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Ballet, dance, sex and all that jazz
Tap and die: The brilliant duo of Robert Parker and the remarkably lithe Céline Gittens setting Tenth Avenue alight. Picture: Bill Cooper On
Their Toes!
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Hippodrome
*****
SEX, beauty and strippers with a bit of tap thrown in means
there is something for everyone in Birmingham Royal Ballet's triple
bill.
First up is Theme and Variations which brings together BRB favourites
Nao Sakuma and Chi Cao in George Balanchine 1947 ballet set to
music by Tchaikovsky in a sumptuous set of glittering heavenly blue drapes.
This was a traditional Russian ballet with a dainty corps, a dashing
price and a beautiful princess. It is rather a strange piece. It is
almost as if you have just caught the last act of a ballet and have no
idea what went on before.
Despite its undoubted beauty it was the weakest of the three pieces in
that timing was a little out and perhaps the principles showed a little
too much lateral movement in some solos and although pretty and more
than competent it never quite found the spark it perhaps needed to lift
it into the extraordinary.
In one sequence a line of four of the corps lifted legs in more of a
Mexican wave than in unison and there was a similar problem towards the
end when at times Chi was half a beat out from the 12 male dancers. Nit
picking it might be but in its own way a compliment in that we have come
to expect perfection, or as near as damn it, from the BRB so any
flaw, no matter how minor, stands out like a beacon.
Grosse Fuge, Hans van Manen's 1971 ballet set to Beethoven's music is a
different animal. This is raw, raunchy, sexual modern dance with four
bare chested men in large belts, long skirts-come-trousers and four
women in body stockings.
Here we had perfect precision and unison in movement on a glistening white stage which occasionally had a hint of colour with a pencil thin line of white light on the back wall which moved up slowly as the dance progressed providing the only relief.
The piece starts with the four men dancing with the four women
stationary in a group. Then the women dance with the men in a corner in
a static cluster. Slowly the groups start to dance together eventually
pairing off into couples as the men remove their skirts
to reveal black trunks . . and those belts.
It is all about sexual attraction and exploration as well as movement
which at one point sees the men lifting their partners off the floor and
dragging them around with just their belts - which should really have a
warning not to try that at home with the missus or the belt might have
to be replaced with a truss.
It is sensuous stuff and the eight dancers manage to fill the vast
Hippodrome stage which is no mean feat.
Finally came the fun bit with the return of the superb Robert Parker as
the hoofer in the jazz themed Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, an earlier
Balanchine ballet which originally came in towards the end of Rodgers
and Hart's 1936 Broadway musical comedy On Your Toes.
The musical involved a music teacher trying to get the Russian Ballet to
perform Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. When he gets involved with the prima
ballerina then her lover and dance partner hires local gangsters to take
him out.
Richard Rodger's music has been covered by everyone from The Shadows to
Liberace so there is plenty to go at in the score and the mood is
created by a 1940s night cub set with high-heeled skyscrapers and a roof
of laddered nylon stockings and fishnets.
The ballet was integrated into the musical by the simple plot of having
gangsters in the audience waiting to shoot the lead dancer at the end of
his act - so the hoofer keeps the act going . . . and going . . .
and going until the police finally arrive for a happy if exhausted
ending. MODERN ANATOMY
Parker and the stripper Céline Gittens are just brilliant - how she
manages to get her legs so high and so easily in any direction is a
wonder of modern anatomy and with his easy charm, acting ability and
fluid, flowing movement Parker resembles a modern day Gene Kelly.
With shootings, police raids and gangsters this is a lively and funny
piece and highlight of the evening.
A mention to for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under Paul Murphy and Philip
Ellis for Grosse Fuge, who were superb, particularly in the Rodger's
jazz score.
Roger Clarke
* * * * *
NO need to be a ballet lover to appreciate the latest offering
from the superb BRB. This triple bill - Theme and Variations, Grosse
Fuge and Slaughter on
There
was the sheer beauty of traditional ballet, the imagination and
invention of dancers performing bare foot with intricate movement, and
finally a dramatic piece including striptease, tap dancing ad gun-toting
gangsters.
Theme and Variations: Birmingham
Royal Ballet and the symphonic beauty of
Tchaikovsky's
music
How's
that for a mixture. The programme had grace and pace, athleticism and
humour, with stunning choreography by George Balanchine and Hans van
Manen, plus the glorious music of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Richard
Rodgers.
The
ballet opened with Theme and Variations featuring Nao Sakuma and Chi Cao
in the lead roles, and it was beautifully danced with the ballerinas is
glittering tutus.
Then
came the remarkable Grosse Fuge which had four bare-chested male dancers
in long black trouser-skirts and thick leather belts at first dancing
alone, watched by four women in flesh-coloured undergarments who hardly
moved a muscle for a time.
Eventually they joined the men, with one remarkable scene when the
ballerinas grasped the men's belts to be drawn around stage, slave
fashion. Very sexy.
Finally the company performed Slaughter on
Paul
Murphy and Philip Ellis conducted the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and the
final performance was on Saturday night. Paul Marston
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