Dance: Birds of a feather

Julie Cunningham & Company / Jules Cunningham
Crow / Pigeons
choreography Jules Cunningham
performers Harry Alexander, Nafisah Baba, Yu-Chien Cheng, Jules Cunningham, Matthias Sperling
Crow: soundscore JD Samson • design Julie Verhoeven
Pigeons: music Julius Eastman • costumes Loe D'Arcy
lighting Joshie Harriette
Sadler's Wells East, Stratford • 27-28.Mar.25 ★★★★

Part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, this show features two pieces by Jules Cunningham, both of which use birds to explore issues of marginalisation in the vast but intimate new space at Sadler's Wells East. Each of these performances looks at issues of isolation and community, obstacles and freedom, through the eyes of vulnerable beings in the big city. So there are moments in each piece that are dazzlingly powerful, especially in the way the music combines beautifully with the skilled dancers' movement. At the same time, they also remain just a little out of reach.

Crow features Cunningham and Harry Alexander performing on a huge stage dotted with offbeat artefacts that create little spaces. In one of these, JD Samson performs live at a DJ deck, interacting with the dancers. Dressed like New Romantics, their movements resemble crows, individualistic but mimicking each other, moving in start-and-stop circles and striking staccato poses, reacting to the music. They also observe their surroundings, including an extended period when they amusingly stare down the audience. The lighting features red and black against a background screen featuring a swirling collage of colours and shapes. The kinetic performances are loose and offhanded, creating lovely rhythms and shapes without even a hint of emotion.

By contrast, Pigeons is more lyrical from the start, as all five dancers fill the stage by darting around in various formations, spiralling off on their own or moving together in fascinating layers of synchronicity. The costumes are floaty, deconstructed streetwear, and the way they group together and spin apart is fluid and naturalistic, beautifully augmented by Julius Eastman's multiple-piano piece Gay Guerilla. With very little arm movement and no lifts, the dancers convey feelings of isolation as well as unity, creating engaging connections that soar and resonate lightly. They also leave us with something to think about after the show. 

For details, SADLER'S WELLS >

conceptual photos by Studio Long • 27.Mar.25

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