complex human drama as well as non-narrative choreography, and dance that places humour at its heart.
Liam Scarlet’s Serpent opened the second half, followed by a bopping club culture piece, Bradley 4:18 by Maxine Doyle. A thoughtful duet, Us, by Christopher Wheeldon was the penultimate piece of the evening, with the quirky humour of Fiction, by Javier de Frutos, ending the evening. In this he imagines an announcement of his own death before a premiere. Somehow at the end of expending all that energy, the dancers still had more in their tanks.
This is a company of ten male-presenting dancers. This may not have been the case when the company began and when some of today’s dancers were yet to be born. A lot happens in 25 years. A word about choreographer, Liam Scarlett. Watching the film of him working in rehearsal with the original cast for Serpent I felt such sadness at a life cut short. Nothing to do with this company, but he, a gay man became embroiled in a scandal of inappropriate behaviour resulting in future commissions cancelled. His mental health spiralled downwards leading to suicide. While this was not made public in Still Pointless, I knew it, and it made me look at the section of Young Men with fresh eyes. Here was mental anguish. Set during the First World War this scene focuses on a young man who has bodily survived the carnage of the trenches but can’t escape. His tortured mind results in a body torqued and tense. Broken bodies, broken minds. While this paragraph doesn’t sit within a standard review, this isn’t a standard review, and these are memories I take away. From its home base in Kingston the company embraces a range of community programmes including classes of those with Parkinson’s. They are interested in the human condition, human frailty. Let’s celebrate that.
Think of Still Pointless: Balletboyz at 25 as a smorgasbord. Viewers get to sample tasty offerings, hot and cold, funny and dramatic. Often people (including some of my own family) say ‘I don’t understand contemporary dance’. Don’t worry about it, the films in between each piece explain and demonstrate key things you need to know. And a printed programme provides further information. I crave good programmes and can be highly critical of ones that are too arty or say very little. Thankfully this is a useful one.
Balletboyz are touring throughout the UK. Seek them out, then sit back and enjoy.
