In the creation of BalletBoyz new production four choreographers and four composers were teamed up and given 14 days to collaborate on a new piece under the common concept of balance/imbalance. The results are remarkably dissimilar, almost to a fault.
Opening with the most literal of the interpretations - Javier De Frutos’ The Title is in the text - a seesaw is posted centre stage and invites the dancers to explore both the simple physics of the childhood plaything as well as the disturbance of equilibrium when shifting from a collective body into battle for control and stability.
Human Animal sees the BalletBoyz dress down to floral shifts and underwear, and engulf themselves in a circular demonstration of equestrian resemblance. With sullen faces and neutral torsos, the centaur like creatures amble around the stage, moving forward and falling back, balancing themselves within the groups canter.
Christopher Wheeldon’s Us is by far the most intimate, seeing the explication of balance found in the trust, uncertainty and support of love. From these 11 strong workforces of the previous performances, we are left with two. A relationship to-ing and fro-ing, lifting and leaving - yet ultimately finding each other.
Last of the Fourteen Days commissions comes from Strictly Come Dancing judge - Craig Revel Horwood - and as expected the shift in energy from Wheeldon’s love story into the vigor and pace within The Indicator Line re energises the piece. More colourful in score and visual than the other three, this piece is best placed at the end of the section, presenting itself - a brazen broadway battle of power - as the most unlikely piece to be performed.
Russell Maliphant’s 2013 Fallen brings in the end of the show with a punch of choreographical perfection. Lasting almost double the duration of the four preceding pieces, Armand Amar’s climactic score eradicates the feeling of time and proves itself to be the most resonating.
Touring to Dundee Rep, Exeter’s Northcott Theatre, Lichfield’s Garrick Theatre, Guildford’s G Live, Bath’s Theatre Royal, Brighton Dome and Richmond Theatre .