Conic Section

Nederlands Dans Theater 1 is one of the world's greatest dance companies, and One of a Kind, the full-length 3-act work by ex-Artistic Director and continuing choreographic eminence Jiri Kylian playing this week at Sadler's Wells, once again demonstrates why.

The flame of modernism burns bright in this piece, pure and uncompromising; no place here for narrative, representation or -- heaven forfend -- jokes. But it's a modernism that is genuinely modern, so much richer and more nuanced than its po-faced progenitors. Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham may have paved the way for Kylian, but beside the incredible detail and complexity of One of a Kind their work looks simplistic and clumsy; like the original Asteroids next to Halo 2. Such is progress.

One of a Kind revels in abstraction, but even more so in beauty. It makes the most extraordinary demands on its dancers, which they meet without blinking. Their precision and strength and unshakable control defies belief. Married to the stark but perfect lighting and the stark but dizzying sets, their movement manages to catch something eternal and unmistakeable and yet at the same time entirely novel. One can watch, knowing that the piece has been performed dozens or hundreds of times, rehearsed perhaps thousands, and still imagine that no human bodies have ever created such gorgeous, reality-defying shapes before. That what you are seeing is -- not all the time, but more often than it has any right to be -- a revelation.

If the mythology of Low Life were true, these would be powerful spells capable of transforming the world; and it is and they are.

It's on for two more nights. It's not cheap. It's probably sold out. Go and see it.
Posted by matt at June 17, 2005 12:27 AM