© John Ross 'Castle Nowhere' reviews 'Requiem' reviews Harvey in reviews Pennefather in reviews recent RB reviews more Graham Watts reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

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However, for me the biggest problem at the RB just now was significantly exposed in this programme and that is the paucity of strong male dancers, Before the deluge of protests comes in, let me clarify by saying that the RB has some brilliant young men soloists and first artists but they are all marked out by the excellence of fast feet and bounce - none of them has the upper body strength to deliver the unforgiving lifts required in much of MacMillan's work.

I recall that Martin Harvey was unable to perform as required in 'Requiem' last time out and Pennefather was also found wanting here - I know that he only had a short time to learn the role and I think we should all have sympathy with dancers thrown in at short notice to try to master immensely difficult roles but we should have no sympathy with the management of a company that short-changes choreographers' intentions and the paying customers' pockets by not having sufficient balance and depth in a company to perform the programme as required.
 

As far as I can see, the RB only has four fit, regular Principal men at the moment and two of these are not physically strong enough for some of the major roles. Both in Polyphonia and in Requiem we saw the inability of dancers to come anywhere near the standards set by Cope and the company is really missing him already.

It is clearly a big problem at the moment and one that needs to be resolved by some new appointments in the Summer.

On another note, I was surprised that there was so much applause during 'Requiem' and noted later that the programme did not include its usual request for the audience to refrain from applause during the performance.

Is this a change of policy or an administrative lapse?