(LA) HORDE/Ballet national de Marseille: The Age of Content at Sadler's Wells East
There were two compelling reasons to attend this performance: the venue itself and the cutting-edge artist collective known as (LA) HORDE. Sadler’s Wells’ newest state-of-the-art venue is a welcome addition to Stratford, boasting rehearsal studios, elegant pre-theatre spaces, and a highly adaptable auditorium with fully retractable seats—offering exciting flexibility for future productions.
Before the performance even begins, the sound of heavy tropical rain and stray dogs barking envelops the room, setting the scene for something ominous ahead. The stage has an empty warehouse feel with large cardboard boxes piled high and stairs leading to a raised metal platform running along the depth of the stage overlooking an open space below and a box lit ceiling above.
VCA Ballet National de Marseille - (LA) HORDE, Age of Content. Image Credit Fabian Hammerl
The evening’s program indicates a quest to critically explore the blurring boundaries between real life and virtual bodies. The performance opens with the strange familiarity of Grand Theft Auto, an action-adventure video game A man on the platform appears to control the game, and the skeletal framework of a car emerges from the back of the stage. As mist rolls in and garage doors open, with first dancer, Aya Sato, steps forward. Her dancing and vacant expression are an exceptionally accurate mimic of an avatar, making it easy to forget she is human.
The way the car and dancer move appear as if manipulated by an unskilled player struggling with the controls. Bumping into the avatar, the back of the stage and eventually tipping on to two wheels and bucking the dancer off like a mechanical bull, with a menacing hiss. The number of avatars begins to exponentially multiply with identical figuresclad in hooded, bling “Juicy” tracksuits and long plaits either side of their faceless heads. A chaotic brawlerupts as if fulfilling gaming’s inherent demand for violence. They dance and clamber around the car vying for domination and attention to rise to the top and get all the attention as pounding club music reaches a crescendo. Eventually everyone is thrown off, landing and then rolling off stage leaving a lone avatar triumphant on top of the car.
VCA Ballet National de Marseille - (LA) HORDE, Age of Content. Image Credit Fabian Hammerl
A sudden, shocking segue gets the audience’s attention: a flap in the ceiling opens and a figure plummets from a great height landing with a thud behind the boxes. Not a real person, but cleverly weighted to make the audience gasp when it lands with a thud and then gently laugh in relief as the “avatar” rises, emerging unharmed from the boxes. She mimes drawing the curtain revealing an abstract hellscape on the back wall. A second avatar appears in a red t-shirt and low sagging jeans (minus the Calvin Klein with buttocks exposed) As the garage doors open again, a horde of streetwear-clad dancers floods in, moving like zombies—glitching, twitching, hunting her down with uncanny video game physics. She clings to the balcony, attempting to escape. A mimed machine-gun shootout ensues, and inevitably, the avatar is “killed”—only to be instantly revived, as one does in the digital realm.
The lyrics of Forever Young are spoken over the scene:
“Heaven can wait, we’re only watching the skies,
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?”
VCA Ballet National de Marseille - (LA) HORDE, Age of Content. Image Credit Blandine Soulage
On the balcony, desperate embraces signal a world hurtling toward collapse. But the violence isn’t over. Dancers are dragged, lifted, and suspended by their mouths before morphing into the next sequence—one that seems to shift toward human desire. A voice commands, “Come.” The choreography now veers into the suggestive, with gyrating bodies, simulated intercourse, and an orgasmic frenzy that escalates from pairs to threesomes and more. A sense of déjà vu creeps in—this recalls Roommates, the troupe’s London performance last year. Is this (LA) HORDE’s signature shock tactic?
The final segment radiated TikTok-style enthusiasm—bright smiles, synchronised moves, and a manufactured sense of euphoria. It channels the razzle-dazzle of a Bob Fosse routine, evoking the audition scene from A Chorus Line. The sheer joy was palpable, and the performers sustained an unrelenting energy that rippled through the audience, ultimately bringing them to their feet for a well-deserved standing ovation The set, lighting and sound are faultlessly well executed. All 18 dancers from Ballet National de Marseille are outstanding. There is not one single weak link.
VCA Ballet National de Marseille - (LA) HORDE, Age of Content, Image Credit Alexandra Polina
Overall they have successfully referenced interesting facets of what entertains us on the internet ranging from video games, violence, pornography and TikTok dance mash ups. But what does it all mean? Perhaps it is an obscuring of what the real world is versus the virtual world. Isn’t the virtual world and what develops digitally just an extension of the world as we experience it today. Or perhaps it is suggesting, we live in the real world, but when we head into the dark web, we find different versions of ourselves there. It questions where our humanity is and where our bodies are inside this big existential question.
The Age of Content by (LA) HORDE/Ballet national de Marseille is part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival, a festival of contemporary dance currently taking place across Sadler’s Wells East, Southbank Centre, Tate, and the Royal Opera House, running through to 8 April 2025. Click here for our guide to must-see events at Dance Reflections.
Date: 14 - 16 March 2025. Location: Sadler’s Wells East, 101 Carpenters Road, Stratford Cross, London E20 2AR.
Review by Natascha Milsom
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