Dancers don’t just pay tribute to the past, they can inhabit it. In this solo(ish) triple bill, Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova steps into the shoes of two great female icons of modern dance, Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan, perhaps absorbing some of their pioneering spirit along the way.
In Graham’s Errand Into the Maze, Osipova is quelling demons – explicitly Marcelino Sambé’s Minotaur, but inner ones too – with the power of her mighty ankle-to-ear kicks. It is a dance of strength and sharp accents, geometry and gravity, and Osipova’s character simmers with power as well as trepidation. Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan is a homage by Frederick Ashton, presented here in a new film by Grigory Dobrygin, spiritedly shot and beautifully lit. A handheld camera chases Osipova under a flowing chiffon scarf, capturing her giddiness and wild freedom while closeup detail sees the vulnerability at heart. The voluptuousness of the movement is womanly but there’s a childlike quality too, in its abandon and in the certainty of one’s own presence at the centre of the world. It’s a film that does the ballet justice.
So that’s the first half of Osipova’s offering. The second half diverges eccentrically from the historical into something of right now. Jo Strømgren is a Norwegian choreographer, playwright and director whose The Exhibition is a piece of comic dance theatre. Two people arrive in a gallery: a well-groomed Osipova and the scruffier Christopher Akrill. She speaks Russian, he English. There’s mischief and misunderstanding and the two are drawn into an odd relationship which is hampered and enhanced by their inability to understand each other.
You never know where the piece is going, but it engagingly dances around themes of connection, prejudice, art and beauty, and what the body can and cannot say. Even if you can’t understand Osipova’s words there is a naturalism and cheeky character to her animated chatter. We know she’s a good dance-actor, but speech is something different. It’s a surprising swerve for Osipova, a statement about who she is, or might want to be as a performer. It’s a triple bill that honours past legends while telling us that Osipova is determined to be her own artist.
• At the Linbury theatre, Royal Opera House, London, until 10 March
