This is the third major London gala that Ensemble Productions has organised; they seem to be a production company that are fast establishing themselves as the memory of Soviet era dance at a time when perhaps the emphasis is more on the new. Following eightieth birthday galas for Maya Plisetskaya and Yuri Grigorovich, tonight saw a long overdue tribute to the great Maris Liepa.

Liepa's son Andris introduced the evening by recounting the stage manager's memory of Liepa dancing Crassus in Spartacus in that very house in 1974. I too was in the house, having just gone to secondary school and saving bus and lunch money for weeks to buy a ticket. How privileged I was; it was to be the only time that I saw him dance live.

The programme opened with film footage of Liepa's major rôles followed by daughter Ilze's tribute to her father, choreographed by Jurijus Smoriginas to a section of AI Khachaturian's adagio from Spartacus. I'm sure that I was not the only one shedding tears.

Tamara Rojo and Federico Bonelli got the evening off to a rousing start with the pas de deux from the seldom performed Esmerelda. Resplendent in a gorgeous green and black tutu, Rojo was technical perfection itself and Bonelli light as a feather with batterie to die for.

Uwe Scholtz choreographed a male solo to music from The Firebird, Vladimir Derevianko giving a haunting rendition that almost seemed to have the ghost of Liepa dancing alongside and the firebird herself hovering over beneficially.

Ilze Liepa reappeared to dance a pas de deux from Michael Shannon's Mme Bovary with Mark Peretokin, a tantalising glimpse of the production that left one aching to see the full version. It was marred only by some idiot's loud jangling mobile telephone bursting through the dying moments of Rhachmaninov. It was almost like a Chekov short story, packing a lifetime of drama and passions into a brief episode.

Sergei Polunin gave a more than respectable rendition of the Bronze Idol solo from Bayadère and nobly stayed in full body make up until the curtain calls.

Svetlana Zakharova's Dying Swan was alas rather too expiring. She fell into the trap of frantic flapping, depriving us of the power of the shoulders, came off pointe to posé rather often and skipped the fiendishly difficult back bend whilst bouréeing. There are several versions of Fokine's classic but this was the least satisfactory. It may look like simple bouré'es but this proved that it is a very challenging piece to pull off satisfactorily with the correct balance of pathos and dramaand not slide into dullness or parody. At least we were spared the shedding feathers.
The first half was brought to a close with Mariella Nunez and Thiago Soares dancing a pas de deux from Corsaire in place of the scheduled Bayadè're pas de deux. It certainly whetted the appetite for more.

The second half opened with Roland Petit's Pique Dame, fortunately available on DVD, as this extract left one wanting more. Ilze Liepa has inherited her father's talent for dramatic expression and, throughout the evening, proved herself a very versatile performer indeed.

Maria Alexandrova and Sergei Filin changed the pace with the wonderful reconstruction of Pharaoh's Daughter, becoming a firm favourite with London audiences, although marred this evening by the slippery stage that had caused a few problems earlier. Alexandrova's bravery enabled her to finish with aplomb after an unfortunate start.

Alina Cojacaro and Johan Kobburg danced the letter pas de deux from Onegin. Surprisingly, given the fact that it has been in the Royal Ballet's repertoire so recently, some of the partnering was fumbled and lifts looked awkward at times.

Forsyth's In The Middle Somewhat Elevated provided terrific punctuation to the largely 19th century feast and was performed with attack and precision by Agnes Letestu and Jose Martinez.

Sarah Lamb and David Makhateli had the daunting task of dancing the balcony pas de deux from the iconic Lavrosky production of Romeo and Juliet. Many people in the audience would have seen Ulanova dance it either on film or live. Makhateli proved a solid and passionate partner but Sarah Lamb seemed rather pallid by comparison.

In contrast to a disappointing Dying Swan, Svetlana Zakharova gave a powerful and poignant rendition of Mitoso Hiroyama's Revelation that hinted at all sorts of mental and physical anguish and was at times, perhaps because of the use of a chair, reminiscent of Swansong.

The finale was, appropriately for a tribute to Maris Liepa, the pas de deux from Don Q, one of his greatest rôles. It was well worth the wait to see Natalia Osipova and Leonid Sarafanov. Osipova has been recorded as saying that she was beginning to dance Kitri in her sleep as she had performed the rôle so often; it was obviously beneficial. Her poise and panache was only matched by the brio of her turns and the insouciance with which she handled her fan. Sarafanov was terrific as Basil which a huge jump and lightness of landing.

This was an excellently balanced programme with the old favourites interspersed with newer works. It is to be hoped that it will benefit the Liepa Foundation greatly to enable it to carry on the legacy left after the tragically early death of one of the greatest dancers of the twentieth century.

That particular idiot was sitting directly behind me, so the phone was going off right in my ear. What most folk probably didn't hear was it going off for a couple of mins before she could get it out of her handbag. I think even her boyfriend was disgusted - but then maybe not as the pair of them giggled and whispered in Russian throughout almost the entire performance. Fortunately, my strong resolve to shut out extraneous noise paid dividends, as I enjoyed the evening enormously. My highlights were Tamara Rojo's balances and sheer elegance in Esmerelda; Marianela Nunez's blinding joire de vivre in Cosaire, Maria Alexandrova for just being there; Svetlana Zhakorova's really striking dancing in 'Relevance'; and Natalia Osipova all but stealing the show with her Don Q.

Marvellous!

I remember thinking that was one of the most gorgeous tutus I'd ever seen. I liked the way the bottle green shaded subtly through the black. (And the dancing was pretty fine, too!)

>It was marred only by some idiot's
>loud jangling mobile telephone bursting through the dying
>moments of Rhachmaninov.

(Dave, I'm afraid far too many of us in the balcony could hear the wretched thing as it started up quietly, and it did indeed go on for a very long time. Unfortunately, it was by no means the only one)

>Sergei Polunin gave a more than respectable rendition of the
>Bronze Idol solo from Bayadère and nobly stayed in
>full body make up until the curtain calls.

I hope they kept backstage warm for him, then - I can't see how you could put on any clothing without wiping all that oil off. Assuming of course that he didn't get repainted just for the curtain call ...

>Maria Alexandrova and Sergei Filin changed the pace with the
>wonderful reconstruction of Pharaoh's Daughter,
>becoming a firm favourite with London audiences, although
>marred this evening by the slippery stage that had caused a
>few problems earlier. Alexandrova's bravery enabled her to
>finish with aplomb after an unfortunate start.

Lovely to see Filin back on a London stage when we hadn't expected to, too.

>Alina Cojacaro and Johan Kobburg danced the letter pas de
>deux from Onegin. Surprisingly, given the fact that
>it has been in the Royal Ballet's repertoire so recently,
>some of the partnering was fumbled and lifts looked awkward
>at times.

I wondered if they'd tried to adapt some of the lifts and things to save her injured neck. Certainly there was less feel of Tatiana being carried away at the end than usual.

If Sarah Lamb was pallid by comparison, I think it is because the choreography was pallid by comparison. Makhateli had a lot more to do than she did, and I must say that for me this balcony scene did nothing to convey the joy and wonder of first love. Not enough was made of the music, especially when you compare it to MacMillan and Cranko. There were seemingly long stretches where nothing paricular was happening. Of course, it is hard to tell when you just pluck a bit out of a whole for a gala (and I never saw Ulanova do it), but if one were to see just the balcony scene from MacMillan's version, you have a very real feeling of being right in there with them, sharing their emotion. I thought that what I did see of Sarah last night bodes very well for her upcoming debut in the MacMillan version. I can't think of any dancer today who speaks as much with her eyes as Sarah Lamb does. What couldn't be said in the choreography last night, she said with her eyes, and that was all right by me.

For the rest of the gala, I agree with the other posters here. Having seen so many fantastic performances of Onegin from Alina and Johan, last night was quite sad for me. I started to get that 'end of an era' feeling, and I truly hope I'm wrong.

The highlights for me were Tamara Rojo doing fabulous things in her fabulous tutu, Marianela's usual joie de danser and technique in Corsaire, Zakharova in Revelations and the grand finale of Osipova and Sarafanov in the Don Q pdd. For an added bonus, Sergei Filin in anything...but lovely to see something different in Pharaoh's Daughter.

It was so refreshing to experience a gala which was well thought out (cheers to Andris Liepa) and presented some original and varied fare. A really lovely evening which moved along very smoothly...except for the aforementioned mobiles and chatting. I had some Russians sitting behind me and to the side of me (I was in the Upper Circle) and both sets spent a rather large part of the evening chatting to each other. When you are lucky enough to have a ballet heritage such as theirs, I was wondering what on earth the point was of turning up to remember a past great and admire some present ones, and then just chat the whole time?!

I don't want to be negative or so, but does anyone get slightly concerned about the neck injury of Alina? I really hope it will not be a recurring thing, which gives her problems persistantly.

Alina danced three Romeo and Juliet in Milan in the last few days (the last on the 21st) and looks and is absolutely well.

Johan have been staging (and doing Madge) La Sylphide in Moscow for a long time: I think that Sim's "end of an era" feeling comes especially from these growing new commitments and the important new career Johan is starting… am I wrong, Sim?

Oh, well I'm really glad that Alina is well!

I suppose that yes, it's true that maybe Johann's focus starts to move towards this directing and Alina does guest alot too. But we should remember too that they haven't been required by the current RB repertory - Alina missed Chroma as a precaution, and Sylvia is not in either of their repertoire. So we will see them back for Sleeping Beauty and further productions and I'm sure at that point their focus will be 100% on RB and their partnership. They just haven't been "in use" by RB lately, exactly as is the case with Roberta Maruqez, Laura Morera, Ivan Putrov (??) etc etc.

I hope I am making sense - what I try to say basically is that at the moment their focus is elsewhere because they are not performing together in RB, but I'm sure come March that all will be well.

Marquez and Putrov *have* just done Different Drummer, and Nutcracker before that. Morera, like others before her, is currently in the awkward position of having been promoted to principal once much of the casting for the following season had already been set. If you look at the RB schedule over the year, I think you will find a fair number of principals going without obviously being used for a considerable period.

Sorry, I didn't realise that Marquez and Putrov were in different drummer. I didn't mean anything against anybody, I'm sorry if it came across bad what I said! I was just trying to make exactly the same point that you said - most RB principals have a period during the year when they are not used. I was saying RE Johann and Alina, that this is the situation with them atm.

Perhaps the ghost of Scholtz was there too.

Thanks for the detailed review Charlotte - it was great for those of us who couldn't be there.

(Need to edit for Cojocaru and Kobborg sp.)

G