THEATRE

SCOTTISH BALLET: EMERGENCE Crystal Pite’s vision of swarm intelligence buzzes with beauty

In a buzzing vision of social organisation, Crystal Pite’s Emergence uses classical technique to draw lines between insect colonies, bird l ocks and ballet corps. The Canadian choreographer was inspired by ideas of swarm intelligence solving problems as a group and her piece forms half of Scottish Ballet’s autumn double bill, alongside Sophie Laplane’s Sibilo.

At i rst we see only principal dancer Sophie Martin, the lighting making an insectile cocoon of her body, which hatches into a duet of twisted limbs and inhuman angles. At the back of the stage, Jay Gower Taylor’s striking set of nesting black lines burns into a tunnel and suddenly the full charge into the hive begins.

There’s an infectious energy to the irregular movements l owing through the corps: a

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shoulder shift passing from one dancer to another; the teeter of pointe shoes rattling across the stage. You feel their impenetrable solidity in being part of a mass. But conl icts also emerge. In one darkly gleeful moment of gender power-play, a glamour-packed chorus line of women marches, locked at the arms, towards incoming men, each of whom are repelled before their force.

Though precise, the divisions and defections never feel militaristic; on the contrary, Pite’s patterns thrum with a beautiful asymmetrical, imperfect vision of order. (Lucy Ribchester) Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu 29 Sep–Sat 1 Oct. Emergence reviewed at Edinburgh International Festival. ●●●●●

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1 Sep–3 Nov 2016 THE LIST 79