Review: English National Ballet, R:Evolution, Sadler’s Wells

English National Ballet’s R:Evolution guides audiences through some of the most influential choreographers of the last century: George Balanchine, Martha Graham, William Forsythe, and David Dawson. A tasting menu of ballet’s evolution over that time, the programme and its choreography are exceptional. Execution, however, varies.

Opening with Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, the show doesn’t have the strongest start. The corps isn’t quite in sync when it should be, and a few steps aren’t as sharp as the choreography and music require. It’s a piece and style that demands almost inhuman precision, something that is perhaps unfair to expect of fallible human dancers, but when beats aren’t quite hit, it really shows.

The performance finds its way in the latter half, with solos from principals Alice Mariani and Ricardo Castellanos becoming stronger as time goes on and the corps increasingly moving as one. It finishes triumphantly, in true tutu style – and is both the first and last ‘classical’ piece of the evening.

Martha Graham’s Errand Into the Maze, inspired by Greek mythology, is minimalistically, thoughtfully designed. Lines snake across the ground, and the dancer’s costumes shoot into the air at the back of the stage; an abstract moon hovers in the distance. A contrasting wooden structure stands downstage.

Graham’s technique is characterised by breathing, contraction, and release. Emily Suzuki’s control is immense, moving between the two states flawlessly and building up an increasingly anxious atmosphere on stage. The pas de deux with Rentaro Nakaaki, an ominous, inhuman figure (‘The Creature of Fear’) who appears almost six-limbed with the addition of a yoke, is unsettling and expressive, a push-and-pull tension in the narrative mirroring that of their bodies.

Moving forward to 1992, and William Fortsythe’s Herman Schmerman (Quintet) brings an irreverent, cheeky mood at odds with its predecessor. Five dancers, dressed in popping orange leotards, move around the stage casually, teeing each other up for miniature solos with nods of the head. The piece moves between sinuous movements and sharp, spiky jolts, keeping the audience on their toes. It’s most effective when it leans into its humour; it sometimes feels as though we’re looking in at a rehearsal room, each dancer doing their own thing and trying to one-up the person next to them. Both lyrical and bright, it’s a lively companion piece to Graham’s Maze.

Closing the night is Four Last Songs, the most modern of the four ballets, which premiered in 2023. Bordering on acrobatic, it’s full of Dawson’s deceptively effortless lifts that see dancers rise into gravitationally impossible figurations with what looks like no preparation or difficulty. Having a singer (soprano Madeleine Pierard) on stage gives the dancers another presence to bounce off of, reaching towards her in the third song and drawing a more tangible connection between movement and music. 

These latter two ballets have moments of shining grace, but as with the first piece, there’s an issue with synchronisation. One sequence in Four Last Songs seems as though it may totally disintegrate from a whole, and, in Quintet, the connection between the dancers isn’t quite tight enough. It’s a shame; these are evidently talented dancers, but as a group, their individualities prevent them from having a singular, collective impact.

Nonetheless, R:Evolution is an excellent showcase of some of the greatest choreographers of the last century, and there’s sufficient variation across the programme for audience members to find something they can connect to, no matter their tastes. It’s also a reminder of how varied and fast-moving the world of ballet is.

Created by Aaron S Watkin
Choreographers: David Dawson, George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Martha Graham
Composers: Richard Strauss, Gian Carlo Menotti, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Thom Willems
Librettist: Hermann Hesse
Musical Director & Conductor: Maria Seletskaja
Set Designers:  Roberta Guidi Di Bagno, Eno Henze, Isamu Noguchi
Costume Designers: Roberta Guidi Di Bagno, William Forsythe, Yumiko Takeshima, Martha Graham
Lighting Designers: Beverly Emmons, Jean Rosenthal, Marco Filibeck, Bert Dalhuysen, Tanja Ruhl

​​R:Evolution is running at Sadler’s Wells until Saturday 11 October