London City Ballet: The Firebird: A Double Bill – Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London.

Choreographers: John Neumeier and Glen Tetley

The London City Ballet returns to its former home to offer a series of double bills, pairing three contemporary works with a celebration of Glen Tetley’s choreography of The Firebird. The companion piece on Thursday was John Neumeier’s Ghostlight. On the barest of bare stages, stripped back to the radiators and fire exits, a single light bulb burns in a stand. This is the ‘ghostlight’ that theatres traditionally keep burning when they go dark, and it becomes the focus for a dance piece Neumeier constructed with the Hamburg Ballet in the year of Covid shutdown, 2020.

Forced to work limited hours, in difficult spaces, with tiny groups of dancers, the piece is by its nature fragmented and wispy. Characters from classical ballet drift across the stage in tutus, dancers in warm-up gear set chairs up several metres apart, and there are shadows and dark spots separating the ensemble. The piece makes its point early and maybe outstays its welcome slightly, but it is full of striking passages and arresting images. Alina Cojocaru’s silent entrance as a lost Odette wondering where the swans have gone is particularly lovely. The only sound in the theatre is the staccato of her pointe shoes, and it makes a telling remembrance of a time of isolation and confusion.

Glen Tetley was born 100 years ago, and his choreography for Stravinsky’s The Firebird is being presented as an homage. This is a starker version, heavily reliant on the projection design of Fin Ross, a transforming backdrop of twisting branches and thorns and colour blushes, and helpful in conjuring mood, in a way that the occasional splurge of scarlet sidelight from the lighting design is not.

The story of the Firebird is hard to read without resorting to a plot précis, but Ellie Young emerges from heavy grey vestments in a flamingo-coloured body suit and dances her socks off. She is opposed by a writhing Arthur Henderson in a leotard like an anatomy illustration, and a gang of grey-clad – ghosts? Statues?  – who try to subdue her.

It is vibrant and fast, and even if the plot is obscure, the music is wonderful, and it all comes together in a joyful wedding on a stage flooded with clear, bright light. It’s an exciting immersion into Russian folk tales, and a tour de force for Ellie Young.

Runs until 24 October 2026