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# Review: Opposites Attract @ Birmingham Hippodrome
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/review-opposites-attract-birmingham-hippodrome/
- Published: 2012-10-01T07:04:34.000Z
- Updated: 2012-10-01T07:04:34.000Z
- Author: Lichfield Live
- Tags: Reviews, What's On, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 21:41

It seems to have taken ages for the ballet season to come round again, and strangely Birmingham Royal Ballet didn’t even open in their home city this year, for some reason choosing Salford’s Lowry instead. Well, it’s rolled into Birmingham now and I’m delighted to report it was on fine form with all the big guns firing on Saturday night.

Opposites Attract is a triple bill of plotless modern pieces demonstrating a wide range of classically inspired modern dance. BRB Director David Bintley’s Take Five was the first offering. Set to the chic Mad Men era music of The Dave Brubeck Quartet this demonstration of cool has a loose theme – young lovers meeting, competing, pairing and separating while exhibiting pure joy in dance. Despite featuring some of the company’s most experienced dancers Matthias Dingman emerged as a new star, graceful, energetic, and obviously loving every minute of performing.

Next came Lyric Pieces by American Jessica Lang to music by Edvard Grieg. I was lucky enough to see the premiere of this in May at Birmingham’s International Dance Festival and loved its ingenious use of simple black corrugated paper to make everything from walls to seats and on one occasion bridges for Scandinavian trolls to hide under. The whole piece has a wonderful variation of mood culminating in a poignant and consoling exploration of love and loss.

I’ve seen the last piece Grosse Fuge set to Beethoven before too, but don’t remember it as being as explosive as this. Packed once more with BRB stars, choreographer Hans Van Manen here pits four icily elegant women in Playtex-advert costumes against four athletic chaps in extraordinary black aggressively-belted Samurai/Minoan skirts (designs by the choreographer). The two groups display themselves and stalk each other on a battlefield of sexual predation, drawing shouts of delight from the audience no doubt partly because here movements which at first seemed vaguely erotic moved inexorably in the direction of beautifully judged posh porn. Crikey!

There’s necessarily a smaller audience for these plotless exercises in pure dance but I was still surprised to see the Hippodrome so patchily attended on a Saturday night. Never mind, next week it’s the ever-popular Swan Lake from Tuesday 2nd October until Saturday 6th with matinees on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. If you haven’t seen it before, this lavish production of one of the great pinnacles of classical ballet is amongst the most stunning items in BRB’s large repertoire.

For tickets phone 0844 338 5000 or go online at [www.birminghamhippodrome.com](http://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/?ref=lichfieldlive.co.uk).