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Linbury theatre, LondonWorks by Kenneth Tindall, Mlindi Kulashe and Morgann Runacre-Temple give these dancers a chance to get their bodies around abstraction
Trends for favoured composers in dance come in waves. For a while Arvo Pärt was everywhere, then Philip Glass, and now you can’t pirouette without bumping into Max Richter, specifically his remix of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Here it is in Kenneth Tindall’s new work for Northern Ballet, The Shape of Sound, the main event in a triple bill of contemporary works.
It’s a great piece of music, but it’s also a challenging dance partner, its cycling repetition acting like a weighted blanket. Tindall doesn’t really get inside Richter’s textural and rhythmic interest, or even the big tunes, giving us the feel of a lot of constant movement at a moderate pace with soporific results. What Tindall does do is display bodies beautifully, savouring the elegant stretch of the classical dancer, from pointe shoe to fingertip. It’s all danced with care and precision but no oomph (technical term). This company are best known for their popular narrative ballets and it’s perhaps not unrelated that the dancers don’t completely know what to do with abstract work, how to bring bite, dynamics and intention to their steps. Sparky first soloist Matthew Koon deserves honourable mention for engaging with his movement, and the audience, and briefly ruling the stage. Continue reading...