4* Review – The Times – Maliphantworks3
'Another triumph from acclaimed choreographer'
The much-fêted choreographer Russell Maliphant is developing a happy and productive relationship with this tiny and eccentric west London venue. This is his third season at the Coronet Theatre and once again it reveals him to be an artist who flourishes in an intimate environment. And you can’t get any more intimate than maliphantworks3, an evening of pure dance performed by the choreographer and his wife, Dana Fouras, with nothing to embellish it beyond lighting.
It opens with a world premiere, The Space Between, a half hour in which Fouras and Maliphant showcase his choreography’s rolling, circular energy and visceral grace. We’ve seen it before, the way Maliphant sculpts the body with anatomical precision and an almost Zen-like calm. Fouras floats and whirls through the space, taking the dance with her, while Maliphant is more grounded, digging deep inside the movement’s flow. He looks like a Buddhist monk, she dances like a goddess — they complement one another perfectly.
Yet as strong as the performances are, they can’t quite overcome the sense that his choreography is here relying too heavily on repetition, while the animated video projections by Panagiotis Tomaras create a rippling digital soup that engulfs the dance to its detriment. Maliphant loves to create an illusory atmosphere for his work, but with The Space Between it goes too far.
The second half opens with two short filmed solos. In one, Fouras is a balletic whirling dervish swept along by a Rachmaninov prelude — beautiful beyond compare. In the other, Maliphant engages in a little intellectual bungee jumping as he dances — lithe and muscular, defying his 58 years — inside a giant elastic sling.
The programme ends in triumph with Duet (a repeat from last year), 12 minutes of pure romantic bliss in which Maliphant and Fouras glide through the very image of a loving and symbiotic relationship (while Enrico Caruso sings Una Furtiva Lagrima from Donizetti’s opera The Elixir of Love). Fouras is draped into exquisite shapes that recall her days as a ballerina; Maliphant is the gentle, sympathetic partner.