Carmen - The English National Ballet
Sadler’s Well’s Theatre, 58-60 Hampstead Road, London, EC1R 4TN, England
Reviewed by Khalia Willett
Johan Inger’s take on ballet and theatre is innovative and sophisticated. Johan’s adaptation of Carmen revels in subtleties and polite nods to the classic novella written by Prosper Mérimée. Johan like many other modern choreographers & directors are marrying the traditional values of ballet with the present shift in dance culture & the vague borders that make up contemporary. The ability to move with the times & still hold on to the core values in which you believe to be true is what makes this take on Carmen so spectacular.
In the novella, Carmen is portrayed as a gorgeous thrill-seeking Gypsie girl from Spain who is true to the values she was raised to know and the lifestyle and traditions that she grew up to love. Inger encapsulates this and presents Carmen as promiscuous daring women who lives life on the edge and is ever trusting of fate. The locality of the story is embodied through the choice of costume. The ladies Don beautiful flamenco dresses all in different colours and nude undergarments to give a tasteful impression of nudity without direct exposure of the performers. The dresses flow in harmony with the movement of the performers and immediately set the scene in combination with the live orchestra. The orchestra command’s the audience's attention building the appropriate level of tension and intrigue throughout the performance. They worked seamlessly with the performers to such a degree it is hard to know for fact if the choreography was composed to the music or if the music was composed for the dancers. Each dancer displayed a very high-level understanding of musicality which is testament to their own unique and individual talent as well as their training. In addition, the lighting and simplicity of the set cerate's a plethora of full circle moment’s that also compliment the choreography and draw’s you into the performance commanding your attention in partnership with the orchestra. The choreographic development throughout the performance is immaculate and sleek, there are moments of synchronicity, call and response, retrograde, motif development and grand use of all areas on the stage. This use of choreographic principles and knowledge of the negative spaces on the stage, and pristine lighting and audial choices creates this shroud of captivation throughout the auditorium.
As you watch the piece you can see that each choice was very clearly thought out from the set, through to the costumes and overall performance everything is absolute. There is not one moment in the performance that doesn’t marry together, Johan Ingler is a fantastic choreographer and an even better storyteller, to be able to translate a book which is full descriptions to create imagery to a on stage production with limited scripting just using the body and physicality of movement to portray the same narrative is a high-level skill. You don’t need to know the traditional story of Carmen to understand Ingler’s interpretation, through his ability to tell a story you will still enjoy and easily understand the performance the only difference is that you may miss a few of the minute details that are there to pay homage to the original novella.
The feeling of love and betrayal is the same across the whole world and Ingler uses this understanding to develop the production to new heights and make’s the comprehension of the story accessible to everyone.