Sadler's Wells Theatre
Friday night after my first 8 hours as an intern (more about that soon), I headed off to Islington and Sadler’s Wells to see the American Ballet Theatre on tour since I’d missed them when I was in NYC a few years ago (having opted to see Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet from SF instead). My seat was nearly at the back of the theatre but I could see everything and I had my handy set of tiny binoculars from Auntie A. Besides, I only paid £8, totally worth it.
ABT was performing two programmes on this particular tour. I opted to see programme one, which included four pieces: Seven Sonatas choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky; Known By Heart (“Junk”) Duet choreographed by Twyla Tharp; Duo Concertant choreographed by George Balanchine; and Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once choreographed by Benjamin Millepied. Going in I was most excited to see the pieces by Tharp and Balanchine, having read Tharp and knowing that Balanchine was a pivotal choreographer in ballet history.
The show was very good. My favourite pieces were Junk Duet and Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once. Seven Sonatas was pretty and nice, but overall it didn’t leave a big impact. I mostly remember ‘white’, ‘flow-y’, ‘soft’. Junk Duet struck me and I liked it quite a lot. I can’t remember specifics though, it’s amazing how much detail our brains filter out as time passes by. Especially when we look back at some moments and can remember the most insignificant details, but I digress. Duo Concertant was intriguing in that Balanchine played with the musicians getting their due time to shine on the stage as the dancers stood and watched. Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once was my favourite piece of the night. It broke down the 4th wall in an interesting way that I’ve yet to see done before. Halfway through resetting the stage, the lights slightly dimmed and the current rose. It was evident that no one was certain we were supposed to be seeing the crew working or the dancers still in the warm ups. We watched the crew lay four panels of marly and the dancers run through warming up and mini run-throughs. Slowly I began to notice that fewer and fewer of the dancers were wearing warm ups. Then suddenly all 20 something of them lined up around the edge of the “stage” and the lights changed in a heartbeat. All the while that this has been going on, the small orchestra is setting up and warming up behind the new “stage” laid down by the crew. This last piece was the kind of ballet that I really enjoy, contemporary ballet, not quite contemporary, but new and exciting with fewer of the classical lines and more daring behind it.
