Aladdin

Aladdin

Choreography by David Bintley

Music by Carl Davis

Birmingham Royal Ballet

The Lowry, 27 February 2013

You are surprised to learn that it is a new ballet, first performed just in 2008 in fact, since it appears and feels so much like a part of the classic repertoire.

There is the beautiful princess, the evil villain, the hero descending into the underworld… Aladdin edging his way fretfully into the cave.

The sets and costumes are enchanting; the lighting and special effects – magic carpet and all – are, well, magical; the dance is an undulating wave of sweet motion.  In the scene that ends act one there is what one can only call an homage to Jewels, George Balanchine’s tripartite tour de force.  It’s all copacetic.

And just to be clear: children will enjoy this ballet as much as adults, and there is nothing in it to disturb or offend.

Aladdin is at The Lowry until 2 March, and then tours various venues throughout the UK until the end of the month.  Full tour dates are here.

Le Sacre du printemps by Pina Bausch

Le Sacre du printemps

Music by Igor Stravinsky

Choreography by Pina Bausch

L’Arche Editeur, 2012

ISBN: 9782851817747

Just the half an hour or so, that’s all it lasts, but it rapidly becomes unbearably involving even so.

It’s due to the intensity of the drama, the way you’re drawn into the urgency for renewal, how it unremittingly builds and builds.  You feel it in the pulse of your blood.  And for renewal to come about a chosen one, a sacrifice/scapegoat, is needed.  Who will wear the red dress, and dance unto death?

It is the tenderness that scares the others off, those who decline the dress.  A hand reaching out to caress, let’s say.  Or it may be what they read in the man’s face: desire, need, hunger.  Death wants only the very brave.

This last dance is, as well as being thrilling and climactic and incredibly moving, simply an incredible performance.  For how do you attain in dance an absolute abandonment (one culminating in the loss of life itself) while retaining always at least a crumb of control?  Death may no longer be a taboo; but dying is.

There is an elemental quality to the staging, in keeping with the nature of the ballet and Stravinsky’s disconcerting score: the men in black trousers, the women in white ethereal dresses (a nod to Café Muller perhaps), looking for all the world like two antagonistic packs, hunting each other.  The earth lies strewn at their feet.  A red garment is the stark battle line between them.  In Bausch’s choreography, whose subtle geometry is here apparent, their movements reach for the fluidity of ballet but anxiety always fractures the harmony of the moment.  Dance constantly morphs into drama and violence.

This performance was filmed in Wuppertal in 1978, three years after its premiere there, and it still feels dangerous and edgy even now.  There is an accompanying booklet with the DVD, which includes black and white stills from the film and a first-hand account by Jo Ann Endicott, one of Bausch’s dancers, of being involved in those first productions.  And Cocteau writes about the first responses to Le Sacre du printemps in Paris in May 1913, and of his friendship with Stravinsky and Diaghilev.  The booklet is in French, German and English.

The publisher’s description of the DVD and booklet can be read here.

English National Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty

Music by Tchaikovsky

English National Ballet

Opera House, Manchester

28 November 2012

This marvellous production of the classic ballet clocked in at close to three hours of well-nigh perfect dance.

The two leads, Tamara Rojo in the role of Princess Aurora and Vadim Muntagirov as Prince Desire, are spectacular dancers; and one only realised how good – how breathtakingly good – a dancer Muntagirov is during the third and final act.  His solo was wonderful.  They all – all of the troupe – pull their weight, mind.  And they have to, for the intricacy and variety and, yes, let us be in no doubt about it, the sheer technical difficulty of Marius Petipa’s choreography demands it.

There is a clue here, too, as to why the ballet has stood the test of time: for there is so much here, an embarrassment of rich delights, to savour and enjoy.  Be in no doubt, English National Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty will awaken and revitalise all your senses.

The Sleeping Beauty is at the Opera House until 1 December then tours the UK up until March 2013.  Details of future tour dates can be found here.

Swan Lake

Swan Lake

Music by Tchaikovsky

Birmingham Royal Ballet

The Lowry, 19 September 2012

Swan Lake. Photo: Bill Cooper

Rather different to most others, this production of Swan Lake, an altogether more melancholy and sombre, you could almost say sinister staging of the classic ballet.

Some of this may be due to the influence of Aronofsky’s film Black Swan, and black was certainly the predominant colour of the costumes and sets, save in Act 3 where Northern Renaissance colours, brocades of red and gold and (yes) black too were very much in evidence.  A Lucas Cranach painting come to life, it looked like.

But in truth you really don’t need to look further than the story and the score to discover a tragic tone.  If Tchaikovsky’s music is never dissonant, it is often disquieting.

The swans and cygnets were a much more positive force in this retelling than usual, intriguingly enough, and were emphatically on the side of the lovers.  They were like wayward naiads, not entirely under the control of the evil Baron.

The dance was perfect throughout, uniformly outstanding, always delightful.  Nothing else need be said as regards  that department.

At the end you were led to believe that, though the prince may be dead, he and his beloved are in a better place.  It is as though Epicurus were wrong when he said ‘Death is absence’, as though Nick Flynn had never written Some Ether.

I could quite happily see this version of Swan Lake again, just right now, and am sure I’d be as enthralled and enchanted as the first time.

Ballet Central 2012

Ballet Central 2012

Central School of Ballet

The Lowry, 25 April 2012

There are several stars of the future here, but it wouldn’t be to their benefit to name them.

The show featured seven short works, each being performed by the final year students of the Central School of Ballet.  Some could be called modern dance (such as Code, characterised by abrupt gestures and hard-edged movements) though most were ballets, for example the traditional and technically challenging Pas de Trois.  Period, picturesque and quite a puzzle is how I would describe the final work, Whodunnit?, conceived and choreographed by Matthew Hart.  The conceit was that an Agatha Christie novel or the Cluedo board game had been brought to life, recast as a narrative ballet.  It was charming and ultimately compelling.

The programme was varied and fresh, the dancers were of professional calibre and not a few are principal dancers of the future.  Adventures rarely promise and deliver as much.

Ballet Central 2012 is touring the UK until July, details here.

Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker!

Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker!

Music by Tchaikovsky

New Adventures

The Lowry, 20 March 2012

The whole of this show – the complete shebang – is an exercise in enchantment.

It begins with the still alive and kicking orphans shuffling bashfully onstage, into the glare of a waiting audience, surprise etched on their faces, and ends in a nightclub whose entrance is an inviting, open mouth (think of Mick Jagger’s lips) and whose interior is graced by a gigantic wedding cake.  It is the figures on the tiers of the cake below the bride and groom who come alive: a telling detail.

Among them there’s a lounge lizard with a pompadour that is topped by – what else? – a cherry and a lady in a liquorice allsorts dress (the doorman to the night club might also have been dressed as one of the less popular liquorice allsorts).  And there’re a gang of sweet girls on the razz.

Wherever you look, whether at the choreography or costumes or sets, your eye encounters delight.  The highlight for me was when the ginger boy toy – he’s a catalyst for intimacy – came to life, in a scene that alludes to both Frankenstein and Coppelia.

What makes the show work so well is that it retains the fairytale feel while adding a definite air of eroticism, a subdued kinkiness or naughtiness.  So there’s one lad – one of the poor, betrodden orphans – who rather than a deflated football prefers a doll for Christmas, liking nothing better than to look up her dress…  Or again, in the second part, the emphasis is on kissing and, lets say, the sweetness of human flesh rather than sweets per se (as in the traditional version of the ballet) – though liquorice allsorts, as indicated, do get a major look in.  All of this naughtiness is done with subtle humour, mind, and in the twinkling of an eye.  Young children are unlikely to take much heed of it and there’s much – an abundance of stuff, actually - in this show to enchant and delight them.  So unlike Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella, I’d definitely recommend Nutcracker! as being suitable for children.  This was a magical, transporting evening, a wonderful version of the story.

Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! Is at The Lowry until 24 March, details here.

Moscow City Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Music by Prokofiev

Moscow City Ballet

Opera House, Manchester

15 March 2012

This vibrant production brings out all the edge-of-the-seat drama and colourful spectacle of the classic Shakespearean story.

At its centre, there is Prokofiev’s supple score: a dangerous and tremulous beast, lithe yet soulful.  The courtship is delightful, of course, and Daniil Orlov (as Romeo) and Liliya Orekhova (Juliet)  make a fetching couple.  Even so, the thrilling swordplay and jousting slyly trumps it in this production, such is the power of these scenes.  Talgat Kozhabaev (Tybalt) is a most impressive villain.

And then, overarching all, there is the shadowy spectre of death, the ballet is virtually framed by it, and the suggestion and insinuation of an existence beyond the threshold of the perceptible world.  It is all in present in Prokofiev’s score, naturally, and it’s perfectly realised on stage.

Moscow City Ballet are touring the UK until the end of March, future tour dates are here (click and scroll all the way down).

 

 

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

Music by Glenn Buhr

Birmingham Royal Ballet

The Lowry, 24 January 2012

Ballets need ravens.

They always add a dash of dread to the proceedings, darkening even the most pastoral romance.  No doubt about it, they are plenty ominous birds.

This was another top-class production from the Birmingham Royal Ballet.  As the classic fairy-tale unfolded, everything served to enchant the audience.  Dance and music, the sets and the costumes; they all beat the band.  Quite copacetic withal; that’s what it was.

Once the curse was lifted, however, the enchantment abruptly ended.  For at the finish the Beast was transformed into – well, he could have been a Prince, God knows the current crop are bland enough.  But he looked more like a Customer Service Advisor or – Mary, Mother of Jesus forbid – a Digital Marketing Executive type, in truth.  All that palaver, and she ends up with this guy.

So was it all worth it in the end, Belle love?  Wouldn’t you have preferred someone wild and untamed?  We, the audience, got our money’s worth, but will you be happy and content when the curtains close?

Beauty and the Beast is at The Lowry until 28 January.  Details are here.

Strictly Gershwin @ the Palace

Strictly Gershwin

Music and Lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin

English National Ballet

Palace Theatre, 12 October 2011

Never mind ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, this was a rhapsodic show in celebration of the Gershwin brothers.

We were given wonderful performances of many of their songs, among the highlights being ‘The Man I Love’, a heartfelt rendition by Sarah Fuller, and ‘Someone to Watch over Me’,  tenderly delivered by Hannah Richmond.  The spectacle of the dance also engaged one’s attention and there were many happy moments when one saw the two working together in perfect harmony.  A case in point being the pageant that occurred on stage while the score of ‘An American in Paris’ played.  It was plenty special.

But what caught the eye most was the tango in the second act, this dance accompanying ‘Summertime’, that curiously unsettling song.  Another case of ‘a ballerina stole my soul, broke my heart and torpedoed my weak flesh’, I’m afraid.  Her name was Daria Klimentova.  Saints would be tempted to sin, such a sensual ballerina is she.  They’d happily can their canonisation, let it go all to hell.

You can be assured of a splendid evening’s entertainment when you go to see this show.  And watch out for the song (you know the one) that rhymes Pollyannas with bananas.

Strictly Gershwin is playing at the Palace Theatre until 15 October and then tours the UK.  Details here.

 

Carlos Acosta’s Premieres Plus

Carlos Acosta’s Premieres Plus
The Lowry, 25 July 2011

In this show Carlos Acosta performed works by several choreographers; and with consummate technique he showed his class.

His performance of Russell Maliphant’s ‘Two’ in the first part was spellbinding; it seemed to be of eternal duration.

It should be emphasised that Zenaida Yanowsky played an approximately equal part in proceedings, and her interpretation of Kim Brandstrup’s ‘Footnote to Ashton’ came close to perfection.  Rarely can a dance have been realised as fully, as completely.  Her rhythmic imperiosity created dynamic fact.

Looking at Premieres Plus as a whole, the show had an elegiac/commemorative/remembrance flavour to it.  It was all about bringing someone to mind, paying tribute to who and what they were, expressing gratitude for all they’ve given and been.  This was especially apparent in the final candle-lit work, as too in Miguel Altunaga’s ‘Memoria’ performed earlier in the show.

Premieres Plus is touring at the minute, further details here.