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Description: The second programme in a brief season from New York City Ballet, with American choreographer Jerome Robbins celebrated.
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
Kicking against convention: a scene from The Concert, a clever and poignant take on Chopin that gently mocks the absurdities of ballet
You'd think that New York City Ballet would seduce us with George Balanchine ballets but it's those by Jerome Robbins that have bedazzled so far. The company has just started a two-week, four programme stint at the Coliseum, and its opening night Balanchine programme was decidedly so-so.
Compare that with the success of last night's triple bill by Robbins, probably best known for creating West Side Story. He also made Funny Face, Fiddler on the Roof and Gypsy, as well as running a parallel career with New York City Ballet where he was associate artistic director and later co-director when Balanchine died.
Robbins is a genius of the vernacular, combining popular dance with ballet and jazz to create hits such as Fancy Free. Robbins also made ballets, some funny, some experimental, and some an affectionate homage to the classics.
This triple contains one of each and leaves you longing for more. Part of the appeal is that City Ballet is entirely confident in his style, which is easier on the eye, and the intellect, than Balanchine's. That doesn't mean it's a pushover. The Concert, for example, is a clever and poignant take on Chopin that gently mocks the absurdities of ballet and the suggestibility of music. Then it reminds us how lonely we are.
The dancers were on top form, as they were in The Four Seasons. This gem is set, not to the Vivaldi but to Verdi pieces for the ballet sections of his operas. Tots will love the evocations of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and
cheer as the dancers chuck themselves around. Ashley Bouder, Benjamin Millepied and Daniel Ulbricht were especially good. The revelation of the night was Moves, a ballet danced without music. It' s extraordinary that the man who created Fancy Free could also make something so radical and so funny. But then Robbins saw entertainment as a duty. He was a man of Broadway.
Until 22 March (0870 145 0200, www.eno.org).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Of course we all like different things but I can't recognize the performances I witnessed at the Coliseum last night from this review! 'The Four Seasons' is Robbins at his worst saddled with ridiculous costume designs - Ballanchine must have been spinning in his grave at the standard of apparently unrehearsed dancing in Winter and Spring - the soloists bumped into each other in supported turns in both these sections - a small improvement in Summer and a big leap in quality in Autumn where Boudon and Ulbrich at last recalled some of the memories.
I have of watching this company dance over the last 40 years. 'Moves' is, of course, a work of genius and was well danced but not in silence as Robbins intended but to a cacophony of coughs and sneezes from the audience that resulted in suppressed laughter from people near where I sat - not the best atmosphere to aid concentration or appreciation! To finish off with the least funny performance of 'The Concert' I've ever seen was the non-cherry on this cake - less is more where Robbins genius is concerned in this work and I recommend any one who wants to know how it should look to see the Royal Ballet's next revival - presuming, of course , they don't follow NYCB's lead in camping it up. Fingers tightly crossed for the remaining programmes.
- Kevin Mcd, London
