Opera Ballet Vlaanderen: PUUR is a challenging but relevant work

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in PUUR by Wim Vandekeybus

By Graham Watts, 25 March 2024

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“By its very nature PUUR is not to be enjoyed but absorbed”

Reviewed at Opera Vlaanderen, Ghent, Ghent on 23 March 2024

Puur (Wim Vandekeybus)

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen

Wim Vandekeybus, Director, Set Designer, Video, Lighting Designer

Isabelle Lhoas, Costume Designer

Ralf Nonn, Lighting Designer

Josh Jürgen Martin, Sound Design

Greet Van Poeck, Dramaturgy

Titus Muizelaar, Dramaturgy

Leaping out of lockdown: Rambert premieres Draw from Within

Graham Watts, 25th September

A novel live-streamed performance, nightmarish in parts, that seems just right for these strange times

***11

Wim Vandekeybus: Hell is other people

Tatiana Rathelot, 1st March

Wim Vandekeybus' Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour takes place in a distant future, where a destructive force seems to have eliminated life on Earth

***11

Beautiful role debut for Malin Byström in Amsterdam Salome

Jenny Camilleri, 9th June

In an elegant new production by Ivo van Hove, Malin Byström portrays a graceful, erotic Salome and the RCO play with sensuous lyricism under Daniele Gatti.

****1

Ultima Vez's Talk to the Demon at Brighton Festival

Emily Brown, 13th May

Brighton Festival hosts the UK premiere of Talk to the Demon, a work full of uncomfortable questions, powerful performances and breathtaking dancing. Choreographed on Ultima Vez by Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus.

****1

Speak low if you speak love

Laurine Mortha, 5th April

Wim Vandekeybus présente sa dernière création Speak low if you speak love (2015) au Festival 100% au Parc de la Villette

****1

What the body does not remember, Ultima Vez à Paris

Laurine Mortha, 11th April

Avec What the body does not remember, Wim Vandekeybus et la compagnie Ultima Vez font renaître leur toute première chorégraphie composée en 1987. Véritable débordement jubilatoire, la création leur avait valu une reconnaissance unanime sur la scène contemporaine internationale.

*****

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Graham Watts

Graham Watts is a freelance dance writer and critic writing regularly for Dancing Times, Dance Europe, Danza Europa, and many more publications. He regularly writes features for Sadler’s Wells, London Coliseum and La Scala. Chairman of the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle in the United Kingdom and of the UK National Dance Awards he has interviewed many of the greatest names in dance including Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev, Boris Eifman, Alexei Ratmansky, Andris Liepa, Sir Peter Wright, David Bintley and Dame Gillian Lynne. When not involved in dance Graham is a keen fencer, and has captained the British Sabre team.