Russell Maliphant Dance Company, Silent Lines review: Hypnotic power of the light fantastic

Mesmerising: Grace Jabbari in Silent Lines
Martin Collins
Emma Byrne21 October 2019

Russell Maliphant may attract big-name collaborators — Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage, BalletBoyz — but his work is as unshowy as they come.

His choreographic universe is unique: repeatedly he has returned to the idea of how bodies and light interact, mixing the precision of ballet with the abstraction of modern dance and the combative flow of martial arts. His best works carry the power to transport and hypnotise; with lighting director Michael Hulls, he has created some of contemporary dance’s most arresting sequences.

Silent Lines — a lean 60-minute exploration into two of Maliphant’s other interests, anatomy and biomechanics — carries these trademarks. It starts as a display of Panagiotis Tomaras’s shimmering video projections; five dancers, just discernible in the gloom, arch and fall as one, bodies softened by the flowing water beamed on to them. But though light is essential to this piece — sculpting muscles, directing steps — then so too is shadow, and with quiet confidence Maliphant plunges much of the stage into almost total darkness.

It creates some striking images, notably a solo in which Grace Jabbari — who seems less to be dancing Maliphant’s choreography than inhabiting it — turns slowly on the spot, arms aloft, seemingly mesmerised by a whirlpool beamed at her feet.

A light fantastic.

The Royal Ballet's principal dancers on their favourite roles to play

1/15

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in