Scottish Ballet: Emergence
Festival Theatre 1/10/26
Scottish Ballet
Artistic Director: Christopher Hampson MBE
Entress (2026)
Choreography: Julia Cheng
Set & Costume Designer: Yann Seabra
Lighting Designer: Lee Curran
Composer: Isobel Waller-Bridge;
Artistic Associate & Guest Percussionist: Beibei Wang
Emergence (2009)
Choreograpy: Crystal Pite
Set Designer: Jay Gower Taylor
Costume Designer: Linda Chow;
Lighting Designer: Alan Brodie
Composer: Owen Belton
“New work is the lifeblood of the Company!” Scottish Ballet’s Artistic Director Christopher Hampson thus introduced a stellar double bill championing the voices of women in choreography. It paired a new commission: ’Entress’, hip hop and musical theatre choreographer Julia Cheng’s first work for a ballet company (commissioned by Scottish Ballet and crafted in Scotland), with ‘Emergence’, Crystal Pite’s first work for a ballet company 17 years ago and given its UK premiere in 2016 by Scottish Ballet.
‘Entress’ is an old Scots term meaning the right to enter, and was Julia Cheng’s response to the chaos and tumult the world is experiencing. Nüwa (Rishan Benjamin), half goddess half snake, undulated across the sloping stage swathed in gauzy garments, followed by a surge of dancers creeping and sliding as one before separating into groups. As the music sped up, pulsating, wailing, and skirling, the dancers reacted with insect-like whirling and jerking: struggling and slowing before becoming one entity again. The Protagonist (Kayla-Maree Tarantolo) danced with shadows, falling and rising. There were some genuinely disturbing moments as she was menaced by disembodied hands writhing, gesturing, and grabbing.
The minimalist lighting and drab, shapeless garments created subtle chiaroscuro textures. Above the stage a gauzy, cobweb-like mass shifted, stilled, writhed, and finally fell, imprisoning The Protagonist in a chrysalis from which she emerged transformed.
The live music was an integral and equal part of the whole, with a string quartet from the Scottish Ballet Orchestra playing alongside the superb percussionist Beibei Wang, accompanied by atmospheric recorded sounds. Various rhythmic sounds from the dancers such as soft breathing, tapping, and clicking added to the percussive soundtrack. The music on its own was well worth listening to: combined with the dance it was mesmerising. It seemed to join the dancers onstage and become a physical part of the dance. The audience greeted the work, and the appearance of the choreographer at the curtain call, with tumultuous applause - and even some polite whoops.
After the interval came ‘Emergence’ by Crystal Pite. She is the most sought-after choreographer on the planet, and last August I saw her ‘Figures in Extinction’ during the Edinburgh International Festival and was stunned by its beauty. ‘Emergence’ is anchored in the idea of the body as a location, and is based on the hive mind and swarming habits of ants and bees.
Black masked male and female dancers appeared, sending wordless messages with rhythmic twitching, binary hand and arm movements, and tapping feet. Bare-chested male dancers wearing black trousers and identical tattoo-like markings portrayed insects: ants, in their pants. The dancers grouped and regrouped, reacting with mechanical, robotic movements and rhythms to a perceived threat first individually and then together, with a breathtaking final sequence fielding three dozen dancers. The recorded soundscape included eclectic electronic sounds, the tapping insect-like sound of pointe shoes on the stage, and the dancers quietly, breathily counting in unison.
This was inspired programming: a new work followed by a seminal earlier work, both by women choreographers. The earlier work informed the later, but while they share some parallel themes and approaches, they are very different. Neither piece has a traditional story as such: they are glimpses into the world of other creatures with their different ways of existing. The story is that there is no story: movement is all.
Photo credit: Andy Ross
