As all the style magazines have been telling us, Autumn marks a whole new season: a time for new stuff. It was fitting, then, that the latest offering from Scottish Ballet (ever up with the times) was a double bill of up-to-the-minute new work from two young choreographers which made strikingly different demands on the company. Clearly on a mission to prove that today’s dance world comprises many styles and that these feed into and refresh each other, Scotland’s national company were giving one piece its first UK outing and another – specially commissioned – its world premiere.
First up was Schachmatt (Checkmate), from Cayetano Soto, who began his dance career in his native Spain but for the last 18 years has been based in Germany. No stranger to awards and accolades, Cayetano notes as his diverse influences for this piece the scurrilous comedy of Joan Rivers, the movies of Almodovar and the choreography of Bob Fosse (over whose work he and Scottish Ballet’s Artistic Director Christopher Hampson bonded in a big way). What emerged from that mixed bag was 18 minutes of sheer delight. The five men and five women were first seen silhouetted against back-lighting, wearing shirt-and-shorts outfits and riding hats, standing on a chequerboard: this, however, was the only time that they were caught standing still or even slowing down.
In an entirely plotless piece, the company bounced, pranced like horses and then rode like jockeys, ran around, bent their bodies like rubber, formed up in line like military drill (were they the cavalry…?) with impeccable timing. There were moments when Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks came to mind. Fast and furious, the fun and playfulness of the whole thing almost disguised the precision that kept it going. When one or other broke ranks for a brief solo, it almost felt wrong. Cayetano’s work was new to me but this piece brought to mind, in its sheer effervescence and deceptive comedy, some of Paul Taylor’s work back in the day. And that’s a big compliment - although choreographer and dancers may all be too young to appreciate it. Schachmatt may have been short and sweet but it was so much more than a curtain-raiser. Well done, Mr Hampson, for snapping it up for the company after seeing it in New York.
Twice-Born, on the other hand, was a monumental, mythic piece created by another of the new generation of choreographers. Dickson Mbi began his creative life in street dance and hip-hop but then honed his skills at London Contemporary Dance School before undertaking some R&D work with Scottish Ballet in their Summer Shorts season. This ambitious, super-confident piece showed how that relationship has paid off.
An anguished matriarchal figure tried to protect her tribe from the elemental forces symbolised by a mountain spewing fire and destruction. Her people - men and women indistinguishable in dress - milled around her, coming together in waves, huddling in unison and then separating. Thunder rumbled, the mountain quaked, rocks tumbled from above: there was whispering and heartbeats, a percussive score of drumming and foot-stamping, death and transfiguration. Climate change? Societal unrest - who knew? Another girl was selected, resulting in another death – or no, in a heart-stopping moment she returned to life and was raised high above her followers to twirl and bend. The original woman seemed to reappear… It was all as puzzling and provocative, and as compelling, as any ancient myth.
The shadow of The Rite of Spring may have hung over its themes of sacrifice/re-birth, in its tribe-like swarmings and sense of threat, but this was a strikingly original, imaginative piece from a relatively young dance maker. Oh, and Dickson Mbi also composed the score; a brooding mix of chanting, rhythmic drumming and lyrical passages. And perhaps the biggest surprise of all, despite his reputation as a hip-hop artist, he gave the company – notably Marge Hendrick, Rishan Benjamin, Evan Loudon and Jerome Barnes – many lovely classical moments to set against the foot-stomping.
This bold, well balanced double bill goes on to play in Aberdeen and Edinburgh in October.
