Bloc vote winner in Overture

10 April 2012

If you were planning a community-dance project for 120 children from ordinary London schools, you probably wouldn’t suggest the Royal Albert Hall nor Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony. Tinkly-winkly Tchaikovsky, perhaps, or the hip-hop latest, but the 10th? Nor would you ask children to evoke the composer’s life, nor the bleak Soviet era when millions went to the gulags.

Yet choreographer Royston Maldoom has assembled a group of eight to 16-year-olds (as opposed to stage school semi-professionals) to do just this. The scale of Maldoom’s ambition is extraordinary and it’s matched only by the children’s success.

Their understanding and stage presence was assured, with not a step forgotten — no mean feat with the 50‑minute 10th Symphony. Indeed, Overture 2012 was better than many professional ballets I’ve seen at the Royal Albert Hall, not only in terms of filling the difficult space but also in its authenticity and directness.

The performance is in the style of a "movement choir". The multi-culti, mixed-ability children danced in loosely synchronised waves and eddies, then lines, chevrons and circles, and then formed groups to evoke protests and parades that reminded you of Antony Gormley’s Field. Two older boys played Shostakovich and Stalin, with the group cowering and then cheering at the dictator’s death.

The London Symphony Orchestra was rather upstaged by the children who left you marveling at what can be done when you aim high.

Dance Umbrella 2008: The Royston Maldoom Project: Overture 2012
Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP

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