Dance: Reach for the stars

Rachid Ouramdane
Outsider
Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève
choreography Rachid Ouramdane
highliners Nathan Paulin, Tania Monier, Louise Lenoble, Daniel Daruelle
music Julius Eastman • set Sylvain Giraudeau
costumes Gwladys Duthil • lighting Stephane Graillot
Sadler's Wells, London • 26-27.Mar.25 ★★★★★

Outsider has its UK premiere as part of the Dance Reflections season by Van Cleef & Arpels, featuring 24 dancers from Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, plus four athletic high-wire and slack-line experts. This hour-long piece is very physical, packed with audacious acrobatic movement, and it is performed with an unusual fluidity that makes the most of the liquid choreography, pulling the audience into the yearning expectancy of the dancers. Which makes the show feel like a churning blast of buoyant energy.

It's unusual to see such a huge crowd of dancers on-stage together, running like a pack, smoothly lifting each other in ways that seem to defy gravity. It's celebratory and playful, and while there's a lot going on there's never a question of where to look. Lighting is soft, almost monochromatic, echoing the performers' black and tan body suits. So as they spin, fly and float, the show begins to soar. Then four wire walkers slowly emerge on lines stretched above the stage, moving slowly. 

In the heart-stopping silence, the dancers on the stage begin to reach upwards, stretching to join these strangers in the sky. The lifts become intentional and intense. And the highliners also reach down, reaching toward the people below. Yes, this might be a simple metaphor, but it plays out with such smooth, kinetic movement that we are taken right along with the performers. And Julius Eastman's multiple-piano score fills the theatre with lush waves of sound.

While the dancers are required to use strength, balance and precision synchronicity, the performers above use stillness. At one point they stop and just watch, without even the slightest bobble, for what feels like an eternity. They also dangle and bounce, and at one point finally manage to catch upstretched hands from below. It's a simple, fiendishly effective show that leaves us breathless. We want to get up there on-stage and join them, and maybe even take our chances on one of those wires.

For details, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Gregory Batardon • 26.Mar.25