The BalletBoyz are celebrating their 25th anniversary with a show that revisits some of their most stand-out work. It’s eight pieces of art, performed by ten men from a dance company with one mission: to keep creating and commissioning daring work, and sharing it with as many people as possible.
George Piper
Twenty-five years ago, ballet dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt were at the Roundhouse in London preparing for their first big show as a fledgling dance company. They put everything into it, building their own stage and painting their own posters. They named the show Pointless – a cheeky, self-deprecating nod to the absence of female dancers in pointe shoes.
The PR companies weren’t convinced and in one of their candid behind-the-scenes recordings, Michael – unsure whether to laugh or cry – quips to camera: “They’ve sold seven tickets.”
It’s certainly laughable now, watching the grainy 2001 clip in a packed-out Nottingham Playhouse, the eleventh stop in a thirty-date anniversary tour that began with a five-night run at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
This is BalletBoyz at 25: Still Pointless – an homage to the show that nearly bankrupted the whole operation, and everything they’ve achieved since. Although Michael and William have retired from dancing themselves, they have - in their words - replaced themselves with a rotation of ten much fitter, hotter dancers. In this special anniversary show, the current members perform eight routines, split across two acts. It’s a company showcasing its ability to turn imagination into tangible art. It’s a golden opportunity to immerse yourself in some of their favourite pieces from the archives.
In 2013’s Fallen by Russell Maliphant, the dancers lift, swing and springboard off each other with breath-taking athleticism. In Ripple by Xie Xin, commissioned in 2020, the choreography mimics water and a continuous flow of energy with beauty, strength and ease.
These stunning archive pieces were preceded by brand-new work from Nottingham-born dancer and choreographer, Serian Griffiths, set to music by Berwyn Cooper. Motor Cortex, named after the region of the brain responsible for voluntary muscle movement, opened the show with a hypnotic representation of cause and effect, of cells replicating, of how every choice we’ve ever made brings us to where we find ourselves.
Watching him tense and contort his near-naked body to convey the pain and trauma of war was almost too much to bear
Act 1 closed with Young Men, a powerful depiction of soldiers in an unending cycle of combat and death, first performed in 2015. Dancer Benji Knapper stood out here. Watching him tense and contort his near-naked body to convey the pain and trauma of war was almost too much to bear. As the cast took their first bow, Benji received smiles of admiration from his comrades and enthusiastic applause from a moved audience.
After the interval, the snake-like fluidity of 2013’s Serpent by Liam Scarlett, was slickly revisited. The closing moments, where their arms perked upwards to emulate serpent heads, got the dancers their first laugh from the engaged crowd. But it was Bradley 4:18 that really shifted the vibe, the cast, suddenly suited and booted, appearing in silhouette like a troupe of Michael Jacksons.
This 2020 routine is inspired by The Kae Tempest track, Pictures on a Screen, about an outwardly successful man who feels empty and disconnected. The inspiration is downbeat, but here, choreographer Maxine Dolye uses it to inform a punchy, testosterone-fuelled escapade reminiscent of West Side Story.
The tempo slowed one last time for Us, a beautiful expression of a relationship. The electricity, the beginning, extending, peak and resolution, all set to haunting strings composed by Keaton Henson. Then almost too soon, a ballet barre was drilled down for the final number, Fiction, a clever stop-start piece made to look and feel like a live rehearsal. There is no music at first - the movement set to the imagined obituary of the choreographer, Javier de Frutos, read by actors Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton. By the end, the cast are swinging up and over the barre like pendulums, ending the programme on a perfect high.
Between each routine, the audience is shown archive footage on a screen – a trick, the BalletBoyz confess, that was originally to allow time for quick changes. It’s now an integral part of the show, adding context, celebrating the collaborators who work behind the scenes, and showcasing the boy-next-door likeability that got their fly-on-the-wall diaries of life as men in ballet onto Channel 4.
Because of injury the cast were a man down for their one night in Nottingham – not that you would have noticed. The Boyz done good.
BalletBoyz at 25: Still Pointless played at Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday 2 June 2026.
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