Birminham Royal Ballet 23/5
Lynette Halewood
Birminham Royal Ballet are in London for a two week season at the Royal
Opera House. Performances include Bintley's new three act Far from the
Madding Crowd, and two mixed programmes - Birthday Offering / Carmina
Burana (another new Bintley), and a triple bill: Theme and Variations,
Agon, and Still Life at the Penguin Cafe. I saw the triple bill last
night, and enjoyed it very much.
BRB is a smaller comany (about 60 dancers) than its sister the Royal
Ballet (about 90 dancers). As well as having its base in Birmingham, BRB
is committed to touring in Britain, and has toured Japan recently. One
efffect of this is that dancers in BRB get to perform much more often
than those in the Royal Ballet, which has to share the Covent Garden
stage with the Royal Opera. I think you can see this in the dancing to an
extent. BRB comes across very much as a company: they have some very
strong dancers, but these always seem to dance from "within" the company.
The principals of the Royal Ballet, who often guest elsewhere, can
occasionally come across as stars not somehow quite integrated into the
feel of the company. The BRB dancers just look as if they perform
together very day.
BRB have has Theme and Variations in their repertoire for some time now:
it came to London last year, danced by Yoshida. I had been
originally hoping they might bring some more recent aquisitions,
particularly The Cage, but this was not to be. As soon as the curtain
parted, however, I was just glad to be there. As much as I liked it
before, Theme and Variations improved on a second viewing. The company
looked relaxed, well disciplined and practised, and happy. The poise and
confidence of Yoshida was lacking though. Sabrina Lenzi, new to the
company this year, looked decidely nervous. Kevin O'Hare was very warmly
received.
I feel quite nervous posting anything to aab about Agon, having never
seen it before. I was very keen to see it, because we are not exactly
overrun with Balanchine here in London. (in the last few years, I think
I've seen Apollo, Prodigal Son, Theme & Variations, Symphony in C, Duo
Concertant and Ballet Imperial. I see so many others discussed on aab
that I'd love to see). Again, the company looked confident and assured. I
thought Monica Zamora and Joseph Cipolla were outstanding, just so clean
and precise. Although I liked the piece very much, I know I would get
more out of it on subsequent viewings. Interestingly, I would say that
Agon (although much appreciated) got the least applause of all three
items that evening: that may have more to do with the tastes of the Opera
House audience than the quality of the dancing.
The final ballet was Bintley's Still Life at the Penguin Cafe, a feelgood
piece which has played hundreds of times at the ROH, designed to send you
out into the night chortling with pleasure.Honourable mentions here to
Sandra Madgwick as the morris dancing flea, Cipolla again as the zebra,
Yi-Lai Cai as the monkey, and Rachel Peppin as the Great Auk. Great fun.
I have some details about the RB's touring schedule and plans for next
season, but I'll save them for a separate post.
Lynette
Ali Mahbouba
Thanks a lot Lynette, for your account on the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Having seem them once or twice a couple of years back, I was vey
impressed. The greatest impression was left on me by one of their
principles Samira Saidi - a really beautiful dancer, above all for her
musicality, and her genuine and very expressive face. A real joy.
I hope she's still being given the good roles she deserves.
[.. of course I may be a bit biased here - as we share the same
origin from the Middle East !!]
BRB's Coppelia was shown on TV recently, and was delightful - very
good ensemble work as you mentioned in your post. It was recorded in
the Royal Opera House - as a tribute evening to Sir Peter Wright, who
retired as Director. [Any ideas who followed him up ?]
Cheers,
Ali Mahbouba