Life / BalletBoyz, dance review: Boyz pull the rabbit out of the hat

Loneliness and death are the real themes tackled here, says Lyndsey Winship, while the rabbits create a sense of alienation
Pleasing strangeness: Balletboyz tackle the theme of loneliness
Tristram Kenton
Lyndsey Winship21 April 2016

The show may be called Life, but loneliness and death are the real themes tackled here by the 10-strong all-male Balletboyz in their latest double bill.

Loneliness comes courtesy of Swedish choreographer Pontus Lidberg, new to UK audiences but fast gaining an international reputation for his classically influenced contemporary dance. Rabbit shows us lovely long smooth threads of movement, minus hard edges — all soft centre and no crusts — and the simplicity of shape and form matches the slow, sad Górecki soundtrack. A central character, for all his interactions with others, bodies lifting, cradling and cajoling each other, remains ultimately alone. He’s surrounded by rabbits, or at least men in waistcoats and furry masks. Why rabbits? Who knows, but it lends the piece a pleasing strangeness and sense of alienation.

The death belongs to choreographer Javier De Frutos, impaled on a shard of his own scenery as we’re told at the beginning of Fiction — it’s not true, you see, but it’s a good ruse for a piece. What results is not as riotously celebratory or dramatically grief-stricken as you’d imagine for a choreographer who, as the narrated obituary tells us, always courted controversy. While we listen, the dancers weave around a practice barre in the centre of the stage with quick, intricate moves, breaking off for brief forays into romance, confrontation and Donna Summer. It’s hard to make real connections with De Frutos’s biography or mortality in general, but Fiction does boast a brilliant, final moment that says life is worth living.

Until Sunday, Sadler's Wells (020 7862 8000, sadlerswells.com)

Latest dance articles

1/9

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout

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

MORE ABOUT