Study # 3 certainly provokes a typically Forsythean mix of exhilaration and alienation. It sometimes feels more like an extended study than a piece, and you certainly have to work at it; but its strange alchemy also works wonders.
It can be chin-stroking work, that of William Forsythe, but even when it’s mildly irritating you can see there’s always a brain at work and some awesome bodies too.
You too can dance with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rosas!
The 60 swans who fill the vast arena are certainly a remarkable sight, almost Hitchcockian in their relentless fluttering and swooping. The happy ending, which sees evil Rothbart spontaneously combust down a hole in the stage, is probably the right one in this context.
Even if Deane’s arena-style choreography veers towards Busby Berkeley mechanics, he is very good at keeping the focus of the dance revolving, so that no section of the circular auditorium is stuck with a back view for too long.
On opening night, Tamara Rojo’s Swan Queen had the charisma to fill the whole space.