IN GOOD COMPANY-LINBURY THEATRE [19TH MAY'O6]

Edward Watson performed a duet with Leanne Benjamin, choreographed by Liam Scarlett at the Linbury Studio Theatre for the event, In Good Company. The piece, Despite, was performed to the music of Rachmanioff and costume designs by Johannes Stepanek. Leanne Benjamin was exceptionally stunning in the piece, personally I adore her costume. It was a light gold laced short dress, with a narrow V front and back opening, very sensual looking. However I didn't feel Edward costumes was suitable. He was in orangey gold 3/4 length trousers and a light organza-looking shirt over a dirty-olive coloured tank top. The shirt was buttoned at the stomach, causing a lot of tightness in the back and restraint in expansive arm movements. And the colours seemed to clash with his hair. Apart from the restricted costumes, it shows Ed being most at home with the contemporary movement. The movement seemed suitable to his personal style of moving, perhaps due to his uncontrolled flexibility in his joints. However, I feel, sometimes he seemed to be throwing his limbs around, and dancing wildly, which is not pleasant to the eye. Also, to add, watching him perform in the Linbury, is very much a close-up affair. His panting after each partnering with Leanne is extremely obvious. Perhaps he is asthmatic, but his deep breathing seemed to portray exhaustion. I noticed that he always have such deep breathing after a short sequence (which is terribly obvious when he is in the corps), both on videos and on stage... It is an interesting event, In Good Company, which presents dancers from Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and The Australian Ballet. However, I feel the pieces such as Liam Scarlett's Vayamos al Diablo (Performed by Romany Pajdak and Steven McRae) and Jonathan Watkin's Silent Vision (Peformed by Zenaida Yanowsky) are the only two which shows diverse movement vocabulary, the other 4 pieces, each from each company, seemed to show quite similar movement voices.