[Review] Empower in Motion: A Ballet Inclusive – “A joyous celebration of all people dancing”
Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel sees Empower in Motion: A Ballet Inclusive, celebrating the charity Children Today
| Title | Empower in Motion: A Ballet Inclusive |
| Company | Various |
| Venue | Sadler’s Wells, London |
| Date | 7 February 2024 |
| Reviewer | Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel |
Empower in Motion: A Ballet Inclusive, a fundraising event at Sadler’s Wells, brought out the best of people, leaving its audience hopeful in times of conflict and uncertainty. Celebrating the charity Children Today, the event brought together the support of several organisations including National Youth Ballet, the Royal Ballet School, iCanDance Stopgap dance company, Propel Dance, the Royal Academy of Dance, and the Buffini Chao Foundation. The event, produced by ENB dancer Henry Dowden and choreographer Ross Freddie Ray, was introduced by Grace Spence Green, a junior medical doctor who suffered a spinal cord injury five years ago and now driven by her advocacy on inclusive representation for disability.
The programme included a diverse range of artists, including Joe Powell-Main in a ten-minute duet with Hannah Rudd in Sleepwalker (originally created in 2023 for the Greenwich Docklands International Festival and produced by Alexander Campbell and choreographer by Kristen McNally) and in his own solo choreography, Passionately Defiant. Powell-Main is one of the key inspirations for this event, as Ray outlines that against all odds, the former Royal Ballet School White Lodge student, who suffered a spinal injury, was to rise again and forge his career within the realms of inclusive dance.
As the drop curtain rose, Powell-Main and Rudd shared the large, empty space of the Sadler’s Wells main auditorium. Their glances, together with their trajectories and meanderings, seamlessly brought together these two different bodies. Powell-Main’s differently abled body was as intriguing as Rudd’s. Despite lacking in a broader range of dynamics and speed, the choreography brought out both dancers’ highly honed temperaments and tenacity to hold the audience’s attention. Propel Dance’s Rebecca Fowler (Snow Queen) reminded the audience that inclusive practice entails offering a space to others who may not normally have the privilege of performing on the acclaimed London stage. Final year students Emile Gooding and Tianie-Finn Grainger (The Royal Ballet School, ‘Ode to a Love Lost’) glided through Maia Rose Roberts’ well-crafted choreography. The highlight for Act 1, and indeed the entire evening, was Stopgap Dance Company’s ‘Tight Textures & Unplugged‘. Quirky, agile and at times tongue-in-cheek, Tight Textures brought out the diverse physicality of the company dancers. Hannah Sampson is, as always, an engaging performer and shines in Tight Textures. Similarly, Nadenh Poanh defies the physicality of being chair-bound in ‘Unplugged’, a solo which demonstrates Poanh’s eclecticism in and out of his wheelchair. Closing the first act was The Owl Falls, a duet for ballet stars Maria Kochetkova and Daniil Simkin. Sebastian Kloborg’s choreography, at times quite clichéd, felt eclipsed by the charisma of the dancers.
The second leg of the charity gala offered more diversity. Parable Dance and National Youth Ballet’s All In! spoke about how mixed ability arts have much to teach its participants about empathy and tolerance; hearing the testimonials from Parable Dance’s young people who dance was both humbling and a privilege. The joyous moments in the Romeo & Juliet duet by Grace Thompson and Zak Smith were simple: the acts of being on stage, sharing the stage, and being appreciated on stage. In Reunion, Denecia Allen (iCanDance) and Alice Bellini (English National Ballet) dialogued through their movements, sharing their space and finding their moments to acknowledge enjoyment and enrichment through their similar yet different steps. Extracts from Giselle and Le Corsaire were staple gala fares which didn’t fail to entertain the appreciative audience. As the corsair, Simkin shone in his stellar fashion, adding a little extra flair to his already illustrious performance.
However, it was Powell-Main’s Passionately Defiant that reminded everyone of that young 10-year-old White Lodger whose spinal injury altered the course of his life in dance. Stoic and determined, Powell-Main showed his audience that life’s hardest challenges can bring much beauty and joy. And that was the spirit of Empower in Motion – that the joy of dancing not only brings differently-abled people together, but that it can also unite and allow young people to thrive.
Dr Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel is a dance scholar, educator and published author. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dance (2003), the Universities of Durham and Surrey, and London Metropolitan University (2013). Her doctoral research focussed on Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces (1923), and the re-imaginings by contemporary choreographers Angelin Preljocaj and Mauro Bigonzetti. Kathrina is a former director of the Society of Dance History Scholars (now Dance Studies Association). Her scholarship on ballet histories has been published in peer-reviewed anthologies and journals, as well as newspapers, high-end magazines, and online blogs. She has authored a book on the legacy of Nathalie Poutiatine and ballet in Malta (Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2020) and co-edited an extensive and pioneering anthology titled The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet (Oxford University Press, 2021).
