Twice-Born, Scottish Ballet Review
Scottish Ballet’s Twice-Born programme ranges unsatisfactorily from the whimsical to the frankly disconcerting, but with one saving grace
Star Ratings: Dive: 4* Schachmatt: 3* Twice-Born: 2*
A visit to Sadler’s Wells by Glasgow-based Scottish Ballet is normally reason to cheer: a company of excellent dancers presenting programmes that are invariably diverse, challenging and high quality.
Until now. Twice-Born, named after its final piece, a special commission from hip hop dancer Dickson Mbi, was not really up to the standards Scottish Ballet has accustomed us to.
By far the best thing was Dive, the short film that opened the programme. Created during lockdown, and inspired by the painter Yves Klein, it’s a dazzling collaboration between Scottish Ballet choreographer-in-residence Sophie Laplane, stage director James Bonas and film maker Oscar Sansom, a ground-breaking indissoluble marriage between dance and film.
Structurally kaleidoscopic, each of its images bursts unexpectedly onto sections of the screen, sometimes singly, sometimes co-existing. The predominant white of sets and costumes is suddenly drenched in rich International Klein Blue.
There is no narrative, simply interactions between images at times humorous, often surreal, never more so than when an alpaca serenely walks among the dancers, to nobody’s surprise.
The score, too, is an eclectic combination of languorous piano music by Schubert, and pulsating snatches of Walter Wanderley and Lucy Allan compositions.
Always at the forefront of creation, Scottish Ballet was the first UK company to launch a digital season in 2017; when lockdown hit, it was perfectly poised to exploit its possibilities. Dive was a felicitous result of the company’s forward thinking.
Schachmatt (Checkmate), by the Spanish choreographer Cayetano Soto, could perhaps be described as a bit of highly-drilled, highly-skilled fluff.
Scottish Ballet dancers in Cayetano Soto’s Schachmatt as part of Twice-Born bill. Photo: Andy Ross
A piece for ten dancers kitted out as a cross between jockeys and bellboys, it’s to a large extent an homage to the great American jazz choreographer Bob Fosse, admired by both Soto and Scottish Ballet director and CEO Christopher Hampson.
It’s danced on a chessboard (though if you’re sitting in the stalls that may not be apparent) to a soundtrack of popular 60s Latin American songs. It’s short and sweet and a lot of inconsequential fun, more suited, perhaps to a music hall stage; but it’s a great vehicle for these beautiful dancers.
In contrast, Mbi’s Twice-Born is a seemingly endless 50-minutes muddle.
Principal Marge Hendrick (Centre) in Dickson Mbi’s Twice-Born. Photo: Andy Ross
Heavy on befuddling concept, it starts with an arresting image, when the slow lighting of a dark stage (lighting design Jessica Hung, Han Yun) reveals a rugged hostile mountainside (set Ruby Law), which fairly dwarfs the woman crouching beside it – the always mesmerising Marge Hendrick.
We are either in a post-apocalyptic world or in a pre-historic one, who knows? A large cast sways and moves in sequences clearly influenced by Pina Bausch, Hofesh Shechter, Akram Khan, Africa tribal dance et al, with no choreographic identity of their own.
In the second part another woman, gloriously danced by Rishan Benjamin, takes the lead. A bit like the chosen maiden in The Rite of Spring, she dies, but unlike the chosen maiden her spirit rises high above the stage.
First Artist Rishan Benjamin in Dickson Mbi’s Twice-Born. Photo: Andy Ross
There are moments of beauty, but Mbi’s ambitious effort (he also composed the score) needs heavy surgery, and above all a dramaturg to shape a clear narrative.
© Teresa Guerreiro
(Banner image credit: First Artist Rishan Benjamin in Dickson Mbi’s Twice-Born. Photo: Andy Ross)
Scottish Ballet’s Twice-Born is at Sadler’s Wells 6 – 8 March 2025
Friends of Scottish Ballet can watch Dive on its digital platform here