© John Ross National Ballet of China 'Swan Lake' reviews 'Swan Lake' reviews recent National Ballet of China reviews Gallery of Photographs more Jeffery Taylor reviews Web version held on Ballet.co by kind permission of Jeffery Taylor and the Sunday Express Express Website

Nor were the dancers helped by designer Peter Farmer’s appallingly depressing sets which from the moment of curtain up last Wednesday, cast an impenetrable gloom over the whole evening. Painted an evil slime green, and dimly lit, castles, forests and lake created a surreal threat that the whole lot was about to be sucked into Purgatory.

But first came cocky Hu Dayong as Benno. Physically compact with a sharp useful technique, in the Act I showcase trio with Cao Shuci and Zhang Siyuan, he gave a copy book imitation of a Russian dancer – in the worst, literal sense of the word. Dayong’s sub plot, however, seemed to be upstaging the story’s hero, Hao Bin’s Prince Siegfried. As Bin had as much on-stage impact as a wet prawn cracker, this was painfully easy; fewer poses and more sweat would help Bin’s credibility problem no end.

Long before the appearance of Zhu Yan’s tragic Swan Queen, Odette, it was clear that the whole company had taken to heart the Russian work ethic, such schooling displayed by the whole company does not come cheap. Nevertheless Yan, supported by Bin, ploughed through her heart breaking emotional upheavals like a gleaming automatic gear change stuck in second. Has no one in Beijing heard of Russian soul?

In Act III, as Odile, the Swan Queen’s doppelganger who tempts Siegfried to betray his true love, Odette, Yin’s nerve gave out along with her stamina and she badly stumbled during her famous virtuoso fouettes. As the evening progressed the more arid it grew, the only contact the hard working dancers had with the storyline of love, betrayal and redemption, not to mention Tchaikovsky’s passionate music, was keeping on the beat.

Farmer’s sets aside, a great deal of the right effort has gone into the Chinese Swan Lake, technical finesse, timing and emphasis, but it remains a classic example of the sterility of style over substance. Now is the time for an inspirational leader to instil the magical mystery ingredient called love.