This site has limited support for your browser. We recommend switching to Edge, Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.

Are We Not Men?

The small group of dancers that comprise BalletBoyz, in decidedly flammable-looking and garish shellsuits (scourge of fashionistas everywhere in late ’80s-early ’90s Britain) flex, clench fists, and strike up archery poses. It's all about the posturing, here. This provocative, playful piece, “Them,” a collaborative, improvised piece by the company, is all gestural, indicative and suggestive of the shapes teenage boys throw when trying to win over their peers. It's not about mating, or anything cumbersome like that; rather, it is a bonding process between ‘bros.’

Performance

BalletBoyz perform “Them/Us”

Place

Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Scotland, April 14, 2019

Words

Lorna Irvine

BalletBoyz in “Them,” choreographed by BalletBoyz. Photograph by George Piper

subscribe to the latest in dance


“Uncommonly intelligent, substantial coverage.”

Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.

Already a paid subscriber? Login

Hip-hop swag, raw athleticism and looseness, it's all child's play. Or is it? Nothing is so prescribed here, there is a constant tension between what is presented and what is really meant. The lone prop, a massive cube, is both climbing frame and sports arena for the men to swing from, like monkey bars. It's hard not to associate some of the more ironic work here with Damon Albarn, lead singer of Blur, when he performed a kind of English thugishness back in the mid-’90s, despite obviously being a nice, middle-class boy. Irony is steeped in some of the devised choreography.

And yet. And yet. There is so much to unpack within: the men tangle in knots, untangle, tangle again, as though identity itself is a problem to be solved. Playful handshakes become near slaps; aggression is always just a grapple away from playfulness, where toy fights are not to be toyed with. The brothers' fraternal leaps become combative, to the taut pizzicato of composer Charlotte Harding's gorgeous, often menacing strings. Small jerks of the head emulate the plinks of her soundscape. There's always one man left out, watching, mindful, wondering when he gets to leap.

The men occasionally reel like soldiers from shots, or lift each other, and climb to the top of the frame—all are struggling to be the lone wolf; yet conversely, the development of the narrative shifts would suggest they are better, when working in tandem.

A solo by Benjamin Knapper, bathed in outrageous purple light, sees him emulate, variously, Pinocchio, Kanye, and a jazz dancer with rubber for limbs. The frame only enhances the vulnerability of his form, when prone. He could be just another little boy, posing in a mirror, in a provincial Anytown, Anywhere.

BalletBoyz
BalletBoyz in “Us” by Christopher Wheeldon. Photograph by George Piper

No such boyishness, nor such an iconoclastic approach, can be found in Christopher Wheeldon's piece, “Us.” It's more traditional, and precise. To Keaton Henson's gloriously aching score, the ’Boyz seem more like elder statesmen. This is austerity ballet, pared-back and solemn, from the wobbling, cautious poses to the slo-mo phrasing. There is an overarching feeling of working collectively, so when the group pile up and just one dancer falls, it's like a human game of Jenga. Matthew Sandiford particularly impresses with his elegant, almost cinematic samurai warrior poses.

The long, grey button down coats which swing as the men move, restrict them, and when the men are divested of them, and dance in loose white shirts and trousers, so, too, their movements become freer, more fluid. Yogic positions, meditative movement, and being held by hand or foot reinforces collective responsibility. It's more dreamlike now, and mired in ritualistic Eastern dance. Power dynamics only work when the team pull together, after all. Bradley Waller's solo shows him turning in on himself, folding legs and almost rolling himself into a ball. He seems to be consciously making himself smaller, when not part of the ensemble.

Harry Price's sublime pas de deux with Waller is the closer, and it plays with the many disparate tensions in masculine dance pairing. Stripped to the waist, both, Price and Waller square up to each other: at times, they are more like rutting stags than humans; gripping, tumbling, and locked together in mutual mistrust, before embracing and clinging for dear life like lovers.

If masculinity, as with femininity is a construct, the ’Boyz are aware of the poses and tropes which both limit and enhance, particularly on the stage. They deconstruct such notions to perfection, with all of the shades and nuances we have come to expect.

Lorna Irvine


Based in Glasgow, Lorna was delightfully corrupted by the work of Michael Clark in her early teens, and has never looked back. Passionate about dance, music, and theatre she writes regularly for the List, Across the Arts and Exeunt. She also wrote on dance, drama and whatever particular obsession she had that week for the Shimmy, the Skinny and TLG and has contributed to Mslexia, TYCI and the Vile Blog.

comments

Featured

Adrift
REVIEWS | Victoria Looseleaf

Adrift

While Kendrick Lamar performed “Humble,” during his Super Bowl halftime set and was surrounded by dancers clad in red, white and blue—and in the process assumed the formation of the American flag (choreographed by Charm La’Donna)—so, too, did Faye Driscoll use performers who created slews of shapes/sculptures in her astonishing work, “Weathering,” seen at REDCAT on February 8, the last of three sold-out performances.

Continue Reading
Timeless Twyla
REVIEWS | Rachel Howard

Timeless Twyla

Let’s start with the obvious, or maybe to some this notion will be highly disputable, even offensive. OK, then, let’s start with what kept repeating in my head as I walked out of UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, synapses abuzz with the wonders of Twyla Tharp Dance’s 60th anniversary “Diamond Jubilee” program: My God, Twyla Tharp really is the most brilliantly inventive choreographer now alive on the planet.

Continue Reading
Beyond the Stage
REVIEWS | Karen Hildebrand

Beyond the Stage

In Maldonne, French filmmakers Leila KA and Josselin Carré pose eleven women side by side on a barren stage. They’re dressed in floral patterns that hearken to the 1950s. The camera zooms in to frame their faces—each woman is in a state of distress.

Continue Reading
Riley Lapham, the Come Back
TALKING POINTES | Claudia Lawson

Riley Lapham, the Come Back

Today I have the immense privilege of speaking with Riley Lapham. Riley started dancing early in her home town of Wollongong, and by age 14, she had joined the Australian Ballet School. But from here, Riley's journey takes twists and turns. In her graduation year, Riley missed her final performance due to injury. But in a Center Stage-like moment, the then artistic director David McAllister offered her a contract with the company. In this brave and vulnerable conversation, Riley and I talk about what it's like to join a company while injured, and what it was like to deal with...

FREE ARTICLE
Good Subscription Agency