Russell Maliphant Dance Company in maliphantworks4
Russell Maliphant and his company are back at The Coronet in Notting Hill for the fourth incarnation of maliphantworks…
Russell Maliphant in his ‘In a Landscape’. © Dmitri Djurik
Russell Maliphant Dance Company
maliphantworks4: In a Landscape, Afterlight, Film 1, Film 2
★★★★★
London, The Coronet Theatre
10 March 2025
www.russellmaliphantdancecompany.com
www.thecoronettheatre.com
This is a heads-up to get your shit together, drop everything, and see Russell Maliphant’s show at Notting Hill’s Coronet, either tonight or tomorrow. Quite simply, it’s a 5-star jewel of a show in a jewel of a theatre, and it’s such a shame the run is only for three nights. One hopes they find space for more performances soon.
Eight years after the original maliphantworks, comes the fourth incarnation with two live works - one new - and, as a late addition, two filmed works that carry over from maliphantworks3. The filmed works are shown, on a loop, in the separate Print Room Studio, where you can see them before the main show, during the interval, or after. Film One features Dana Fouras (Maliphant’s artistic partner in dance, music and life) as an almost constantly turning silhouette to some light Rachmaninov. The piece really focuses on animating Stevie Stuart’s costume design, where random additions and layers spin out and then collapse and swirl around Fouras’ torso and limbs - it is simple but compelling and hypnotic. Film Two is a study of Maliphant, almost at play, in an ad hoc supporting bungee cord ‘harness’ that has him exploring horizontal movement as he lunges, circles, and twists, close to the floor. Neither film feels like it has captured a fully finished work, but rather reveals and documents pleasing movement experiments. Their presentation here, as an optional part of the evening, feels appropriate.
The show proper starts with Maliphant dancing in his brand-new In a Landscape and it’s a work that continues to show him as the epitome of power and grace. It begins with what you might call a traditional Maliphant solo of highly controlled, slow turning, stretching, and dipping to the floor. No jumps or skipping here; it’s all about the arms and torso displayed with powerfully deliberate and ever-changing poses — the legs and knees providing support and almost unseen motive power. Despite comfortably being in his 60s, it’s as if nothing has changed in his magnetic look - here in a Stevie Stuart fitted boiler suit. What makes Landscape different is his collaboration with visual artist and lighting designer Panagiotis Tomaras, resulting in a set of sheer drapes that often descend from the ceiling when needed for Maliphant’s slow play. The extra dash comes from cleverly positioned lighting that animates the fabric and allows Maliphant to dance with himself, first with one and then two shadows of himself. He has done clever work like this with lighting designer Michael Hulls many years ago, but here the fabric and his interaction with it add another dimension.
Towards the end of Landscape’s 30 minutes, a stage-wide sail descends, and as Maliphant pushes, caresses, and tugs it, magical circles and waves track across it — again courtesy of Tomaras’s lighting. We are accustomed to a digital world of clever lighting, but here it all feels so analogue — a show using craft and experience to wow you, rather than flash-bang-wallop effects. And that’s so blissful to experience. Underpinning all the action is Dana Fouras’s custom score, a mix of electronic and analogue instruments that provide eerie and calming textures. Just terrific work from all concerned, and I hope it returns.
After the interval came a piece of Maliphant that has been seen many times before but never loses its power - Afterlight. Created in 2009 for a Sadler’s Wells evening inspired by Diaghilev, Afterlight takes its cues from Nijinsky, as he was captured in pictures and also in his own strange geometric drawings. Danced by Daniel Proietto who created the role, this piece features much more feline movement while still recognisably embodying the power and deliberate movement of Maliphant. The music of Satie’s Gnossiennes provides a strangely stark foil and melancholia, reflecting greatness wrapped up in itself and going off the rails — Nijinsky sadly ended up in an asylum. Michael Hulls’ lighting projections from above are a mix of clouds expanding and closing in, often ever-turning, before finally evaporating to nothing, as the complexity of a life is summed up in a 15-minute masterpiece. Sigh…
We all need to see more of Maliphant.