Turn It Out with Tiler Peck, Sadler's Wells review - America's ballet wonder-woman raises the barre | reviews, news & interviews
Turn It Out with Tiler Peck, Sadler's Wells review - America's ballet wonder-woman raises the barre
Turn It Out with Tiler Peck, Sadler's Wells review - America's ballet wonder-woman raises the barre
On her UK solo debut, New York City Ballet’s queen of speed gives audiences a wild ride
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/mast_image_landscape/public/mastimages/Time%20Spell%20-%20Christopher%20Duggan%20-%201.jpg?itok=dZyt3FQT)
She can do anything. That’s what choreographers say about Tiler Peck, the peppy New York City Ballet principal who has launched a stream of projects above and beyond the day job. You want speed? Wham, you get it. You want complexity? She can learn a tricky phrase in seconds then reverse it and riff on it. You want nerve, verve, musicality? Those choreographers are right, this dynamo has it all.
Too bad Sadler’s Wells couldn’t schedule more than three performances of Turn It Out with Tiler Peck, her British debut as a solo operator. Perhaps no one quite believed the name would carry enough clout this side of the pond, given how long it is since City Ballet last came to London. And it was mainly Americans who made up the 15,000 devotees of the barre classes Peck streamed from her parents' home during lockdown, turning the phrase "Turn It Out with Tiler" into a stateside ballet-lovers’ mantra.In the self-curated programme she presented at Sadler’s, even the opening number – the only number in which Peck didn’t appear – was stamped with her personal style. And it was also an homage to her schooling. Created by Peck on six of her NYCB colleagues, Thousandth Orange uses Caroline Shaw’s daringly spare score of the same title for piano quartet, performed on stage alongside the dancers in the manner of many a mid-century classic by George Balanchine. His influence – the clean-cut neo-classicism, a crystalline graciousness of manner – is also evident in the movement. But there is a very 21st century warmth and friendliness in the way these dancers interact, and the choreographer’s love for them and their art is palpable. Which in itself is remarkable, given that this piece of utter gorgeousness came out of an annus horribilis for Peck, following a neck injury so severe that it had threatened to end her dancing career. In those circumstances, it takes a special kind of artist to create work that makes others look so good.
Was it coincidence that two of the three female dancers in that piece wore their dark brown hair in a chignon just like Tiler Peck’s? Many at Sadler’s Wells thought it was Peck they were watching, and it was only when the star appeared for the next piece – an intense duet made by Alonzo King for her and a distractingly near-naked Roman Mejia (pictured above, with Peck) – that they realised their error. Slipping out of two items of Lycra and into a third in a blink of an eye would be a challenge even to a woman as nifty as Peck.
That she is also a creature of immense imaginative drive became clear as the evening progressed. Time Spell, receiving its European premiere, is a vast undertaking bringing the disciplines of tapdance, jazz, street and musical improv into contact with ballet to explosive effect. The conception of three women – Peck, the New York tap virtuoso Michelle Dorrance and the jazz/commercial choreographer Jillian Meyers – the piece draws its power from the interplay of these disparate forms and its soundtrack from the self-layering improvised harmonies of two vocalists Aaron Marcellus Sanders and Penelope Wendtlandt. This astonishing pair ultimately turn out to be hoofers as well. The creative melée reaches a dizzying crescendo of noise and leaping bodies. In the excitement, even the ballet women go up on their pointes to have a stab at tapping. It took courage to follow that with a pure-ballet piece for merely four dancers, but The Barre Project, Blake Works II has form, having wowed online audiences in 2021. Again, its creation started with a prompt from Peck, who had always wanted to work with William Forsythe and saw her opportunity in lockdown, even though she and the choreographer were stuck on opposite sides of the US. As such, it is almost certainly the greatest ballet created entirely via Zoom – thinking outside the box but in fact very much in a box. Set to the electronic music of James Blake, the piece is an exploration of the possibilities of the ballet barre, and of classical technique pushed to challenging extremes of speed and torque. This is Peck’s home turf, and the precision detail with which she packs the reams of super-fast steps is a joy. As is the technical elan of her three partners – Mejia, Lex Ishimoto and Brooklyn Mack (pictured above). Hard as must be to co-ordinate the diaries of such stars, Sadler’s Wells must try to bring this brilliant show back for a longer run.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Dance
![Swan Queen: Nina Ananiashvili as Odette in American Ballet Theatre's Swan Lake](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Nina%20A%20Swan%20Lake%2C%20Ellison%2C%20horizontal.png?itok=1D8ubXZL)
![Primrose path: Artists of the Royal Ballet in 'Les Rendezvous', Frederick Ashton's first significant ballet, made in 1933](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Artists%20of%20The%20Royal%20Ballet%20in%20Les%20Rendezvous%2C%20The%20Royal%20Ballet%20%C2%A92024%20Tristram%20Kenton.jpg?itok=RdfXoFMz)
![Queen of the Night: Rocio Molina, the only flamenco dancer ever to win a prize at the Venice Biennale](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/AL%20FONDO%20RIELA%20%C2%A9%20O%CC%81scar%20Romero%20%C2%B7%20005_0.jpg?itok=xhgyuw_h)
![Summer's lease: Francesca Hayward as Perdita and Marcelino Sambé as Florizel in Christopher Wheeldon's three-act ballet The Winter's Tale](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Francesca%20Hayward%2C%20Marcelino%20Sambe%CC%81%2C%20The%20Winter%27s%20Tale%20%C2%A92024%20ROH.%20Ph%20Andrej%20Uspenski.jpg?itok=kZJ7S4_m)
![Lean and hungry: an ancient spirit (Benedict Stewardson) steps out of the shadows in 'All You Need is Death'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/041124-allyouneedisdeath-1_ggnej3.jpg?itok=siqP3r3b)
![Knaves of hearts: Isabella Gasparini and her consorts in a rare revival of 'Danses Concertantes', the first work by a young Kenneth MacMillan for what was to become the Royal Ballet](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/J%20Sissens%2C%20L%20Dixon%2C%20I%20Gasparini%2C%20M%20Masciari%2C%20L%20Acri%2C%20Danses%20Concertantes%20%C2%A92024%20Tristram%20Kenton.jpg?itok=kmQ5-Zc6)
![Seeing red: Minju Kang as Carmen and Rentar Nakaaki as Don José in Johan Inger's 'Carmen'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/PRESS_Minju-Kang-as-Carmen-and-Rentaro-Nakaaki-as-Don-Jose-in-Johan-Ingers-Carmen-%C2%A9-Laurent-Liotardo-6.jpg?itok=xGalcQuB)
![Dancing balloonheads Philip Connaughton and Deirdre Griffin go further than you thought possible in 'WAKE'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/PhotoBy-RuthMedjber-3499.jpg?itok=eMpEWiAS)
![Moonlight sonata: The corps of swans in the Royal Ballet's 2018 production of Swan Lake, now on its second revival](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Swan%20Lake%20%C2%A9%20ROH.%20Photographed%20by%20Tristram%20Kenton%20%285%29.jpg?itok=LCjfQ1ID)
![Paco de Lucía at the Flamenco Festival in Malaga in 2007](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Paco%201.jpg?itok=DMjR9FBL)
![Slow-motion seduction: Marianela Nuñez and Lukas Brændsrød in 'After the Rain'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Marianela%20Nun%CC%83ez%20%26%20Lukas%20B.%20Br%C3%A6ndsr%C3%B8d%20in%20After%20the%20Rain%20%C2%A9%20Andrej%20Uspensky.jpg?itok=vQDdo4pg)
![Children at play: the company in Tanztheater Wuppertal 's Nelken](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Nelken%20by%20Uwe%20Stratmann.jpg?itok=7V4TBxZx)
Add comment