'Sea of Troubles' reviews Edur in reviews Cooper in reviews recent ENB reviews more Mandy reviews

ENB and Sea of Troubles at the Linbury Theatre ROH Sat 24th May.

I took my daughter (age 7 yrs) to see ENB and Sea of Troubles on Saturday night and guess what, she fell asleep during Adam Cooper and co. after the interval. While I was captivated by and immersed in the performance, she quietly snored in her sleep! Wonder if the cast noticed a little Sleeping Beauty in row A?

Now that I am more familiar with the ballet, I found it easier to follow and could notice smaller things about the performance, which I found very confusing the first time I saw it, in Exeter 2002.

The multiple casting of each role, and constant interchange of characters was so confusing then , now I realize that any man with the crown is the King, or , if covered by the shroud, the Ghost, regardless of which dancer is dancing it.

Adam, as always, just has to stand there to make all eyes turn on him. Actually there is quite a lot of ’just standing there’ in his role, observing the other characters, SO, when he does start moving it is even more incredible. His eyes just burn when he sees his mother with the king, when he pulls them apart. The dancing is done barefoot, in a contemporary style, and with a very minimalistic set designed by Deborah MacMillan, and simple costumes. The girls from the ENB, were all excellent, as the Queen and as Ophelia.

The first part of the evening was devoted to six new pieces of choreography by various members of the ENB. My favourite was ‘If’, choreographed and performed by the sublime Thomas Edur, a dancer so attuned with his own body that he moves with a liquid grace. The piece is an essay on loss and regret, and Thomas has evidently felt such a bereavement in his life, he was superb.

Whilst ‘Divertimento Pour Six’ ( ch: Yosvani Ramos) contained some fantastic virtuoso dancing from Erina Takahashi and Yosvani Ramos, it seemed to have little direction. Then again with fouette turns a la Takahashi, I had no real complaints.

Tribal was an interesting ensemble work by Juango Arques, the native beat of the music by Jesus Pastor perfectly complemented the rhythms and patterns wound by the dancers in their brown-leaf autumnal costumes.

'Maybe it was love' ( ch: Yat- Sen Chang) explored a tempestuous relationship in a sultry Spanish style. Danced with his real life partner Simone Clark, one was left wondering if the relationship was real or simply in his imagination. What a fantasy!

Pulsacion No. 4 by Clara Barbera seemed a little insipid despite the interplay between a single girl and three handsome fellas, in wide boy suits and fedora hats. Elisa Celis played the vamp , the guys competed for the dame, end of story.

‘And Finally’( ch: Daniel Jones) gave us a chance to see Edur and Oaks again, together with Jan-Eric Wikstrom ,Caroline Duprot, Yat-Sen Chang and Fernanda Oliveira. Also gave ‘Our Daniel’ a chance to get his rocks off with some axe work on the electric guitar, and to display his sense of humour as the music changed styles at every opportunity. Tom and Agnes just beamed! Loved it.