© Dave Morgan 'Sabores' reviews recent Sara Baras reviews ENB 'A Million Kisses' reviews 'A Million Kisses' reviews ENB 'Resolution' reviews ENB 'Etudes' reviews 'Etudes' reviews recent ENB reviews John Ross Photographs (also Dave Morgans) more Jeffery Taylor reviews Web version held on Ballet.co by kind permission of Jeffery Taylor and the Sunday Express Express Website

If you are looking for the magic of the theatre and the power of dance, Baras’s Sabores (Flavours) comes frighteningly close to perfection. Lead dancer and choreographer, Baras’s stage and dress designs are both minimal yet rich in detail then mouth wateringly enhanced by her lighting, somehow managing misty and vivid all at the same time. Her supporting five couples have striking individual stage presences, the men aggressive and lyrical the women seductive and powerful. But this is no eye candy backing troupe, these individual are highly trained and talented dancers. Of her two male soloists, Luis Ortega in his double breasted suit and neat hair do, looks like any young Dad at the school gate, but for this bloke castanets are cool and emotion straight from the gut not second rate gurning. Like a prize fighter, Jose Serrano is full frontal, take it or leave it muscle with ear splitting beats. But Baras is uniquely one of the greats of contemporary dance. She adds smooth fluidity to the savagery of her technique and broadens the shape of her intense solos. But it is her soul’s unequivocal response to music that sets her apart. What a dancer, what a show.

Meanwhile Wayne Eagling, ENB’s director, premiered his Resolution in a Triple Bill at his company’s first home, the RFH. Based on Mahler’s Five Ruckert Songs. Eagling’s musical ear is almost unbearably sensitive, his steps embellishing the musical line with an unerring touch. The final all male trio examining the twin towers of human vulnerability, dependency on, and faith in, your fellow man is unforgettable.

Erina Takahashi in A Million Kisses to my Skin
© Dave Morgan

The evening’s opener is David Dawson’s A Million Kisses to my Skin, a brief, brilliant and dashing celebration of the dancer’s art by a choreographer who has been there and loved it. Harald Lander’s Etudes brings the evening to a riotous finale as the company progresses from the simplest class room exercises to a virtuoso display. Cesar Morales is unsmilingly brilliant, Zdenek Konvalina suitably exuberant while the glittering Erina Takahashi is simply hypnotic. As I may have mentioned, what a week.