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.

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photos by Gregory Batardon • 26.Mar.25

Dance: Walking on air

Corps Extrêmes Extreme Bodies
by Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse
conception Rachid Ouramdane
with Nathan Paulin, Nina Caprez, Airelle Caen, Hamza Benlabied, Yamil Falvella, Löric Fouchereau, Peter Freeman, Ann Raber Cocheril, Belar San Vicente, Maxime Seghers, Seppe Van Looveren
music Jean-Baptiste Julien • video Jean-Camille Goimard
lighting Stéphane Graillot • costumes Camille Panin
Sadler's Wells, London • 23-24.May.23

A mix of extreme athleticism and acrobatics performed with a dance sensibility, this show from Paris' Théâtre National de Chaillot maintains a wonderfully mesmerising tone. Unfolding at a gentle pace, it's a demonstration of strength and balance that often boggles the mind. And it flows across the stage with an unusual fluidity, speaking to the human need for both individual achievement and a little help from our friends.

Upon a climbing wall that fills the stage, a film is projected documenting French highline artist Nathan Paulin, who holds the world record for the longest high-wire walk at 2.2km (nearly 1.4 miles), as he traverses a vertiginous cliff. The camera swirls dizzingly around him and sometimes sits on the ribbon with him while he describes in voiceover the freedom he feels in the sky. Then Paulin appears on a line above the climbing wall, performing a series of skilled balletic moves right above us.

Then he takes a seat and watches as eight climbers appear at the top of the wall, descending with almost uncanny elegance before performing a series of choreographed acrobatic moves on the stage. Their liquidity often makes them look like waves swelling and crashing, as they throw each other into the air, up onto the wall and onto each other's shoulders, tumbling on the floor. They also begin interacting with Paulin on his wire.

Another film is narrated by Swiss rock-climber Nina Caprez, who climbs the stage's wall alongside herself on the cliff's face, dangling precariously from an overhang as Caprez recounts a fall and rescue. This then informs the continuing group performance, which becomes more entwined and emotive as these athletes put their fierce physicality to use without ever seeming to strain a muscle. Their ease and precision are so beautiful that we forget how difficult these movements are.

With its dreamlike tone and a steady flow of goosebump-inducing stunts, this is an often breathtaking combination of dance with sport. So what it says about human physicality and the intrepid spirit of adventure is fascinating, revealed in a visceral way that takes us up into the sky with the performers.

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photos by Pascale Cholette • 23.May.23