Nederlands Dans Theatre 2 crowned its 2016 UK tour with final performances at Sadler's Wells, London. The company of 18 highly talented young dancers offered a fast paced firework of diverse works by choreographers Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot, Hans van Manen, Edward Clug and Alexander Ekman. Founded to nurture young dancers aged 18-23, NDT2 has become synonym with extraordinary skill and emotional performance. The six separate pieces blended well through visuals based on grey or black tones and predominant use of classical music. The restaging of Leon and Lightfoot's 1998 piece Sad Case, based on Mexican mambo music and in Lightfoot's idiosyncratic style of that time, offered a welcome divergence to the rest which, with exception of van Manen's Solo from 1997, are recent creations.
Diverse as they might, the individual numbers all draw on a high sense of musicality and technical skill of the performers. Van Manen's Solo plays with three dancers performing an inner conversation of one person. In humours moments, the three archetypes alternating with each other tease one another to burst into sequences of fast paced movement. Some other Time by Leon and Lightfoot had various elaborate solo and duet sequences with Gregory Lau performing outstanding pirouette sequences. Interestingly enough, the programme showcases the male dancers of the company whilst not explicitly aiming to do so in the various works.
Highlight of the evening was Ekman's Cacti with its rhythmic orchestration of the dancing body and humorous lecture on postmodernism. Performed by the entire company with aid of cacti plants and a cat, Cacti draws on visualising the various layers of music whilst adding the dancers' clapping, stomping and breath as an additional one. In splitting the ensemble and lighting only some areas of the stage, Ekman offers a visual rendition of the score with its various repetitions and additions to the orchestra. The company's absolute precision in the use of accents, directions and swift transitions creates the breathtaking imagery with which Cacti stands or falls.
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