Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends review

“Joyous”

ReviewsMar 13, 2023by Siobhan MurphySadler’s Wells, London

Tiler Peck in Time Spell, part of Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram Kenton

A scene from Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram Kenton

A scene from Time Spell, part of Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram Kenton

Brooklyn Mack and Tiler Peck in The Barre Project, Blake Works II from Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram Kenton

Tiler Peck in Time Spell, part of Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram KentonA scene from Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram KentonA scene from Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram KentonA scene from Time Spell, part of Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram KentonBrooklyn Mack and Tiler Peck in The Barre Project, Blake Works II from Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends at Sadler's Wells, London. Photo: Tristram Kenton

Thrilling night of powerful dance from the New York City Ballet star

There’s something utterly exhilarating about watching Tiler Peck in full flight. Many know her as the ballerina the world tuned into for her live-streamed ballet classes during lockdown. Live on stage, rather than in her mum’s kitchen, the award-winning New York City Ballet principal (she’s also an actor, author and designer) is commanding, her laser-like precision matched with an extraordinary sense of corporeal power. And for this collection of four works, which she has curated, she surrounds herself with dancers who share that power.

The first piece is the only one that Peck doesn’t dance in. Thousandth Orange is her own choreography, created in 2019 after her near-career-ending neck injury. It counterbalances the discordance of Caroline Shaw’s music for piano quartet, played live on stage, with serene movement from six dancers in sherbet colours. Dreamy combinations of two, three or four performers, dance while others stare wistfully into the wings, flowing into elegant tableaux vivants. It’s an ode to pure lines.

Alonzo King’s duet Swift Arrow, created in 2021 to music by jazz composer Jason Moran, starts with spiky energy between Peck and her fellow NYCB dancer Roman Mejia. King was apparently inspired by the Hindu philosophy of the Upanishads, particularly a line about the soul’s desire to merge into oneness. A fierce push-pull dynamic that gives an impression of crackling repartee moves pleasingly into slower, languorous lifts and a more intimate connection.

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Time Spell is a big, exuberant creation, conceived by Peck with the tap dancer Michelle Dorrance and the choreographer Jillian Meyers. They, and eight other dancers, fill the space, with Aaron Marcellus and Penelope Wendtlandt using vocal improvisation and a live sequencer to make the score. Staccato bursts of movement ripple through the dancers, who fall into cascading lines or vigorous duets, a sultry female group dance heavy on the hip swings. The intensity generated by this meshing of tap and pointe work is invigorating. Dorrance and her fellow tapper Byron Tittle are mesmeric when in full flow on the miked tap board. And the choreography throughout is assertive and celebratory, a conversation across dance genres reaching a ‘Kids from Fame’-type climax where everyone brings their most spectacular moves to the party.

Finally, there is the glorious treat of William Forsythe’s The Barre Project, Blake Works II. Created as an online work during lockdown, this collaboration between Forsythe and Peck uses the neo-soul-inflected electronica of James Blake as a startling complement to a 30-minute sequence of increasingly explosive movement on, or close to, a ballet barre. Peck, Mejia, Lex Ishimoto and Brooklyn Mack take turns demonstrating an almost hypnotic prowess, keeping a scalpel-like sharpness against an unconventional but wholly beguiling soundtrack, the energy of hip-hop beats seeping, thrillingly, into perfectly classical shaping. Joyous.

Production Details

Production nameTurn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends

VenueSadler’s Wells

LocationLondon

Starts09/03/2023

Ends11/03/2023

Press night10/03/2023

Running time1hr 40min

CreatorTiler Peck

ComposerJames Blake, Caroline Shaw, Jason Moran

ChoreographerByron Tittle, Michelle Dorrance, Tiler Peck, William Forsythe, Alonzo King, Jillian Meyers

Costume designerHarriet Jung, Reid Bartelme, Tiler Peck, Amy Page, Robert Rosenwasser

Lighting designerBrandon Stirling Baker

Sound designerChristopher Marc

Cast includesAaron Marcellus, Byron Tittle, Christopher Grant, Michelle Dorrance, Tiler Peck, Brooklyn Mack, Jovani Furlan, Lex Ishimoto, Lauren Lovette, Roman Mejia, Jillian Meyers, Mira Nadon, Quinn Starner, KJ Takahashi, Penelope Wendtlandt

Production managerNicole Mitchell

ProducerSadler's Wells