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I attended the first performance in Guadalajara (my home town), the 23th of June. First of all there was a lot of expectation here in GDL, there´s a lot of ballet dancers and a deep tradition in dance that goes trough all the folk and popular dance, so as I was expected, the theatre was full. Also there are many ballet academies that uses the "royal techinque" that made the performance all the more emotional and thrilling for all of us.

I was deeply impressed by the scheduled program, a good combination of pieces that totaly demostrates the rich coreographic tradition in england and by the way, showed us more than a century of coreography development, in what was probably, the richest period in dance history. All said, the program started brilliantly with the always popular 2 act of Swan Lake as danced by Tamara Rojo and Federico Bonelli. The first thing that striked me was the VERY fast tempo aproched by Boris Gruzin, at times it seemed too quick and bouncy for my taste, even Tamara had trouble adjusting to this, by consecuence some phrases gave the impression of being unfinished, I think that a more sensible choice of tempo will allow Tamara to realy develop the movements with more eloquency and in consecuence with a depper meaning. That dosen´t mean that she did´t meet the requirments of the role, she realy shined. The only thing it´s that there´s not much chemistry going between Tamara and Federico (IMO). All in all and despite a fell from a girl of the corps at the very begining, the first portion of the evening was a success.
 

For must of us the second part was the one to see, it was a real feast of British and Russian- American coreography (Mr. B). The firts number was the Pas de Quatre coreographed by Ashton with music from swan lake, for me this is a real jewel, maybe a small one but a jewel nonetheless. it was danced with verve despite a shaky coda finale. this prepared us for the next masterpiece (and a very popular one), the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, this was danced by Marquez and Watson, they do not let us down, with a beautiful flowing performance, and real passion going trough, but again a very quick tempo =( and this i´m afraid to said so, aplies for the whole evening. I was very curious to see Sarah Lamb, she and Mahkateli received one of the biggest ovations of the night, she possesses a beautiful line, very sharp and neat and a fantastic bourrée, that paid off in a coreography such as this, Makhateli partnered her well and contributed in a wonderful sensual atmosphere, a memorable performance. Next was the underestimated Hatley (I realy don´t know why she is not promoted to principal) she gave a wonderful account of this solo, everyone at the room couldn´t take our eyes out of her, she is truly fantastic and whit a great stage presence and beautiful upper body movements. This was the first time i saw the piece complete, and i have to say that it was very emotional, just to think of the precise moment that this two great genius met, one as performer, the othes as espectator, thrills me.
 

Another high point of the night was the Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Ansanelli, not surpinsingly so, knew how this coreography should go around, with quicksilver articulated movements and great personality, this time the partner shined too (Martin), but with what?, with great hight in his jumps, speed in the turns and personality to burn. I realy liked this one. Next was Winter Dreams, It was danced with passion and commitment by Galeazzi and Pennefather, the piano onstage contributed for a more dramatic effect, but maybe this was the weakest part of the evening, not to imply that it was incompetent at all, but next to the other high voltage numbers this was a little tame (IMO). Another number that i wanted to see the most was Voices of Spring, I think this is Ashton at his best, wonderful coreography, this is the first time that i see Benjamin live, and i have to say that i was stunned by her beautiful, quick, sharp, flowing and personal style, IMPRESSIVE, maybe the last true Royal Ballerina (IMO) she had a competent partner in McRae, he was far from perfect (they miss their exit lift, but covered it beautifuly), He made a good impression in the audience. The last number was Don Q, with Rojo and Kobborg. I must say that Tamara eclipssed Kobborg, not even his high jumps, beautiful legs and good spin work could do anything against Rojo aplomb, coquetish and witty interpretation of Kitri, she was amazing from the interpretative point down to a rock solid techinque that allowed her to make some striking effects, she held the first balance in attitude (in the middle section of the adagio) so long that she didn´t need to do the second section... amazing, unreal! and of course there where her famous fouetés with triples and a quadruple pirouette at the end. After all this balletic banquette the whole company, with no less than 8 principals (amazing for 1 evening =)) recevied standing ovation from a very emotioned audience... brilliant, a truly wonderful evening.

Thank you Royal Ballet.