ENB's Body & Soul: A Tale of Two Choreographers at Sadler's Wells
The English National Ballet's latest production, Body & Soul, presents a fascinating double bill at London's Sadler's Wells theatre, running until 28 March. This ambitious programme contrasts the emerging talent of Kameron N Saunders with the established mastery of Crystal Pite, offering audiences a rich exploration of contemporary ballet themes.
Kameron N Saunders' Genre-Fluid Sci-Fi Fable
The headline news in this production is the major commission given to Kameron N Saunders, best known as Taylor Swift's star backing dancer. Saunders, who has also worked with Chicago's Joffrey Ballet, demonstrates his early career ambition with Proper Conduct, a high-concept dance piece that throws a huge amount of ideas into the mix.
The work begins with breezy ballet in the style of Justin Peck, featuring saturated colours and sunshine. However, Saunders quickly pulls the rug from under the audience's feet. A sci-fi-voiced narrator describes societal rot, leading into striking formations of nude-costumed conjoined dancers, whose fleshy connections are executed with excellence by the ENB ensemble.
The piece then introduces an army of AI robots wearing Daft Punk-style visors, creating visually impactful, genre-fluid movement. While the choreography is compelling, the narrative meaning remains somewhat elusive. Is Saunders warning against those who dictate how to live, suggesting they might steal your soul? Or is he critiquing big tech's false promises to solve problems while erasing humanity? These questions linger, but Saunders' creative ambition shines through, promising more intriguing work from this emerging choreographer.
Crystal Pite's Masterful Contrast of Order and Emotion
It is perhaps slightly unfair to compare Saunders' early work with that of Crystal Pite, the other choreographer featured in this double bill. Pite is such an established artist that her exceptional craft in composition, movement creation, and emotional excavation is virtually taken for granted.
Body and Soul (Part 1), originally created for Paris Opera Ballet, forms the second half of the programme. Built around French text describing directions and body parts, the piece transforms plain descriptions like "left, right ... fight" into profound explorations of human relationships through different permutations of dancers.
Pite consistently explores the contrast between concord and discord, order and human messiness. Her dancers move between hunched, protective stances and long, stretched-out limbs, creating clear shapes with gloopy transitions between them. The choreographer sculpts bodies en masse into rippling waves before pulling focus to individuals or couples to cut to the heart of emotional matters.
The English National Ballet dancers rise magnificently to Pite's challenging choreography, demonstrating their versatility across both pieces. This double bill offers London audiences a compelling study in contrasts: between emerging and established talent, between sci-fi speculation and human emotional truth, and between the promise of technological order and the beautiful messiness of human connection.
