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Royal Ballet Tour 2008 in China
June 26th 2008 : The Royal Ballet Gala at the National Grand Theatre of China, Beijing
The
mixed programme, RB brought us something new, something old, ranging
from pieces of traditional ballets to modern works. Let's start with
the new ones.
Chroma :
The opening of this gala, a contemporary ballet premiered at the Royal
Opera House 17 November 2006, a multi-award-winning work of the Royal
Ballet’s Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor, winner of the
2007 South Bank Show Award of Dance and 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for
Best New Dance Production.
I used to sit in another work of Wayne McGregor, Qualia, in a Mixed
Bill of RB in 2003, at Covent Garden. My impression of that work was
just …so-so, because its noisy heavy metal music was not of my
interests, and the choreography was too “avant-garde”. What
impressed me was its wonderful sets and usage of light. Still, this
piece of dance was not my taste.
But Chroma it’s not the
case that I’ve ever imagined. I was captured right away from the
very beginning by the simplicity and the minimalist of its stage sets,
by architect and designer John Pawson, and costumes by Moritz Junge.
The starkly elegant use of light and space offered the dancers an ideal
environment and atmosphere to convey the intension of choreographer.
Danseuses and danseurs are in exactly the same costume – same
style in same colour - made us ignore the difference between genders
and just focus on dance itself. Yes, there was just only one thing,
dance, nothing else. Tranquility and dynamism coexist, grace and
enthousiasm interweave. Four pas de deux with different styles never
made one feel boring: Mara Galeazzi and Edward Watson’s strength,
energy and passion; Tamara Rojo and Johannes Stepanek’s charm and
seduction; Lauren Cuthbertson’s elegance and grace with sharp
contrast to Eric Underwood’s flexibility and dynamism; Sara Lamb
and Federico Bonelli’s delicacy, agility and precision. We also
enjoyed a lot Eric Underwood’s solo, so amazing his extension
which is rarely seen in male dancers, needless to say his expressive
interpretion. Pas de trois of male dancers by Johannes Stepanek, Liam
Scarlett and Jonathan Watkins revealed the vivacity and vitality of
RB’s male dancers. Fantastic show case of the Royal Ballet, I
like it!
Thaïs Pas de deux :
A relatively short pas de deux with no dazzling variations (I doubt if
this was not a full Thaïs pas de deux …?) , based on the
“Meditation” from Thaïs by Jules Massenet,
choreographed originally for Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell by
Fredrick Ashton, in 1971. This fascinating oriental scene of dream fits
into Leanne Benjamin and David Makhateli very well, tranquil, lyric and
illusive, where I could appreciate again Benjamin’s exquisite and
fine point steps and ports de bras, really like in a dream. However, in
this pas de deux, David Makhateli seemed not to have too much to dance,
left with us a lot of expectations for his interpretation in the last
piece Homage to the Queen.
Homage to the Queen :
The closure of this Gala, this ballet was created by Fredrick Ashton in
1953 to celebrate the Coronation of H.M. the Queen Elisabeth II. Ashton
sets the 4 elements of Earth, Water, Fire and Air to the score of
Malcolm Arnold, however only the original choreography of part
“Air” survived till today. The RB revived it in June 2006
to mark H.M.’s 80th birthday, Monica Mason invited three British
choreographers, David Bintley, Michael Corder and Christopher Wheeldon,
to create the other 3 missing parts Earth, Water and Fire, and,
Christopher Newton re-created the Entrée and Apotheosis. The new
designs of Peter Farmer were a magnificent visual attack.
However, I felt that this new production itself was much better than
its choreography. The absence of David Makhateli was a great loss to
the “Air” part of Homage to the Queen, although his name
appears in the casts, what a great pity! For the whole tour of RB in
Beijing this time, this should be the only opportunity for us to see
him to demonsrate himself completely but… I was so sad and in a
very low spirit that I could hardly concentrate on this ballet, though,
there were impressive presentations of Leanne Benjamin’s Queen of
Earth, Yuhui Choe’s Queen of Water and Marianela Nunez’s
Queen of Fire. In the Pas de trois of part “Air”, we could
also notice Ricardo Cervera and Lauren Cuthbertson’s elegant and
graceful presence.
No need to talk about too much about the other familiar pieces: Lauren
Cuthbertson’s beautiful presentation in Tchaikovsky Pas de deux;
for Don Quixote Pas de deux, without any doubt Tamara Rojo showed her
dazzling and strong fouettes, while Federico Bonelli was as urbane as a
student; Romeo and Juliet balcony Pas de deux, under such circumstances
it lost its heart-touching power, I prefer Galeazzi’s
presentation in the first ballet Chroma rather than Juliet.
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