'The Suit' and 'Ingoma' by Ballet Black at the Linbury Theatre

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing a double bill of ballets danced by Ballet Black in the Linbury Theatre underneath the Royal Opera House. The two ballets were 'The Suit' based on a novel and choreographed by Cathy Marston, and 'Ingoma' (which means 'song') which was based on the miners strike in South Africa in 1946 and was choreographed by Mthuthuzeli November, one of Ballet Black's dancers. While I really liked 'The Suit', I loved 'Ingoma'.

'The Suit' is the tale of a man, a woman and a suit. We meet the couple waking up in the morning while the man gets ready for work but he forgets his briefcase and has to return home to find his wife in the arms of another man. He soon scarpers leaving behind his suit, shirt and tie. The man then chooses to rub his wife's nose in her infidelity by keeping the suit on display in their home so she can't put it behind her. It gets to be too much and she hangs herself with her lovers' tie. There's a lot more to this ballet than that since Ballet Black is a troupe of seven dancers so, while the couple are dancing, the other five members play as a washbasin, a toilet. random people in the street on the man's way to work, a really inventive approach to minimal staging  but a lot going on.

The second ballet was a lot more abstract and very imaginative. All seven dancers were on stage for most of the time in one of the most energetic performances I've seen in a long time. How on earth they do that is beyond me. It was a mix of ballet and African dance along with some acting and wielding pick axes since they were miners and wore wellies. Yes, wellies, but imaginative wellies that at one point also served as drums. I told you it was imaginative.

Two moments. There was a really tender pas de deux near the start when two lovers dance together when he gets home from working in the mine. They're clearly lovers and you can tell it a mile off as she wraps herself around him and he carries her before she exits on pointe, backwards diagonal tippy. Another when the four women dancers are energetically thrilling in African dance mode and then suddenly lift up on pointe and totally change the mood of the dance. I was all 'wow' what can possibly happen next? It's a serious piece about a serious subject but I was enthralled by it and would love to see it again.

The lighting was excellent, based around the light from pit helmets, the staging was great with one area roped off as the mine and filled with coal and rocks, but it's the dancers that make it work. I think Mthuthuzeli November, the choreographer, was dancing the lead male role but I'm not sure since I didn't buy a programme. I loved it and want to see it again. I hadn't heard of Ballet Black before but, now that I have, I'll keep my eyes open for more performances. Well done people!

'Trio ConcertDance' at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House

The Linbury Theatre has re-opened in the Royal Opera House, newly refurbished in glowing wood in the basement of the building, a far more intimate space for smaller dance and music pieces. The opening show was 'Trio ConcertDance' with the wonderful Alessandra Ferri dancing so I had to get tickets. One of the really good things about the Linbury is that you can sit right in front of the stage, mere feet away from the dancers, and can see the focus and emotion on their faces as they dance. The programme was devised by Alessandra and Herman Cornejo (our dancers) and by Bruce Levingston (solo pianist for most of the performance).

It's made up of four joint dances and one solo dance but both dancers, contrasting movement and stillness, silence and music, minimal costumes and no scenery or background expect for that created by the very subtle lighting. We were in the fifth row from the stage and had a perfect view of the stage. The sound is perfect in the Linbury, purpose-built for that. Other than the endless stairs going down, down, down to the stalls, it's a great venue for music and dance.  

From those opening moments I knew we were in for a treat. Alessandra is a delight to see dance, all grace and precision  and perfectly accompanied by Herman, who I haven't seen dance before. A selection of choreographers and music pieces working together with the solo piano and the dancers moving around the stage, using every inch. It was really quite astonishing, just two dancers and a piano creating do much on an otherwise empty stage.

Oddly enough, Bruce Levingston was on stage and playing far more than the dancers danced. Some of the breaks were simply him playing different pieces with an otherwise empty stage and that break from movement really helped to emphasise one of the themes of the work, that sometimes you need stillness.

The performance ended to huge applause for the three leads but where were the flowers for Alessandra? I've grown used to the lead ballerinas getting flowers at the end of the performance that it was very odd to see Alessandra leaving without flowers. I would've brought some if I'd known.