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5/5
Pitched as a last London performance, choreographed and danced by Russell Maliphant with Sylvie Guillem, Push is just about the most anticipated, hyped and then critically acclaimed contemporary dance piece of the year and rightly so.
The wow factor and capacity to thrill throughout this bewildering and physically exacting 30-minute duet comes by way of the difficult to work out holding and falling positions, unfolding into a fast flow of combinations and intersections.
The engagement between the dancers fixes the eye on powerful points of elevation that unify the dancers into a colossal force, before their energies cut across space with equal amounts of athleticism and precise incision, moving in spatial cross-currents between each other.
This provides a curious flipside to the concept of a “push” because the piece thrives on total connection, whether it be Maliphant and Guillem merged into one another, at close quarters or at a distance apart.
Notwithstanding an attempt to try to work out where on earth the core strength, speed and power displayed came in from Guillem and Maliphant, now 49 and 52 respectively, this piece is best left alone as a wonderful mystery, a completely captivating and unique synergy of male with female forces.
As a build-up to Push, Maliphant’s magnificent jewel of a short, impacted body fragment and lighting effect piece Two was performed by Guillem, Maliphant immersed into his meditative Shift while Guillem opened the programme with a delightful show of part classical and part contemporary technique in Solo.
Next Sylvie Guillem performance is with Akram Khan — Sacred Monsters, Sadlers Wells, 25-29 November 25-29. Box office (0844) 412-4300.