THREE ASHTON BALLETS: SCÉNES DE BALLET / A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY / SYMPHONY: Ashton's Enduring Legacy

Sir Frederick Ashton had a life as packed with incident as one of his ballets.  Born in Ecuador to British parents, he did not move to England until he was 15 to a public school to learn a trade.  He was miserable there as he had already seen what he wanted to be his future: he had seen Anna Pavlova dance and was desperate to be a dancer but his family refused to contemplate it.  His father commited suicide when Fred was 20 and, despite his mother and sister joining him in London, he followed his dream and was accepted as a pupil by two former Ballets Russes stars Leonide Massine and later by Marie Rambert.  As well as all these influences, he had also seen the iconic Isadora Duncan dance.

By 1930 Ashton had been encouraged by Rambert to concentrate on choreography and he worked for her company Ballet Club which morphed into Ballet Rambert.  In 1935, after working with her on several production, Ashton joined another former Ballet Russes star Ninette de Valois as her company choreographer.  So Ashton was well placed when, after WWII, de Valois' company was invited to form the new ballet company at Covent Garden Opera House, the company that ten years later were granted the title The Royal Ballet.  Two years after moving to Covent Garden Ashton created SCÉNES DE BALLET (1948) to music by Igor Stravinsky.

Against a surreal background, the short piece still holds the attention with Ashton's pioneering geometric choreography, the dancers' sharp staccato movements and the arresting although slightly dated costume colours of yellow, black, purple and blue.  The lead performances by Yasmine Naghadi and Reece Clarke were fine.

De Valois stood down as director in 1963 and Ashton took over.  Although no fan of administration his tenure continued to build The Royal Ballet's fame but when the CEO David Webster stood down in 1970 he wanted a whole new creative team to take over so Ashton was forced to stand down too which was an upset to him.  Sir Fred still created the occasional ballet including his narrative masterpiece A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY (1976)

We had seen A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY in 2019 and it remains a remarkable adaptation of Turgenev's play.  Natalia Petrovna rules her country home with a charming grace, adored by her husband Ysiaev, son Kolia, her ward Vera and close friend Rakitin.  Her life is changed however when her son's new tutor arrives, handsome student Baliaev.  He returns Natalia's affections but when Vera discovers them together, she jealously alerts the whole family to their romance; Baliaev leaves and Natalia is left with her lovelorn feelings.

Peggy Ashcroft told Ashton that his version was better than the original play and at only 40 minutes it whips along. Ashton's clean, classic tone and economic story-telling shine and his choreography allows moments for the cast to stand out such as Liam Boswell's solo as Kolya.  It is a haunting cameo of a ballet, perfectly matched to a selected score by Chopin.  William Bracewell was a passionate Baliaev and Isabella Gasparini was fine as Vera.  But the heart of the ballet was the remarkable Natalia Osipova - her poise and elegance changed by sudden love ending up crushed, slowly walking towards an uncertain future.  

In 1980, Sir Fred aged 76 was invited to devise a short piece to celebrate The Queen Mother's 80th birthday and he produced RHAPSODY to music by Rachmaninoff.  As Mikhail Baryshnikov was a guest artist with The Royal Ballet, the male lead role is certanly more showier than the female partner, originally danced by Lesley Collier.  Ashton had used the music before in Vincente Minnelli's film STORY OF THREE LOVES but devised new choreography for this commission.  

Baryshnikov missed the start of rehearsals so Ashton perfected the female lead's solos and the ensemble of 6 male and 6 female dancers.  When he arrived Baryshnikov was disappointed that his movements were in the brash "Russian style" and not the more nuanced English style that Ashton had created but he threw himself into it.  Here it was a perfect fit for Steven McRae's bravura style although it was still an edge-of-seat performance as it is only 7 months since his return to the stage where he tore his tendon during a performance in MANON which took two years to heal.  Anna Rose O'Sullivan was a delightful partner but Steven's astonishing leaps and sheer panache made him the focus of attention throughout; it ended with a lovely "That's all" pose which won him cheers to the Faberge egg-style roof.

Sir Fred died eight years after RHAPSODY's creation, his place in the history of dance assured and his legacy of work lives on vibrantly in the company he helped form.

SWAN LAKE at Covent Garden - Scarlett's swans take off...

This December I will see my fifth production of Matthew Bourne's SWAN LAKE at Sadler's Wells and I am sure I will blub again at the last scene, it gets me every time.  But three years ago, after we had our Paulean conversion to the Royal Ballet, we decided it was time to see a 'classic' production of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece.

In 2016 we saw the visiting Bolshoi production, and what a disappointment that was!  Technically proficient yes, but danced with no sense of emotion or connection to the audience - it felt like they turned up for work and did their job, no more no less.  So the news that the Royal Ballet were going to stage a new production by Liam Scarlett set us off... finally a chance to see it done properly.

The night we went marked the 1,026th performance of SWAN LAKE at Covent Garden and Scarlett's version has replaced Anthony Dowell's production which had lasted in the repertoire for thirty years!  As I have frequently mentioned, it is jaw-dropping how long productions run in the ballet and opera houses of London - can you imagine the idea of the National Theatre only ever staging revivals of productions from the 1980s and 1990s?

But SWAN LAKE goes even further back, because - as is the case with practically all productions - it is based on the version staged by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov for the Imperial Ballet in 1895.  The main body of the ballet is theirs: Petipa's choreography is used for the palace scenes, the famous lake side scene is Ivanov's while Scarlett has devised a new final scene as well as the featured dances for the visiting princesses - apart from the Neapolitan princesses dance which is by Sir Frederick Ashton!  With all these choreographic strands to be woven together, Scarlett has said that his biggest challenge is to make it flow together as if from a single vision - and he succeeded; it was a thrilling production.

With the romantic design by John Macfarlane and moody lighting by David Finn, Scarlett's production swept you up in the swirling drama of Tchaikovsky's monumental score and the oft-told tale of Prince Siegfried who, when ordered to marry by his imperious mother The Queen, falls in love with the beautiful Odette who is under the spell of the wicked magician Von Rothbart who has disguised himself as The Queen's chief courtier.

Odette is transformed from a swan into a woman only at night but Siegfried is tricked at a sumptuous palace ball by the sorcerer into proposing to the mysterious Odile who resembles Odette.  As soon as he does, Odette is doomed to remain a swan forever but can Siegfried save Odette in time?  Of course it ends unhappily but this only makes Tchaikovsky's score all the more powerful and all-encompassing.

The biggest ovation of the evening was for the orchestra, under the baton of Valery Ovsyanikov, which filled the auditorium with the full grandeur of Tchaikovsky's score

Originally we had booked on this particular night to see Steven McRae dance the role of Siegfried but a recent leg injury put paid to that so instead we saw William Bracewell who performed the role well enough but it did not stop me thinking how much more thrilling McRae would have danced the love-lorn prince.  Akane Takada danced the dual role of Odette / Odile, but while her Odette was a graceful, captivating presence I felt she missed out on the seductive danger of Odile.  I will long remember though her slowly rippling arms showing the exact moment that Odette transforms back into the Swan.

Thomas Whitehead added yet another villain to his collection as the hissable Von Rothbart, Kristen McNally was an imposing presence as The Queen while Marcelino Sambé hit all the right notes as Benno, Siegfried's friend, in particular with his dazzling leaps.  SWAN LAKE of course allows the ballerinas of the company to shine and they were glorious as the elegant, ever-watchful swans.

A special mention to the tripping cygnets danced by Isabella Gasparini, Elizabeth Harrod, Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Romany Pajdak, while Itziar Mendizabal was on eye-catching form as the Spanish princess and a special mention to the whirling excitement of Olivia Cowley as the Spanish dancer attended by Reece Clarke, Téo Dubreuil, Fernando Montano and Giacomo Rovero.

I suspect this production will be visited again in years to come; I now look forward to seeing the Matthew Bourne version with new eyes in December at Sadler's Wells.

TRIPLE BILL BALLET (or TRIPLE BALL BILLET) at Sadler's Wells

On Friday we continued this year's journey into dance by seeing Birmingham Royal Ballet's triple bill of one-act pieces at Sadler's Wells.  It was down to Owen being a bit curious that we booked to see it - and I'm glad we did as I thought it was a perfectly-judged evening, each act being very different from the others.  The good thing was that I had no idea what I was going to see - apart from some ballet!

The first act was choreographer George Balanchine's THEME AND VARIATIONS, danced to the final movement of Tchaikovsky's Suite no. 3. Balanchine, the 'father' of American ballet, trained at the Russian Imperial school and was Diaghilev's last choreographer for the Ballets Russes.  THEME AND VARIATIONS is his tribute to the Imperial ballet style: romantic, formal and precise.

Comprising two principals, eight featured dancers and a corps of twelve, it was a sumptuous visual treat but also fascinating to watch as Balanchine's choreography showcased twisting turns and athletic prowess, echoing the 19th Century style with the elasticity of contemporary dance.

The principals - Momoko Hirata and Joseph Caley - were very charismatic and Peter Teigen's lighting and Peter Farmer's set design added to the lavish feel of the piece.

Sadly a long day at work, the Edwardian weight of Elgar's ENIGMA VARIATIONS and the sepia, autumnal set had me nodding away.  Frederick Ashton's choreography looked very elegiac but I am afraid I didn't see too much of it.

After a bracing lemon sorbet though I was fully awake for the last act which luckily enough just happened to be the best!

David Bintley's hypnotic THE KING DANCES slowly drew one in and echoed the earlier Balanchine of referencing past dance history to point the way to contemporary dance. THE KING DANCES takes us back to 23 February 1653 when the French King Louis XIV - aged only 15 - danced as Apollo in the ballet "Le Ballet de la Nuit" which gave him his historical name The Sun King and during his life, through his patronage, turned ballet from a court entertainment into a major art form.

Wonderfully realised by Katrina Lindsay's black and gold design and Peter Mumford's lighting, David Bintley's darkly thrilling work has four movements to celebrate the quarters of a single night: a threatening soloist appears on a darkened stage with eight dancers holding flaming torches, in the second movement the King dances with his court ladies and also with the elusive woman in the moon.

The third movement finds the King haunted by a nightmare populated by demons, magicians and hounds from Hell (though they looked quite fun!) until the mysterious, sinister soloist is revealed to be his powerful First Minister Cardinal Mazarin who intones a serious introduction to the King who suddenly appears as a burst of golden light, the dark backdrop splitting apart to reveal The Sun King in a glittering gold-sequined costume as Stephen Montague's score reaches a frenzied apotheosis.

It was utterly thrilling to watch and Bintley's excellent contemporary choreography was danced wonderfully by William Bracewell as the young King and Tyrone Singleton was the sinister soloist.

This triple bill was an utter delight, perfectly judged and a fitting tribute to the three choreographers.  If you ever get a chance to see it I would fully recommend it.