Music by Manners McDade composer and pianist Nils Frahm soundtracked Joshua Junker’s critically-acclaimed Never Known at The Royal Ballet’s Festival of New Choreography in February 2024. The 20-minute work showcased Liam Boswell and Francisco Serrano as soloists alongside dancers from the Royal Ballet; it was designed by Noemi Daboczi and lit by Zeynep Kepekli.
Junker drew on All Melody, a 9½ -minute track from Frahm’s 2018 album of the same name, in his techno-inflected main stage debut. “I’d been listening to All Melody for a while. It’s this mellow techno track with a bit of a warm, human touch to it, and that’s something that I haven’t heard before”, he said in an interview. “I kind of took that contrast between technology and human touch as a concept, and thought about how we as a civilisation are entering this new era with constant technological innovations that impact the way we live and relate to each other.” Junker talks more about Frahm’s music here.
Never Known opens with a twitching, angular pack of dancers staring up at a high, hazy light…Unexpected pools of movement form in the sonar ping and warble of Nils Frahm’s electronic score, which gives way to surging piano and a fraught duet for Liam Boswell and Francisco Serrano.
The Guardian (David Jays), 16 February 2024 ****
…the hands-down highlight…What an enticingly odd work this is – its completely formed, distinctive dance language crafted carefully around the folky spaced-out techno of All Melody.
The Stage (Siobahn Murphy), February 16 2024
[Junker is] a huge talent both as a dancer and choreographer and what he conjured up here was almost like moving into a different timezone or a dystopian, unearthly world…Music by Nils Frahm and Víkingur Ólafsson perfectly echoed what was emerging on stage.
Bachtrack (Deborah Weiss), 17 February 2024
Andie Ndlovu choreographed Frahm's Human Range for Washington Ballet for six live performances in 2022, as part of NEXTsteps, their annual festival of new choregraphy; in 2021 Ndlovu also choregraphed Frahm's Says for the same company for his show Something Human, as part of Create in Place.