Debra Craine, The Times ★★★★☆
It was supposed to be a programme celebrating 20 years in the life of the BalletBoyz, the all-male troupe founded by the former Royal Ballet dancers William Trevitt and Michael Nunn. Yet barely had the tour started when the coronavirus pandemic shut it down.
Undaunted, Trevitt and Nunn decided that Deluxe would come to a laptop near you instead. Deluxe (available for the next seven days) is a double bill of anniversary premieres, but with a neat twist. Both works are by female choreographers working for the first time with an all-male company. The result is unexpected, earnest and affecting.
It was supposed to be a programme celebrating 20 years in the life of the BalletBoyz, the all-male troupe founded by the former Royal Ballet dancers William Trevitt and Michael Nunn. Yet barely had the tour started when the coronavirus pandemic shut it down. Undaunted, Trevitt and Nunn decided that Deluxe would come to a laptop near you instead. Deluxe (available for the next seven days) is a double bill of anniversary premieres, but with a neat twist. Both works are by female choreographers working for the first time with an all-male company. The result is unexpected, earnest and affecting.
Bradley 4:18 is by the British dancemaker Maxine Doyle. This half-hour work explores a young man’s existential crisis, played out in the middle of the night (4.18am, get it?) by all six dancers, although not necessarily at the same time.
It was inspired by a song by Kate Tempest (Pictures on a Screen) about a man experiencing night terrors as insomnia fuels his fears and uncertainties. Doyle’s choreography, set to an atmospheric and unsettling new jazz score by Cassie Kinoshi, is fraught with restlessness and confusion, especially in the solos, while narcissism, anger and self-destruction go hand in hand in the jerky movement.
The men are in suits, as if dressed for work, but they are sporting black eyes — a sign that not all is well. The stage is dark — too dark — which occasionally obscures the dance, especially the group fight scene. But as it progresses, exposing male insecurity and the need for healing in a hostile world, Doyle’s work becomes a potent statement about the complexities and conflicted natures of young men today.
Ripple, by the Chinese choreographer Xie Xin, is more about pure dance. In an introductory video (each piece has one, and very helpful they are too) she talks about the image of a stone thrown into water and the ripple effect that creates. Her dance language does indeed have a watery motif as the six men engage in a sensual interplay with the forces of gravity, ebbing and flowing, rising and falling in circular phrases.
Where the first half of Deluxe is agitated, urgent, Ripple is slow-burning and contemplative, its soft movement motivated by Jiang Shao-feng’s melancholic string score. A little repetitive, perhaps, but the ending is worth the wait.
Deluxe by BalletBoyz can be seen on Sadler’s Wells Facebook Premieres via facebook.com/SadlersWells from 7.30pm today until April 2. Deluxe will be on BBC Four in mid-May
You can find this review on The Times here.
