★★★★★

“the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins”

Writer, composer, director, choreographer and producer, Romain Rachline Borgeaud is the force behind RB Dance Company. Formed in 2018, the aim was to mix tap dancing with urban jazz, bringing the former to a ‘darker, more grounded, heavier place’. Borgeaud fell in love with Gene Kelly when he was a young child, citing him as the reason he started dancing. His passion for movement and music drove him to take the art form and fearlessly experiment, but at the same time paying tribute to traditional musical theatre. “Stories” was born, parts of its early inception making their way into the finals of France Has Got Talent (“La France a un Incroyable Talent”).

The mix of traditional tap with modern street jazz, urban music and rap has produced a simply stunning and sensational fusion. Thrown into the mix are production values that tip the scales. A synchronicity with lighting, sound, percussion and music stirs in its precision as well as its emotional punch. “STORIES – was born from a gathering – that of a pack driven by a persistent, vibrating, visceral need to move” writes Borgeaud in the slightly esoteric programme notes for the show. But while the performers are moving, we are motionless, rapt and frozen in our seats almost afraid to blink.

The show is not just a dance piece. Yet it isn’t musical theatre. It is cinematic in its scope but intimate in its language. The story follows Icarus – a young actor – under the oppressive control of his director. He’s desperate to escape, but unable to. There are obvious parallels with the Greek myth of Icarus, with the director being a Minos figure. The narrative follows an equally labyrinthian arc that is sometimes hard to unravel, but the beauty is that the interpretation belongs to us. There are references to Faust too, but also a strong link to the feelgood, golden age of the nineteen-fifties and the likes of ‘Guys and Dolls’. All coated with a fine glossy veneer of Film Noir.

It is all brilliantly told and despite being written, directed, choreographed and scored by the one man, there is a clear-cut collaborative feel. Loosely split into four segments: ‘Run’, ‘Stop’, ‘Fall’ and ‘Rise’, it is seamless throughout. Without pause, the coordination never misses a beat or steps out of line. Alex Hardellet’s lighting is an essential part of the choreography – the virtuosity of a concert pianist is required to operate the cues at the desk! Federica Mugnai’s constantly changing set designs are as intricately woven into the staging, at times flowing to the rhythm like big-budget CGI transitions. The trust between performers and creatives is an unbreakable bond. But moreover, the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins.

Tap dance as you have never seen before, brought high-kicking right into the twenty-first century. “Stories” is cross generational – modern but steeped in traditional virtuosity. It has its own vocabulary, yet there are no words. Instead, the emotional fragments of the story are swept up into a breathtaking music and dance spectacle. After seventy-five minutes we are quite breathless but would gladly continue watching for another seventy-five. Unmissable. In short, ‘incroyable’.

TUTU at the Peacock Theatre

★★★

“all six dancers look mighty fine in mini tutus and costumes, and all have beautiful classical technique – and legs”

Tutu is dance-theatre from the French dance company Chicos Mambo, performed by a company of six male dancers who don’t take themselves too seriously.

The evening opens with what is certainly a female silhouette (Corinne Barbara), wearing a white tutu as she spins. The curtains open and the six male dancers of the company, wearing huge pink tulle trouser tutus, dance and lollop and fall to a classical ballet soundtrack.

There were some stand out dances, as the scenes moved from classical to contemporary, aerial to ballroom with a nod to Strictly and Dirty Dancing, to street dance and a Russian female gymnastics team with hoops and ribbons, all performed by the six lovely dancers, with individual physiques and characters.

The title Tutu is a nod to ballet’s most classical costume and all six dancers (Marc Behra, David Guasgua, Julien Mercier, Kamil Pawel Jasinski, Vincent Simon and Vincenzo Veneruso) look mighty fine in mini tutus and costumes, and all have beautiful classical technique – and legs!

What does not land so well is some of the very French comedy within the piece – with some difficult moments to watch involving a leak prop and tutu like vegetable headdresses on the dancers.

Tutu is choreographed by the French company’s Artistic Director Philippe Lafeuille. Tutu was created ten years ago, but this is its first residency in London, and it does feel somewhat dated. Chicos Mambo was created in 1994, when it would have been a genre defining dance company, with its clever subversion of gender norms in dance. But today, if male dancers are to take on the female dance steps en pointe in female costume, then they need to dance it better than the competition! It worked and was fun when the male company looked in pain dancing en pointe but to pastiche and try to take it to the next level, is just not possible, unless they can surpass the classical female ballet dancer, which they can’t, however hard they work. The aerial ballet solo, literally never got off the ground, firmly placing the dancer en pointe at the end of his not so beautifully arched feet. You wanted him to fly – but maybe that was the message a male dancer can’t fly en pointe….

Some of the more exciting scenes were those that didn’t necessarily include slapstick moments, like the Nappy ballet with the company all in nappy tutus being babies taking their first steps and moves in a beautifully funny choreographed piece – which sadly fell flat as the babies did, when it ran out of ideas. A lovely Dance of the Cygnets’, with the quartet dressed in duck costumes with beaks, again with very funny and clever choreography! A stunning Swan Lake solo, purely of the sinewed muscular back and arms of a dancer, as the back frame and quivering arms worked their magic, with strong lighting by Dominique Mabileau, assisted by Guillaume Tesson.

The highlight of the evening, for me, was the stunning solo from the bearded dancer, dressed in mini tutu and a rugby helmet. This was classical dance interspersed with the physically macho and vociferous grunts, as he flipped into the New Zealand All Blacks Māori haka war dance. It was unique and caught your breath as he switched between the two, becoming confused and fused into one. This would have been fabulous to have developed this concept with the full company….

The Artistic Director Philippe Lafeuille came out to take a bow at the curtain call and stayed on stage getting the audience up and dancing and singing. And with his beautiful French accent he told us that when life is not so good be happy and be TUTU-fied. It was a shame that this fun and lovely moment with him had not been the warm up act.

STORIES – THE TAP DANCE SENSATION at the Peacock Theatre

★★★★★

“the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins”

STORIES – THE TAP DANCE SENSATION at the Peacock Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd October 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Aline Gérard

Previously reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

Stories

Stories

TUTU at the Peacock Theatre

★★★

“all six dancers look mighty fine in mini tutus and costumes, and all have beautiful classical technique – and legs”

TUTU at the Peacock Theatre

Reviewed on 1st October 2024

by Debbie Rich

Photography by Michel Cavalca

Previously reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

TUTU

TUTU