Director: Carlos Acosta
Carlos Acosta has brought his vibrant company down to Sadler’s Wells East to pay homage to Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes that gave birth to modern ballet at the start of the last century, with legendary dancers like Vaslav Nijinsky, sets and costumes by artists like Léon Bakst that became iconic fashion statements, and breathtaking choreography. Acosta has brought his young company of dancers from the Birmingham Royal Ballet, BRB2, to recreate some of that excitement.
The first half consists of Mikhail Fokine’s choreography of Chopin’s music. Les Sylphides. It’s a less revolutionary piece than most of the evening’s offerings, with a decorative corps de ballet on pointe in fluffy tutus, while the single male dancer and a trio of female leads do star turns, winding around the elegant tableaux created by their fellow dancers. The grace and coordination are gorgeous to look at, Chopin’s music resonates from an off-stage piano (played by Jeanette Wong), but it isn’t the revolutionary combination of music, choreography, design, and style that made the Ballets Russes so significant. Perhaps a recreation of Nijinsky’s celebrated leaps and bounds would have helped, but it remains a fundamentally fluffy piece. It’s nice to be reminded of the virtues of classical ballet, but that wasn’t the styling that made the Ballets Russes legendary.
The programme makes up for that in the second half, beginning with a pas de deux from Scheherazade, with sly, slinky, erotic intertwining by Andrea Riolo and Ixan Llorca Ferrer. The joyous gasp that greets Mr Ferrer, gorgeous in gold and bejewelled bandeau, is a high spot of the evening. Another pas de deux comes next, as Charlotte Cohen dreams her rose to life and Jack Easton personifies it, in Le Spectre de la rose. The high style and camp comedy of Les Biches follows, and the hugely enjoyable evening concludes with Alexandra Manuel’s Firebird in a pas de deluxe from the Firebird ballet, a scarlet vision flying to Stravinsky’s thrilling music, and somewhat half-heartedly stalked by Marlo Kempsey-Fagg, much more committed to dancing with her than bringing her down with his crossbow.
It is an exciting evening showcasing an extraordinarily talented young company, and paying proper regard to Diaghilev and his revolutionary vision for ballet. Carlos Acosta provides a spectacular showcase for young dancers and demonstrates yet again the strength and diversity of British dance. Birmingham can stand alongside New York and Amsterdam as a centre for exciting, visionary, compelling ballet.
Reviewed on 10 May 2025
