To the Theatre Royal to see the Scottish Ballet's Autumn Season. I've never been to a dance performance like this before, but I wanted to see Ride The Beast - which was set to five songs by my beloved Radiohead. I was sceptical at first, there is an air of pretension attached to this sort of thing - "modern dance" - that I'm intensely wary of, but the reviews from the premiere of this at last year's Edinburgh festival were very strong, so I wanted to see it and make up my own mind.
It was very disquieting to have music with which I am so familiar coupled with dance which was alien and new to me. But at the same time immensely powerful to see a completely new interpretation of the work. The Radiohead tracks used - Fitter, Happier, the acoustic version of Creep (which has been known to reduce me to tears), Hunting Bears, Idioteque and The National Anthem weren't even the most obvious choices for a dance work over. The last two worked best, with dancers moving about the stage from all sides, these people are almost superhuman in their fitness. I was very impressed. The choreographer Stephen Petronio is a gushing fan of the music, "their music demands a physical response from me that by-passes reason." Can't argue with that...
The other piece that I enjoyed was called Pennies From Heaven, the dancers in Hollywood-style costumes danced to a series of pieces of music from the 1930s, in a set that looked like a giant cocktail bar. It was all very glamorous, full of humour and style. And I'm not just saying that because of the White Ladies I drank in the interval...
Video of behind the scenes shot by one of my colleagues.
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