Review: PASTORAL, Barbican Theatre

“A lot of dance is Disneyfied. But art has to be challenging." These are the wise, and provocative words of choreographer Pam Tanowitz. Tanowitz returns to the Barbican with her latest work Pastoral. Premiered in June 2025, the piece uses Beethoven's 6th Symphony as inspiration, specifically ideas of the natural world and changing rhythms.

As usual, Tanowitz has assembled superb collaborators. Caroline Shaw has taken the Beethoven and put it into the Shaw processor. What comes out? A layered, sometimes overly busy score of recorded music, three live musicians and scapes of all different kinds; NYC traffic, rainforests, weather systems, someone doing the washing up. All atmospheric, but when you have four components all at once – where should the ear go?

Providing the set is artist Sarah Crowner. Known for her geometric-in-style work, Crowner uses swathes of material to define the space, be that floor to ceiling curtains, a large rug or moveable flat squares. Green, yellow and orange fill the white space.

Davison Scandrett responsible for lighting design does wonders. You feel every moment of a day and the seasons within the work, and Reid Bartelme's dégradé costuming also seems to symbolise the natural world with all its colours and moods.

To the dance. Tanowitz is known as a serious dance maker. Not a depressed one, but someone who deals with rigour and challenge. So if we aren't at Disneyland where are we? Planet Pam? Pam's world is far away and doesn't deal with constraints, of the choreographic expectation kind. Tanowitz offers 65 minutes of independent dance. Dance that goes where it wants to, regardless of the music, space and relationships.

I'm not proposing the work is all down to chance. I believe it's set. But Tanowitz creates in the moment, and that spontaneity stays. As refreshing as it can initially feel…seemingly perpetual randomness also has a shelf life - well at least for me during a live experience.

Don't get me wrong. There were definitely moments of swell, harmony and cohesion, but the opposite felt more apparent. I was focused throughout, but after say 40 minutes I wondered if I was fully engaged or had transitioned into a trance-like state. The work was happening, comings and goings, a solo, group moments, duo, trio etc, yet I didn't seem to be taking it by the horns. It had a form of my attention but wasn't pulling me in. The anti-Disney effect?

Tanowitz has a recognisable language, and works with dancers who do it proud. Line, weight shifts, buoyant jumps, Hellenic form, the cast scamper, waddle and lilt between moments. As the set can move the space is often divided allowing for immediate entrance and exit and reveals of still or softly moving tableaux. The content is far from boring, enlightened even…yet the whole didn't seem to have the poetic encasing of Tanowitz's 2023 Song of Songs.

I'm a fan of Tanowitz and always visit Planet Pam when it comes to town. Pastoral has left its mark - yet it feels less clear than usual. Successful art should ask questions of the observer, but there's a line between questioning and interrogation. Who creates the line and where they place it are the biggest questions of all.

Pastoral continues at the Barbican until 3 October

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