Perspectives review, the Royal Ballet – A divisive trio of dances combining fun, confusion and Sufjan Stevens

There’s a tangle of ideas in Perspectives, the Royal Ballet’s mixed bill. Against the Tide, Cathy Marston’s world premiere, has both too much plot and not enough. Justin Peck’s fun, fizzy Everywhere We Go has so many bright notions it risks tripping itself up.

Set to Benjamin Britten’s violin concerto, Against the Tide avoids explicit narrative, but suggests elements of the composer’s life: the Second World War looming, sexuality, pacifism. Chloe Lamford’s set evokes a stony beach, with an arching rock formation, beautifully lit by Fabiana Piccioli. Anne-Marie Woods’s costumes are bohemian 1930s, all open-necked shirts and bright colours. Conducted by Martin Georgiev with violinist Vasko Vassilev, the music is stormy and satisfyingly textured.

William Bracewell is boyish and conflicted in blue, hanging out with male friends, though Nicol Edmonds’s tailored uniform suggests a recruiting officer. Matthew Ball materialises like a vision: a beautiful boy, an enticement. Melissa Hamilton, in stern grey, looks like a muse figure; where Bracewell’s duets with Ball are sensuous, his dances with Hamilton are entangled but austere.

Marston and her dramaturg, Edward Kemp, are drawn to story ballets with a touch of abstraction. The Cellist, her award-winning work for the Royal Ballet, had a tendency to ramble, but brought some bite to its images of the artist and the demands of art. Though it’s elegantly danced, Against the Tide becomes predictable. These are types at play, without enough drive to give them inner life.

Peck’s Everywhere We Go has drive to spare. It’s a large-scale set piece, bubbling over with energy. Created for New York City Ballet in 2014, it sets 25 dancers moving through sporty, intricate moves. Behind them, Karl Jensen’s backdrop shifts from one geometric pattern to another, while Sufjan Stevens’s score has a cinematic sweep.

open image in gallery

It opens with three men standing, each with another lying at his feet, echoing his movements like a shadow stretched on the floor – until, in a twist, the shadow catches and cradles his person. Peck enjoys setting up formations, then playing with them. Dancers run on in blocks, with lines breaking away in unexpected directions or individuals jumping up out of the crowd. Mayara Magri and Luca Acri are athletic and teasing in a duet full of call-and-response back-and-forth moves. Sae Maeda whizzes through at lightning speed.

At 40 minutes, it’s a long work – and feels longer because it has at least two finales before it’s anywhere near over. But there’s no shortage of brio, and I love the alertness of the dancing. Some of Peck’s partnering, and a repeated falling image, could be a nod to George Balanchine’s Serenade, which opened the programme – a radiant, lyrical beginning, with airy dancing from Fumi Kaneko and Leticia Dias.

‘Perspectives’ is in repertory at the Royal Opera House until 2 December, with tickets available here