ROH, International Draft Works 2024 Review ★★★★★

Altogether 10 choreographers from the UK, continental Europe and South Korea showed their work in this year’s edition of International Draft Works hosted by The Royal Ballet in the ROH Linbury Theatre; and they brought us variety, sincerity, uniformly beautiful dancing and some originality.

Three of the 10 choreographers presented duets inspired by love. Nicola Wills of Opera Ballet Flanders authored Two People in Love Never Shake Hands, which she danced with Philip Lens – an intensely sensual, progressively darker piece danced in soft shoes to a score by Joel Beving, and based on continuous movement and the distortion of classical lines and lifts.

IDW Opera Ballet Flanders, Two People In Love Never Shake Hands
Florent Melac of Paris Opera Ballet made Moonlight to Beethoven’s eponymous sonata and danced it with Cleménce Gross .An impassioned piece, which didn’t particularly innovate, it nevertheless gripped with the sense of foreboding that permeated its flowing movement, and the perfect mutual understanding of the two dancers.

My particular preference, though, was for Ignored But Not Withstood, by Olmo Verbeeck Martínez of Semperoper Dresden.There is a very special pleasure in watching two beautiful young people clearly enjoying their dancing. Martínez and his partner Anri Sugiura – long-limbed, graceful, elegant feet in pointe shoes stabbing the ground with assurance – danced his classical choreography with deep chemistry, contagious joy and impeccable skill.

Truly innovative work came from Joseph Toonga with his New Work for The Royal Ballet and Barbora Rašková, of National Theatre Brno with Act Naturally.

Toonga, the holder of The Royal Ballet Choreographic Residency for the current season, is a hip hop man; and his New Work, performed by Olivia Findlay and Nadia Mullova-Barley brings hip hop to bear on classical ballet. The lower body goes through classical steps on pointe while the upper body, arms and head take on the jerky, spiky, agonistic moves of street dance. It’s an uneasy marriage, but one that quickly wins you over.

Rašková’s Act Naturally is a delightfully humorous piece for four dancers set to music by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, which astutely observes people’s attempts to look natural and unconcerned, while looking increasingly ill-at-ease. With its quirky movements and easy colonisation of the entire stage, this work brought much needed levity to the evening.

Elsewhere the constellations inspired Andromedae by Lucas Lima of Norwegian National Ballet; grief and loss generated Liminal Goodbye by Madeline Squire of Scottish Ballet; while Tetra, by Lachlan Monaghan of Birmingham Royal Ballet, meticulously responded to the startling variations of Schumann’s Piano Quintet op 44.

The evening opened with Season: Spring from Youngcheol Lee of Korean National Ballet (pictured top), which featured glorious, sinuous dancing by Byeol Kim; and closed with Royal Ballet principal Matthew Ball’s To & Fro, which he performed with fellow Royal principal Mayara Magri.

Ball is developing into a very interesting choreographer, bursting with ideas; this vibrant and athletic piece, strikingly costumed by Megan Hall and inspired by the swing of a pendulum, has daring lifts combined with brief moments of tenderness. It would perhaps benefit from a little streamlining, but is, nevertheless, proof of a talent of note and was performed with terrific commitment by both dancers.