In the Spirit of Diaghilev
Dyad 1909 / AfterLight / Afternoon of a Faun / Eternal Damnation to Sancho and Sanchez
Wayne McGregor / Russell Maliphant / Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui / Javier de Frutos
Sadler’s Wells, London
October 13, 2009

If the Centenary of the Ballets Russes was to achieve something this year, it might be to remind artistic directors of their creative mission. Aside from reconstructions of period works, there have been few really adventurous choreographic ventures in the ballet world to celebrate the legendary company. Diaghilev was not a creator himself, but his gift for bringing together artists of different horizons and successfully direct their collaboration was one of the chief ingredients of a seminal period in dance. Alistair Spalding, at Sadler’s Wells, remembered this and brought together four famed choreographers for a rare mixed bill. Wayne McGregor, Russell Maliphant, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Javier de Frutos all contributed premieres alluding to Diaghilev’s heritage, and the facet they each chose to highlight said much about their own creative process.

Wayne McGregor is hardly channeling the great tutelar figure in Dyad 1909, the first part of a diptych to be completed with a creation in Melbourne. As is usual with this choreographer, the visual concept relies heavily on technology – three sets of screens are alternatively used as a cold background and as a vehicle for arty videos that have the distracting effect of neon lighting. A polar bear makes an apparition at the beginning, but what follows is a dance frenzy that bears a clear resemblance to Genus or Entity, both recent creations. The composer, Ólafur Arnalds, has devised some beautifully atmospheric moments, but Wayne McGregor only hints at the poetry he could draw from the music. Meaningful images come and vanish immediately in the general outpouring of movement. His dancers are highly trained – why then so often limit partnering, for instance, to supported splits ? Admittedly, his signature hip placements do at times evoke Antarctic penguins, but Wayne McGregor was once again here working in the spirit of McGregor – and he might achieve so much more if he didn’t.

Vaslav Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la Rose - © Life/E.O.Hoppe

Russell Maliphant and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, on the other hand, premiered two highly original works in the second part of the evening. Maliphant’s AfterLight is especially stunning in its inventivity – billed as a solo to Satie’s Gnossiennes, often used by choreographers, it takes Vaslav Nijinsky’s sketches and paintings as starting point for a reflection on light, sculpture and curves. Daniel Proietto is the moving statue – starting in a circle of light in the centre that gradually expands and changes. Michael Hulls and Es Devlin’s fascinating animated lighting seems to engage in a dialogue with him, alternatively drawing him in, serving as pedestal, and moving away from his body. Proietto, in turn, draws every curve of the Nijinsky-inspired forms Maliphant uses before breaking out of them, of the stillness of the statue. The sense of loss in the moment of silence between each Gnossienne beautifully contrasts this ecstasy of form – until the lone figure, dressed in casual clothes, returns to his strange realm of absolute fluidity.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, as far as he is concerned, set himself the difficult task of re-choreographing a Ballets Russes work, the erotic Afternoon of a Faun. Both Nijinsky and Jerome Robbins have created versions that live on, and one wondered if anything more was to be be done with Claude Debussy’s lush score. Cherkaoui certainly doesn’t try to revolutionize the concept, and it looked like the right option on the first night. What he does is bring a specific movement quality into the equation, which in a sense relates to Maliphant’s – the lines stretching and flowing, uninterrupted, in never-ending curves. Centre stage, James O’Hara is an alien of a faun, all instincts and animal grace, his platinum hair contrasting with his nymph’s dark waves. Both share a very sensual way of moving, and the central pas de deux saw them merge naturally, as equals, into one fascinating animal. They roll, play, ultimately part, leaving behind the enduring image of a summer forest at dusk. The only discordant element is the additional music by Nitin Sawhney, that does little for the overall mood set by Debussy – Afternoon of a Faun bears new choreography well enough on its own.

The final piece clearly aimed to become the scandal of the evening, a purpose silly enough to make Eternal Damnation to Sancho and Sanchez fall flat. Javier de Frutos had carefully selected his ingredients though : a hunchbacked caricature of a Pope, an altar boy (can you guess what ensues ?), Apolon and three very pregnant muses. Most of them will be explicitly raped to a litany of Santa Maria in a piece that contains very little dancing besides the overt violence. De Frutos claims to have been inspired by the scenarios of Jean Cocteau and by Diaghilev’s taste for the odd scandal, but pleased as he may be with the booing he received, he forgot that the riots at the Ballets Russes came along with art. Amuse me, the neon lights above the Pope read, and Javier de Frutos is the jester here – in a world that so often goes for shock value, Eternal Damnation is but a good laugh for the audience, at best.