Artiklar från 2008 – till idag
The Royal Ballet opened the new season with a glittering production of Jewels: the triptych of Balanchine ballets. Diamonds is the perfect showcase for an elite corps de ballet and the Royal showed their class with impeccable timing and execution.
Leading from the front was the exquisite Alina Cojocaru. Her technique sparkles with diamond purity but it is her inner qualities that make every performance memorable; the simplest of gestures is meaningful and resonates to the furthest reaches of the house.
Steven McRae in Rubies. Photographer Tristram Kenton
Rubies is a regular favourite and enjoyed an ideal cast. Zenaida Yanowsky’s athletic form defines precisely the angularity of Balanchine’s jazzy choreography and the modernity of Stravinsky’s music, while Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae played a game of one-upmanship, competing in speed and virtuosity. All three made light of the fearsome choreography: dancing with the insouciance of those at the top of their game.
Zenaida Yanowsky in Rubies. Photographer Johan Persson
Emeralds Emeralds was less well cast. Tamara Rojo, a formidable technician lacked the mystery and romance intrinsic to the work and there was little rapport between her and her partner, Ryoichi Hirano.
This elegant Japanese dancer never fails to deliver and it is good to see him moving up to principal roles. However in the second solo of sensual interwoven ports de bras, Leanne Benjamin beautifully captured the flavour of Fauré’s music.
Sylvie Guillem in Bye. Photographer Lesley Leslie-Spinks
A rarity in the ballet world
Sadler’s Wells Theatre is currently excelling itself with a constant stream of exciting productions. Sylvie Guillem made a brief return with 6000 miles away.
She is a rarity in the ballet world – a dancer who's artistry has taken on an exciting new form as she becomes less dependent on her technique.
Sylvie Guillem in Rearray. Fotographer Bill Cooper
It is her performance in Mats Ek’s Bye that proves her power as an artist, ironically by allowing her humanity and vulnerability to shine through. Using film and dance Ek draws us into the soul of the performer, from the first close up of her eye to her exit walking into the bleak distance.
It is a skilfully crafted work, not least in the ingenious crossover between the two mediums providing an expressive vehicle for this great artist.
In William Forsythe’s Rearray, Guillem, partnered by Massimo Murru, and dressed in urban chic, demonstrates that she has not lost the fierceness of her arabesque or the strength in her legs of steel.
For this duet, Forsythe has returned to his post-modern vocabulary, offering an effective contrast to Ek’s work.
Completing the bill was the duet from Jiří Kylián’s 27’52” sensitively performed by two top interpreters from NDT, Aurélie Cayla and Kenta Kojiri.
Akram Khan in DESH. Photographer Richard Haughton
A nucleous of inspiration
Akram Khan is a nucleus of inspiration, attracting collaborative artists of the highest calibre and generating a phenomenal creative force. Khan is a long-standing Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist and this production marks the beginning of his Company’s additional partnership with MC2 Länk till annan webbplats. in Grenoble, France.
In DESH ("homeland" in Bengali language) he brings to the stage a teeming mass of humanity; spanning continents and generations and the wonder is that this is achieved in a solo performance of one hour twenty minutes.
Akram Khan in DESH. Photographer Richard Haughton
Khan is one of a sizeable minority of British born Bangladeshis who enjoys (or suffers) the multicultural experience, born into Western culture but grown from Bangla roots. The father, one of Khan’s many imaginative characters, agonises over his son’s neglect of Bangla language, his culture and his traditions.
It is a common story but never has it been so imaginatively portrayed as Khan becomes by turn, an old man, a young niece, a demonstrative crowd or simply himself - a Kathak dancer of liquid beauty.
The visuals; part projection, part set, the lighting and the sounds all combine to create a journey of wonderment producing new delights at every turn. Khan is a man of the moment, a product of our fluid global culture, but he is as well an artist for all time in his exploration of the common roots of humankind.
Maggie Foyer
2 November 2011
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