Cassie Kinoshi - Balletboyz: Bradley 4-18 (2021)

Michael Nunn and William Trevitt founded the BalletBoyz company twenty years ago and the all-male group has established its own unique place in UK contemporary dance, commissioning a notably wide range of choreographers. From early on they began including short films introducing each live performance, sometimes irreverent and offbeat, determined to demystify the process and appeal to a broad audience. As filmmakers, they have produced versions of their company’s Young Men (about the First World War) and the more recent Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words for the BBC. So if anyone was speedily going to grasp the opportunity to put out digital content in our current trying COVID-19 circumstances, you would think of them. And they have a special 20th anniversary programme to celebrate, Deluxe, featuring new works, made to new music.

Deluxe is available from 27 March on Sadler’s Wells Facebook page, and it’s an enterprising mix of short films from the rehearsal studio (which would have been projected in live performance) and performances of two new works, filmed earlier this year. Both commissions are from female choreographers, and they present strikingly different visions of the dancers, from aggressive uptight in-your-face masculinity to a serene, delicate and meditative. The contrast is fascinating. It is brilliantly well danced by the cast of six, and really is a welcome treat in these difficult times.