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Alisa Garkavenko and Tom Hazelby in Les Sylphides. Picture: Tristam Kenton Carlos Acosta’s Ballet Celebration BRB2 Birmingham Hippodrome ***** BRB2 might be Birmingham Royal Ballet’s second company but there is nothing second rate about it’s performances – it is a showcase for some of the most promising young dancers from around the world. It has no stars or household names . . . at least not of yet, but BRB2 is becoming a fertile breeding ground for unearthing new talent for not just for parent company BRB but for other UK and international ballet companies. This is the third UK tour by the company and Carlos Acosta’s Ballet Celebration is a gala featuring highlights from the repertory of Sergei Diaghilev's groundbreaking troupe, the Ballets Russes (1909 -1929) which is universally recognised as creating the concept of modern ballet. The programme opens with Les Sylphides, from Diaghilev's opening season with music by Frédéric Chopin and choreography by Mikhail Fokine with staging by his contemporary granddaughter Isabelle Fokine, who, incidentally, visited BRB during the preparation for the production. The cast at the Paris premiere in 1909 was led by Vaslav Nijinsky as the poet and dreamer with Anna Pavlova as one of the lead Sylph, the ethereal spirits in the moonlit glade. The ballet is seen as the first so called white ballet, relying on mood, romantic themes and emotions rather than any plot or storyline. Here Tom Hazelby dances the role of the Poet with some style while dancing the variations of Chopin’s piano piece we had Alisa Garkavenko dancing the Prelude, Alexandra Manuel the Waltz, Maïlène Katoch the Mazurka and Ariana Allen and Charlotte Cohen dancing the Nocturn, listed in the programme as the Misery, although they were far from that in a joyful opener setting a high standard for the evening.
Andrea Riolo and Ixan Llorca Ferrer in Shéhérazade To illustrate the international aspect of BRB2 we had solo dancers from the UK, Australia, The Ukraine, the USA and France. With a strong corps of 12 this was a delightfully elegant opening danced quite beautifully and awe must mention the other and unseen star of the piece, Jeanette Wong, BRB’s head of piano who always displays a wonderful touch and interpretation, this time in a virtuoso performance bringing Chopin’s piano solo to sparkling life. The second half opened with the Shéhérazade pas de deux with music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and choreography and staging again by the Fokine duo, danced by Andrea Riolo from Malta and Ixan Llorca Ferrer from Cuba with solo violin played by Royal Ballet Sinfona leader Robert Gibbs. The ballet is based on the opening tale of The Thousand and One Nights which ends up in an orgy in the harem while the Shah is away, and everyone executed when he gets back. This excerpt is hardly salacious and certainly orgyless but is sensuously danced by the pair as the slave girl Zobeide and the Golden Slave, the slave she fancies. Le Spectre de la Rose is from the Fokine due again with music by Carl Maria von Weber, which was orchestrated by Hector Berlioz and it was a sensation when it was first performed in 1911danced by superstars Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina. Based on a poem of the same name by French literary giant, Théophile Gautier, who was, like Diaghilev a renowned art critic, it tells the story of a young girl who returns from her first ball, falls asleep and dreams of being visited by the spirit of the rose she was given which is now dying.
Alexandra Manuel and Marlo Kempsey-Fagg in The Firebird It is a romantic and poignant piece beautifully danced by Ariana Allen from Milton Keynes and Jack Easton from the USA, a BRB artist who came through BRB2. The Sinfonia’s principal cello António Novais provides the solo. More light-hearted was Les Biches with music by Francis Poulenc and choreography by; Bronislava Nijinska with the rag mazurka danced, or, in keeping with the implied translation of The Flirts, less danced and more seductively suggested by Australian Sophie Walters in flowing art deco costume complete with a 1920’s elegant, fashionably long, at least for 1924, cigarette holder. Less elegant we have the pas de deux from Ellyne Knol from The Netherlands and another Australian Noah Cosgrif who appears as a sort of Health & Efficiency athlete with more the style of a weightlifter providing the muscle power to lift his white gloved partner which leads us on in athletic style to the final piece, another pas the deux, this time from The Firebird with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography and staging again by the Foskine duo. Alexandra Manuel from New Jersey dances The Firebird while Marlo Kempsey-Fagg, a BRB apprentice, and former Elmhurst student and member of last year’s Elmhurst Ballet Company, dances the part of Prince Ivan. With the full Royal Ballet Sinfonia under Music Director Paul Murphy and the vast Hippodrome stage the idea this was somehow a junior or BRB lite production was dispelled from the opening scene, this was quality ballet with a young cast full of enthusiasm and admirable talent and boundless potential. We wish them well. Roger Clarke 04-05-25 |
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