FringeReview UK 2026
Low Down
Sweet Mambo continues Tanztheater Wuppertal’s long association with Sadler’s Wells, which first presented a Pina Bausch work in 1982. Working with long-time collaborators – designers Peter Pabst and Marion Cito – the cast includes seven dancers from the original production (2008) joined by two new members of the company. Elemental and unforgettable.
Photo by Oliver Look
Review
Pina Bausch might have been a visionary performance maker, but I doubt even she would have foreseen the parallels between her 2007 creation Sweet Mambo and Emerald Fennell’s 2026 Wuthering Heights film, both premiering in London for Valentine’s Day. But here is flame-haired Julie Shanahan, chest heaving, forcing forward against a fierce head-wind and the repeated restraint of two black clad dudes, imploring in petrified anguish “Let me out!” It’s one of many elemental and unforgettable scenes in the reprise of a work that as a whole is more contained than the big-hitters of Tanztheater Wuppertal’s repertoire.
Rather than swimming pools, flower beds, wooden chairs or scores of performers, here are six elegantly gowned women in silk slips, their spaghetti straps always on the point of slipping. Silently gliding around them are three suited men, alternately facilitating and provoking. The energy between the sexes is more often teasing than tense; the men may nudge, but the straps won’t slip.
The work began as a series of questions posed to a core group of dancers, a process Bausch pioneered. The choreography grew from their answers, building individual stories, movement and impulses that coalesce into a bigger picture.
Bronte allusions aside, Sweet Mambo also presents as a glamorous party – we learn that if you whisper ‘brush’ it alluringly turns the corners of the mouth up – but one where the dancers have very separate agendas and preoccupations. Nazareth Panadero shows music-hall chops in set-pieces playing with words and props. She is also a belter of a dancer at the age of seventy; all but two of the company are in their fifties or sixties and were part of the original troupe. Daphnis Kokkinos, despite feeling ridiculous in a mesh tunic, defiantly spells out his name so we won’t forget it. The strikingly balletic Naomi Brito is cocooned in set designer Peter Babst’s billowing silk, and, like Shanahan, also unable to get out.
A projection of German film Der Blaufuchs (1938), with its femme fatales and mustachioed cads, has occasional synergy between screen and stage but also distracts. That said, billowing silk becomes visually limiting, even with beautiful lighting, clever hidden swings and embellished by dancers in Marion Cito’s jewel-bright frocks.
An eclectic soundtrack, ranging from the wistful Hope Sandoval to Ryuichi Sakamoto and curated independently from the choreography adds another textural layer but sometimes hinders flow.
After a welcome interval – it’s a long sit – the male trio get their moment, with a particularly enjoyable rubber-limbed solo by newcomer Reginald Lefebvre. Further joy is supplied by Nayoung Kim cartwheeling around the world’s cities “I love cartwheels!” including a surprising shout out for Brighton.
Openly addressing the audience (and joining it at points) Sweet Mambo haunts and cajoles, pivoting on themes of love, memory and connectivity. For the most part it keeps the dancers tantalisingly apart; each expressing an inner journey in their own distinctive way. Every movement expressive, every moment meant.
