|
|
 |
|
Dougla
Choreography
Geoffrey
Holder
Return
Choreography
Robert
Garland
South
Africa
Suite
Choreography
Arthur
Mitchell
Augustus
Van Heerden
Lavern
Naidu
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Sadler's Wells
4
- 9 November 2002 |
|
Performances
by the Dance
Theatre of Harlem
have an indelible signature: they are
joyous, free-spirited, athletic, instinctively
sexy, and beautiful to see. This remains
true whether or not the choreography
has distinction. Audiences expect a
Harlem style, and the dancers respond;
they seem to enjoy themselves hugely,
and to pour everything into every moment
they are on stage.
This
reviewer saw the second programme of
their week at Sadler's Wells, South
African Suite with Caroline Rocher
in the lead role, Dougla,
and Return.
The first was outstanding. The shapes
and nuances of the wonderful South African
traditions both of spontaneous and organised
dance were worked into the narrative
of sequences here, themselves the result
of an evolution influenced by the Dance
Theatre's visits to South Africa
after the ending of the apartheid era.
Dougla
was less convincing. In it ballet met
Broadway musical spectacular, and as
this implies it relied too much on a
set of magnificent costumes, wearing
which constrained the dancers to processions
and gestures merely. It was a mere glitter
piece, unmemorable as choreography and
disappointing as dance.
Return
had the audience on its feet at the
end, as one expects from the closing
number of a brilliant company enjoying
itself to the music of James Brown and
Aretha Franklin. This time it was "ballet
meets disco", and it consisted in a
disjointed series of short items each
of which set the feet tapping but which
together made a mere miscellany, too
consciously show-stopping in intent.
There was no disguising the virtuosity
of the dancers, but neither in this
nor in Dougla
did the choreography match their huge
talents.
AC Grayling |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
