London in May: Birmingham Beauty, modern for the young and Big Dance for everyone

Birmingham Royal Ballet visited London, presenting The Sleeping Beauty at the Coliseum. The company evolved from the Sadler Well’s Royal Ballet (the ‘touring company’) and took up residence in Birmingham in 1990, mainly due to funding pressures. It has now established its own identity and repertoire including most of the choreographies of director David Bintley.

Sir Peter Wright’s 1984 production of Beauty is just that: a beautiful production filled with classical dance in the traditional mould imbedded in finely crafted drama. Peter Prowse’s lavish costumes and opulent sets are a fairy tale dream.

In this 2010 revival Wright includes the pas de deux he first added when he mounted the ballet on Het Nationale in Amsterdam. Danced to a violin solo, originally in the entr’acte, it is a brief lyrical moment creating a blissful interregnum between the awakening kiss and the pomp of Act 3.

Sleeping Beauty stretches a company’s resources and the coryphée ranks were impressive: the Lilac fairy attendants, cavaliers, friends all well rehearsed and dancing with musicality and spirit. The Antipodeans scored in principal roles, Kiwis, Gaylene Cummerfield and Matthew Lawrence, gave a first rate performance of fearless technical skill, although a little lacking in mystery. Australian, Elisha Willis was better suited to Aurora. If her Rose Adage was a little tremulous, her vision scene was magical and she blossomed to a radiant finale partnered by Caesar Morales making a welcome return to London. He was beautifully on form with crisply balanced turn and a light elegant jump.

Also impressive was Aaron Robison’s feisty Bluebird, Sonia Aguilar’s sexy White Cat that pinpointed every musical and comedic detail and veteran Marion Tait’s imperious Carabosse.

Modern works at Covent Garden
The Royal Ballet bravely presented another Triple Bill of modern works. Liam Scarlett, a company dancer, triumphed with his first mainstage choreography, Asphodel Meadows.  Set to Poulenc’s turbulent and eclectic Double Piano Concerto, it features three principal couple and an ensemble of 14. The sharp, contemporary designs matched the choreography which owes a lot to the classical form but shows distinct originality in the movement and positions. For one so young, he is only 24, his confidence in structuring both ensemble and duets was impressive. The three duets ranged from the beautifully lyrical opening, to a fractious second and summing up with a quicksilver third to give plenty of scope to the principal dancers.

Christopher Wheeldon’s Electric Counterpoint written for the company in 2008 takes the complexities of Steve Reich’s eponymous music and comes up with a multimedia mix of video, text and dance. It opens to music by J.S.Bach as each of the four dancers, paired with their video image courtesy of the Ballet Boyz, speak frankly about how they deal with the dancers’ constant critical self-evaluation.  Ricardo Cervera proved the most articulate and Marianela Nuňez the most eloquent. Then, paired with Laura Morera and Sergei Polunin respectively, they gave full measure to Wheeldon’s post-modern slant on the ballet tradition.

The use of videos which at times filled the space with a corps de ballet of phantoms is an interesting move but probably less might have been more in effectively reaching into the dancers’ souls.

The programme closed with Mats Ek’s Carmen. Tamara Rojo has made the role her own; holding the stage with commanding presence and avoiding the stereotypical seductress image. This Carmen is fierce, surviving on her own terms while masking the complex, vulnerable woman beneath the extravagant exterior. Good support came from Bennet Gartside’s peacock posturing Escamillo and Kirsten McNally’s virtuous M. The ballet proved popular with the younger audience who preference the new works even if Ek’s works are little understood by the critical establishment.

Big Dance in Greenwich
On the community dance circuit, Greenwich Dance, GDA, has just launched Big Dance, ‘the largest and most diverse celebration of dance ever seen in South East London’. Greenwich is one of the major dance hubs in London and this festival includes performances in parks, churches and even along the river. It aims to reach all sectors of society and performances are by hobby dancers as well as professionals, all ages and all abilities.  It was kicked off with the Big Cabaret in the Borough Hall where street dance, aerial display, contemporary dance and Lindy-Hoppers enthused a packed audience.

Among the international line-up Masa Kolar and Ognjen Vucinic from Croatia made their mark with a hard hitting duet and resident dance artist Sunanda Biswas proved that break dance is not only a male preserve in a scintillating duo with Temujin Gill.

Maggie Foyer
4 June 2010