Vortex review: Russell Maliphant recreates Jackson Pollock’s paintings through dance

Choreographer’s production is a little clunky, but features gorgeous vignettes

For ‘Vortex’, Russell Maliphant and lighting designer Ryan Joseph Stafford layer dappled light over the dancers (Roswitha Chesher)

Russell Maliphant’s new Vortex digs into the paintings of Jackson Pollock – from evoking his imagery on stage, to the very physical process of creating it. Maliphant’s beautifully fluid moves are set against light that lies like thick impasto paint, or against shimmers of falling sand. There’s some clunky stagecraft in getting those contrasts set up, but some gorgeous stage pictures, too.

Maliphant has always been drawn to light, and often to visual artists. Past works include responses to the sculptures of Rodin and the line drawings of Nijinsky, as well as award-winning collaborations with Sylvie Guillem. When he frames his dancers in stripes or boxes of light, the movement can recall a drawn line against darkness.

For Vortex, Maliphant and lighting designer Ryan Joseph Stafford layer dappled light over the dancers and a series of props. Gold-lit limbs unwind in front of a tipped plane of wood, suggesting a giant easel. One sequence of shadows looks like a forest, or like the rumpled textures of a finished Pollock painting. As they move through it, the cast of five seem to flicker, like an old film. Later, they create the same jittery effect in full light, like an illusion that turns out to be real. Katya Richardson’s score is percussive but gentle, with prepared piano and pattering sound.