The Royal Ballet's 2015/16 Season

The Royal Ballet recently announced details of the 2015/16 season and I am very excited! This is what I am most looking forward to:

- Raven Girl will be returning to the stage in October. This was one of the first performances I saw at the Royal Opera House and ultimately what got me excited about the Royal Ballet. It was the first time I saw Sarah Lamb perform (the role of Raven Girl was created for her), and I have been her fan ever since. It is also the my favorite Wayne McGregor ballet and the final pas-de-deux between Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood remains the most beautiful thing I've ever seen on stage. You can watch the rehearsing the scene here. 

- Elizabeth - a ballet about the life of Elizabeth I. This ballet was created by Will Tuckett for the Royal Ballet in 2013 and was performed at the Royal Navel College in Greenwich. It will be coming to the Linbury Studio in January. I don't know much about it, but it sounds interesting.

- A Christopher Wheeldon triple bill, including a new work, in February AND his Winter's Tale returning to the main stage in April. 

- Liam Scarlett's new ballet, Frankenstein, coming to the main stage in May. Scarlett has an incredible talent for story-telling through choreography and seems to have a thing for dark themes. I love his Hansel and Gretel.

- Orphee et Eurydice - not ballet but opera for a change. The reason I am excited about this one is because of choreographer Hofesh Shechter's involvement as co-director. His recent collaboration with the Royal Ballet was incredible, and I am excited to learn that he will be collaborating with the Royal Opera House again.

Further details of the Royal Ballet's 2015/16 season can be found here.

An American in Paris, December 6th, 2014, Theatre de Chatelet

I'm not a fan of musicals, but if Christopher Wheeldon decides to direct one, I WILL get on the Eurostar to Paris to see it.

 

An American in Paris is Wheeldon's first foray into the realm of musicals. The plot is based on the 1951 musical film, but the choreography is new. Wheeldon cast two ballet dancers (Leanne Cope, first artist of the Royal Ballet, and Robert Fairchild, principle dancer at New York City Ballet) in the lead roles.

 

The strength of this musical was always going to be in the ballet. In fact, the other elements are on the weak side. The plot is a standard love triangle set in post WW2 Paris. There's light humour and a gentle attempt at a deeper message about personal courage.  The singing is so-so. The fake French accents are atrocious. (However, the fact that two ballet dancers, on top of being immensely talented dancers, can sing and act at all is pretty impressive.)

But the ballet element is beautiful. My favourite scene is when Lise auditions to be part of a ballet. She stands at the back of the room, performing the same steps as the other dancers, but gradually makes small changes until the steps are completely her own, and the audience is left without a doubt that she is a very special dancer. Her style is reminiscent of the Diaghilev era. In fact, the whole musical has a very stylish art deco feel to it.

 

Another great scene is the ballet within the ballet. In a feat of clever stage design, the backdrop - a red velvet curtain identical to the house curtain - opens to reveal conductor and audience within the ballet. We watch the audience watch the ballet.

 

The ballet within the ballet is Wheeldon doing what he does best. Personally, I would prefer if Wheeldon would stick to pure ballet - not because this musical wasn't good, but because Wheeldon is too good at making ballets to not make them! However, I'm guessing the people of Paris, who received An American in Paris with standing ovations, will not agree with me.

 

My Royal Ballet 2013/14 Season in Review

This season was the first time I managed to catch, in some form or another, every production of the Royal Ballet on the main stage, as well as a handful in the Linbury Studio Theatre. The discovery that it is actually possible to get reasonably priced tickets, as well as Live Cinema screenings and Sky Arts 2 made it possible. I loved every moment, and it's pretty hard to pick my favorites. Nevertheless, looking back over the year, there are certainly some productions that stand out in my memory.

My favorite full length production was without a doubt Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale. In fact, this season was the season I really discovered Christopher Wheeldon for myself. He has an incredible ability to make ballets that feel contemporary without distorting the art form beyond recognition. 

I also really enjoyed Giselle and was lucky enough to catch two performances, one in house with Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae, the other at the cinema with Natalia Osipova and Carlos Acosta. Seeing the same production twice with different casts was a really insightful experience for me. But my favourite casting throughout the whole season has consistently been Sarah Lamb with Steven McRae. 

Sarah Lamb in Jewels© ROH

Over Christmas I saw both the Nutcracker and Jewels. I love the tradition of going to the ballet for Christmas, and both of these productions put me in a real Christmas spirit. (I'm quite sad the Royal Ballet won't be doing the Nutcracker next season!) 

Triple Bills are always my favorite because one gets to see a variety of works. This season the Royal Ballet did four incredible triple bills. My top picks were 

Melissa Hamilton and Gary Avis
in DGV © ROH

- the Rite of Spring, which 100 years on from it's world premier still feels ahead of its time;

- Steven McRae in Rhapsody - I will never forget those incredible jumps that made the entire audience gasp;

- Gloria, with the beautiful Melissa Hamilton;

- Serenade, which I'd actually seen performed by the Boston Ballet when they visited London last year, but loved even more this time;

- and Christopher Wheeldon's DGV - LOVED IT!!! 

The biggest disappointment was probably Wayne McGregor's Tetractys. I loved everything he did up until then, especially Infra, Chroma and Raven Girl. But Tetractys felt a bit bland. Still, I was glad I got to see it after some shows had to be cancelled due to Natalia Osipova sustaining a concussion during a performance! 

I always love going to the Linbury Studio because the productions tend to be more experimental. Liam Scarlett's Hansel and Gretel was definitely the most disturbing thing I saw at the Royal Ballet this season. Liam Scarlett has a really talent for telling dramatic stories through choreography. I am really looking forward to his new ballet, The Age of Anxiety, next season!

Northern Ballet dancers in Luminous Juncture
Emma Kauldhar

Other Linbury highlights included the Northern Ballet, especially Kenneth Tindall's Luminous Juncture, and Mayuri Boonham's The Human Edge, which she choreographed for Yuhui Choe and Kentra Kura. I also loved Draft Works, which I intend to make a regular fixture in my calendar!

Finally, an absolute highlight was getting to meet Edward Watson at a signing of his new DVD The Metamorphosis.

Danse a Grand Vitesse

Since seeing Danse a Grand Vitess at the Royal Opera last week, I can't get Michael Nyman's incredible score out of my head!

The Sleeping Beauty vs The Winter's Tale

A recent article in the Guardian discusses whether the classic ballets, like Swan Lake, should be retired in favour of a more contemporary repertoire. My last two visits to the Royal Opera House helped shape my opinion. 

In March and April, I saw two ballets at the Royal Opera House: The Sleeping Beauty, a classic, and The Winter's Tale, a brand new production. Both are programmatic ballets which follow a traditional three act format; both are love stories with happy endings; and both draw from the classical repertoire of ballet steps. Yet one left me feeling that ballet is a dated art form, while the other felt completely contemporary and relevant.

in The Winter's Tale
Alice Pennefather

One striking difference between the two ballets is the way in which the plot is delivered. The Sleeping Beauty relies heavily on mime to tell the story. I am not a fan of mime - it looks silly and it leaves those who don't know the language completely in the dark. The Winter's Tale, on the other hand, uses almost no mime at all. Instead it conveys the story through intelligent choreography in a much more meaningful way. This is without doubt also due to the wonderful performance by principals Laura Cuthbertson and Edward Watson. The latter, especially, portrayed Leontes's decent into madness with devastating conviction. 

Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae
in The Skeeping Beauty
Johan Persson

Both stories are essentially love stories. In both, the leading couple are danced by Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae. As I've mentioned elsewhere in this blog, the two are great together. Yet in The Sleeping Beauty, the most important moment of the story, when Prince Florimund kisses Princess Aurora and she wakes up, is a big anti-climax. Princess Aurora is barely awake before the ballet launches into a scene of celebration, in which the audience is forced to sit through a half hour of divertissements by such random party guests as Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood. 

Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae
in The Winter's Tale
Johan Persson

In The Winter's Tale, on the other hand, the love story is much more convincing, and Lamb and McRae once again demonstrated that they have amazing chemistry. Instead of divertissements there is a festival, at which the villagers dance in front of the backdrop of a beautiful old tree, hung with ornaments. The dance style is clearly recognizable as ballet, but has elements of gypsy folk and African tribal dance. Together with the beautiful music and costumes, the feeling is created of a utopian world in which ethnic differences no longer matter. Finally, The Winter's Tale ends on a thoughtful note, and rather than boring them, leaves the audience to ponder the power of forgiveness.

In a fantastic interview on BBC's Hardtalk, Tamara Rojo recently defended the classic ballets by arguing that "these classical ballets are the first step into our art form for most people". While I do not want to dispute Rojo's point (she really knows her stuff!), my guess is that the first-time ballet goers who saw The Winter's Tale, rather than The Sleeping Beauty, are the ones who are more likely to come back!