2002 – the memorable bitsIt’s that time of the year again when everyone comes up with their ‘best of the year’ views and retrospectives of the years highlights. In no particular order, here are some of the things that stuck in my memory…
The Who was that Award ? Lauren Cutherbertson in Between Shadows in the Clore. Every now and then someone on stage catches your attention so strongly that you have to scrabble for the programme right away to find out just who it is. A very striking and assured performance from someone who had just joined the company from the RBS
Best Triple Bill: as a company this has to go to ENB for the enterprising Apollo / Double Concerto / Who Cares bill at the ROH, which was a much better balanced offering than any of the Royal’s at the same address. BRB also had some nice triples – I wish I’d seen more of them this year.
Bintley’s Tombeaux, revived this season, looked an extremely fine elegy on Ashton, and for me was one of the most overlooked and under-reviewed works in the year.
Biggest high, the most life enhancing experience: the performance of Revelations by Alvin Ailey at Sadlers Wells. A reminder of how exultant dance can make you feel.
Best and worst behaviour by an orchestra. Best: the orchestra of Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet in January applauding the dancers at a performance of Swan Lake. They actually seemed to like playing for dancers, what a novelty…(The only British orchestra I’ve ever seen applauding the dances is BRB’s orchestra). Worst: the Royal Philharmonic, playing for PNB at a very empty Sadlers Wells. When the conductor at the curtain call signalled they should get to their feet most of them had already walked off and the rest ignored him. Poor.
Best stuffed animal: Pina Bausch’s walrus.
Heart stopping moment: Rojo and Acosta in Act 3 of Swan Lake. She balanced for ages and ages and ages, the audience started to applaud madly while Acosta stood back and stared at her, perfectly in character as the enthralled Siegfried. Then he let fly with the most stunning pirouettes. What a pair.
Most charismatic dancer: Akram Khan. Fabulous control, most beautiful arms. Impossible to watch anyone else while he was on stage.
Most marvellous toy: Ballet Preljocaj’s lighting design for Helikopter, where the dancers movements created astonishing light patterns on the floor as they moved. Shame about the choreography though.
Most manic design: Lez Brotherston for Matthew Bourne’s Play Without Words at the National. The usual fabulous shifting Brotherston set, but what was really remarkable was the loving attention that had been paid to getting that 1965 period detail exactly right – the clothes, the earrings, the hairstyle, right down to the Avengers playing on the TV…
Most selfless and heroic partnering: Jonathan Cope. For Tryst with Bussell, Don Q with Yoshida, Mayerling with Rojo and a host of others.
Strangest moment: seeing Yoshida, the queen all things classical, cast in Forsythe’s Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. One of Stretton’s wierdest casting choices (there were plenty to choose from, though, and this probably isn’t the all-time winner).
Cheering sight: Sadlers being completely packed for the cheap promenade performances for Dance Umbrella. There is an audience out there.
And finally, Turkey of the Year: Royal Ballet of Flanders Swan Lake, as hacked about by Jan Fabre at the Edinburgh Festival this year. Featuring a live owl tethered to the top of Rothbart’s head, a psychotic dwarf randomly stabbing characters, a man in a suit of armour with a TV aerial on his head and indisputably the most pretentious programme notes of the year (yes, even more than Pina Bausch). Somewhere in there were a few bits of Ivanov, but Fabre had improved and modernised the rest. Not. Played through without an interval in an effort to stop people walking out.
Best wishes for 2003 everyone…
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