George Piper Dances, the company formed by ex-Royal Ballet dancers William Trevitt and Michael Nunn, has been doing good business since its debut in July, not only touring to an impressive number of venues but acquiring some extra repertory en route.
However, the fact that the duo have been so overtly pushed as the troupe's selling point, and the fact that their chosen nickname Ballet Boyz has stuck so hard, may not be good for the project long-term. (For two men in their 30s who want an extended career in dance, that name and all its cheeky-chappie implications may at the very least become an embarrassment.)
During the pause between dances, snippets from the pair's homemade Channel 4 documentary, Ballet Boyz, are screened on stage; at the end of the first half, a camera follows Trevitt backstage, allowing him to chat to us and invite us to get our interval drinks. The Boyz want us to be their friends, but while their laddish charm is appealing, they're not superstars. Audiences won't always warm to the way they trade on their personalities, and may start demanding that the dancing speaks for itself.
Not that the Boyz' material is inadequate. The mainstays of their current repertory - Russell Maliphant's Critical Mass, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon's Sigue and William Forsythe's Steptext - are serious if ill-matched pieces of dance that the troupe perform reasonably well. Matthew Hart, a new addition since July, relishes every competitive second of Steptext, and Nunn and Trevitt haven't lost the edge of their own performing styles. I'm cheered by their interest in commissioning new choreography, though disappointed that their first acquisition, Charles Linehan's Truly Great Thing, doesn't live up to the choreographer's own standards.
It's a scrupulous, slightly introvert piece for five dancers in which the choreography progresses in waves, allowing small details to blossom into brief climaxes of energy and subside again. Linehan's style is fluid and organic; the dancers' bodies swing, fold and stretch with beautiful ease along the phrases of Julian Swales's music. But the score and dancing ultimately feel aimless. The deliberately simple moves don't strive for the trance rigour of minimalism, nor do they progress along bold formal lines. The whole piece just happens, and when it stops there is no sense that any truly great thing has been achieved. It simply confirms the fact that, for their next season, the Boyz need to build up a programme distinctive enough to match their sparky personalities.
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