Music: Benjamin Britten, Mikael Karlsson and Ludwig van Beethoven
Choreographers: Jiří Kylián, Morgann Runacre-Temple and Uwe Scholz
One of the joys of a triple bill is being able to experience a diverse programme of ballet. This autumn Carlos
Acosta brings us a celebration of music and movement, complete with a UK and world premiere, and rarely-performed work – all of them new to Birmingham Royal Ballet’s repertory.
Leading off Into the Music we have Forgotten Land, choreographed by Jiří Kylián who is undoubtedly one of the great choreographers of modern ballet. It’s a celebration of love, and a commemoration of loss, of groups forming and dissolving, all set to Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem. It takes place in front of a large painting of the ocean, painted by designer John Macfarlane – as the waves arrive and recede, so do the dancers, echoing the music, then coming together as a community. Groups meet and separate, couples find each other and fall in love.
The work owes a lot to the paintings of Edvard Munch, particularly his Dance of Life which depicts a woman in three stages of her life set against an ocean backdrop. It’s reflected in the choreography for the three movements of Britten’s Sinfonia – youth and naivety, an explosion of passion and the wisdom of maturity. All the while the ocean sits there as a metaphor for the rhythm of life, the constant presence that will exist long after each individual has gone. It creates and it destroys, just as relationships are created and destroyed. It’s a delight for the eyes and for the ears.
Moving on we have Hotel, a world premiere choreographed by Morgann Runacre-Temple set to an original score by Mikael Karlsson. It’s a surreal journey into the world of the hotel, with cameras allowing the audience to see what’s going on behind the closed bedroom doors. The design here is focussed around providing flat surfaces that can be used for projection, as the cameras do their work. There’s a sense of voyeurism and surveillance as we see things from unusual angles, as though through the lens of a CCTV camera.
The use of cameras on stage is nothing new but it is rare to see them used quite so much in dance, where the film and projection have moved even beyond being integral to the piece and almost to the point where the film is actually the leading player. The behind-the-door glimpses that we do get show teasers of action, leaving us wondering what has led to the moment we see, yet it’s all very mundane and feels like an opportunity missed. An interesting and thought-provoking piece, nonetheless.
For those who prefer their ballet a little more classical, to close is Beethoven’s glorious Seventh Symphony with choreography by Uwe Scholz, who worked regularly with classical repertoire. It feels like a bit of a hybrid – sometimes we see a traditional corps-de-ballet moving together in sync and then you find they evolve into something that seems more reminiscent of Bob Fosse. With a simple backdrop of diagonals, echoed in the costumes, as a contrast to the previous offerings, here the focus is very much on the dance and, as you’d expect, the dance is superb. The choreography here is as varied as the score, the second movement ominous and threatening leading into the joyful, often exuberant third before the final Allegro con brio movement brings the programme to a conclusion.
It’s a well-judged and nicely varied programme, curated by Acosta, with something here for everybody – and a reminder that ballet is alive and thriving in Birmingham.
Runs Until 22 October 2022
