Evolving Dynamism

English National Ballet’s latest mixed bill presents a trio of works from William Forsythe, a dancemaker known for slanting ballet into new gradients, some playful, some confrontational, all of them spirited and agile. Two of the works here are new acquisitions for ENB, including a 1992 quintet on its first outing in the UK in three decades, while the third revives a much-loved ensemble piece created on the company in 2018. Between them they capture Forsythe’s evolving dynamism, the way he continues to reshape his own style and his choreographies along with it.

Performance

English National Ballet: “Rearray (London Edition 2025)” / “Herman Schmerman (Quintet)” / “Playlist (EP)” by William Forsythe

Place

Sadler's Wells, London, UK, April 12, 2025

Words

Sara Veale

Sangeun Lee and Rentaro Nakaakig in William Forsythe's “Rearray (London Edition 2025).” Photography by ASH

Take “Rearray (London Edition 2025),” which started life as a 2011 duet for Sylvie Guillem (an early muse) and Nicolas Le Riche, and has since been reworked to include a second male role. The dancing has a deconstructivist streak, chipping away at ideas of harmony and balance with irregular silhouettes and configurations, all wrapped in a ribbon of nonchalance—the casual costumes and offbeat energy, the atonal music, which chimes in at unpredictable times and rarely syncs with the movements at hand. Shapes emerge, disband, retreat into shadow; lights blink on and off during and between phrases.

Henry Dowden, Rentaro Nakaaki and Sangeun Lee dance near, and sometimes with, each other, occasionally touching as they deliver long-line arabesques and angular port de bras. Lee is a silky presence among all this discord, feline in her arched poses and sauntering bourrées. The mannered veneer to it all fell flat for me—the choreography and delivery both veer on the confusing side of enigmatic—but I could have watched Lee’s fluid allongé for days.

English National Ballet. in William Forsythe's “Herman Schmerman (Quintet).” Photography by ASH

By contrast, it’s straightforwardly spunky in “Herman Schmerman (Quintet),” a throwback to the early days of Forsythe’s uber-athletic shakeup of classical ballet. The piece is fast and furious, a confetti cannon of bouncy allegro performed in tomato-red Lycra. You’d expect a certain ‘get-a-load-of-this’ archness to accompany the high-voltage movement vocab, but ENB’s dancers bring a down-to-earth vibe to all the springing and strutting and bounding, offering bright, cheerful smiles. You get the sense they could dart even further, kick even higher, but are choosing to bask rather than showboat.

They do some delicious things with time as they move through various tableaux, sinking into poses and carving out half-beats of extra hangtime before swishing into new ones. Aitor Arrieta is deft in his brawny solo, halting his kicks and twists in time with the accents of Thom Willen’s zinging score, and Francesco Gabriele Frola wows with his tornado-like tours. Meanwhile, the three women of the cast bring finesse to a series of syncopated port de bras, Swanice Luong especially, who struts a fearsome catwalk downstage.

Precious Adams and Junor Souza in William Forsythe's “Playlist EP.” Photography by ASH

We wrap up with “Playlist (EP),” another virtuoso-styled offering, this one doled out to pop and dance tracks—part of Forsythe’s more recent foray into the celebratory, approachable side of ballet. It’s been in the ENB rep for seven years now, and the company looks very at home with its pumping rhythms and slinky choreography, now reworked to incorporate new music, including Khalid’s “Location,” the soundtrack to a tango-esque duet. There are frisky pirouettes, pinwheeling promenades, sassy dance battles, all played out with coy eyes on the audience, the dancers taking pleasure in their own pageantry and willing us to do the same. It’s thoroughly winsome.

If I have one grumble, it’s that the earliest version of “Playlist” was created for the men of the cast and the current incarnation still feels like it belongs to them; the centrepiece and undisputable climax is an all-male number to Lion Babe’s “Impossible,” dedicated to vaunting their flair, which they handle like pros (living up, fittingly, to the jerseys sporting their names on the backs). The women are less self-possessed in their own sections—composed to be sure, but struggling to break away from perky perfection and ease into the swagger. In any case, the dextrous step combos are a joy from start to finish, especially Precious Adam’s breakneck switch leaps into Junor Souza’s arms.

Sara Veale

Sara Veale is a London-based writer and editor. She's written about dance for the Observer, the Spectator, DanceTabs, Auditorium Magazine, Exeunt and more. Her first book, Untamed: The Radical Women of Modern Dance, was published in 2024.

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