Audiences will be guided through fractured histories and into a recontextualised future when From Ash to Promise, a new triple bill of contemporary ballet, takes to the stage this month.
The production, which features works by BalletMAR co-directors Marika Brussel and Richard Bermange, premieres at London’s JW3 on Sunday 8 February. For dance fans in the South East, there will also be a performance in Brighton, at The Dance Space, on Friday 27 February.
BalletMAR is a London-based dance organisation that is dedicated to the development of contemporary narrative ballet theatre. It aims to make dance more accessible and inclusive for audiences and artists alike. It does so by creating and sharing original works, which represent and honour the human spirit, and providing professional development workshops and classes for freelance dancers.
Promising to be a powerful exploration of personal and national identity, the From Ash to Promise programme comprises Lot’s Wife, Mr Greentree (My wish was my command) and Slant of the Earth.
From Ash to Promise Lot’s Wife / Mr Greentree (My wish was my command) / Slant of the Earth
Connected by their focus on Jewish narratives, these three pieces reflect on heritage, memory and transformation. They explore what it means to be human in tumultuous times and different ways of navigating what it takes to survive.
Lot’s Wife by Marika Brussel
London-based American choreographer Marika Brussel will present a feminist reimagining of the biblical figure who looked back in Lot’s Wife.
Introduced in Genesis 19, the character is known as a disobedient woman who was transformed into a pillar of salt as punishment for turning around to look back at her burning home. Having been among the people warned by the angels to flee the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, she had been instructed not to look back at the destruction. Her fate serves as a cautionary tale that shows what happens to those who choose a worldly life over salvation, or long for the past instead of embracing change and moving forward.
Lot’s Wife promises to interrogate the idea that following without question is a woman’s lot. Could turning back sometimes be the right decision? We can look to the future, but we live – doing the best we can as messy humans – in the here and now. Is it not an act of compassion to remember the places and people who have played a role in the journey so far? Originally scheduled for stage in 2020, Lot’s Wife premiered as a film during lockdown. Its inclusion in From Ash to Promise marks its long-awaited live debut.
Marika Brussel’s ballets have been commissioned by many companies, including New English Ballet Theatre, Kansas City Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Madison Ballet and Hudson Ballet Theatre. She has used dance as a medium to explore myths, plays and personal stories. Her primary interest is in exploring what it means to be human and understanding what drives us.
Mr Greentree (my wish was my command) by Richard Bermange
London-based British choreographer Richard Bermange will explore creativity and resistance in Mr Greentree (My wish was my command), a multimedia solo inspired by Austrian-Jewish entertainer and anti-fascist Fritz Grünbaum.
Franz Friedrich (“Fritz”) Grünbaum (1880–1941) was a cabaret artist, librettist, writer, film actor and director in interwar Vienna, who was known for his quick-witted repartee. Following the German invasion of Austria on 12 March 1938, Grünbaum (the name translates to “green tree” in English) attempted to flee the country. Like many other Jewish people, he headed east and tried to find sanctuary in Czechoslovakia, but he was turned away at the border. He was soon apprehended by the Nazi authorities, placed under arrest and imprisoned in the concentration camps of Buchenwald and Dachau. He remained at the Dachau concentration camp, where he covertly planned and produced his own cabaret performances, miraculously evading his captors’ knowledge, until his death in January 1941.
Mr Greentree (My wish was my command) promises to explore Grünbaum’s life and stage personas and the conflict between the two. This narrative solo is set to archival audio recordings of the man himself and a score of original, popular songs from the Weimar Republic. The piece premiered in its earliest form in 2017, with Bermange performing the title role. Following development, it made its New York City premiere in 2023.
Richard Bermange is a choreographer, creative director, rehearsal director and dramaturg. His choreography credits include Swan Lake for National Ballet of Ireland in 2014 and works for Ballet Central, London Studio Centre, National Youth Ballet and English National Ballet’s youth dance company, ENBYouthCo. His directing credits include creative director of ENBYouthCo from 2019 to 2023 and rehearsal director for London Children’s Ballet in 2024, restaging The Secret Garden.
Slant of the Earth by Marika Brussel
The programme will be rounded off with the UK premiere of Marika Brussel’s Slant of the Earth, which reinterprets the ancient tale of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar.
The story of Abraham, his wife, Sarah, and their maidservant, Hagar, highlights themes of faith, strife, love and legacy. God promised to bring a saviour through Abraham, but he and his wife remained childless for many years. They grew old and started to lose hope, so Sarah took matters into her own hands and gave Hagar to Abraham to bear a child for them. Hagar conceived, and Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, was born when Abraham was 86. But, unsurprisingly, tension developed between the two women. Things got even worse when, more than a decade later, Sarah finally did become pregnant, as promised, and gave birth to Isaac. Nothing could quell the family feud and it remains a point of contention between the boys’ descendants – the Arabs (Ishmael’s descendants) and the Israelites (Isaac’s descendants) – today.
Brussel’s version of the story looks at the relationships between Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and God. Love is complex: Abraham loves God the most; Sarah loves Abraham the most; Hagar loves Sarah the most.
Slant of the Earth promises to be an emotive exploration of familial conflict. Prepare to be immersed in the intensity of deceit, jealousy and unfulfilled love. And expect to be swept away by the flickering promise of a new nation’s birth.
BalletMAR
BalletMAR was founded by three choreographers: Marika Brussel (M), Aaron Thao (A) and Richard Bermange (R). Their collective creativity was first showcased in June 2024, with triple bill Warp and Weft at Marylebone Theatre, and this swiftly led to the subsequent formation of BalletMAR. Run by Brussel and Bermange, the company strives to explore new and familiar experiences, ideas and stories through dance and music.
The dancers who will bring From Ash to Promise to the stage are: Dolly Banks-Baddiel, Alexander Fadayiro, Tamara Hinson, Michaela Marrable, Mayuko Suzuki, Gregory Tyndall, Ryan Upton and Ellie Young.
The company has been rehearsing in venues across London. These include West London School of Dance, 40 Clarence Mews and JW3.
Running time: Approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.
Age guidance: 15+
*Featured photograph shows dancers Tamara Hinson and Stefanos Dimoulas in rehearsal. Photography by Elizabeth Langfeld.
From Ash to Promise is at JW3 London on Sunday 8 February. It is at The Dance Space, Brighton on Friday 27 February.
Georgina Butler is an editor, a dance writer and a ballet teacher.
