The success of Adam Linder and Marco da Silva Ferreira is testament to the foundations laid by the late John Ashford at The Place and at Aerowaves, and the springboard these platforms provided. Australian Linder was the unexpected 2008 winner of The Place Prize at only 25 years old, followed by the Mohn Prize for Artistic Excellence in 2016 and commissions from the likes of MoMA and Danish Dance Theatre. Da Silva Ferreira has been selected for Aerowaves’ Spring Forward festival several times since 2015, and is now a household name; well, if that house is the niche, oftentimes exclusive world of contemporary dance. A 2025 Rose Prize finalist and a 2026 CHANEL NEXT Winner, da Silva Ferreira’s rise to success has been particularly rapid in recent years, but a commission from Ballet de Lorraine illustrates that both choreographers in this double bill have steadily grown beyond their independent roots.
Adam Linder’s abstract Acid Gems begins with two dancers on lifeguard ladders spectating an oscillating ensemble below, an intriguing visual that is soon discarded. Once the stage is fully theirs to claim, the group resets in a large circle, preparing to outdance each other and impress us, now the sole audience. Ballet de Lorraine is an array of candy in pink, purple and yellow unitards. Billy Bultheel’s score is metallic and increasingly stressful alongside garish lighting. Ballet as we know it is grasped in snappy fragments. Only technical proficiency could carry the dancers through such a frenetic pace. Linder reinterprets Balanchine’s 1960 Jewels, a three-part ballet, evoking the athleticism and edge of Rubies in particular. Aggressive directional changes infuse the classical with the grit of street dance. The cast kick their heels, ball their fists, and fling their arms into sharp hyperextended shapes before snapping back into rounded positions. The contrast is electric, but I am nonetheless relieved when the power is cut.
Where Acid Gems brings geometry, da Silva Ferreira’s a Folia brings hedonism. Channelling a 15th-century Portuguese folk party, the piece combines ancient fertility rituals with modern club culture; in its pulse, urgency and anticipation, common ground is found between the two. The music alone, Luis Pestana’s rework of Arcangelo Corelli, sets a baroque landscape for a large cast dressed in mesh, denim, feathers, stripes, rags and pumps. It’s a Tudor court on steroids, and these dancers are hungry. Social semi-circles surround casual freestylers; the holler, hype and sensual stamps of those on the edges are performances in themselves.
A shadowy interlude, albeit lit beautifully to allow the dancers to shift positions undetected, seems to exist purely to create contrast with the confronting finale. By then, the energy in the auditorium is palpable. Audiences expect to be entertained, and fast, by da Silva Ferreira’s distinctively large, rebellious ensembles that feast the eyes. Indeed, the celebration of diversity onstage, whatever you bring, is uplifting in a political climate that increasingly decries it, even if a Folia feels too egoistical to offer much substance. And the lingering feeling that we were not invited to the party? It may simply be the unavoidable effect, or signal, of the distance these erstwhile independent artists have travelled. ●
05-07.03.2026,Southbank Centre, London, UK