She Persisted, Sadler’s Wells, review: Powerful evening of works staged by women

From the outside, ballet looks like an art form dominated by women. Behind the scenes, it’s often men in power: as directors and, overwhelmingly, as choreographers. English National Ballet, now directed by ballerina Tamara Rojo, first addressed this in 2016 with She Said, a programme of works by women. She Persisted follows that success with Stine Quagebeur’s new Nora, flanked by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s gorgeous Broken Wings and Pina Bausch’s terrifying staging of The Rite of Spring. It’s a powerful evening.

In her first work for the main stage, Quagebeur shows a distinctive voice, with fluid, expressive steps and taut characterisation. Based on Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora is stripped down to a core conflict. Nora has forged a signature for a loan to support her husband. When he finds out, he rejects her, then “forgives” her when he realises no one else will know. Shocked by his hypocrisy, recognising the falseness of their relationship, she leaves him.

Quagebeur opens with Nora’s decision to take the loan, with a soundscape by DJ Walde that highlights her conflicting inner voices. Five men and women in grey watch the action, urging Nora on or holding her back, helping to externalise her choices. The rest of the ballet, set to music by Philip Glass, explores the consequences.

Crystal Costa is a vital Nora, from flowing, lively dances to frozen shock. As her husband Torvald, Jeffrey Cirio whips through spins and jumps, explosive movement suggesting reproaches bursting out of him. Costa sinks slowly into her chair, stiff with horror, before her own anger comes whirling out of her. Nora is an impressive step forward from a choreographer to watch.

In Broken Wings, Katja Khaniukova is a determined Frida, catching both the trembling pain of ill health and the delight with which she turns her own life into art. Lopez Ochoa finds brilliant ways to put the creative process on stage, with Khaniukova conjuring a rippling line of male Fridas into being. Irek Mukhamedov is charismatic as ever as Kahlo’s husband, Diego Rivera.

Bausch’s 1975 Rite is both monumental and painfully human. She meets the huge scale of Stravinsky’s score, but there’s nothing ancient about these people. Her maidens are scared teenage girls, their crumpled, fearful body language instantly recognisable.

Francesca Velicu is a superb Chosen Maiden. Small and delicate, she looks heartbreakingly young, almost weeping with terror as she waits to dance herself to death. In her solo, she wrenches the steps out, as if part memory, part panic. Around her, the corps de ballet drive themselves across the piled-up earth of the set in churning, massive dances, relentless and elemental.

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