Royal Ballet: Monotones I and II & The Two Pigeons, London
Frederick Ashton was a 20th-century English romantic, a choreographer who was inclined towards lyricism and storytelling. In the plotless ballet Monotones I and II, Ashton took inspiration from two Satie scores, Trois Gymnopédies and Les Gnossiennes, to choreograph in a style of limpid simplicity, which he himself described as “expressing nothing but itself, and thereby expressing a thousand degrees and facets of emotion”. By contrast, his 1961 ballet The Two Pigeons is a fable about love and lost innocence, set in 19th-century Paris and accompanied by John Lanchbery’s arrangement of music by André Messager.
Royal Opera House, WC2, Wed to 5 Dec
Christian Rizzo: D’Apres Une Histoire Vraie, London
French choreographer Christian Rizzo is also a designer and visual artist, and in most of his work his choreography is closely integrated with the imagery of his set and costume design. For his latest production, however, Rizzo focuses principally on the muscular and expressive power of his eight male dancers. Inspired by a performance Rizzo saw in Istanbul, he recreates the powerful sense of community and tradition embodied in Turkish folk dance.
