Paul Lightfoot, a prolific and multi-award-winning British choreographer with over 35 years in the industry, has created dance as a duo with his former wife Sol León. Yet this is the first time their work has been performed by a British dance company. It seems hard to believe. The pair spent their careers at Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) as dancers and choreographers, with Lightfoot serving as artistic director from 2012 to 2020. However, Cheshire-born Lightfoot trained at the Royal Ballet School, making this a prodigal son situation: the Royal Ballet dancing an evening of the duo's work, including one piece revived from two decades ago and another that originated during lockdown, dramatically recreated for this company.
Distinctive Style and Challenging Adaptation
The style of dance is highly distinctive, influenced by NDT's longtime director Jiří Kylián. It is full of steps, exclamations, exaggerations, and quirks, with constant switches in tone and timbre. The Royal Ballet's dancers are accustomed to demanding, ultra-contemporary movement, but it is evident how challenging it is to fully absorb a new style. It is fascinating to see dancers play against type, such as Vadim Muntagirov, a classical prince, now an ultra-serious, starkly angled figure in Shoot the Moon (2006). He is one of five protagonists on a clever rotating set where different rooms and relationships come into view. The piece is not so much a story as a set of moderately opaque situations. The style can be divisive: Euro arthouse angst, well-dressed people in crisis set to Philip Glass. Nevertheless, it is always a beautiful crisis.
Mesmerising Performances
The dancer most impressively invested in the work is Lauren Cuthbertson, who seems almost reinvented for this piece. At one point, a live camera feed on stage shows a close-up of Cuthbertson, her facial expressions as frantic as her body. She is mesmerising, like a silent movie star scrolling through different roles—puffed cheeks, villainous pout—which could be comical if she were not so committed. However, there are so many expressions and steps, saying so much, that it almost says nothing; it tries to tell a hundred stories, but sometimes one story is enough.
Salle de Danse: A Reinvented Ballet Class
Reinvented for the Royal Ballet, Salle de Danse is an hour-long piece roughly based on the template of a ballet class, with a huge cast of dancers from across the company. Titles of exercises are projected onstage—tendus, ronds de jambe, pirouettes—although often there is only a cursory nod to the title step before heading off in another direction. Some of it becomes repetitive, with recognisable tropes recurring. But when there is contrast, it is stunning, especially a central section with the whole company in unison, moving their arms with the steely intensity of an archer taking aim. Additionally, the incongruous appearance of Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambé, sensual and slow, seems beamed in from a different ballet.
Highlights and Shortcomings
There is cheekiness and brief moments of tenderness, such as in a lovely pas de deux for couple Calvin Richardson and Marco Masciari. The power moves are great, with virtuoso jumps given supple invention, and some joyful whoops of movement. It is all wildly impressive, but overall the evening leaves the heart rather untouched. Although the enthusiasm of the cast is certainly touching, it is a worthwhile homecoming. Performances continue at the Royal Opera House, London, until 20 June.
