Founded in 2000, Ballet Boyz is a British company specializing in modern dance. They are known for their extensive stage and television work and have performed in New York before. Young Men is the piece that I saw at the Joyce Theater this week. This particular dance was first choreographed by Iván Pèrez in 2014. Two years later, the company made a wordless feature length film innovatively incorporating dance into its storytelling (see link to the film’s trailer below). The current show is a hybrid of the two: scenes from the film and selections of live movement. A group of young men under supreme stress while facing the horrors of World War I is the subject matter.
The film opens in a chapel with two women praying. The older woman may be the mother of a soldier who is sitting beside his wife. Then the story quickly turns to scenes of war and dying. There is a segment on basic training. The film’s athleticism bursts forward as the dancers recreate the scene three dimensionally. The process of dying is a dramatically rendered layback followed by a slump to the floor. The move is performed and repeated signifying the extensive deaths faced by these young men.
The film is quite beautiful and gritty at the same time. The bunker scene is particularly arresting for both its storytelling and its depiction of the mental stress and anguish written on the soldier’s faces. Always visually fascinating, the production occasionally gets bogged down a bit in its storytelling and deliberately repetitive movement. The score, composed by Keaton Henson, is lush and harshly gorgeous, very well suited to the material.
Ballet Boyz is impressive for using a tumbling and angular modern dance choreography to spotlight the physical danger and emotional crisis confronted by men at war. The inherent alluring appeal of this dance seemed somewhat at odds with the brutal nature of the subject matter. As a result, Young Men occasionally straddles a fine line between condemnation and commemoration.
One of the soldiers returns home at the end, however, with a physically agonizing case of PTSD. The serious and lasting effects of war coalescence in a scene with joyful reunion mixed with terrifying sadness. The seven men and two women on stage are very talented performers. Some throw their bodies to the ground and the thumping sound is jarringly intense. Accompanying them is a unique film which incorporates dance-like artistry into a very grim story. Ballet Boyz scores high on originality and artistic merit.