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Northern Ballet TheatreMarch 2006 Sheffield, Lyceum by Janet McNulty |
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As posted on our Postings pages... I saw two performances of David Nixon’s Gershwin ballet on Saturday. This is a real feel-good ballet and I came out of the auditorium on a high after both performances. The orchestra is on stage, which can restrict the dancing space on smaller stages. Both acts start and end with a major production number, with smaller pieces in the middle. It really is an ensemble piece that allows the whole company to shine and, from the evidence of these two performances, they really are shining at the moment. For this outing another pdd (Embraceable You) has been added, which really captures the mood of the evening – romantic with lots of stunning lifts. An American in Paris opens the performance, with Amy Johnson, Hiro Takahashi, Georgina May and Darren Goldsmith particularly sparkling at the evening performance. Desire Samaai and Yi Song looked fabulously elegant together in The Man I love at the afternoon performance, with Lane Green and Mark Biocca beautifully romantic in the evening. Pippa Moore and Chris Hinton-Lewis were breathtaking in Embraceable You in the evening performance with Chris making the most of the spectacular lifts.
My favourite piece is the very romantic Bess You is my woman now, where the man does the pdd mainly on his knees. Although it looks very simple, I think it must be particularly difficult to do the lifts from that position. Desire Samaai and Chris Hinton-Lewis made it their own on Saturday afternoon, although Amy Johnson and Mark Biocca were also delightful in the evening.
 © Johann Persson
The performance finishes with Girl Crazy, full of showbiz razzmatazz. All the dancers look as though they are having a ball, with lots of flirting going on. I must especially mention the enthusiasm with which Kirill Burlov threw himself into this in the afternoon. The curtain call finale is the icing on the cake, I only wish it could go on for longer.
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