Emergence Choreography by Crystal Pite

Entress Choreography bu Julia Cheng

Review by Aislinn McSharry

The Festival Theatre

Scottish Ballet’s evocative Emergence displayed sheer artistic and choreographic innovation – an exciting and inventive concept-driven ballet.

Divided into two parts – Entress and Emergence – both pieces strikingly thematised conformity, oppression, power, demonstrative forces, and the role of the individual against this. Visually spectacular, the audience were enthralled throughout, arrested at each dynamic turn.

The world premiere tour of choreographer Julia Cheng’s Entress showcased a woman (Kayla-Maree Tarantolo) struggling against the demonic forces of the underworld-like setting around her. Expertly performed, Tarantolo’s character is engulfed by the fiendish ensemble, whose precision and synchronicity stunned, from minuscule hand movements to militaristic running sequences. She rebels against this, experiencing extreme oscillations of power, often gaining control of them, for example when she swerves through their reed-like legs. The quick transitions between ensemble pack-movement and individual dance sequences excite and maintain an upbeat momentum to Cheng’s work.

Rishan Benjamin’s ethereal figure, outside of the societally structured ensemble, becomes paralleled with Tarantolo, and their final sequence together exhibited a gorgeous unity, intimacy, and partnership. Isobel Waller-Bridge’s score incorporated soundscapes and silences, as well as string instruments, a beautiful exploration of the thematic elements.

After the interval came choreographer Crystal Pite’s Emergence, a commanding exhibition of ensemble-driven work, complemented with smaller group pieces, within which all performers excelled. Highlights include the prologue section, an intimate and passionate duet between Jessica Fyfe and Rafael Bejarano Vidal, and the intimidating crow-like female ensemble, often mechanically and ominously whispering their dance counts from one to six, and who, at one stage, vertically crossed the stage en pointe in an omnipotent formation, dispelling the male dancers trying to cross them. Annabelle McCoy specifically enthralled in Emergence as the solo woman in the quartet section, charismatically commanding the stage with her elongated and open movements.

Jay Gower Taylor’s set design stunned: reed-like black lines were scattered in a circular formation against the sunset-orange background, all which centralised around a tunnel that was utilised by the dancers in performance.

The thematically well-paired pieces excite; however, the overall night of ballet could have benefitted with a slight variation of these darker themes. Nonetheless, the showcase of Cheng and Pite’s work was the night’s biggest success, which the Artists of Scottish Ballet executed so succinctly and expertly. This celebration of female choreography – detailed as a priority by Scottish Ballet Creative Director Christopher Hampson before the curtain rose – certainly did not disappoint, offering an electrifying piece of balletic work.

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