Scottish Ballet, 05/04/2019

Dextera (chor. Laplane, mus. Mozart)

Elite Syncopations (chor. MacMillan, mus. Joplin)

Artists of Scottish Ballet

Scottish Ballet Orchestra

Robert Baxter

Brian Prentice

Rare are the seasons when Scottish Ballet doesn't introduce something new to its repertoire, but they're particularly busy this year, which is the 50th Anniversary of the company, with two full-length works expected for the autumn, and for Christmas.  Also in the quiver was a new commission from the company's Choreographer in Residence, former dancer Sophie Laplane, and it was this that opened tonight's programme, having been premiered in Inverness last week.

Laplane has selected ten pieces of Mozart - well-known pieces, for the most part - and devised a company work of considerable zest and charm.  It's the first piece by her I've seen, I can't say how characteristic of her work it is, but her focus, as the title suggests, is largely on hands.  As the lights go up, there's a single man on stage.  A red glove falls from the sky, which he puts on, and his hand is promptly possessed by it.  The red gloves also appear to confer a kind of physical mastery of others, who are manipulated like mannequins, but they can be stolen easily, and then the tables are turned.  As the work progresses, the dancers gradually eschew the seeming advantages of the gloves, or else ensure that all have them.  Throughout, the movement of hands, whether made extra-conspicuous by gloves or not, is a feature.  

Broadly speaking, it's a fast-slow-fast piece, with a quiet pas de deux in the centre, and a good deal of energy, as well as humour, on either side.  I suppose it could be considered another reflection on the age-old battle of the sexes, but I think it's lighter and more whimsical than that.  It does come across as a celebratory piece, which is clearly appropriate in the circumstances, and it was performed with, I felt, considerable zest.  Occasionally I felt a little more precision in terms of position - arms or legs moved to the same degree, and such like - would have been welcome, but it was a minor point.  The trio called "Ainsi Font", with Nicole Conti, Kayla-Marie Tarantolo and Nicholas Shoesmith was particularly effective.

The second half of the evening was another celebration of whimsy, Kenneth MacMillan's witty and playful Elite Syncopations.  I've seen the company perform this before, a little over four years ago, but it was in their Tramway auditorium, and without the on-stage ragtime band, which I regretted at the time.  However, I found myself with the same reservations as I had then.  Although the performance was certainly peppy, yet there seemed to be a slight degree of restraint all round.  I wasn't getting that extra buzz of the dancers throwing themselves wholeheartedly into their numbers. Only Jerome Barnes in "Friday Night" unleashed that extra degree of vibrancy.  That said, "Alaskan Rag" was very nicely delivered by Marge Hendrick and Constant Vigier (that's the one where the tallest girl and the shortest boy dance together), and Sophie Martin flirted charmingly with a very straight-faced Christopher Harrison as the Bethena Waltz couple.  

Marge Hendrick and Constant Vigier in Elite Syncopations
© Andy Ross for Scottish Ballet, 2019

[Next : 12th April]