Ballet Nights 006 / The Cadogan Hall Concert

Ballet Nights 006 moves to a fine new location at Chelsea’s Cadogan Hall and amongst 10 pieces features strong work by Pett|Clausen-Knight, James Wilton and Grace O’Brien…

Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance in Grace O’Brien’s “Set Fast”. © Deborah Jaffe

Ballet Nights
Ballet Nights 006 / The Cadogan Hall Concert
★★★✰✰
London, Cadogan Hall
4 September 2024
www.balletnights.com
cadoganhall.com

It’s less than a year since Ballet Nights got going, and already they are on their 6th show and in a larger and much more swanky location - the Cadogan Hall just off Sloane Square in Chelsea. It’s a location that sits much better with Ballet Nights unique, up-market, and curated take on putting on a show than the oppressive Lanterns Studio with its poor sight lines. I hope the Cadogan becomes their new home as they continue to evolve and grow. And terrific to report that the night sold out to an audience that much appreciates the compered concierge service put together by head honcho and smooth-talking Jamiel Devernay-Laurence.

This is the third time I’ve seen a Ballet Nights show. I find myself rather at variance with the target audience in rapidly tiring of the 2-minute verbal introduction to each work with its constant stress on superlatives and brand. There is an occasional passing nod to the work itself and what it is about (as opposed to much stress on the dancers etc), but in general, the words say little about the inspiration behind the pieces, and neither does the otherwise good programme. That should be easily fixable, at least in the programme.

The great thing about Ballet Nights is the diversity of what’s on show. Ballet might be in the title, but the short works on offer span from traditional classical ballet through to cutting-edge contemporary dance and beyond - and each time I’ve seen a show I’ve picked up on some choreography and/or performances I’d like to mine further. To show the span of what dance can be these days is a beautiful and mind-expanding thing, and I commend Devernay-Laurence for delivering that.

For posterity, I give the complete running order and credits under these review words. As seems to be usual in Ballet Nights, pianist Viktor Erik Emanuel introduced each section (there are two), this time with some easy-listening Chopin and Ravel. Of the 10 dance works presented, 3 made a particularly memorable impression - as it happens, they were all contemporary-dance based.

Pett|Clausen-Knight, the choreographing duo composed of James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight, delivered a remarkably fresh take on relationship breakdown - Tanzt. Rebecca Bassett-Graham & James Pett start fully clothed in loose-fitting suits that emphasise their bold, stretchy, and emotionally intelligent movement. As their troubles magnify, the layers of cloth, civility, and artifice come off. They exquisitely grapple and roll on the floor and across each other, each leading and being manipulated by turns. It’s full of expansive, arresting images, and while it would have been nice to hear the singing of composer Madil Hardis distinctly, the dance effectively spoke for itself. It’s a work I’d very much like to see again.

James Wilton and Sarah Jane Taylor started touring their Four Seasons over two years ago, and, in the Summer excerpt presented at Ballet Nights, it’s easy to see why it endures. It uses Max Richter’s take on the Vivaldi score, but contrary to what you would assume, it aims to show the 4 states of the universe from creation to slow death. It’s not clear to me where exactly summer fits in, but taken purely as explosive contemporary movement, based in part on martial arts and acrobatics, it’s a piece that fuses flowing beauty to feats of great strength and, at nearly 15 minutes long, some endurance too. Unassuming designs of simple beige T-shirts and trousers put all the emphasis on just what two well-trained bodies can do, and its easy weightlessness took my breath away. The complete James Wilton Dance Four Seasons is now high on my list to see.

Grace O’Brien’s Set Fast made on her fellow Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance students, impressed me in the last Ballet Nights (005) - read more here. And it wowed me just as much again with its fidgety and ever-changing movement originality for individuals and the group of seven. O’Brien needs to be picked up by a significant company and fast-track developed.

Also happily reprised from the previous show was the White Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake, danced by Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw of English National Ballet (ENB). As before, it was a poised and nicely honed performance that was fully worthy of inclusion and received mighty applause.

Elsewhere on the ballet side, things were less strong with much rather generic classical choreography - a shame for ex-Bolshoi dancer Joy Womack (Introducing Joy by Constant Vigier) and the dancers from Nashville Ballet, Sarah Pierce and James Lankford, in Leto by their boss Nick Mullikin. By generic, I mean something that gave the easy swirl and swoosh that many like in ballet but nothing that jumped out as highly original or memorable in tone. The dancers deserved better. Jordan James Bridge, who impressed me much with a duet for ENB’s Lee and Haw in the last Ballet Nights, this time created a contemporary ballet solo (September, In the Rain) for Constance Devernay-Laurence. Sadly, it didn’t really seem to take off and float at an intriguing level above its moody, downlit muscly look - it’s a good look, but just a look. I got the feeling that all 3 of these pieces were opportunistically and hastily created rather than born out of a tug by the choreographer to do a work that had been much mulled over and researched over a prolonged period - which is what I suspect was the hallmark of the pieces I liked.

There were some curved ball pieces in the programme. Rentaro Nakaaki’s Cha Cha and Tiara, for fellow soloists at ENB, I think was meant to be a comedic work about the Cha Cha and social dance, but it seemed to have a weird preamble. The dancers were all smiles and worked hard at selling it, but I was confused and switched off after a while. Jonzi D, the biggest mover and shaker in bringing breakdance onto UK stages, is a glorious man, and I could listen to him read the telephone directory all day and be entranced. As it happens, he was reading Rudyard Kipling’s If while Alexander Fadayiro looked to illustrate and illuminate the words in steps by Devernay-Laurence. There were lots of arm semaphores, twisting and standing, but somehow the words and Jonzi D carried all the performance weight.

The evening closed out with the Royal Ballet’s charismatic Steven McRae, who recently returned from a bad injury, doing one of his show-off tap routines, this one called Fortitudine and accompanied by Charlie Siem on violin. If you have yet to see one, it’s great fun, and if you have seen a few… then perhaps not so much. But Ballet Nights is all about variety, and a year on from its start, I’m pleased it’s thriving and before record audiences to boot.

PROGRAMME 006 PART I

Chopin Ballade No. 1 in G Minor
Pianist: Viktor Erik Emanuel

September, In the Rain
Danced by Constance Devernay-Laurence
Choreographed by Jordan James Bridge
Music arr. By James Jordan Bridge
Featuring Dinah Washington & Caleb Arrendondo

Tanzt
Danced By Rebecca Bassett-Graham & James Pett
Composer and Singer Madil Hardis
Lyricist Veronica Furman
Choreography by PETT|CLAUSEN-KNIGHT

Introducing Joy
Danced by Joy Womack
Music by Viktor Erik Emanuel
Choreographed by Constant Vigier
Composer: Glinka
Arr. Balakiev

Set Fast
Danced by: Amari Webb-Martin, Evie-Leigh Savage, Lottie Hawkins
Matthew Potulski, Jemima Sparrow, Phoebe Dowglass and Rory Clarke
Choreographed by Grace O’Brien
Composer Zoe Keating
With thanks to Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance

White Swan pas de deux: Act II, Swan Lake
Performed by: Sangeun Lee & Gareth Haw
Choreographer: Marius Petipa
Composer: Tchaikovsky
With thanks to English National Ballet

INTERVAL - PART II

Gaspard De La Nuit, M. 55: I. Ondine
Pianist: Viktor Erik Emanuel
Composer Maurice Ravel

Cha Cha and Tiara
Performed by Julia Conway & Eric Snyder
Choreographed by Rentaro Nakaaki
Composer Xavier Cugat & His Orchestra
Costume by Rentaro Nakaaki
With thanks to English National Ballet

If
Performed by Alexander Fadayiro & Jonzi D
Choreographed by Jamiel Devernay-Laurence
Poem by Rudyard Kipling

Leto
Performed by Sarah Pierce and James Lankford
Nashville Ballet
Choreographed by Nick Mullikin
Composer Maurice Ravel
Pianist Viktor Erik Emanuel
Costumes by Mycah Kennedy

The Four Seasons/Summer
Choreographed and Danced by Sarah Jane Taylor and James Wilton
Composed by Max Richter
Design & Costume by Vibeke Andersen
Created with support from Dance East and Arts Council England.

Fortitudine
Choreographed and performed by Steven McRae
Violin Charlie Siem
Music The Drummers by Scottish Fiddle Orchestra

Compère: Jamiel Devernay-Laurence