The mostly female, near capacity enthusiastic house last night for BalletBoyz confirmed the proposition that quality will out. On paper, the idea of an all-male ballet company doesn’t, or at least didn’t, seem very attractive – ballet without tutus, white tights and hair in a bun was not something that was going to have mass appeal. But BalletBoyz, as with the all-male Shakespeare company, Propeller, and several others, defied the preconceptions and demonstrated that, if you are good enough, you will succeed, even with mass audiences, regardless of your premise.
Now, it must be admitted that there was a fair proportion of ladies-of-a-certain-age in the audience who had probably booked their tickets to see pert bums rather than perfect pliés, but you can be sure they left the theatre singing the praises of the ballet, not the biceps. Although, it must be said, one ten-year-old girl in front of me was not convinced when she turned to her mother and sulkily complained, “You said it was going be ballet.” She was clearly expecting the tutus and white tights so she was disappointed, but in all other respects this really is ballet. All familiar classical moves are there – the arabesques, brisés, fish dives – the only thing missing is en pointe.
The BalletBoyz current programme, Life, consists of two pieces. The first, Rabbit, immediately put me in mind of Peter Brook’s seminal A Midsummer Night’s Dream from many years ago. The scene was bare save for a swing hanging from ropes in the far corner, while the stage was enclosed in a vast, towering grey cube. Sitting wistfully on the swing was a rabbit – or at least a man in grey with a very realistic rabbit’s head – while a dancer, in different shades of grey, danced a solo. The rabbit then joined in as the two interacted and were joined by eight other men in grey with rabbit heads. The wonderful music, Henryk Górecki’s Kleines Requiem für eine Polka, was at times dramatic and at others comic, as was Pontus Lidberg’s inspired and witty choreography. The setting made the Everyman stage look bigger than I have ever seen it and James Farncombe’s lighting was beautiful.
The second piece was a very different kettle of fish. For Fiction the entire company, in sweat shirts and track-suit pants, was at a rather anxious and tense class on a completely bare stage except for a bar. As they went through their positions a voice read, rather fragmentedly, the fictitious obituary of the piece’s choreographer, Javier de Fructos. The voice happened to be that of Jim Carter (yes, he of Downton Abbey), then another voice came in (this time Mrs. Carter, Imelda Staunton) reading the same text. Later Sir Derek Jacobi even had a go and it all got even more jumbled. As the cacophony of voices faded away and the music took over, things in class became very fraught and some scuffles broke out – not at all what you would expect at a normally very disciplined and important part of any dancer’s life. Ben Foskett’s original music was perfect and again there was some striking lighting by Mr Farncombe.
It is difficult to pick out individual dancers because there is not a vast amount of solo work with BalletBoyz, but overall they are impossible to compare. Their work is original, creative and imaginative and above all, cultured and immaculately executed. I find it impossible to fault BalletBoyz – I love ‘em. ★★★★★ Michael Hasted 2nd June 2016
