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Morphoses/ The Wheeldon Company

Published Thursday 25 September 2008 at 12:30 by Gavin Roebuck

Yeovil-born choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has created the first transatlantic ballet company with a base in New York and at Sadler’s Wells. Programme one has four works.

Polyphonia is a blend of classical ballet and contemporary techniques for four couples, set to ten piano pieces by Gyorgy Ligeti, with each passage of music being a different dance. Wendy Whelan dancing with Tyler Angle was a delight. Sir Frederick Ashton’s beautiful Monotones II, influenced by the moon landing, to Satie’s Gymnopedies saw the lithe Maria Kowroski make her debut in the role lifted from the opening horizontal to the vertical splits and being turned like a chicken on a spit by Rubinald Pronk and Edward Watson.

Pronk didn’t look quite at ease in his role, which he, too, was performing for the first time. Other Dances by Jerome Robbins to Chopin was danced with spirit by Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia, though they could have brought out more of its amusing joy.

Commedia, a new work for eight dancers by Wheeldon to Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, has Commedia dell’Arte-style costumes and set by Isabel Toledo. This is a light, merry piece with columbines and Pierrots.

Newcomer Beatriz Stix-Brunell is a beautiful-looking dancer, who at the age of only 15 held her own against the well-established artists, including the Royal Ballet’s Leanne Benjamin. Stix-Brunell is taking class with the Royal Ballet this week.

This well-balanced programme is well worth a visit.

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