Review: Sylvia Guillem & Russell Maliphant at The Lowry

Apr 26 2008 Chester Chronicle

SYLVIA GUILLEM & RUSSELL MALIPHANT/The Lowry, Salford Quays

REVIEW/by Peggy Woodcock

IT WAS an hour’s performance split into four dances. And it was mesmerising, every second.

Sylvia Guillem’s fame precedes her everywhere, including The Lowry, Salford Quays, where she and fellow dancer and choreographer Russell Maliphant performed their acclaimed show, Push, on Friday and Saturday, April 25-26.

The former classical ballerina has an incredible body. Maliphant has a unique way with movement. Add in Michael Hull’s inspired lighting and you have this spectacle that rivets attention. You don’t want to blink.

Certainly there was a collective hush in the packed audience as the curtain rose for Solo, Guillem’s most classical performance. This figure in single spotlight, barefoot, in diaphanous white trousers and top, flowed with exquisite lines to a single Spanish guitar.

Shift was Malliphant’s solo performance, except he wasn’t alone. Setting and lighting gave him two shadow dancers who appeared and disappeared, grew and shrank, responding to his dance/yoga movement and the melancholic string music. Fascinating.

Guillem, in Two, pushed against the imaginary boundaries of a square of lighting. As the sound score accelerated, so did the repetitious movements of her long arms, hands and feet, an amazing whirl and blur of movement and light.

Their duet, Push, was the climax. How to convey something that almost defies belief? Guillem on Maliphant’s shoulders as the two moved as one, she pouring over his undulating body like a coat of ermine. The two apart, but dancing in total symmetry. Blink, and she has alighted his shoulders, and the seamless, sensuous movement goes on.

The creativity, the control, the craftsmanship is immense. As the shapes form, break, soar, drape, melt, in golden light, to an echoing score, you know every second of this thirty minute performance has been plotted for a breathtaking impact.

These two dancers have created something unique and beautiful, and it was a joy to watch.