William Forsythe's Choreographic Style | English National Ballet

I would describe Forsythe's style as very reactive and very responsive to the music. You're sort of trying to demonstrate the music for the viewer and you're constantly trying to push the absolute end of your own line and physicality. So you're definitely not inside a box, you're trying to get to the far corners of the box and still be on time with the music, but also very The moment you start, you cannot stop. Your body is constant in a circle. I would say it's very electrifying. He uses the whole classical vocabulary, but he applies a certain thinking process to it. You can always define the step by classical terminology, however it'll be very nuanced with his style, so it's not just an arabesque, it's as big as you can go and it's very stylized as well. So you're always trying to find these crossing dimensions with your whole body and as a kind of a spiral is constantly happening in your spine that kind of comes through in your port de bras. A classic ballet technique at the extreme. I have danced in the middle, somewhat elevated, and approximate sonata. I would say those two are probably somewhat similar in the sense that I think they were choreographed around the same decade. They use a lot of improvisation as well as, you know, stretching the boundaries of the choreography. I think Forsyth's more recent works, he has been using a lot more mainstream music and pop music whereas in the middle, somewhat elevated and approximate sonata, for example, when those were first created around approximately 28 years ago or so, it was kind of using edgy electronic music of that time. I think he was always trying to use music that was really relevant for the time he was creating. Blake's work is completely different. We kind of have pop music by James Blake and to be able to do a choreography with this soundtrack is amazing. First of all, very hard to dance, a little bit funky, a little bit of voguing as well, a lot of stamina and of course you need to have the ballet technique to be able to execute the steps. I'm working on playlists right now. The music is kind of groovy slash very like pop music so there's definitely a groove and a flow to find but it is just such a joy. I really enjoy it. Everything about it is in a way a little bit of an ode to what we do today in our daily practice but I think there's a real emphasis on the joy of dancing. It really demonstrates the athleticism that a ballet dancer can access and the versatility that classical ballet dancers can access. Historically, dances were meant as celebrations and I think he was specifically aiming it for it to be celebratory. It's a celebration. It's like a celebration of like dance and life. He's one of the artists out there that is really trying to question the extent of choreographic thinking. How far can you stretch choreography as a concept, as an actual practice? It's the vocabulary that we know we practice every day but then there's also the music that you put it to. There's the combinations of how you put those steps together. This is an opportunity to actually soak in what it means to dance.