Last Updated on June 12, 2026
The Royal Ballet Excels in a New Choreographic Language
3.5 out of 5.0 starsThe dancers of The Royal Ballet are truly special. We knew that, of course, but to see the way in which they mastered the totally alien choreographic language of León and Lightfoot was heart-warming. The double bill So Are We marks the first time work by the Netherlands-based choreographic duo, Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, was performed at Covent Garden; but you wouldn’t know it from the assurance and verve the company brought to it.
León and Lightfoot spent the best part of their careers with Nederlands Dans Theatre (NDT). There they absorbed, and in turn contributed to, a very specific style of contemporary dance, inspired by the company’s long term director, Jiří Kylián, and the giant of Dutch contemporary dance, Hans van Manen, to whom Sol León dedicates the new ballet Salle de Danse.
It’s a very specific, very theatrical style of movement, intensely physical, often spiky, with signature moves like high extensions, flapping hands and exaggerated facial expressions. At times it quotes from what went before, but distorts it to create something new. It is cerebral, often absurdist, yet asks for an emotional reaction.
The first piece in So Are We was created for NDT in 2006 (the Dutch company performed it at Sadler’s Wells six years ago). Entitled Shoot the Moon, it’s a cinematic work, borrowing its aesthetic from silent movies. In a revolving set depicting three interconnected rooms two couples and a single man enact difficult, tormented relationships to the second movement of Philip Glass’s ‘Tirol Concerto’.
Glass’s post-minimalist work, with its recurring, soft piano line, creates a wistful, melancholy mood. The first couple, Vadim Muntagirov and Anna Rose O’Sullivan, appear to interrogate each other, initial softness giving way to anguished, jerky gesturing, hands clutching heads. He lifts her delicately, but next thing she’s sitting on his back. The set revolves slowly to bring on the second room and another couple, Lauren Cuthbertson and Matthew Ball. Theirs is a more fraught relationship, and as the third room rolls on it appears she is having an affair with its occupant, a mysterious Lukas B Brændsrød.
Some of their interactions are filmed in real time (take a bow Bennet Gartside, transitioning effortlessly from dancing Widow Simone to skilled camera operator), and projected in black-and-white on large screens overhanging the stage.
Shoot the Moon is a visually stylish, emotionally charged piece, but I felt towards the end it was struggling to fill the music, which was played live by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Matthew Rowe, with Robert Clark on the piano.
Something else that León and Lightfoot absorbed from their stay at NDT is the Dutch dislike of hierarchies, and Salle de Danse, the hour-long work that premiered in this programme, is a statement of equality, assembling 45 dancers from across all ranks of the company with no distinction of rank.
Over the years dancers’ daily class has inspired ballets such as Harold Lander’s famous Études. In Salle de Danse León and Lightfoot take that model, captioning each section with the steps it should concentrate on – for example ‘Adage’, ‘Petit Allegro’, ‘Piqués et Grandes Pirouettes’ – but then offering movement that goes its merry way, with little or no reference to the title.
Danced to an especially commissioned score by Russian composer Ilya Demutsky, the bulk of the piece is bookended by surreal duets for Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambé, a pair vaguely reminiscent of circus ringmaster and dainty acrobat.
For the remainder of the hour, principals like Natalia Osipova rub shoulders with Aud Jebsen programme newbies, like Tristan-Ian Massa, in twenty sections of dance, some of which build on the specific characteristics of individual dancers, such as the flexibility of principal Melissa Hamilton, partnered by artist Martin Diaz in ‘Étirements’. I found many of the sections a bit same-y and the predominantly black visual – costumes, set, denuded wings – cried out monotonous. However, there were very special moments, such as the duet between Calvin Richardson and the ever engaging Marco Masciari, that opened the ‘Adage’ section, followed by a blink-and-you-missed it pas de deux for Marianela Núñez and Patrício Revé.
Worth doing? On balance, I think so.
So Are We: León & Lightfoot is at RBO 10 to 20 June at 7.30 pm
Dur.: 2 hours approx incl one interval. Tickets £7 to £139 (discounts available – try code LIGHTFOOT30)
Royal Ballet and Opera
Covent Garden
Bow Street|
London WC2E 9DD
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