Raise the Barre is explosive stuff. A must see, it’s truly terrific, says Jeremy Welch.
★★★★★
It’s graduation day at a dance school presided over by a strict assessor. There are two troupes of dancers here, the female troupe dressed in classical ballet tutus, the male troupe dressed similarly but in an anarchistic way, black tutu and black T-shirts. You just know they are planning a different style of dancing to the conventional ballet for graduation.
The music is pounding as the performance starts and continues to the very end. The fast and furious tempo provides the background to an equally energetic dance routine.
The female troupe execute classical ballet perfectly, energetical, synchronised and wonderfully choreographed to contemporary popular pop hits.
Between the classical ballet, the male troupe hit the stage and perform street and breakdancing routines. To combine classical ballet to contemporary pop music is a challenge in itself. To combine that music with classic ballet and breakdancing at the same time is extraordinary.
Watching the combined troupes dance together in such different styles one would think the combination would fail, it doesn’t, it works brilliantly. There are routines of classical ballet performed by both troupes and these are mesmerising.
This performance is more than watching technical ballet and dancing at the highest level, it is about excitement and pleasure shared.
The last dance routine was met by a standing ovation even before the dance had finished and that in itself tells you all you need to know about Raise The Barre.
Raise the Barre runs until 24 August at Music Hall at Assembly Rooms.
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