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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
Robust: The Firebird
Serge Diaghilev so transformed classical ballet, you’d think the centenary of his first visit to the west would have the dance world in celebratory overdrive. His artistic legacy is massive, not least the umpteen dance companies formed by the Diaghilev diaspora, including English National Ballet, Rambert Dance Company and The Royal Ballet. All enshrine his values, even if they’re still playing catch-up with his creative track record and promotional nous.
The Royal Ballet performs many of Diaghilev’s ballets, including Apollo, Les Noces and Prodigal Son, as well as Les Sylphides and The Firebird which feature in this single mixed bill to mark the anniversary. These two early-era works are by Mikhail Fokine (Sylphides 1909, Firebird 1910), and what strikes you is how well The Royal Ballet performs their different styles. In the ballet blanc Les Sylphides the 18-strong corps are all airy elegance, their tulle dresses providing both floaty semaphore and ethereal wake.
In The Firebird, the dancing is more robust, as is its story which draws on the folklore of prehistoric Russia and its pagan rites. Special mention to Thiago Soares as Ivan. The dancers are equally adept at Firebird’s emphatic rhythms as they are at Sylphides’ gossamer ease, all of which leaves you wanting more for the Ballets Russes birthday.
Also part of the mixed bill is a new work by fledgling dance-maker Alastair Marriott. Sensorium is a plotless piece set to orchestrated Debussy Preludes for two couples and a corps of eight. The ballet has excellent sets and lighting, and is best in its duets, especially the one for Leanne Benjamin and Thomas Whitehead to Footsteps in the Snow. It’s in the style of a modern reverie, with the pair hinting at love’s tenuous bonds as they manipulate their bodies in an elegant show of flex and stretch.
With the Royal Ballet on Covent Garden’s main stage, Shobana Jeyasingh’s small troupe were debuting her new piece in the Linbury Studio.
Jeyasingh was an early pioneer of east-west dance thinking, and her cross-cultural themes have influenced many. In Just Add Water? she explores ideas of food and cooking as both sustenance and seduction, as well as being part of our national differences and shared humanity.
It’s a subject ripe for exploration but Just Add Water? feels like several attempts at the topic rather than an integrated whole. Moreover, the video projection is filler, and the spoken text rambles. The pure-dance sections are much better but obscured by the multi-media overload.
Royal Ballet in rep until 30 May. Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company until tomorrow (020 7304 4000, www.roh.org.uk).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
