The Observer reviews Silent Lines
Sarah Crompton of The Observer reviews Silent Lines -
“Russell Maliphant’s origins are in the Royal Ballet. Although the choreographer has travelled a long way from his roots, there is something about his fascination with the beauty of the human body that reveals his background. His entire career has been variations on that theme. Maliphant’s intensive studies in anatomy, physiology and bio-mechanics are the starting point for his latest work, Silent Lines – but it also incorporates a desire to look at the flow of movement, the body’s infinite capacity for flux and change.
He is well served by six magnificent dancers, who make muscular effort look like the ripples on the surface of the water or a breath of wind across long grass. We first see them, under Panagiotis Tomaras’s extraordinary projected lighting, moving in a group, the lines of their bodies unfurling like the fronds of a sea anemone or the petals of a flower.
Though the overall structure is loose, as the mood of Dana Fouras’s episodic soundscape alters –extending from electronic grumbles to Chopin – so the movement develops, through spirals and rubbery back flips, slow twists of the hips and shimmies of the arms. There’s very little partnering; the dancers mirror one another and dance alongside each other rather than together. The lighting makes them look unreal, like computer graphics, or stones on a beach, or statues that sway to unexpected light. Just occasionally a gesture or a glance frees them from their anonymity. Transfixing.”