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Royal Ballet
Michael Clark
RB: Diaghilev Mixed Bill: ‘Daphnis & Chloe’, ‘Les Noces’, ‘Spectre de la Rose’, ‘L'Apres Midi d'un Faune’
Clark: Oh My Goddess
May 2004
London, Covent Garden
London, Salder's Wells
© Jeffery Taylor
Former dancer, Critic and an Arts feature writer for the Sunday Express. Pub 16 05 2004
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The Royal Ballet goes back to its roots for three weeks and celebrates the Russian ballet promoter, Serge Diaghilev.
RB founder, Ninette de Valois, learned her tricks of the trade dancing with the Ballets Russes and first on the bill is her colleague, Frederick Ashton’s 1951 version of Daphnis and Chloe. Set on a Ravel score commissioned by Diaghilev in 1912, Ashton, in a gentler age, deals with sweet lovers (Federico Bollini and Miyako Yoshida) dastardly pirates and a pagan God’s munificence. Designer John Craxton’s rocky Greek shore is bathed in heavy yellow sunlight as Ashton’s grasp of the classical technique and its potential for storytelling is as astonishing today as half a century ago.
Bronislava Nijinska’s 1923 Les Noces (The Wedding) was created to Igor Stravinsky’s stunning, driven score as Diaghilev shrugged off the Imperial Classical Ballet for a “modern” style. As a shock tactic then, it worked. Though superbly performed last week, it remains a gimmick.
Federico Bonelli as Daphnis in the latest production
© John Ross
Leon Bakst’s sizzling back cloth fizzes more than Carlos Acosta’s performance in L’Apres-midi d’une Faune (1917). Created by Vaslav Nijinsky for himself, it is a curious, two dimensional experiment in erotica that suits Acosta’s looks but not his temperament. Nevertheless, Zenaida Yanowsky, as an accosted nymph, swooned fetchingly in homage to his maleness. Gender is also the crux in Fokine’s 1911 Le Spectre de la Rose, made famous by Nijinsky as the petal festooned realisation of a young girl’s (Leanne Benjamin) sexual fantasy. Though giggles greeted Ivan Putrov’s appearance at the bedroom window, he overcomes his pinkness and floppy cap with a performance of sustained technical control, attention to detail and utter conviction that made him my dancer of the evening. Judging by the rapturous reception, I was not alone.
Les Noces
© Dee Conway
Beastie Ballet Boy Michael Clark was back at Sadler’s Wells Theatre last week with the gorgeous Kate Coyne who gets more electrifying with each passing year. Clark’s solo in Oh My Goddess should carry a health warning; before realising it, understated pelvis thrusts become an X-rated shock but Clark has hit gold with Satie Studs. Through the music’s open texture Clark conjures a deeply moving 4th dimension of silence and stillness. One for the history books.
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