By Genevieve Dammery
Few things are quite as striking as the opening of a Balanchine ballet. As the curtain rises, rows of dancers emerge in perfect symmetry, creating an image that can elicit an almost involuntary gasp from the audience. It was a fitting beginning to English National Ballet’s latest triple bill, Rhythm Riot.
Bringing together George Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements with two world premieres from Micaela Taylor and Jae Man Joo, Rhythm Riot is an eclectic evening that moves between exuberance, darkness, and abstraction. The three works could hardly be more different, but each is united by an understanding of rhythm and the ways in which it can shape the body, the stage, and the audience’s experience.
The evening opened with Symphony in Three Movements, set to Igor Stravinsky’s score. True to Balanchine’s style, there is no conventional narrative. Instead, the choreography relies on speed, precision, and the constantly shifting patterns of a large ensemble. Thirty-two dancers move across the stage with remarkable synchronicity, creating something that feels architectural in its construction.
Particularly striking is the contrast between the sheer scale of the ensemble and the more intimate central pas de deux. Here, the energy of the piece becomes quieter and more mysterious, allowing the dancers to demonstrate a different kind of control.
From Balanchine’s neoclassical precision, Rhythm Riot suddenly shifts gear. Micaela Taylor’s Bow Out, one of the evening’s two world premieres, takes its inspiration from the legendary Nicholas Brothers and the golden age of American entertainment. The piece incorporates elements of jazz, tap, hip-hop, and Lindy Hop, in a work that is immediately more playful and theatrical.
The dancers move with an infectious swagger, while the tailcoats they wear provide an instantly recognisable call to old-Hollywood. It is a work that manages to be both hugely entertaining and introspective. Most importantly, Bow Out feels alive; the dancers genuinely inhabit the rhythm. Taylor makes excellent use of the ensemble, building sequences that are playful, precise, and visually striking without allowing the sheer number of dancers to overwhelm the work.
If Bow Out is the riot promised by the title, the evening’s final work takes us somewhere darker. Jae Man Joo’s Auguries of Innocence draws on William Blake’s poem of the same name and combines it with the music of Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks and traditional Korean drumming. It is a world away from the exuberance of Taylor’s choreography. The stage becomes a shadowy, almost gothic landscape, populated by distorted bodies, ritualistic movement, and an ominous atmosphere.
Auguries of Innocence is highly ambitious. Joo is attempting to explore humanity’s relationship with the natural world, spirituality, and destruction. The choreography creates striking images, but it is where Rhythm Riot becomes less accessible.
The symbolism is elusive, and the darkness of the production is striking, but it also creates a distance between the audience and the ideas the piece is attempting to explore. Compared with the immediate physicality of Bow Out, the final work asks a lot more of its audience.
The three works do not form a seamless whole, and the connection between them can sometimes feel more conceptual than tangible.
What remains consistent throughout is the quality of the dancers. They move effortlessly between Balanchine’s exacting neoclassicism, Taylor’s jazz-inflected physicality, and Joo’s much darker contemporary vocabulary. That versatility is the production’s greatest achievement.
Rhythm Riot is not an evening designed to offer one uniform experience, but it is refreshing to see a programme willing to take such significant stylistic leaps within a single evening. Sometimes that experiment produces something exhilarating; sometimes it leaves us searching for a way in. But throughout, Rhythm Riot demonstrates that the ENB is willing to take risks, embrace new voices, and push its dancers beyond the familiar.
And when it works, it is impossible not to be swept along by the rhythm.
English National Ballet’s Rhythm Riot runs at Sadler’s Wells until 3 October 2026. For more info
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