There’s some debate among the current crop of BalletBoyz about what they have created with ‘Them’, the 30-minute piece that opens this double bill – a really nice bolognese, a carbonara, or a pizza with many toppings. So we learn in the tongue-in-cheek short film the BalletBoyz co-creators Michael Nunn and William Trevitt have made to precede it for the all-male company’s West End debut.
‘Them’ is the first time the dancers have made their own work – becoming the chefs, not just the ingredients – and the Boyz show they have learnt a trick or two from the top-flight choreographers they have worked with previously. It’s a devised piece, made in tandem with Charlotte Harding’s string score, that feels loose, born of spontaneity and authentic. Sequences grow out of simple gestures – a handshake, for instance, leads to a string of tag-team duets, then to a coiling line of all six dancers holding hands. The imposing prop of a cube-shaped frame, flipped and turned repeatedly, provides a climbing frame and a space for thoughtful solos. The work has evolved since its premiere at Sadler’s Wells in March – and there’s a crackling, protean energy as the dancers stretch out into their own creation.
‘Us’, the second half of the evening, is a quite different affair. It started as a short duet by Christopher Wheeldon for a previous BalletBoyz show and has now been expanded. The new first half has all six dancers caught up in a regime where an undercurrent of aggression can be felt in their aligned movements. In this environment, Bradley Waller is physically stopped from making a deeper connection with any of the others – left alone, his solo of slumped resignation and beseeching lines etches out his sorrow and loneliness. Then, bare-chested and Adonis-like, Waller and Harry Price appear for the original duet – a heart-stoppingly tender coming together of two bodies that is both sensual and nurturing, as the pair use their strength as support, and lock eyes with a look of infinite trust. Combined with Keaton Henson’s lushly romantic score, it’s an achingly beautiful ode to love.