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A packed house and sustained cheers greeted São Paulo Dance Company’s UK debut at Sadler’s Wells in London last weekend. The (relatively) young company, founded in 2008, has commenced a 14-venue tour of the UK and Ireland arranged by the Dance Consortium. The artistic director, Inês Bogéa, has selected a mixed programme to showcase the fine-tuned, idiosyncratic talents of her 22 dancers. The triple bill was a useful showreel for their mastery of athletic solos, tricksy duets and tight-knit ensembles, but the choreography was no real match for their gifts.
The three works on offer suffered from a lack of scenic variety: a lifeless palette, clichéd lighting and a smoke machine working overtime. In 2019’s Anthems by Spanish dancemaker Goyo Montero the cast are clad in flesh-matched body stockings, their abdominal muscles outlined in pen strokes like sheets from an anatomist’s sketchbook. In the opening sequence they cluster together like a human anemone, arms raised, fingers flailing as they express collective rage — or mass hysteria. The vague sense of a community stirred into solidarity — or revolt — is intensified by Owen Belton’s pulsating soundscape with its mash-up of martial melodies. Intermittently a couple will break away from the group to power through an acrobatic duet — you suspect Luiza Yuk may sleep in the splits — but Montero’s best effects are achieved by the ebb and flow of the ensemble.
Gnawa, a 2005 work by Mikhailovsky Ballet director Nacho Duato, takes its inspiration from the Moroccan tribe of that name and uses a rhythmic soundtrack put together by seven composers. Again, the ensemble predominates but there is an impressive duet for Ammanda Rosa and Nielson Souza and a scene-stealing solo for Yoshi Suzuki.
Suzuki shines brighter still in the evening’s finale: 2019’s Agora by Brazilian dancemaker Cassi Abranches, co-creator of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s recent Black Sabbath tribute, set to a rhythmic drip-feed by Sebastian Piracés. Suzuki’s multidisciplinary training (ballet, tap and modern) is exploited to the full in solos packed with high-speed pirouettes and darting jumps. The audience squealed with delight at the flashy throws and catches in Abranches’s pairwork but it was still Suzuki who caught the eye. With his expressive feet and saucy rolling pelvis, even his walk is interesting.
★★★☆☆
Touring to March 23, danceconsortium.com
The Royal Ballet’s long run of Manons continued with a brace of five-star cast changes. Wednesday’s cinema relay, skilfully directed by Ross MacGibbon, featured the symbiotic partnership of Natalia Osipova and Reece Clarke. Osipova’s reading of Kenneth MacMillan’s anti-heroine grows ever more detailed and complex. She was ardently partnered by the young Scot, the never-ending lines of his arabesques a pure thought in a very dirty world.
On Friday night La Scala’s Roberto Bolle celebrated 25 years as a Covent Garden guest. His first stabs at Des Grieux, partnering the young Darcey Bussell back in 2003, were blandly elegant but at 48 he brings new depth to the tragedy of a noble young man brought low by love. His boyish seriousness was a fine foil for Marianela Nuñez’s kittenish Manon. Their heartfelt performance earned a standing ovation from balletomanes — Bolletomanes? — and moved grown critics to tears.
★★★★★
‘Manon’ continues to March 8, roh.org.uk
