San Francisco Ballet: Wheeldon Mixed Bill: Edinburgh Playhouse
Devoting an entire programme to the work of a single choreographer is a big deal, especially when the choreographer is alive and early-ish on in their career. It's a pretty big deal if they're dead, but Christopher Wheeldon is very much in the pink, so San Francisco Ballet dancing three of his works that won a brand spanking Edinburgh Festival commission, is something to make you sit up and pay attention.
The question, of course, is whether the 30-ish Royal Ballet-trained, New York City Ballet-based Wheeldon deserves the compliment. The answer is very probably yes, although the sunnily disposed choreographer would be the first to admit that there is not much competition (you can count the number of classical dance makers on the fingers of one hand and still have a thumb and two fingers to spare).
The San Francisco Wheeldon salute runs chronologically, starting with There Where She Loved from 2000, followed by Continuum (2002), and then Rush, a piece new for this year's festival. The last two were created for the San Francisco troupe, and the company seems entirely attuned to Wheeldon's aesthetic. Rush has a big feel, a scale echoing Martinu's score, although Continuum was probably the better dance. Less new, more settled, it is a stunning series of solos, duets and group dances set to Ligeti's piano music and separated by stage blackouts (these, and lighting that silhouettes the dancers, are Wheeldon favourites).
Style-wise, Continuum clearly refers to Balanchine (practice clothes, plain sets, etc), although it is still very much Wheeldon's gig. There is ingenious partnering and unexpected moves, plus perfect lines and articulations, and a sort of lush refinement, or maybe that's a refined lushness. Wheeldon is also expert at pace and timing, as well as the ever-baffling human heart.
There Where She Loved is a suite of dances set to songs by Chopin and Kurt Weill that gently remind us that we often say the opposite of what we mean. Made for the Royal Ballet, Wheeldon has refreshed it for San Francisco, adding emotional depth in the process. Indeed, it's indicative of Wheeldon's talent that watching the ballet you forget the hideous interior of the Edinburgh Playhouse and instead see your passions and pains made flesh.
- Until 30 August. Box office: 0131 473 2000.
