Via the ROH streaming platform
My attention was first drawn to Kyle Abraham, choreographer of The Weathering (a Royal Ballet commission from 2022), while working in New York from 2006 to 2008, although I didn’t ever manage to see any of his choreography then. Almost two decades later, The Weathering, made on eleven dancers (two female and nine male of various ethnicities) is the first of his works that I have seen.
Media notes tell us that The Weathering ‘explores notions of love, loss and acceptance’ although it is not always easy to see that exploration appear in the choreography. I thought Abraham’s movement was quite repetitious—lots of pirouettes and other turning steps and a particular emphasis on waving arms. There was the occasional czardas-type movement and a few other interesting steps but nothing took away from the feeling I had that the choreography was somewhat repetitious.
The most watchable sections for me were those that featured Fumi Kaneko whether in her solo sections or in pas de deux with William Bracewell. Kaneko’s beautifully flexible body, and the fluidity with which she uses that aspect of her dancing, along with her ability to inject emotion into her performance made watching her a real pleasure.

A pas de deux between Calvin Richardson and Joseph Sissens also was satisfying to watch. It was a moment when the attraction between two people was strong.

The lighting design by Dan Scully consisted of lights enclosed in small rectangular-shaped containers. They were movable items that appeared at times on the floor and at others in various positions across the upper space of the performing area. Their placing and movements were something to watch, although it wasn’t clear if there was, or was not a relationship between them and the expressed themes of love, loss and acceptance.
In the end this review became a very short comment largely because I just kept wondering whether Abraham was simply making an effort to create a work that could be seen as politically or culturally correct given the diversity of the cast he chose and the way that cast members interacted in terms of gender and ethnicity. I am looking forward to seeing some more of Abraham’s work. It might clarify his approach (for me at least).
Michelle Potter, 5 July 2025
Featured image: Joshua Junker in The Weathering. The Royal Ballet 2022. Photo: © ROH/Andrej Uspenski
