A feat to witness, Outsider displays incredible athleticism and enrapturing choreography
Various slacklines cut across the stage, tightropes that give the production a new sense of height. They stay there, unused but looming, as twenty dancers from Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève perform below. Their presence creates an atmosphere of tense apprehension, further entrenched by composer Julius Eastman’s music; four pianos that seem to rally each other, their anxious desire for something both tantalizing and breathtaking. Outsider was performed as part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival at Sadlers Wells.
Choreographer Rachid Ouramdane makes incredible use of simple, repeated movements to create a maze of bodies. The dancers weave in between each other with awe-inspiring ease and speed. Reminiscent of bees, perfectly in tune with one another, the dancers flip between partners, run simultaneously through what seem to be invisible lanes, and move with such intricate timing that they appear as one single organism. No dancer can exist in this world alone — they are all a product of their shared work. Truly, only at infrequent, short intervals do any dancers occupy the stage in isolation, and when they do, they appear to be in peril. They are stuck, spinning, yearning, until they are joined by another, wherein they reconnect and commence their journey once more. Partner work is imperishable in this world. Dancers consistently find one another and move together like honey. Their partnerships seem so natural, so smooth, that they appear almost liquid. Partners are interchangeable but ultimately invaluable and exceed pairs. They consistently form groups, performing incredible feats that push dancers to reach the higher echelons of the stage, reaching for what is above.
Ouramdane’s choreography embodies athleticism beyond its usual inferences in dance. Linking ballet to the high performance athletes that occupy the stage’s sky, the choreographic language feels athletic to its core. Dancers truly run across the stage, they hoist other dancers to shockingly unexpected heights, displaying the incredible strength and speed that the public typically does not associate with dance. When the athletes ascended to their tightropes, the audience seemed to hold their breath. The dance that is their balance ties the piece together and illuminates the dancers’ desire to reach said heights. Their yearning for what occurs above becomes clear and gives new meaning to the production. The athletes on their tightropes are folded further into the story as they begin to interact with the dancers below, seemingly providing them a perhaps false hope that they too can ascend to the sky like they have.
The enjoyment of Outsider exists beyond watching incredible athletes and dancers perform beautiful choreography. Its message has the potential to mean many different things to many different people, depending on what space you occupy within your own world and community. What are they reaching for? What exists up there? What keeps the masses from achieving their own ascent?