Impressive piano playing combined with artistic dancing create a stubbornly inaccessible show that only true fans will enjoy.

This show is a 2-hour long dance performed and choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker accompanied by Bach’s “The Goldberg Variations” performed by the pianist Pavel Kolesnikov. It had a run at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre for 2 performances – the 6th and 7th of September.

This is a difficult show for me to review, as I will admit up front, I simply did not “get it”. The piano playing was impressive, and the music was quite beautiful, but the dancing aspect just left me confused. The genesis of the performance is that Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has previously choreographed other shows to the music of Bach, and this time she revisited different Bach music which she has choreographed and performed solo. For me however, the dancing just seemed peculiar, repetitive, and not particularly entertaining. Sometimes the dancing lined up with the music being played but other times the dancing seemed entirely divorced from the sound, almost as if the pianist and the dancer were performing entirely separate pieces. At other time, the pianist stopped playing but the dancing continued. This can be effective and interesting, but I found that these moments went on for too long and I didn’t understand what message, emotion, or story was trying to be portrayed.

The piano playing was undoubtedly impressive, but the dancing happening seemed more of a distraction to the music, rather than adding anything. Conversely, if you loved the dancing, the pianist with his back to the audience right at the very front of the stage, would have been distracting. Neither seemed to be particularly improved by the other being there.

I did appreciate the pianist having such a prominent position on the stage with his back to the audience, as this meant that you were able to see his hands as they played the piano. This really brought home to me just how impressive the playing was, seeing just how quickly his hand and fingers were moving across the keys.

The first half of the show was very much one note. It begins with Keersmaeker and Kolesnikov walking on to the stage, before Keersmaeker starts dancing without any music being played. Once Kolesnikov does start playing, the performance is very much just that with minimal changes. Piano is played, choreography is danced, there is no real variation to the format. The exception to this is the very end of the first half when a long golden rod is rolled from the back of the stage to the front. The reason for this I did not understand, but it was something different.

After a brief 5-minute intermission, during which we were instructed to stay in our seats, the performers returned in different outfits and began the performance in much the same vein again. However, throughout the second half there were subtle slow lighting changes which added an extra dimension, which was sorely needed, but alas insufficient to make the performance entertaining in my eyes. A highlight of this was the lighting on the stage slowly being dimmed to complete darkness except for a spotlight on an enlarged golden nugget on the front left of the stage. As the music continued to be played in near total darkness, I found this the most interesting part of the show. No visual distractions, just the sound of the piano being played. It was a surreal moment, but it did provide some respite from the sameness of the rest of the performance, and it really highlighted the brilliant piano playing and the beauty of the music.

At 2 hours long with only a short technical break of 5 minutes at the halfway point, this show felt like a bit of a slog to get through and ultimately, I was relieved when it ended. If you are not already a fan of the work of Keersmaeker or of artistic contemporary dance I cannot recommend that you see this show. This is not a very good introduction to this type of dance, and there was very little for someone who is not already familiar with this world to grasp on to. That is not to say that this show is entirely without merit. From the audience conversations I heard after the show, there were a number of people who were baffled as I was by what they had just seen, and an equal number effusively expressing how much they loved it. For me though, unless you are part of the niche audience that already has an interest in this area, I do not recommend that you see this show.