31 January 2009, Royal Opera House, London
2 years and quite a few dance shows later, my all-time favourite is still Royal Ballet’s DGV. And my memory, anticipation and uberly-high expectations did not fail me… watching it the 2nd time was just as good as the first.
The name of the piece Danse à Grande Vitesse (DGV) mirrors the piece of music used Musique à Grande Vitesse (MGV – by Michael Nyman), which was specially commissioned for the opening ceremony of the Paris-Lille TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) service.
Choreographed by ballet’s golden boy Christopher Wheeldon, the dance piece is really stunning. The choreography perfectly matches the music and the theme of commuting and trains. Beautiful lifts and turns, round and round, like the wheels of a train. The music is so powerful and with the accompaniment of huge sweeps of movement by the dancers dressed in sleek dancewear, it’s hard not to hold your breath.
Interestingly, I saw this a few months ago…I remember so much of DGV but have limited recall of the other two pieces. Some of the more interesting things…Seven Deadly Sins’ two main roles were played by Royal Ballet’s Zenaida Yanowsky and Martha Wainwright (who sang… love her singing!) where Martha Wainwright shadowed and narratively sang out her sister Zenaida’s fall into immorality. Carmen had some humour infused into it and some cool formations and set staging.
Can’t wait til DGV comes round again! I scoured the internet for the soundtrack after I first saw it in 2007… managed to Ebay it, woohoo! Not quite sure why it was so hard to find.
Anyway, yes, hurry up Royal Ballet, bring it back again soon.
Eat Your Art Out 