Off the page

Dance has its own archaeological periods, and 2016’s schedules are confirming what 2015 indicated — that the era of dances with scientists is over. If you’ve an aversion to digital fidgets and have felt left out in recent years, you will wallow in stories galore this year.

There are big new ballets coming about The Odyssey, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre; of which Mark Bruce’s boldly miniaturised The Odyssey, launching into Britain’s county theatres next month before fetching up at Wilton’s Music Hall, is a most alluring prospect.

Last year we saw from both Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon, the Royal Ballet’s master-stylists of crisp abstract ballet, an enthusiastic rush to reinvent old-fashioned narrative. McGregor’s Woolf Works, despite over-reliance on the glorious sunset of the ballerina Alessandra Ferri, was a big improvement on Raven Girl, and Wheeldon’s heartfelt handling of An American in Paris proved that A Winter’s Tale was no flash in the pan. (The return of A Winter’s Tale to Covent Garden in April is worth a note in your diary.)

And although Northern Ballet’s addiction to awkward balletifications of well-known literary titles is often easy to diss, the 1984 created for it by Jonathan Watkins last year (see it this May at Sadler’s Wells) was thoroughly effective, so to see Cathy Marston down for its Jane Eyre in May is another cause for optimism.

In any case, these big ballets don’t get budgeted without trends emerging first in smaller places. Last year was awash with small, potent works that were nakedly about feelings. If you’re going to choreograph a lovers’ break-up, it must be as tempting to lather on droops and sobs as it is to ladle a cream and vermouth sauce over indifferent fish, and there’s plenty of that about, particularly from Europe.