Another ballet triple bill. We had great seats, middle of the front row. Unfortunately Eric was ill and didn’t get well in time so I went on my own.

Jiři Kylián, Wings of Wax. I’m pretty ure I’ve seen something by Kylian before but I can’t find a mention of him on my blog so I can’t remember what it might have been. Wings of Wax was set to lovely music by Bach and Glass and Cage and (a new one for me) Heinrich Biber. The choreography was soft, simple, light and lyrical, and closely tied to the music. It reminded me a bit of Balanchine’s Agon in how the dancers’ movements seemed like an embodiment of the music, but softer. Lovely.

Ohad Naharin, Minus 16. This piece was in turn made up of several smaller pieces, and the connections between them were not very clear to me. The first and by far most memorable of the pieces has a name of its own, since it is built around a song: “Echad Mi Yodea”. It starts with twenty dancers sitting on chairs in a semicircle at the front of the scene. The song – and the dance – consists of repetitions of the same verse, with new phrases added to the front of the verse with every repetition. The dancers throw their bodies around, and throw their clothes and shoes off. I liked the dancing but I really loved the music – intense, powerful and energetic.

Other parts of Minus 16 were less interesting. Some were simply unmemorable. Others were crowd-pleasers, such as inviting people from the audience to the scene, or just “letting go” dance party style and seemingly dancing without any choreography. It makes the audience laugh and clap their hands, yes, but it’s not what I came for.

Mats Ek’s Woman with Water is actually inserted in between parts of Minus 16. (That’s how disjointed Naharin’s piece was.) Very Mats Ek. He makes the world and the human body look alien. The dancer’s back is hunched as if she didn’t quite fit inside the world; she moves around a table as if she was completely unfamiliar with tables.

All three photos by the Royal Opera.