OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 18 November 2011

ONCE upon a time there was a dance company in Wales called Diversions.

IT grew and it grew until a couple of years ago it changed its name to National Dance Company Wales. On the strength of a scintillating evening in Inverness, this was definitely the right thing to do. Any country would be proud to have this company as its international dance ambassadors.

Eran Gisin performing Ohad Naharin’s Black Milk (photo Roy Campbell-Moore)

The opening piece was Spanish choreographer Gustavo Ramirez Sansano’s Quixoteland,which recycled Minkus’ music for Petipa’s 1869 Don Quixote into something rich and strange, full of allusions to the well-loved tale of the ageing knight-errant. Imaginative set design by Luis Crespo Portero featured forests of lances and a huge clockwork windmill, but did not distract from appreciation of the dancers’ athleticism, stamina, and skill. Bregie van Balen’s costume designs were delightful, particularly the nappy-clad Cupid. However, even without the benefit of set or costumes the dancers’ confidence, acting ability and musicality would have been completely charming.

The second half of the programme began with an astringent work of pure dance by Canadian company member Eleesha Drennan. Her own dancing is rather reminscent of Scottish Ballet’s Diana Loosmore, strong, committed, precise, and she demands no less of her dancers. Phantoms of Us was stripped down, sparse and tight, a challenging 18 minutes for the cast of eight, but they rose to it. Clad in nude bodysuits with nowhere to hide after the initial smoke cleared, their interwoven bodies at times looked like a fragment of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, tortured souls, fainting and supporting each other in a moving display of comradeship.

After a brief pause, B/olero, the first of two works by Batsheva Dance Company’s Ohad Naharin featured a superb duet by Drennan and Lee Johnston which was everything that dance should be. It even managed to make the sound of Ravel’s sadly over-exposed ‘Bolero’ bearable. Black Milk followed, an arcane, sacramental ritual for five male dancers; Rembrandt would have reached for his paintbrush in the first moments, but by the end he would have handed over to Matisse. Powerful stuff.

© Jennie Macfie, 2011

Links

• National Dance Company Wales
• Jennie Macfie