Northern Ballet Mixed Programme
Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds/Touring

NORTHERN Ballet is best known for its narrative-led productions and striking set designs and that makes the three pieces premiered in its Mixed Programme notable for their deviation from those trademarks.

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Dividing the scenes with extracts from family letters, it combines humorous mime with contemporary and classical dance. The music is a complementary melange of styles reflecting the three characters and it's especially effective in capturing the clockwork movements of Nannerl as she tries to recapture a youth in which she was the star pianist.

That narrative approach is overturned in Mlindi Kulashe’s abstract Mamela or “listen” in his native Xhosa. The most contemporary piece on the programme, it’s a highly emotive exploration of societal expectations.

Moving through regimented movements and poignant points of human connection, designer Alastair West uses squares of light to create feelings of isolation and entrapment, while the chatter of voices and post-ambient electronica urges both dancer and audience to “listen” and find their own place in the work.

The Shape Of Sound follows this abstract pathway, marking a stark break from Kenneth Tindall’s previous work for the company with Casanova.

A response to Max Richter’s reimagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, it conveys the mood of the seasons and the human response to them through contemporary and classical ballet techniques.

The moments of illusion, with dissected figures speckled in paint undulating at the side of the stage, later vanish through a haze created by Tindall and West’s banded lighting differentiating the seasons and influence the shifting moods.

It’s a solid work from a choreographer who’s already made his mark. But it’s Kulashe, making his debut, who really points the way forward for the company.

Touring until April 2019, details and box office: northernballet.com