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Australian Ballet with Bangarra Dance TheatreOctober 2008 London, Sadler's Wells by Natasha Rogai |
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As posted on our Postings pages... I caught the programme on Friday night and came away rather disappointed. I had never seen Les Presages before and found it hard to judge on the basis of this performance. Clearly the work is of its time and looks a little old-fashioned, but the use of groupings is effective and there are some genuinely original ideas, especially in the use of arms. The problem to me is that this is a symphonic ballet which stands or falls by the musicality of the choreography and that can only be conveyed by dancers who themselves are innately musical. Also, it was created by a Russian choreographer, with Russian dancers, to great Russian music – which means it cries out for the Russian flow of movement in the whole body and the arms are as important as the legs. My personal gripe about many Australian ballet dancers (and I hasten to say there are some very honourable exceptions to this!) is that they dance well from the waist down but tend to be stiff and inexpressive in the upper body, which in itself leads to a lack of musicality. This was all too evident in the performance I saw. The dancers were competent technically, but it felt as if they were simply executing the steps rather than responding to or expressing the music. Of the soloists, I felt Ramos and Rawlins were seriously miscast and Reiko Hombo in the third movement fared best. She is a pleasingly light and graceful dancer and unafflicted by Australian Arm Disease, but even she did not make me feel the connection between the choreography and the music. Perhaps Massine just wasn’t a musical choreographer – perhaps it’s just me! - but I will reserve judgment until I have seen the work done by another company. The Bolshoi have been doing Massine and I suspect that they would be much better equipped to do justice to it.  © John Ross
 © John Ross
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