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What fun! A show called “Tutu” threatens serious political attention and then turns out to be quite other, a genre-bending, gender-bending romping rampage through conventions not just of dance but of human, or – one might as well say it – sexual relations. Six brawny men in tights, in stockings, in skirts, without skirts, in frills, in tutus, on pointe, showing a leg, playing silly buggers, honouring – by satirising – the traditional forms we all really love.
Chicos-Mambo-TUTU-Image-Credit-Michel-Cavalca.
Despite the promise of burlesque, this is family fare, the naughty nuances hidden in slapstick and juvenile jokes. The darker sadnesses keep until the last when colourful powder-puff boxing gloves are relinquished for a tie-checking, time-checking tutu-less little march that you could almost miss.
Chicos-Mambo-TUTU-Image-Credit-Michel-Cavalca-4
For the aficionados there are countless cultural references that keep smacking you on the bottom. There are the gravity defying lifts and pirouettes and pouts of Tchaikovsky-an princes and princesses, dying swans galore, giant ducklings attempting synchronised cygnet-ery. We may or may not award points to a team of anxious, smiley, tight-bottomed, tinsel-costumed rhythmic gymnasts, and ditto for Dirty Dancing’s iconic set piece performed for a glitzy Strictly Come Dancing battle. There is a M?ori rugby player in a scrum cap being scary with his haka while tackling Bach. There are disembodied legs entangling in a high-heeled tango, and there are languorous long-limbed Pina Bausch clones suffering audibly in long silken slips and, de rigueur, thrashing their very long hair about for a long time. There is Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring Chickens as you’ve never seen it before. And much more. Most incredibly, it really is all hilarious, the company’s fine balletic skills hidden under the whores-play.
When it comes to being the dance audience, we are unaccustomed to the comic mode. It takes a while to read the intention here and to relax into it. At the close of the short evening Philippe Lafeuille, the company’s choreographer and founder of Chicos Mambo, this all-male, Barcelona-based ballet company, appears onstage for a bow. In half a minute he has the entire audience in the palm of his hand, up on our feet, swaying and singing and doing silly things with our arms and laughing a lot, a marvel to behold. This momentary glimpse into his leadership and lightness of touch goes some way to explain the success and rapport and longevity of his company.
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“Tutu” by Chicos Mambo company runs at Sadler’s Wells East,
11-15 February 2026. Dancers: Adele Borde, Julien Mercier, David Guasgua, Kamil Jasinski, Vincent Simon, Marc Behra, Vincenzo Veneruso. Director and choreographer: Philippe Lafeuille. Costumes: Corinne Petitpierre. Lighting: Dominique Mabileau. Sound: Antisten.
Review by Primrose MacFay.
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Dance: “Tutu”
What fun! A show called “Tutu” threatens serious political attention and then turns out to be quite other, a genre-bending, gender-bending romping rampage through conventions not just of dance but of human, or – one might as well say it – sexual relations. Six brawny men in tights, in stockings, in skirts, without skirts, in frills, in tutus, on pointe, showing a leg, playing silly buggers, honouring – by satirising – the traditional forms we all really love.
Despite the promise of burlesque, this is family fare, the naughty nuances hidden in slapstick and juvenile jokes. The darker sadnesses keep until the last when colourful powder-puff boxing gloves are relinquished for a tie-checking, time-checking tutu-less little march that you could almost miss.
For the aficionados there are countless cultural references that keep smacking you on the bottom. There are the gravity defying lifts and pirouettes and pouts of Tchaikovsky-an princes and princesses, dying swans galore, giant ducklings attempting synchronised cygnet-ery. We may or may not award points to a team of anxious, smiley, tight-bottomed, tinsel-costumed rhythmic gymnasts, and ditto for Dirty Dancing’s iconic set piece performed for a glitzy Strictly Come Dancing battle. There is a M?ori rugby player in a scrum cap being scary with his haka while tackling Bach. There are disembodied legs entangling in a high-heeled tango, and there are languorous long-limbed Pina Bausch clones suffering audibly in long silken slips and, de rigueur, thrashing their very long hair about for a long time. There is Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring Chickens as you’ve never seen it before. And much more. Most incredibly, it really is all hilarious, the company’s fine balletic skills hidden under the whores-play.
When it comes to being the dance audience, we are unaccustomed to the comic mode. It takes a while to read the intention here and to relax into it. At the close of the short evening Philippe Lafeuille, the company’s choreographer and founder of Chicos Mambo, this all-male, Barcelona-based ballet company, appears onstage for a bow. In half a minute he has the entire audience in the palm of his hand, up on our feet, swaying and singing and doing silly things with our arms and laughing a lot, a marvel to behold. This momentary glimpse into his leadership and lightness of touch goes some way to explain the success and rapport and longevity of his company.
=====
“Tutu” by Chicos Mambo company runs at Sadler’s Wells East,
11-15 February 2026.
Dancers: Adele Borde, Julien Mercier, David Guasgua, Kamil Jasinski, Vincent Simon, Marc Behra, Vincenzo Veneruso.
Director and choreographer: Philippe Lafeuille.
Costumes: Corinne Petitpierre.
Lighting: Dominique Mabileau.
Sound: Antisten.
Review by Primrose MacFay.
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By Primrose MacFay • added recently on London Grip, dance, performance, theatre • Tags: dance, performance, Primrose MacFay, theatre