So what was it like? - over to you...

This programme is quite a baffling mixture of four different works and maybe it’s best not to try to construct any imagined thematic link from what’s on offer, but to just to let it roll by on the basis that if you don’t care for one piece there will be something quite different along soon. It did have its rewards, but I suspect there may not be much agreement between different viewers as to exactly where these lay.

The opening work is Electric Counterpoint, a new work by Christopher Wheeldon, something of a contrast to the works he’s made here before. I was beginning to have a template for the generic Wheeldon ballet stuck in my head (moody lighting, minimalist costume, “difficult” music, some energetic work for the corps, eventually the central pas de deux featuring some demanding partnering, then the big corps finish, often lit in silhouette – see Tryst, DGV etc) . This work dispelled it. Electric Counterpoint gives us four dancers (Watson, Lamb, Yanowsky, Underwood ) dancing first to Bach on piano overlaid with recordings of their own thoughts on dance, and later to a Steve Reich recording. All this is accompanied by giant video projections of their own selves, often multiplied or magnified to striking and sometimes almost hallucinatory effect.

The video projections come courtesy of Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, but this is not in their usual jaunty, jokey Ballet Boyz mode. Sarah Lamb faces her recorded self and dances in perfect unison. Yanowsky reaches out her hand to her ten foot high other self and leads her across the stage in a very effective picture. At other moments as the more propulsive Reich music takes over, the dancers are multiplied and Watson dances with six or more of his projected selves, and waves of dancers zoom across the backdrop.

Wheeldon seems to have a commendable desire to attract more people to the ballet, but I wonder if the dancers’ remarks he presents here will really assist that aim. I would have thought that some people might be put off by the rather downbeat ‘it’s all so difficult’ tone which comes dangerously close to both navel gazing and the curiously inconsequential. (But other people were clearly fascinated to hear them speak). Each of the dancers gets a slow controlled solo to their own thoughts. “I don’t like my hands” says Watson, and so Wheeldon gives him lots of extravagant twisting curling movements to make with them.

The solos section seemed slightly too long for me, but the work picked up momentum as the Reich music kicked in. The vocabulary at this point became more recognisably like Wheeldon at this point. Eric Underwood’s partnering of Yanowsky was nothing short of heroic. All of them worked their socks off. There was a big audience response at the close and a lot of subsequent discussion. I need another viewing to look harder at the dance as well as the effects.

Afternoon of a Faun is also about dancers but in a much less in your face way. A ballet studio, two dancers, boy meets girl., or rather both meet the mirror. Acosta and Lamb reprised their roles from last season. I commend her coolness and composure in a complete change of mood and style from the first piece.

This was followed by Tzigane, a Balanchine work which is a new acquisition for the Royal, staged here by the originator of the ballerina role, Suzanne Farrell. Marianella Nunez dances alone to Ravel’s opening violin solo before being joined by her partner Thiago Soares and a small and rather underused corps of eight. Oddly, Nunez did not seem to be in such a sunny mood as when she rehearsed it at the insight evening and her wonderful beaming smile that lights up the place was saved until the very end. No matter how fast or tricky the steps Nunez never looks hurried or troubled just happy to luxuriate in the music. Soares looked as if he was having a fabulous time – possibly the only dancer in this evening of examination of dance and dancers to look as if this dancing business was terrific fun.

The final item was a complete departure from the rest, a revival of Ashton’s exquisitely distilled narrative, A Month in the Country. We were back in a land of costumes, scenery and people whose already complex interior lives are about to be thrown in further disarray by a the arrival of a handsome tutor. Alexandra Ansanelli was the opening night Natalia Petrovna. It seemed a surprising choice to cast a dancer with such a strong background in Balanchine and comparatively little experience of the Ashton style in role which demands so much of his characteristic upper body movement. You could see she was trying hard to remember to bend at times but it wasn’t really there.

The other issue I had with her Natalia was that she simply seemed too young, too much of a young girl in her twenties in love and not a mature woman who is old enough to know better. There should have been much more of a contrast between her and the adolescent yearning of Vera (Iohna Loots, excellent, lovely feet). Natalia is a histrionic character but this one perhaps overly so: I always felt she was acting and though there were some beautiful moments I couldn’t get involved in her performance. Others no doubt will react differently.

Putrov as Beliaev unselfconsciously enjoyed the attentions of all those women, barely realising the havoc he causes. It’s a role that suits him well. Paul Kay was very fast and crisp as Kolia. Jonathan Howells was a kindly fusspot as Natalia’s husband, but I admit I rather missed the bluff heartiness of David Drew in this role.

Afternoon of a Faun was a pretty divertissement, nothing more.

Tzigane was a damp squib.

I can see the distinctiveness of Ashton’s choreography, the skill of his dramatic storytelling and the ease with which the RB dancers embrace his style, but… the RB must stop using decades-old designs. Month in the Country’s set is over-decorative, musty-looking and plain ugly, making the work seem stagy and old-fashioned (the wigs didn’t help). Would the RSC stage a play using a design from the 1950s? The ballet would look great on a bare stage with good lighting.

She did both and they do have the same detail richness.

I don't know but that's not what RB have done - Month dates from 1976 not the 50's. In a striped down world the sets are rather attractive I think.

Sometime we need to run a poll about the advisability, or not, of changing sets for otherwise well known works. Not an easy decision I think. By and large I think rather then tinker with past success it would be better to create tomorrows success anew and tip budget into wholly new work rather then licks of paint on old work.

Edit: typos

Just a slight correction - the Reich is a live guitar player in the orchestra pit, playing over 11 other looped guitar solos (though not sure whther those prerecorded, or whether he creates the loops as he goes along)

I should have mentioned the guitarist. However the majority of the sound output sounded very "processed" and recorded rather than live to me.

Natalia - and Rakitin - are in their mid-twenties in the the play. That's why her situation is so funny.

Thank you John Ross for the marvellous photo of Carlos Acosta and Sarah Lamb, who created a more engaging mystery in a beautifully lit "Faun". The wash of light helps to convey the evenness of tone that pervades this piece. It is pared-down, but tells its own little story in the ballet studio - mirrored movements again - and leaves me wondering just what has happened between the girl and boy. Carlos and Sarah Lamb move together in an otherworldly state, narcissistically preoccupied and at the same time tentatively engaged. Somehow a more satisfying enigma.

"Tzigane" is a promising work for the Royal with its terrific ballerina role, but as much as I like Marianela Nunez, I was particularly impressed with Soares's clean style. The ensemble looked pretty good, but the piece didn't quite catch fire despite the dynamic music. I feel it should end more joyously, but I'm not sure why it didn't? It is another short ballet that is difficult to place in a programme and by this point I was beginning to wonder about the mix of pieces and was rather running out of steam.

"A Month in the Country" presents such a contrast with its detailed, traditional set. It is at one level a domestic drama and the naturalistic drawing room reflects this, but it also has the effect of keeping Ashton's work firmly within this setting, making it appear more fussy than it actually is. The arrival of Beliaev is as if an emotional time-bomb has been set off and Ivan Putrov conveyed youthful energy and dangerous flirtatiousness. Alexandra Ansanelli is a lovely dancer, but isn't quite flowing enough to portray the languid boredom that leads her into her disasterous relationship.
I guess the evening is a lesson in ballet styles!

Edward Watson in Electric Counterpoint

Zenaida Yanowsky and Eric Underwood in Electric Counterpoint

Carlos Acosta and Sarah Lamb in Afternoon of a Faun

Balanchine's Tzigane

Alexandra Ansanelli as Natalia Petrovna in A Month in the Country

Royal Ballet New Wheeldon Quad Bill - ROH, Feb 2008
Ballet.co Gallery Area
all images © John Ross

If you spot a wrongly captioned photograph please contact John direct - John Ross Contact Details