I FOUND THE GROUP ROUTINES OF THIS 20 STRONG TROUPE MOST COMPELLING, ESPECIALLY GIVEN THE SPEED OF THE PERFORMANCE

By Madeleine Anderson | Press Invite

Rachid Ouramdane was last at Sadler’s Wells with his sell-out Corps extrêmes in 2023, this month he returned to the venue with the daring and impressive ‘Outsider.’

The performance began with a single dancer dressed in a simple black and beige leotard and leggings, dancing with a combination of precise jumps and loose, wave-like rhythms across the barren stage.

Behind them, a giant screen of simple grey-blue light. Across the stage were taut lengths of black tape that stretched above the floor at jagged angles and in straight lines.

The solo dancer was soon joined by another dancer and the pair danced together using a combination of mirrored dance moves and combative gestures. Before long, they were joined by a rush of other dancers who filled the stage like a flash-mob, running between each other in a highly-choreographed chaos. The swell of dancers (from the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève) flitted between sweeping strides and tight interactions, with smaller groups in the crowd coming together to deliver a precise lift, or a sharply arranged jump.

I found the group routines of this 20-strong troupe most compelling, especially given the speed of the performance. The show uses a combination of massive group routines and intimate and tender solo and small group performances, including lifts that see the dancers look out into the mass of the audience who, for a lot of the performance, feel outnumbered by the rush of dancers on stage.

At every moment, there was a smaller, more intimate scene to watch on stage, although the details of these more discrete moments risked getting lost in the overall scale of the routine.

Outsider includes several heart-pounding minutes of high-level tightrope performance, with up to four athletes balancing high above the stage for minutes of silent routine. The only sound on stage is the occasional clicks of the harness at the performers hips, as they rearrange their carabina’s in preparation for their next move. Bobbing high on the slackline, the athletes look like small birds on telephone wires, especially when the screen behind fades to a dull peach-like sunset.

Throughout the show the insistent sound of composer Julius Eastman’s hypnotic piano was playing, continuing during almost all of Ouramdane’s 65 minute long routine.

The piano started as a hum and eventually grew into a loud, but not uncomfortable, piano beat that punctuated the dancer’s precise movements. The repetitive piano gradually became less hypnotic and more straining as the show went on. When leaving the theatre after the show, I heard one man say: ‘I’ve still got that banging music in my head!’

I didn’t feel that strongly, but it did go on a bit.

Outsider gives audiences a high-level (in more ways than one) performance, with a stirring energy that lingered in my mind well after the show finished. Lacking cohesion at points, this frenetic show brought life and lightness to an otherwise plain set-design.

Outsider was performed at Sadler’s Wells on March 26 and 27, it is part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival.

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Photo Credit: Gregory Batardon