Sylvie Guillem & Russell Maliphant in PUSH
It’s been a very, very long time since I last felt inspired to post anything here, but after going to see Russell Maliphant and French ballerina Sylvie Guillem performing Maliphant’s PUSH at the London Coliseum on Saturday night, I felt I had to write something.
Now I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what I’d make of it; although I’d heard of both dancers (so they must be pretty darn good!), my appreciation of ballet doesn’t really extend far beyond Miss Piggy dancing with Rudolf Nureyev on the Muppet Show, and watching the Royal Ballet’s Tales of Beatrix Potteron the telly at Christmas. My knowledge of contemporary dance is even more non-existent (think “pretending to be a tree at infants school”-level).
So when I took my seat for PUSH, which comprises of three solos and one duet - Solo (Guillem), Shift (Maliphant), Two (Guillem), and Push (Guillem & Maliphant) - I had no idea what to expect.
Solo, performed to the Spanish guitar of Carlos Montoya, is a beautiful contemporary piece, with hints of flamenco and more classical ballet (well, to my uneducated eye at least). Guillem - bathed in wonderful light - is truly incredible; astoundingly flexible, her movements are both graceful and quick. I could certainly see why she’s been described as the greatest ballerina of her generation.
Although a solo piece, Shift sees Maliphant accompanied on stage by his own shadow. Michael Hulls’s incredible lighting really transforms the slow, graceful yoga/tai chi-like movements into something rather special. Narrow beams of light from the front of the stage create six panels on the backdrop, forming large silhouettes of Maliphant. The different angles of the lights mean that at times there are up to four Maliphants on stage, each slightly different in appearance. Moving and thoughtful, not to mention very clever.
Two was my favourite piece of the evening. Guillem is trapped in a box of light, which she begins exploring with her arms and head. Her movements become faster and more intense as Andy Cowton’s score increases in intensity. By the end she’s swirling about furiously, optical illusion making her movements almost strobe-like, her hands and feet taking on the appearance of flames as they break the edges of the box. Utterly, utterly mesmerising.
As the lights came on at the interval, it took me a moment to come back to reality, such was its spellbinding nature. The video below will give you an idea of what I’m trying to describe, but it can’t quite capture the impact of sitting in the dark experiencing it live (as one of the commenters points out, the video’s camera angles aren’t great).
The final piece, Push, is an intimate, sensual duet between Maliphant and Guillem. It begins with Guillem kneeling on Maliphant’s shoulders as he walks on stage, and for much of the 30 minute piece she barely touches the floor, snaking and twisting around his body. Gorgeous stuff, full of balance and counter-balance, strength and grace. Maliphant is clearly a great choreographer, and both he and Guillem are incredible to watch.
In her review in the Telegraph, Sarah Crompton describes PUSH as “dance you want to watch for ever”, and that it “lingers in the mind long after the curtain has fallen.” Very true - I was totally blown away, and left the Coliseum feeling that my eyes (and mind) had been opened to a whole new art form.
This evening of dances choreographed by Russell Maliphant for himself and Sylvie Guillem comes about as close to perfection as dance can.
I may not know much about dance, but I can’t imagine it gets any better than PUSH either.
I had a feeling you’d enjoy this (considerably more than you expected) when you mentioned you were going. So you’ll be spending your evenings watching Darcy Bussell vids on youtube now then, eh?
Even the most optimistic, culturally broad-minded part of me didn’t expect it to be that good. If it’s a choice between watching videos of Darcy Bussell or Rudolf Nureyev in skin tight attire, I’d have to say Bussell is considerably more appealing.