Two notable women are the cornerstones of this evening of dance. First is its choreographer, Antonia Franceschi, still recognisable as the ballet dancer from the film Fame back when she was 19. Franceschi danced with George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet – this evening’s short opener, Excerpts from Kinderszenen, is a snapshot of neo-Balanchine – and has since choreographed in the UK and US (she’s artistic director at New York Theatre Ballet).
The second is the subject of the night’s meatiest, most intriguing work, Lee Krasner, the artist whose reputation is sometimes overshadowed by her also being the wife of Jackson Pollock. The piece Prophecy (still a work in progress) is a dance-theatre sketch of her life and her relationship with Pollock, made with writer and director Sara Joyce, with Krasner and Pollock’s words read in voiceover.
Roseanna Anderson is the young Lee, at the centre of a swing club in 30s New York, “determined to devour life. God help anyone who gets in her way.” We see her antagonistic/influential relationship with the alcoholic Pollock, and the subjugation of her own talents to the myth of male genius. She cooks, cleans, renovates their home, squeezes her own artmaking into the smallest bedroom of the house, while Pollock stands in his giant barn-studio, just thinking.
Using substantial text in the voiceover allows the choreography to be often minimal, and effective, highlighting a word or mood with a feisty scribble of hands or a head laid tenderly. The intention is to turn Prophecy into a full-length production charting Krasner’s life, and that’s something I’d definitely like to see.
There’s also a ballet inspired by Krasner’s paintings, called Uncaged. Claire van Kampen’s music, played live, has some of the fragmented mystery and dynamism of Krasner’s art, piano chords like daubs of paint; it speaks to the theme. But the music and choreography – with its elegant unfolding of limbs and careful partnering – don’t obviously speak to each other.
The finest dancing of the night comes from former Royal Ballet principal Edward Watson, who appears in the solo Asylum, part of the show for two performances only. Watson’s Egon Schiele-esque body warps itself around the choreography in this drama for one, a masterclass in shapeshifting.
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At the Mount Without, Bristol, until 22 May
