Review: TURN IT OUT WITH TILER PECK AND FRIENDS at Sadler’s Wells

Peck who originally hails from sunny California but is now based in New York as principal dancer with the NY City Ballet suffered a herniated disc to her neck in 2019. The second piece in the programme Thousandth Orange was borne from the need to maintain a dance perspective during the period in which she was unsure if she would be able to dance again. Here, she leaves no-one in any doubt about her recovery, and the piece demonstrates an inherent understanding of the dancer’s body in her stint honing skills as a choreographer.

Before then, the show billed as a love letter to dance, opens with The Barre Project, Blake Works II, in which the curtain rises on Peck at the barre stretching, turning and stabilising, a scene common to millions of dance studios around the globe. Here, her precision develops as she includes pointe work and sharp movements including lightning changes in direction before being replaced and alternating with male dancers (Lex Ishimoto, Roman Mejia and Brooklyn Mack) who deliver astonishing jetés, turns in attitude and petit allegro during various stages in the piece which is choreographed by William Forsythe with music by James Blake. It proves an effective and dazzling opener with hints of latin and a prelude of what’s to come.

Thousandth Orange, which is set to live music by Caroline Shaw, demonstrates Peck’s commitment to developing younger talent, showcasing a clutch of younger dancers namely India Bradley, Chun Wai Chan, Christopher Grant, Quinn Starner, Ryan Tomash and Kloe Walker. It was a sea of pastel colours and couples, but felt like a filler and didn’t quite possess sufficient dynamism to match the other elements of the programme. Peck returns with husband Roman Mejia, to dance the impressively intense Swift Arrow choreographed by trailblazer Alonzo King which possesses the wow factor and symbiosis in spades.

After a second interval we finish with Time Spell where Michelle Dorrance, Jillian Meyers and Byron Tittle hoof in a manner both Nicholas Brothers and Gregory Hines, which with the introduction of ballet dance-off is almost reminiscent of Hines and Baryshnikov’s turn in the 1985 movie White Nights. The piece is performed with singers Aaron Marcellus Sanders and Brinae Ali (who also dust-off their taps shoes and join in the action at one point) and serves as a terrific crowd-pleasing closer to proceedings. All in all, a thoroughly uplifting evening of dance entertainment and it is to be hoped that Ms Peck won’t leave it too long before gracing our shores again. She will certainly be most welcome.

After this evening, there will be two further performances on Saturday (14th March) and the dance programme has a total running time of just shy of 2 hours which includes two 15-20min intervals.