Matthew Bourne isn't the only choreographer to turn Swan Lake gay. In the opening show of this year's Sadler's Sampled festival, South African choreographer Dada Masilo upturns all sorts of norms in her version of ballet's greatest story, with Siegfried forced into marriage while he pines for his male (swan) lover.
Twenty-nine-year-old Masilo trained in Johannesburg and then at the experimental PARTS school in Brussels, and her Swan Lake mashes up these influences and more. There’s rough-around-the-edges ballet plus the heavy steps and loose hips of African dance, Tchaikovsky spliced with Steve Reich, fun dance numbers and a bit of meta-criticism.
The piece opens with a witty deconstruction of ballet tropes — branding the poor corps de ballet “surplus girls in the moonlight” — and moves into a choppy retelling of the fairytale full of excitable energy; dashing through routines with sassy struts and bottoms twerking until their tutus shake.
The piece loses its way as the cartoonish emotions move into something more sombre, and the storytelling gets vague. Masilo’s Swan Lake is a refreshing and intriguing collision of styles but it doesn’t quite achieve the emotional clout it’s aiming for.
Ends tonight (0844 413 4200, sadlerswells.com)
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