Tonight:
9°c
Latest: Policeman pleads guilty to murdering his police constable fiancée hours before they were due to fly out to their wedding in St Lucia
More...
An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Sarah Frater's rating
Reader rating
Description: The first visit to London in more than twenty-five years, sees the New York City Ballet performing a wide range of works from its repertory. The company's co-founder is celebrated in the first programme, with performances of Serenade, Agon and Symphony in C
Trains: Tube: Leicester Square/Charing Cross 
, Tube / Bus: 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 53, 77a, 88, 91, 139 
Phone: 0871911 0200
Website: www.eno.org
Email: access@eno.org
Dazzling and terrifying: members of the New York City Ballet perform George Balanchine's Agon at the Coliseum in the dance company's first visit to London for 25 years
Few visits have been as anticipated as New York City Ballet's to the London Coliseum.
City Ballet, as it is known, is one of the world's great dance companies, up there with the Kirov, the Royal Danish Ballet and our own Royal Ballet, who between them preserve the balletic past and forge its choreographic future.
Why, then, has City Ballet not visited London for 25 years? The reason is a mix of cost and politics, but at last they are here with four programmes, 14 ballets and 90 dancers, plus the legacy of George Balanchine, City Ballet's founder who hoiked ballet out of the 19th century by merging the technical brilliance of his Russian training with the athletic daring of his adopted America. His Agon, Serenade and The Four Temperaments, to name just three, are key art works of the 20th century, and we all want to know how his company dance them 25 years after he died.
The two-week season opened with a triple bill of Serenade, Agon and Symphony in C, and, without beating about the bush, much of it was disappointing. People have been talking about City Ballet's decline for years, and you half thought it was just the old fogeys who insist everything was better in their day when you were not around to disagree. On this evidence, they may be right.
Symphony in C was the biggest let-down. Created in 1947, it combines the grandeur and line of classical ballet, with a knowing smile at its sensual allure. Sadly, the corps could not form a line if you gave them a ruler, and many of the young soloists were just wrong. For example, the second adagio section should have a dream-like grace and languor, but it was sharply accented to staccato degree.
A little better was Serenade, the first ballet Balanchine made in America in 1934. It is set to Tchaikovsky's lovely Serenade for Strings, and sections of the dancing were gently refined.
However, its themes of how women become ballerinas, and how we respond when they do, were far from clear.
Sandwiched by these was Agon (1957), Balanchine's dazzling, terrifying collaboration with Stravinsky that tracks the tensions between men and women.
Credit in spades to Wendy Whelan who rescued the evening with her physical intelligence and old-style discipline. She is not young but is one of the few who understand the anxious energy of Balanchine's ballet.
• The four-programme visit of New York City Ballet continues at the London Coliseum until 22 March. Information 0870 145 0200.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
I saw the Sunday evening performance of this programme and, while it was certainly an improvement on the Robbins evening, NYCB really disappoints this time round so far. The principals are technically adept but the corps looks sadly under par and, while I hold no brief for anorexic ballerinas, rather over weight - sorry! Ballanchine's aged whim to have the three lead girls loose their hair for the last movement of 'Serenade' simply does not work and should be abandoned. 'Agon' always thrills with its purity of dance but the second pas de trois with exaggerated shrugged shoulders and 'popped' hips looked more Fosse than Balanchine this time around. The problems with the corps were evident again in 'Symphony in C', legs in extension, arm positions and lines all over the place, who is responsible for rehearsing them? The Balanchine Trust insists on other companies performing these works to 'a required standard' before allowing them on stage is anyone looking at the home team. A friend commented last night that the company appears 'stuck in a time warp', while I know what he meant as the whole thing was strangely antiseptic, how I longed for the likes of Farrell, Ashley, Andersen and Co.
- Kevin Mcd, London
Serenade retains a special resonance in my memory: it was the first classical ballet I saw at Covent Garden and laid the foundation for a lifetime's enjoyment of dance of all kinds from music theatre to hip hop.
It always looks beautiful and the Tchaikovsky score is enchanting - yet, something was missing from this Balanchine signature piece on opening night. The dancers seemed unable to 'get inside' music, resulting in a disappointing lack of engagement between dancers and audience (even when Balanchine's own performing tenets are born in mind). Agon had its requisite moments of dazzle: some balances were phenomenal - as were some spectacularly tight tours en l'air by the men - who were equally impressive en masse in the Symphony in C, although the orchestral accompaniment was simply not played with a sufficiently light touch. In these days of stick-thin ballerinas, it was also thought-provoking to see two (comparatively) 'stocky' girls in solo roles. On this showing NYCB has yet to reach its form in London. A warm reception but curtailed curtain calls said it all at the opening performance, but a £95 top price carries with it performance expectations that - in light of Bolshoi's peerless season last year - are perhaps, like the ticket price, unreasonably high.
- Clive Burton, London
