Jess and Morgs' Arena and Morau's Étude Redefine Ballet at Palais Garnier
In a thrilling showcase at the historic Palais Garnier, London-based duo Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple, known as Jess and Morgs, present their audacious new creation, Arena. This innovative piece masterfully blends choreography with live camerawork, offering a gripping exploration of modern digital culture. The performance peaks with a bravura sequence where dancer Loup Marcault-Derouard leaves the stage, captured on a huge screen as he races through the opera house's imposing halls and staircase, creating a dynamic interplay between live action and video design by Jakub Lech.
Arena: A Dystopian Dance of Digital Culture
Arena opens with understated, percussive coolness, evoking shades of A Chorus Line as an athletic squad limbers up with individual and collective confidence. A voiceover barks "Next please!" while a camera operator glides down the queue, capturing beady eyes, beating chests, and glistening sweat. In the age of Instagram, dancers are ever-ready for their closeups, and this piece frequently frames tightly on faces during port de bras movements. However, Arena exposes the perils of chronically online culture, highlighting the urge to compete, compare, and conform.
Annemarie Woods' costumes add a gladiatorial element, yet this dystopian contest feels deeply rooted in the present day. Marcault-Derouard's character, identified by a number rather than a name, experiences a world unraveling through frenzied solos under a red filter by lighting designer DM Wood, bewildered moments among the corps to Mikael Karlsson's driving score, and isolation in a spinning interrogation room on Sami Fendall's set. When caught in the flash of other dancers' cameraphones, the piece suggests that we are all now subjected to the paparazzi's prying eyes.
While Arena could benefit from greater coherence and emotional punch, it fizzes with ideas and style. Despite its sinister setup, there are lovely bursts of Jerome Robbins-style pep, and it transforms the relationship between performers and camera operator Nine Seropian into a teasing duet. This dynamic offers a better-judged balance between on-screen and on-stage action than most live-filmed performances.
Étude: Morau's Uncanny Ballet Exploration
Paired with Arena in an evening titled Empreintes (meaning "imprints"), Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau's Étude pushes boundaries in its own right. Both pieces use the corps to probe notions of making your mark in an Identikit society, with Morau venturing into Invasion of the Body Snatchers territory. Gustave Rudman's music initially suggests an orchestra warming up, but Morau, known for upsetting convention, opens with an ending as soloist Laurène Levy takes a curtain call with a rictus grin and cyborg blankness, clutching her bouquet and imploring applause.
When the corps joins her, all wearing identical stiff tutus, Morau finds uncanniness rather than uniform beauty in their factory-line similarity. Despite the orchestral sweep, their bourrées appear desperate, and the pliés look creepily arachnoid, creating an overall effect of scuttling rather than fluttering. Morau strips the piece back to its creation, evoking rehearsals at a barre that imprisons the dancers and letting the audience hear them count the music.
Max Glaenzel's set design reflects on the glitziness of the end product, making ballet's broader iconography as uncanny as Morau's choreography. A huge model of the auditorium's chandelier is lowered on stage like a mother ship, bleeping, swinging, and holding the dancers' gaze to question what keeps us in thrall to ballet's chocolate-box splendour. Like Arena, Étude makes full use of the deep stage and acknowledges the rest of the building, directly suggesting that the dancers' unsettling behavior mirrors our own.
Conclusion: A Bold Step Forward for Ballet
Together, Arena and Étude represent a bold step forward for ballet, challenging traditional norms with their innovative use of technology and dystopian themes. At the Palais Garnier in Paris until 28 March, these performances invite audiences to reconsider the boundaries of dance and its relevance in today's digital age. With their audacious blend of choreography, live camerawork, and thought-provoking narratives, Jess and Morgs and Marcos Morau have created works that are both visually stunning and intellectually engaging, marking a significant moment in contemporary ballet.
