London City Ballet — Resurgence bill
After an absence of almost 30 years, it’s good to see London City Ballet bouncing back and touring widely with four interestingly diverse works…
Jimin Kim and Arthur Wille in Arielle Smith’s Five Dances. © Photography by ASH
London City Ballet
Resurgence: Larina Waltz, Ballade, Five Dances, Eve
★★★✰✰
Windsor, Theatre Royal
9 August 2024
londoncityballet.com
theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk
I fondly remember London City Ballet (LCB) under Harold King, its founding director. They were forever taking ballet out to theatres across the nation, largely unsupported by the Arts Council, and presenting the classics while also trying to put on new work as and when they could. But as Louise Levene said in 1996, the year of their closure, “London City Ballet was famous for two things: regular touring and regular threats of closure.” It’s a brave man who looks to make economic sense of touring ballet, but step forward choreographer/director Christopher Marney who has breathed new life into the old company name with ambitious Portugal, UK, China and New York touring that continues over the next six weeks.
The night opened with Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz, created 31 years ago, and 7 minutes of pleasing neoclassical sparkle to a jaunty excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin. Page’s works aren’t seen so often these days, and this is atypical in being so joyfully accessible, with fast-paced and quirky entrances and exits. It’s a fine introduction to the company: “These dancers are excellent!” I gleefully scribbled.
Kenneth MacMillan’s Ballade is getting its first UK airings, having been created in 1972 for the Royal Ballet, performed once in Portugal and then forgotten. That seems remarkable, especially given MacMillan’s track record in creating some of the most admired dramatic ballets in the world, like his much-travelled Romeo and Juliet. It’s typical MacMillan in mining the relationship between the sexes, but here it’s all lighter and more good natured as three lads compete and work together to impress a girl of their dreams. It starts awkwardly with the three manipulating and lifting an almost constantly split-legged Isadora Bless. She enjoys the attention, seemingly unaware of the vulgar overtones, as Fauré’s Ballade for piano and orchestra sweetly wafts us all along. Performed in a white box with just a table and chairs at the back of the stage, you imagine a garden scene in dappled sun as teenagers lark around while deeper emotions steadily develop. As ever, MacMillan gives us some fine duets, and the boys’ preening and little triumphs and setbacks draw us in, but there can only be one winner, and two of the lads retire with good grace. They know there are plenty more fish in the sea. It’s a fine 15 minutes, and I hope it is not lost again.
The progression of the evening is away from ballet classism towards a looser form, and that continued with Arielle Smith’s Five Dances - no pointe shoes here. It’s a commission that “…aims to uplift and spread joy.” Amen to that, and it largely succeeds, driven by a fine piece of John Adams (excerpts from John’s Book of Alleged Dances) which gives lots of scope for different moods, from driving city minimalism to a more laid-back Middle Eastern vibe at one point. It starts and ends with six dancers filling the stage and all sparking off one another, and you hardly know where to look for attention-grabbing movement. The kinetics continue with a trio and solo, but it’s the gorgeous, sultry duet for the stunning Ellie Young and Joseph Taylor that really grabs the attention. If the MacMillan was the male view of relationships, Smith brings us the female guide, and bravo to that. It’s dramatic contemporary movement but very ballet formed and informed, and you can see why so many eyes are on her. The only thing that jarred was Emily Noble’s unisex costumes, a mash-up of half cocktail dress and leotard that didn’t always flatter the six dancers. But Five Dances is a great 20-minute commission, and I look forward to seeing what Arielle Smith does next… first up being her choreogrphy for Birmingham Royal Ballet’s new Luna which premieres in less than 2 months, on 3 October 2024.
After the interval comes Christopher Marney’s Eve - a dramatic work that reorientates the Adam and Eve story to look at things from Eve’s perspective and her relationship with the Serpent. Despite being led out by the much loved and admired Cira Robinson, it’s a confused telling that totally lost me. The movement language for the Serpent seemed particularly lacklustre, and my mind wandered to remembering just what an excellent job Kenneth MacMillan had done to capture the essence of a Salamander in his Prince of the Pagodas and David Bintley achieved for many different anaimals in Still Life at the Penguin Cafe. There were compensations, and at the end of the 20-minute work, the score (by Jennie Muskett) becomes almost a lullaby and the dancers slow down to present some beautifully sculptural images. But you can’t get away from the fact that you leave the theatre confused rather than on a high, and I couldn’t help thinking that Harold King would have put on something more easily accessible.
All up, I much enjoyed three of the works in this quad bill, and that’s no bad place to be. I wish, though, that the night had more than an hour of dance, and the bill would certainly have benefited from the inclusion of Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto Pas de Deux and which is mentioned (if only in places) on the LCB website as being part of the show. But overall, Marney is to be hugely congratulated on bringing such a terrific bunch of dancers together and touring interesting works to theatres that present so little quality dance. Bravo to him for making something happen, and I look forward to seeing the next show from the rejuvenated company.