Les Ballets C de la B: Ashes

Les Ballets C de la B are the most important dance company in the world. Between Alain Platel’s increasingly religious meditations - his VSPRS induced a spiritual experience in both cast and certain members of the audience - and the more humanistic choreography of Koen Augustijnen, C de la B are relentless in their search for radical ways to communicate and surprise. Tramway has supported Augustijnen throughout his latest trilogy - one reason why this venue is so precious - which climaxes with Ashes, a confrontation with grief, loss and the human desire to recapture what has been lost. The first two pieces of the trilogy revealed Augustijnen’s approach: live classical music, balletic technique filtered through adventurous movement and a sombre, sincere pacing that captures both melancholy and high drama. Capable of condensing entire cycles of human behaviour into simple series of movements, Augustijnen demonstrates the ability of dance to bypass the intellect and directly communicate profound ideas and emotion. Despite their dominance of European dance, C de la B remain controversial in the UK. Perhaps because of their willingness to incorporate all manner of styles, they are often regarded with suspiucion by the British dance press, disparaged as a circus troupe. They are visually stunning, but this categorisation ignores their direct, emotional power, as it hankers for a classicism that is often dry and elitist. Ashes will destroy preconceptions, touch on essential human experience even as it opens up the manifold possibilties of choreography.