One quality that has sustained BalletBoyz, the company founded by the original Boyz, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, has been their determination to explore different dynamics in dance. For proof, note this programme, originally designed for their 20th anniversary in 2020, which asks two female choreographers to work with this all-male company. Another characteristic is their crusading desire to make dance as approachable as possible, evidenced here with their cheeky, trademark films that introduce the pieces. It adds up to an intriguing evening.
In an interview, the Chinese choreographer Xie Xin communicates her doubts about her ability to transmit the flow of energy she wants. Yet the result in Ripple, her first work in the UK, is a transfixing triumph, full of subtle effects.
Dressed in monkish garments, the dancers bend and turn in flowing circles, in groups and pairs, accompanied by Jiang Shaofeng’s textured score. They reflect each other’s movements, supporting deep bows of the back and legs, subtle waves of the arm and hand. The fluidity of their bodies astonishes; sometimes they seem to hold themselves just above the floor, as if suspended. Sometimes they wheel on a single arm or leg. It’s impossible to look away.
Bradley 4:18, choreographed by Punchdrunk’s Maxine Doyle, couldn’t be more different. Inspired by a Kae Tempest poem and danced to Cassie Kinoshi’s scratchy, swooning jazz, it features six dancers in identical sharp suits, embodying different aspects – pugnacious, preening, anxious – of a man’s personality. The movement, under Andrew Ellis’s harsh, four-in-the-morning light, is sharp and punchy, catching Bradley’s arrogant swagger, but also his deep self-doubt.
Bar one, the dancers are all new to these works, and like successive teams of Boyz before them, both charismatic and talented. The audience, on a quiet bank holiday Monday, went wild.
