The Royal Ballet: Raven Girl & Connectome (October 22nd, 2015)

The Royal Ballet's

Raven Girl

& 

Connectome

Oct. 22nd, 2015

I had the pleasure of seeing these two ballets as a treat for myself to celebrate the end school (for now, anyway!). Originally I'd planned on going on Saturday, but the allure of  seeing Lauren Cuthbertson live was too much, so at 8am, I arrived at the ROH to grab a day ticket (of course, no one else showed up til 930, but still I got a cheap return, which was an excellent seat). This review will be divided in two sections, one for each ballet. I have also been asked by some people to review seats/venues in my reviews, so I'll do that first.

Seat/Venue Review: I sat A99 in the Stalls Circle Right, and it was £24. Definitely the best seat I've sat in at the ROH thus far, you could see 95% of the stage, and there were no heads or other obstructions in front of me. It's so close you're practically on the stage. I did get a slightly sore neck from having it turned the entire time, and the light from the orchestra was distracting at times, but it was an excellent seat, especially considering the price. Would definitely sit there again. As always, the ROH is a great venue, though the programs are very overpriced and they only sell them in the lobby.

Raven Girl

Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood
© Dave Morgan

Raven Girl featured Sarah Lamb as the titular character, Edward Watson as the Postman, Olivia Cowley as the Raven, Paul Kay as 'Boy', Thiago Soares as the Doctor, Poppy Downing as a Raven Child (a role which I didn't even notice…), and Eric Underwood as the Raven Prince. They were supported by Hannah Grennell, Sander Blommaert, Marcelino Sambe, and Artists of the Royal Ballet.

The basis of the story is a raven and a postman fall in love (yes, you read that right), and have a child, the Raven Girl. This half-girl, half-bird looks human, but cannot speak, and longs for wings. Despite what other reviewers had said, I thought the narrative itself was relatively simple to follow. I'd read a basic summary beforehand, and that's all I needed to keep track of what was happening. To be fair, the actual narrative was interspersed with some bizarre group dances, and the conclusion came out of nowhere and made very little sense, but all in all, I didn't have a problem with it. I assume the group numbers were to cover up changes in set or mark the passage of time, but it felt a little random.

I had mixed feelings about the sets. Some of the set pieces were stunning; the rocky backdrop of the Raven's cave was incredibly effective, as were the large glass box which held the wings. But some things, like the window that moved around a lot, and some of the smaller set pieces (like the door at the beginning and other bits of chairs, chalkboards, etc.) felt awkward and out of place. I was also incredibly irritated by the text on the screen; it took an eternity to show up (it began with a series of random letters appearing and flickering until they reached the intended words), and this didn't really add anything, so it felt unnecessary. I liked to consistency of colour in the set though; everything was grey, black, and white. Costuming was hit and miss, and the lack of consistency bothered me - if the prince is meant to be a raven, where's his headpiece? And where did Raven Girl's wings go? I understand practicality, but if they knew they wanted to do this dance with the two of them, why didn't they consider this in the overall costume design, rather than changing everything for the last piece? I think that's part of what made the last dance between Raven Girl and the Prince feel so disconnected from everything else. I also didn't really like the floppiness of the raven costumes as it was distracting; I felt they could've been more effectively designed. The headpieces were awesome though.

Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood
(google)

I have to admit, I didn't really pay attention to most of the male dancers. Partially because the characters portrayed by the girls were more intriguing, and partially because I tend to watch them more closely anyway so I can learn from them, and apply whatever I've learned to my own dancing. So I can tell you that Eric Underwood had extreme control, but lacked any emotional connection and wasn't particularly interesting. Edward Watson was charming and believable as the Postman, but he certainly didn't look comfortable with the partnering with the Raven; he was hauling her around and grimacing all the while. The 'Boy' didn't do any actual dancing as far as I noticed, he was more of a prop. I thought it was interesting that the ensemble of ravens was made up of both male and female dancers; if I weren't sitting so close, the two would've been indistinguishable. Usually the men and women have such different styles and ways of movement.

Sarah Lamb was lovely as the Raven Girl. I felt that this was a better part for her than Juliet; it was more wild and free, and it allowed her to explore a character that was very unique in that it's not something that really exists in other ballets (aside from maybe Swan Lake). However, I did feel that at times, she forgot she was playing a character and was like "Ok, now I dance." This was most noticeable during the partnering with the Raven Prince at the end; I didn't feel there was an opportunity for these two characters to develop a relationship, so they were more sort of dancing for themselves and putting on a performance rather than 'living' it. That said, Sarah has beautiful lines and gorgeous feet. I still felt as though her jumps were quite heavy (how can such a small, slim person land so loudly?), but she was very confident in the hoops and climbing up the chairs. I also felt she handled the awkwardly huge wings with ease, which had to be difficult (they didn't look light). My favourite part of her performance was how flawlessly she portrayed drugged/asleep; she was being dragged around and manipulated into various positions, and managed to maintain beautifully pointed feet and legs, graceful movement, etc without actually looking like she was still in control of her body. It was very intriguing and incredibly well done. Actually, she did this very well as Juliet too. So she's just really good at playing dead.

Olivia Cowley and Edward Watson
© Dave Morgan

I have to write about Olivia Cowley, because she was one of the highlights of the piece. From about 10 seconds into her first appearance onstage, I knew she was going to be the one to watch. She truly embodied the character of the Raven in everything she did; the constant rapid head movements, her arms and legs bending and moving exactly how a bird would - it's difficult to describe, and has to be seen to be truly appreciated. But you didn't see a trained dancer, you saw a wild, frenetic-yet-elegant bird. Her elegance and finesse made the sometimes awkwardly choreographed partner work look so much better. Olivia's acting, too, was just sublime. I'm always amazed how dancers manage to act without saying a work, but they have the advantage of facial expression - Olivia did all the work without her face, and produced twice the result of most dancers. You could see what her character was thinking and feeling just through head tilts and arm movements, such as when the Raven Girl got wings and her mother and father were upset by it, yet you could see the tenderness and love in the 'mothers' movement (I'm so not doing Olivia justice here). I also loved her dancing by itself. She has the most beautiful extensions (I want legs like hers!), and there's a very light, airy, and fluid quality about everything that she does. An all-around stellar dancer who I will definitely be making a point of seeing dance again. She absolutely needs to dance Juliet in R&J, and based on her ability to play a bird with such finesse, the Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. 

Connectome

The cast of Connectome featured Lauren Cuthbertson in the lead role, with Steven McRae and Edward Watson as the leading men. They were supported by a corps of men, including Luca Acri, Matthew Ball, Tomas Mock, and Marcelino Sambe.

© Dave Morgan

I'd heard mainly negative or neutral reviews of this piece, so I wasn't expecting much. I don't know what those reviewers were thinking, however, because I loved it! To be fair, any theme/storyline went completely over my head. I had no idea what the piece was meant to be about or what it was trying to convey (I believe it had something to do with identity/connections between people? Who knows). At the same time though, I found it intriguing to watch.

The set - a series of long poles - was very intricate, yet didn't feel overcrowded or 'too much'. The choreography was such that the dancers moved through the poles with grace and ease, and it added a sense of dimension to the overall performance. This was helped by the simplicity of the costumes, the lead dancers wore simple white leotards (ok so the men were basically wearing underwear), and the supporting men wore greenish/beige. The result was a visual effect that felt very controlled, clean, and modern. At one point, projections were used on the white poles that made up the set - I couldn't for the life of me tell what these were meant to be though, as I was at a bad angle to see them. But they were pretty cool, so I guess my point here is that they could have thought the logistics of that through a bit better, but overall the lighting design complemented the set and ballet very nicely. The music was a bit odd and got repetitive at times, but overall I liked it.  

Lauren Cuthbertson
© Dave Morgan

I have to write about Lauren Cuthbertson, because, well... Lauren Cuthbertson. This is the first time I saw her dance live, and I was completely blown away. She was mesmerising - the DVDs of Alice and R&J don't do her justice. It's hard to put a finger on what made her so interesting and engaging to watch; the quality of movement was obviously stellar - such fluidity and ease. It doesn't look like she's performing very practiced choreography, if that makes any sense. Because I was so close to the stage, I could actually hear the dancers breathing - my point here is that most of the dancers were just breathing whenever it was convenient, but Lauren's breaths were very controlled. She only let out a loud breath at certain moments in the choreography, which was weird, but it added something. I don't really know how to describe it; it's very much like what we had to do in AGG routines, which I think is why I noticed it.  So her performance felt fresh and new, but also very controlled. Does that make any sense? Yeah I didn't think so. Another one of those that needs to be seen to be understood. Anyway, I loved it, and I'm absolutely dying to see more of her dancing. It's just subtly brilliant.

Edward Watson and Steven McRae were dynamic and exciting; they interacted nicely, fitting together like two puzzle pieces rather than one overpowering the other. The male ensemble made a good support structure; they didn't stand out individually, but moved together as a unit.

I feel like I didn't do either of these pieces justice, but with shorter, unfamiliar pieces, it's difficult to do any hard-hitting analysis. But I hope this gave an idea of what I liked and disliked about Raven Girl and Connectome. I definitely encourage seeing both if you get the chance, and if you ever get the opportunity to see Lauren Cuthbertson and/or Olivia Cowley, you are very lucky indeed. 

I also wanted to share this link to Dave Morgan's photography of these two pieces, the photographs are stunning and give a bit of a glimpse into how visually beautiful and dynamic Raven Girl and Connectome are.