In Good Company - John Percival

Thank you Madam

“In Good Company”
Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Australian Ballet
ROH Linbury Studio Theatre
19 – 21 May

“35 Degrees East”
Ankara State Ballet, Istanbul State Ballet
ROH Linbury Studio Theatre
25 – 28 May

by John Percival
copyright ©2006, John Percival

Has there ever before been a programme at Covent Garden presenting four different companies on one evening? That’s what just happened at the Opera House’s Linbury Studio as part of the Royal Ballet’s 75th anniversary celebrations. Under the title “In Good Company” it showed dancers from the resident company plus Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Australian Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada — all companies owing their existence to Ninette de Valois. And in view of the importance she laid on creativity, they all showed new work. Moreover, a week later there were performances with the title “35 Degrees East” by dancers from Istanbul and Ankara — two further companies arising from Madam’s foundation of a ballet school in Turkey.

Turkey sent nearly thirty dancers performing ballets by three Turkish choreographers plus one by a German duo and an extract from a work created by de Valois herself in 1965 on Turkish themes, “At the Fountainhead”. A short film interview with Dame Ninette also gave an idea of how the companies came about and how warmly she thought of them.
Mehmet Balkan’s “Rachmaninoff Creation” (to two movements from the second symphony) used fifteen dancers and a lot of classical steps. Duets by Ugur Seyrek (“Sacrifice” to Chopin, “Menu of the Day” to music by Utku Sillier) looked as though meant to have an underlying significance which didn’t really come over. Beyhan Murphy’s duet “Rosegarden” (extracted from “The Lovelorn Rose”, music by Mercan Dede) contained some virtuoso lifts; her Storm and Dervishes extracts from “Travelogue” illustrated a text by Orham Pamuk read in Turkish which I couldn’t truly follow even with a backcloth translation. The two German choreographers, Dieter Baumann (who “learned artistic cycling and acrobatics before studying dance”!) and Jutta Hell, had made a piece for four couples, its mood indicated by the title “I Don’t Want You”. Generalising, perhaps unfairly, I was reminded by much of the evening’s choreography of what we tend to see from small French modern groups or at the contemporary-oriented Place Theatre in London. The dancers did what was given them well enough without mostly irradiating it, the men perhaps more notable than the women; one or two could deserve singling out if I could identify them.

It’s not so easy to generalise about the other programme, “In Good Company”. The Royal Ballet showed short works by two young members of the company, both of whom began choreography and won prizes while at the RB School. Liam Scarlett, who graduated only last year, made a very good impression with a brief, lively duet for newcomers Romany Pajdak and Steven McRae. It took both title and mood from its tango music by Astor Piazolla, “Vayamos al Diablo”. Scarlett’s other contribution, called “Despite”, made craftsmanlike use of principal dancers Leanne Benjamin and Edward Watson to a Rachmaninoff piano trio; if the choreographer seemed less inspired here, rumour has it that cast and subject were wished on him. The other new choreographer, Jonathan Watkins, joined the company in 2003. He made a solo, “Silent Vision”, for principal dancer Zenaida Yanowsky to music in a piano arrangement used to accompany silent films. Hitting four contrasted moods, Watkins made, to my mind, better use — more striking, more amusing — of Yanowsky’s personality, humour and unusual looks than much more experienced creators have done.

Kit Holder, a member of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s corps for nearly six years, has danced several solos (including one for the Hamburg Ballet’s 2005 Nijinsky Gala) and made a number of small ballets for the company and for workshops. His new “Conversations” lives up to its title as a varied and expressive series of dances for his near contemporary, first artist Virginia de Gersigny, and fast-rising new recruit Joseph Caley. Using attractive music by Arthur Bliss, Holder has added sub-titles (with dependency / with passion / with frustration) to the composer’s own section headings, giving a very just idea of what he has achieved.

The National Ballet of Canada chose to send Matjash Mrozewski’s enigmatically titled “C.V.”, to music by Owen Belton. Some spectators here took against Mrozewski for his recent Royal Ballet creation “Castle Nowhere” but I find his dances, both there and here, not uninteresting even when he doesn’t entirely convey what he intends in them. This time he used one man, Christopher Body (who has worked, inter alia, with Twyla Tharp, and it shows), with soloists Tanya Howard and Stephanie Hutchison and principal Jennifer Fournier. I don’t know who’s who, but Mrozewski made them all look interesting in their solo and double work.

From the Australian Ballet we had “Unspoken Dialogues”, a duet by Stephen Baynes to Schnittke’s violin sonata No 1 which has already in Australia won last year’s Helpmann Award for best choreogaphy. In this Baynes made excellent use of the company’s leading man, Steven Heathcote, still a commanding presence and highly expressive mover even though not so young nor so lithe as he was. He was shown with soloist Annabel Bronner Reid, and together they fully held and satisfied the spectator’s interest through the ballet’s varied sequences.

Altogether I would say this was not the most thrilling evening but as a collection of new choreography it was both interesting and revealing — not at all a bad tribute to the woman who started so much ballet in so many places.

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Thank you Madam