Choreography lets down otherwise fair entertainment.(Life)

JAMES BOND 007. Premiered at Artscape's Theatre on December 20. Sheila Chisholm reviews Cape Town City Ballet's present-ation of Robin van Wyk's two-act ballet.

Anyone expecting choreographer Robin van Wyk to replicate, through dance, some of James Bond's more adventurous adventures would not have had their expectations met. He introduced no tension-filled scenes at the casino, high-speed chases, or battles against the forces of evil.

Instead, for his cast of 59 young people, backed by seven Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) dancers and two good vocalists, he took 16 theme tunes from James Bond movies (including Diamonds are Forever, Man With the Golden Gun, Gold Finger and You Only Live Twice) and, weaving action around them, turned this 60-minute piece into a musical experience rather than a dance spy thriller. Normally not short on choreographic inventiveness, Van Wyk's ideas seemed to run dry here.

For too many of his groups involving the youngsters his patterning was reduced to unimaginative straight lines, with everyone simultaneously dancing the same steps in what I call single-image choreography. And his pas de deux between CTCB's dancers, while very well performed, were insufficiently erotic to highlight James Bond's sexual encounters.

Neither did mixing hip hop and jazz with neo-classical en pointe styles work. It fragmented any cohesion that might otherwise have existed.

Van Wyk also didn't balance the two acts. In the first he sustained interest by interspersing CTCB dancers with six young people's groups.

In the second, apart from a pas de quatre for Brock Hayhoe, Emmerich Schmollgruber, Johnny Bovang as James Bond and Grant Swift as Dr No, he provided a series of unrelated, repetitive, pas de deux for Hayhoe, Schmollgruber, Bovang, Reika Sato, Laura Bosenberg and Angela Hansford, with vocalists Tereza du Plessis and Christy Johnson, and Jikaleza kiddies only making brief appearances. That is until the finale when everyone joined in enthusiastically.

However, while weak choreographically and thin on a storyline, all the dancers must be commended for the high energy with which they accomplished their routines.

And how fortunate these school pupils were to be given an opportunity to dance, in their glitzy costumes, on a professional stage alongside experienced artiste Johnny Bovang.

As well as sharing the stage with up-and-coming names such as Hayhoe, Schmollgruber, Sato, Bosenberg and Hansford. Their neat footwork and obvious pleasure at moving lent James Bond 007 fair entertainment value.