On Wednesday 9th March 2022, I went along to Sadlers Wells in Angel / Islington to see a Lucinda Childs & Philip Glass collaboration expressed in the form of Modern Dance. The performance was part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival. This was the first time I had been to Sadlers Wells, but finding it was no trouble. Getting to Angel however.. what a journey. Thanks to the Northern Line suspension. I think it was a bus, the DLR, and four tubes on three different lines. But.. I got there, and I was early too.

Walked down towards Sadlers Wells and I was so early I even had time to sit outside and get my breath back again before venturing inside. So in I go.. No real.. idea of where to go etc, so I head to the bar and I order a Coke with Ice. £3. Wow.

So I am still early at this point, no seats available (of course) so I hang around the bar area for a while. Till I finish my drink and then I head back outside. Makes sense, the are seats there and it wasn’t cold either. Finally time to go back in, and when I do the house is open. I can go in and find my seat. So I’d booked an end seat, looking at the seating plans, my seat was on the end of the row next to the technical box. – Which it was, but it wasn’t next to an open space, the tech box was literally next to me. So there I am literally stuffed in a corner, with the tech box next to me on one side, and not a great deal of leg room in front.

The venue filled up, and boy did it fill up. There really wasn’t many empty seats, the whole row next to me was full. What I didn’t know about till I got there and the show started, is that the ceiling of the upper floor restricted the full view of the screen. This is a running theme, that most places DO NOT say when booking, or till after seats have been booked.

So the show starts.. late, but apparently that is fairly common. Not many companies start on time. So somewhere after 8:30pm the performance started. Dancers male & female, dressed in white, prance across the stage from one side to the other, entering, then exiting. Oh hang on, how it started.. The music, by Philip Glass.. just started. No fade in, nothing gradual. Just like somebody pressed play on something paused. Abrupt, and it’s begun. Feels.. slightly unprofessional, but perhaps its part of the show… I believe it was the first night, and the performance was on for two nights in that venue.

But, the thing is, Philip Glass music.. is very… sudden. It’s full of key changes, tempo change, modular shifts and.. patterns. So an abrupt start.. might not have been a mistake… You kinda, never.. know. I know Philip Glass from watching the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy, which is for all intents and purposes a silent movie set to musical themes. I think you have to experience Philip Glass before you can really understand his music. You can see from the Dancers and their moves that they are following the themes of the music. Shifting routines and patterns with the music as you would expect.

The first performance is a group performance featuring dancers in a two-by-two formation, two on, two off. These patterns, along with the music goes on and on, you kinda feel like it is too long, but it still feels natural. Performed with perfection through Lucida Child’s choreography and dancers.

But there is an elephant in the room, and one which I failed to mention.. I almost forgot about it. Does that mean it was good, or it didn’t add anything.. I don’t know, lets find out.

The performance featured video protection too. While the dancers are on stage, performing their routines to the music, overlaid, in front of them, refreshingly, is video of the same dancers dancing the same routines, but it works. Together, the music, choreography in the physical sense, and with the video overlaid, it works. Same with how it worked with Little Murmur, but on a grander scale I guess.

Lighting.. simple side lit for the most part, but later on became more experimental with stark colour blocks, green, red, blue. The video projection also featured in parts a lit grid floor, which as projected in front of the dancers also lit them. The screen upon which the projection was played was very thin. But it worked, you almost didn’t see it, or notice it till the video projection started. Then, it was noticeable that they were dancing behind a screen, but it was not interruptive to the overall experience.

Overall, the experience was good. I was glad I came down and got to see this. I love modern dance and I need to make an effort to see more of it. Rambert @ The Lowey I think will be my next. But yes. At the end the Dancers returned to the stage, the screen goes up and their start their bowing. Like the music, like the patterns, over and over and over. I think some of the people next to me where.. unimpressed, but again, this is.. fairly normal in modern dance. Lucinda Child’s was brought on to the stage in the end to accept her well-deserved round of applause too.

Yep, sold. I liked it, and I would see it again.