[Review] Blake Works V – William Forsythe’s sensational evening of dance at La Scala

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Blake Works V is the fifth programme that William Forsythe has built on the music of the English musician James Blake. Blake Works I was a piece created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 2016; The Barre Project was created during a period of lockdown, filmed in 2020, and streamed in 2021; and the new Prologue has been created on La Scala's dancers – Blake Works V contains these three works. Forsythe suggests that the structure of the programme is like a dance class: the warmup (Prologue), the barre (Barre Project) and the centre (Blake Works I). As in a class, each part has its importance, and each of Forsythe's pieces is a jewel.

Blake's music sets the tone for the evening. The electronic sampling is often choppy, flying off on tangents: Buzzard and Kestrel, from his debut EP in 2010, was used in The Barre Project (for a most unconventional barre with Tiler Peck and ‘her boys') and recalls some of Thom Willems' music for Forsythe. Forsythe and Willem's ballet In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated premiered in 1987, the year before Blake was born. Forsythe has also chosen pieces that create a dreamscape of sound, such as the meditative, Lindisfarne (from 2011) which has short, sung, fragments of sound, with words that are almost unintelligible. It chants like a mantra and is exceptionally seductive, pulling in a hypnotised audience towards the dancers on the low-lit stage for Prologue. It is music that many will already know from the multiple-hands-on-the-barre sequence in The Barre Project, and this filmed excerpt from 2020 was projected to cover the scene change between the first two pieces.

Although Forsythe has talked in the past about wanting to leave Balanchine et al behind him, it is difficult not to make the comparison. The men share a sly simplicity in their groupings and sequences of steps that are often more complex than they look, and both boast great musicality. Forsythe doesn't mimic the music, or perversely go against it – the choreography and the score are like two parallel streams, travelling in the same direction and flowing at the same rate, but each with its individual eddies and currents. Although the steps in all three pieces are technically challenging, they are not difficult for the audience to follow, and this directness goes straight to the heart. Also, like Balanchine, he doesn't throw away the rulebook, but builds on tradition and modifies conventional movements.

Long-limbed Maria Celeste Losa was a central pivot for much of Prologue, which is a piece for seven dancers. The choppy incantation of Lindisfarne is not reflected in the movements onstage as the dancers fill the silences, as though in their heads the music is continuous. In an outstanding group, Giulia Lunardi and Navrin Turnbull made a fine couple, and Domenico Di Cristo's closing solo was affecting.

The Barre Project (which is Blake Works II, if you're counting), saw Martina Arduino in the Tiler Peck role. It's difficult to get Peck out of your head with her fast-switching contrast between lyrical slow motion and crisp dramatic turns at the barre, and with New York City Ballet in her DNA she can be playful with the off-balance steps on pointe, and in the streamed recording she delighted with moves straight off the ballroom floor towards the end of the piece. Arduino was maybe softer overall, but harmonious and technically assured – it was a convincing performance. Francesco Mascia and Nicola Del Freo, who joined her, were thrilling. The virtuoso dancer, Federico Fresi, the third leading man, here seemed out of place.

For Boston Ballet last year (Blake Works III) Forsythe added in two more dancers and for the Dance Theatre of Harlem last January (Blake Works IV… keep up!) the piece was enlarged for a group of 15. At La Scala, the stage filled towards the end of the piece, as though anticipating and linking to Blake Works I with its 22 dancers.

Blake Works I, set to songs from James Blake's introspective album The Colour in Anything, is constructed like a jazz piece where the band gives way to the trumpet solo that is taken over by the bass, and then everyone comes together again just before the singer sets off scatting – groups give way to pairs that turn into solos, and then suddenly the stage is full again.

Forsythe's choreography uses épaulement extensively with deep bending from the waist; ample, long, and soft port de bras; brisés and entrechats and there are even grand gargouillades in the mix – it's a homage to the ballet tradition. But then there are contemporary-dance walking passages too; Les Patineurs-style ice-skating steps; catwalk sashaying; jazzy hip bumping; lots of changing direction so just when it seems that a dancer is commencing on a conventional manège, they suddenly swivel and alter course. It's dense with ideas but comes across as natural and playful. And it's absolutely riveting.

Gioacchino Starace and Benedetta Montefiore stood out in their duet, and Marco Agostino with Maria Celeste Losa were impressive and moving in the closing moments. Andrea Risso was elegant and personable, and Domenico Di Cristo, Francesco Mascia, Saïd Ramos Ponce, with Giulia Lunardi particularly caught the eye, though the entire ensemble was outstanding.

The sensation that arrived abundantly from the stage was that the dancers were having one hell of a time, showing off all that they could do, and enjoying every moment. As did the audience.

Blake Works V – Teatro alla Scala, 12 May 2023

Prologue

The Barre Project

Blake Works I

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.