Dance Me – Music by Leonard Cohen at Sadler’s Wells

Ballets Jazz Montreal brings their tribute to Montreal’s most famous export to London for the first time. Leonard Cohen saw and approved of the show, although he died in 2016 before rehearsals began and the premiere in 2017. The 80-minute performance uses material from Cohen’s long career, both studio and live recordings, excerpts from interviews and readings from letters and poems as the soundtrack. There are songs with the younger singer’s voice, more keening and higher than the portentous gravel tones of his later years.

The artistic direction is provided by Louis Robitaille, with dramaturgy by Eric Jean. Andonis Foniadakis, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Ihsan Rustem are the choreographers. The 14-strong ensemble are dressed simply in Cohen-esque suits and hats, latterly loose shirts on both and plain shift dresses on the women. The staging is simple yet effective, a shiny stage is presided over by banks of lights. Cédric Delorme-Bouchard and Simon Beetschen’s lighting design is a delight, showing lithe bodies at their best and evoking a range of moods.

Cohen’s record company once called him the “master of erotic despair”. On a lesser artist, his lyrics could almost sound desperate, but instead, they are desperately romantic and their incantatory rhythm unlocks something of the universal human need for connection. Like the best art, it’s hard to dissect what makes the songs so good, they just are. The show takes its name from the 1984 song Dance Me to the End of Love, the interpretation of which sees one male dancer partner each of the women in the company in a commentary on Cohen’s own eventful love life. Boogie Street is a highlight, stylish and full of intricate limbs. A pas de deux by Yosmell Claderon Mejias and Tuti Cedeno to Suzanne is full of ingenious lifts taking strength and balance from both partners. Given Cohen’s favoured subject, there is a slinkiness throughout, with a strong sensuality to the choreography.

Astrid Dangeard sings Marianne beautifully after a reading from a letter Cohen sent the real Marianne on her deathbed. Dangeard also duets with Hannah Kate Galbraith on a surprisingly good rendition of Hallelujah (surprising given that they are principally dancers, not singers). 

The only gripes would be that there was no song list in the programme as an aide-mémoire and this show is not more widely available. This is a mesmerising, moving and sensual Valentine’s Day treat for the sophisticate.

Jessica Wall

Dance Me – Music by Leonard Cohen is at Sadler’s Wells from 7^th February until 14^th February 2023. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.