Another way of choreographing (Live at Lunch, Royal opera house, 23.02.2023)

Within the framework of the Festival of New choreography that has been happening at the Royal Opera House for the past two weeks, there was also a space for finding new ways of creating choreography from people with disabilities for (but not solely) people with disabilities.

The Royal Ballet in the collaboration with the choreographer Joe Powell-Main and dancer Ella-Louise Appleby presented the new choreography of Joe Powell-Main at Live at Lunch event last Friday.

Joseph Powell-Main was a dancer at the Birmingham Royal Ballet Studios and also at the Royal Ballet. After a series of injuries, he became impaired and had to abandon dancing at the highest level, however this hasn't stopped him from finding another way of dancing, creating and expressing himself. On the contrary, his partial impairment opened a door for him to explore new ways of choreographing for people with (or without) disability and searching for new possibilities of incorporating the supplements (wheelchair, crutches or other supporting items) into choreography.

The result of his exploration and invention was really moving and beautiful, and I'm not saying that only because of the empathy with a disable person. The two excerpts from the new choreography (inspired by the Welsh legend Lady of the Lake) that we saw on Friday were very emotional, technically demanding and also very resourceful. Joe, in an active collaboration with Ella, created a choreography about two people going through the difficulties and disagreement in their relationship and then consequent rediscovering each other and reconciliation. As the choreography demanded a lot of partnering, the question was: "How to deal with the pair dancing when one of the dancers is on wheelchair or on crutches "? ( in the first excerpt, Joe danced on a wheelchair, in the second, on crutches). How to support the partner and who is supporting whom and in what moment?

Well, it was, indeed, very interesting to see how Joe, in that "stormy", dramatic piece, dealt with controlling the wheelchair, his own movements, his expression as well as partnering Ella and how Ella danced around him or with him (sometimes even on the wheelchair as well). They both managed the wheelchair and their dancing space very well.

The second part was very contrasting, it was slow, emotional and soft. The music changed, too. This part was choreographed on the music of the Welsh composer Katrin Finch. Joe danced on crutches, however, the crutches were not there only to support his movements, they became an organic part of the choreography. Joe and Ella explored what else they could do with them, how both of them could danced with them (so for example Ella - a non-impaired dancer - could also better understand Joe's negotiation of space and movements) and use them creatively in general.

I think everybody who attended this Live at Lunch was very surprised and astonished by the fact that disability didn't pose a major problem for Joe and Ella to create something beautiful and enriching and the long-lasting and warm applause they received confirmed it.

We have successful disable athletes or, in general sportsmen or sportswomen, so dance as an artform and a sport as well, should definitely not be an exception.