By: Suzanne Cleave
English National Ballet’s Body & Soul is a double bill of striking dance that explores the core of human experience and connection.
The first part – Body & Soul (Part 1) by choreographer Crystal Pite, weaves together intimacy and collective power in a work first created for the Paris Opera Ballet. The second part, Proper Conduct by Kameron N Saunders delves into identity, emotion and human connection.
Body & Soul (Part 1) opens with two dancers, dressed in black suits and white shirts, one on the ground and one pacing back and forth. They begin to move to words spoken in French, which describe their actions and which are repeated throughout.
More dancers join, moving in the same way, creating hypnotic motion across the stage. It doesn’t matter if you can’t speak French – the movement speaks for itself.
The choreography is captivating, with perfect timing by the dancers, who are all amazing. You feel the resistance and tension, with glimmers of hope and connection – highlighting the conflict between wanting to belong and maintaining a sense of self.
Proper Conduct considers how the individual is seen through the eyes of society, shaping how people move through the world.
Against a simple black backdrop, a dancer dressed in a white clown-like costume asks the audience to look underneath the surface of their lives to see the rot underneath.
What follows is a sequence of colour and happiness, one which is slowly peeled away to reveal an underbelly of darkness and corruption.
Body & Soul is not a conventional ballet. It’s a thought provoking, visually mesmerising piece that showcases amazing choreography and blends classical movement with contemporary ideas. It’s a great production – you will be thinking about it long after you leave the theatre.