Dance review: Four new works ‘New talent, new challenges’

Each plotless work was preceded by a short film introducing the choreographer and explaining a little about their work. The performance began with Gemma Bond’s Boundless – a ballet supposedly inspired by children in a playground. Fast and frenzied, it was full of energetic movement but lacked the playfulness and levity of children (ironically, this was much more apparent in the final work, Twinkle). Yasmine Naghdi shone in the lead, with Ryoichi Hirano coping with some tricky lifts, but the short black and grey tutus made some of the dancers look chunky.

Next came Joshua Junker’s Never Known. Junker has obviously been influenced by Crystal Pite and Hofesh Shechter and this could be seen in the way he used the large cast (dressed in plain boiler-suit costumes) in group movements. It looked rather bleak but was nonetheless compelling: at times, the choreography had a slow, Matrix-like feel to it; lifts were extraordinarily complex, steps were seamless. Junker is one to watch.

Mthuthuzeli November’s For What It’s Worth was a joyous exploration of black South African dance, drawing on the spirit of singer Miriam Makeba. Set under 16 orange lights, the audience was transported to the hot, sunny plains of Africa and the dancers obviously loved every minute of it. November fuses classicism (the women wear pointe shoes) with African dance and it is a thrilling combination. He also wrote (with Alex Wilson) the music and I certainly heard echoes of Simon Jeffes’ wonderful Penguin Café Orchestra in some of the melodies.

The evening ended with Jessica Lang’s Twinkle, a fun, frothy work set to Brahms’ famous lullaby and Mozart’s variations on the tune we know as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Fumi Kaneko is light as a feather, zipping through her variations with a sense of mischief. The ballet does go on rather – I felt like I was in a child’s bedroom with a musical mobile that wouldn’t switch off – but it was certainly charming. Filled with comic touches, it is a happy piece with which to end this interesting exploration into new choreography.

New Works at the Royal Opera House is on until 21st February. Other events in the Festival of New Choreography take place until 25th February.