That was a question that I put to Ernst Meisner in the Q&A following his interview by Graham Watts in the London Ballet Circle's Zoom call last night. I asked Ernst that question because the Dutch National Ballet will perform a mixed bill entitled The Dutch Schoolbetween 12 and 26 June 2021 to which he is one of the contributors. Thinking also of Balanchine's Jewels in which emeralds were attributed to the French, rubies to the Americans and diamonds to the Russians, I wondered what would be the Dutch jewel if Mr B could plan a sequel.
Ernst replied "simplicity" when Graham Watts read out my question. That is certainly true of Embers and No Time before Time, two of the most beautiful short pieces that have ever been created for the stage. It is quite impossible to watch either of those works dry-eyed. But what about the others? Van Dantzig, van Manen, van Schayk, Ochoa and Brandsen? To name just a few? "Simplicity" is not the first word that comes to my mind when contemplating Mata Hari or In the Future.
Yet there is undoubtedly a quality of Dutch dance that makes it recognizable anywhere and that is its fluidity. That is the characteristic that I think all the works that I have seen in Amsterdam have in common. It is the je ne sais quoi of Embers and No Time that tugs at my emotions. But it is the one quality that I think the maker of abstract historical ballets shares with the creator of moving architecture. I might also add another word that is close to fluidity, namely fluency.
Don't all successful works of choreography have that quality? Many will ask. Yes, but in the same way as all male dancers jump spectacularly but perhaps not quite in the same way as the Russians. Similarly, there is a certain lyrical softness to say Lise's solo as she is locked up with the sheaves of corn that all dancers display but perhaps not to the same extent which perhaps explains why I have never seen Ashton performed outside England quite as well as his work is danced here.
If I were thinking of awarding the Dutch a jewel I think it would be mercury, the only metal that exists as a liquid at room temperature. Not a gem that can be worn on a ring or in the hair but something equally rare, just as beautiful and much more elusive.
Standard YouTube Licence The Royal Ballet, Jewels, transmitted live to cinemas, 11 April 2017, 19:39
I once asked a distinguished panel of dance critics, dancers and the artistic director of Scottish Ballet whether a narrative ballet needed a plot (see My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet21 June 2015). All said no except Tobias Batley who was then a premier dancer at Northern Batley and seemed to have an interesting point to make but did not get the chance to develop it. When I asked that question I had Balanchine's Jewelsin mind which actually tells a lot of stories from the history of ballet to the choreographer's life history without actually having a libretto.
Jewels is like a denial of service attack on the senses. Each of the three ballets is a feast in itself. You feel you can only take so much colour, and movement, and music in one evening - but after each act, there is more. The only experience with which I can compare this ballet is, in fact, my first sight of real jewels. The Crown Jewels on my first trip to London. The impression that the dazzling display of light and colour made on a little five-year-old from the North in post-war Britain was very much the same as the concatenation of dancers in green, red and white create whenever I see Balanchine's masterpiece.
On Sunday I remarked that I had seen the Bolshoi at its best (see A Hero of our Time10 April 2017). Yesterday, audiences around the world saw the Royal Ballet at its best. The company fielded Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Valeri Hristov, Laura Morera, Ryoichi Hirano, Emma Maguire, Helen Crawford and James Hay in Emeralds. As readers know, I am one humongous fan of Morera whose hand I once had the good fortune to shake (see Laura Morera 25 Aug 2015). She always delights me but yesterday she raised my admiration to a new level.
More favourites in Rubies - Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae and Melissa Hamilton. If Emeralds was lyrical, Rubies was spectacular. One gorgeous explosion of movement after another culminating in McRae's exit in chaînés. A dynamo harnessed to McRae at that moment could have powered a fair size town. Rubies is the shortest work in the three ballets but it is the one I like best, possibly because of Stravinsky's Capriccio possibly just the New World razmataz. The energy. The fun. Diamonds, the white act, is sublime. An homage to Petipa. Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares were majestic. Stix-Brunnell and Hay returned to join them together with Claire Calvert, Tierney Heap, Yasmine Naghdi, Nicol Edmonds, Fernando Montaño and Valentino Zucchetti. Not all Petipa's ballets end well but some of them do. Think of The Sleeping Beauty,The Nutcracker and all your other favourites rolled into one and combine it with Tchaikowsky's Polish symphony and you understand why I compared the overpowering of the senses to the overwhelming of a website by millions of messages.
I should also say something about the presentation. I was very impressed with Kristen McNally. I warmed to her the moment she opened her mouth. Proud, elegant, knowledgeable, amusing and above all, Northern. I do hope the Royal Opera House enlists her services again. It was also good to see Darcey Bussell as it always is but this time she was there in her capacity as a great ballerina escorting a member of the original cast to the jeweller's shop that inspired Balanchine. A beautiful dancer surrounded by beautiful things. That is how I like to think of her. It would be good to see more of her in scenes like that.
The Royal Ballet, Jewels, Royal Opera House, 1 April 2017, 14:00
Last Saturday I went to ROH to see the matinee of Jewels. It was wonderful I really enjoyed it and I came away ever grateful to Mr B for looking in that window at Van Cleef & Arpels in New York 50 years ago and being inspired to create this ballet - one of my all time favourites!
Emeralds was beautiful I really love that piece for its elegant dancing and the gorgeous Faure score which I find so calming. Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball were the main couple and danced like it was second nature to them and not their debut! I thought Yasmine was really beautiful. Itizar Mendizabal did the other lead with the clock-work like arm and leg moves - she was nice but Leanne Benjamin, whom I saw years ago, is the one to get those moves spot on. I really enjoyed watching the corps with all the patterns and intricate weaving in and out that Balanchine so loves.
In Rubies we had Tierney Heap as the "Tall Girl" - she was very good. The couple was danced by Alexander Campbell and Akane Takada. They were all great. It is such a fun piece and at one point though Tierney ran out of music! She was still dancing but the orchestra had finished the music - Pavel Sorokin conducting perhaps did not have his eye quite on the dancers?! Alexander Campbell had a lot of fun especially where he danced with the male corps being chased by them - he was not quite as fast as Steven McRae with the spins but that is Steven's speciality I think! Akane Takada was a surprise choice for me in Rubies as I thought Emeralds might be more "her". However, she danced beautifully as she always does.
Diamonds on this occasion was my favourite piece it was just stunning. I was mesmerised by it. Lauren Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov danced the lead couple and their grand PDD was just fabulous. The brush of hands, very light touches and regal elegance of their dance was just gorgeous to watch. Vadim has really matured since I last saw him in a major performance and his command of the stage has grown. He did some amazing tours en l'air in a large circle and landed so softly from all his jumps. His partnering of Lauren was always very considerate - a real "danseur noble" as they say! It was such a refreshing change for me to see these 2 dance Diamonds as previously I always seem to have seen Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares who are good, but I needed a change and yesterday I got it in spades. The corps de ballet were great in Diamonds and the choreography was so wonderful to watch with its complex patterns - all best seen from above as per my seat. It is a credit to all the dancers and repetiteurs that the patterns worked so well - squares, lines, crisscrossing over, circles you name it it is in there - what a genius Mr B was! Then the finale with the crescendo of music was just spine tingling and really left me wanting more.
For some reason, there was no "red run" at the end of any piece which was a pity, but the applause was enthusiastic for all three pieces. I shall be going to the cinema relay next week to see the main cast, but I would really love to see this cast again, I was so impressed. If you can get a ticket I would highly recommend seeing this run of Jewels as The Royal Ballet seem to be on really good form with lots of the younger dancers coming up and doing really well. The future looks very bright at ROH at the moment!
"Having seen an American company in action I think I now understand what is meant by the American style. The dancers are very athletic, very polished, very precise and seem to project a measure of pride and showmanship that I have only seen in dancers from Russia. When the corps moves it moves in sync with military precision. When the dancers turn they are ramrod straight. The English style is softer more lyrical. It is difficult to say which is better. They are each pleasing in their own way, but different."
The American style is celebrated in the second act of George Balanchine's ballet Jewels. Each style is represented by a jewel: the French by emeralds, the Russians by diamonds and the Americans by rubies. Emeralds represent the romantic style and is danced in green with the women in long romantic tutus to Fauré's music. Diamonds is in sparkling white to the music of Tchaikovsky.
I have only managed to see the ballet on a live streaming from Moscow. Here's my review of the performance with a YouTube clip featuring the American ballerina Merill Ashley (see Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds - "Jewels" streamed from Moscow22 Jan 2014). The Royal Ballet will perform this work between 1 and 21 April 2017 and it will be streamed to cinemas on 11 April 2017.
We think we have found a ruby in the Miami City Ballet who have included this work in their repertoire since 1992. The company has just announced that it will launch its 2017-2018 season with that work.
Standard YouTube Licence I have been comparing what I had tipped last year in Looking Forward to 2016which I posted on 30 Dec 2015 with The Year of the Swans: My Review of 201627 Dec 2016 to see how many of my forecasts turned out to be correct. It seems that most of them were.
I featured a clip of Jean-Christopher Maillot's version of The Taming of the Shrew to Looking Forward to 2016 which was uncannily prescient as I did not get a chance to see it in the cinema until a month later. As you know, it was my ballet of the year (see The Terpsichore Titles: Ballet of 201630 Dec 2016). I was also right about Mata Hari (see Brandsen's Masterpiece14 Feb 2016), Ballet Bubblesand David Dawson's Swan Lake (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016) for Ted Brandsen, Ernst Meisner and David Dawson were my choreographers of 2016 (see Terpsichore Titles: Best Choreographers30 Dec 2016). Also, I was right about Kate Flatt's Undivided Loves because Phoenix ended up as my contemporary company of the year.
Looking forward to this year, I am very excited by the return of the Mariinsky to Covent Garden between 24 July and 12 Aug 2017. They are bringing Ekaterina Kondaurova, Oxana Skorik, Viktoria Tereshkina, Diana Vishneva, Timur Askerov, Yevgeny Ivanchenko, Kimin Kim Vladimir Shklyarov and of course good old Xander Parish. Not so much of the old perhaps even though the Mariinsky's visit will fall on the 10th anniversary of the first time I saw that remarkable young artist. I saw him and his sister Demelza dance in Christopher Hampson's Echoes at the Grand Opera House in York on my 25th wedding anniversary on the 29 July 2007. I did not blog about ballet in those days but Charles Hutchinson of The Press reviewed the show in A Summer Gala of Dance and Song, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday31 July 2007. Incidentally, Xander will be dancing Albrecht in English National Ballet's Giselle later this month.
Returning to the Mariinsky, they will perform Don Quixote on 24, 25, 26 July and 5 Aug at 19:30 and also at 14:00 on 5 Aug, Swan Lake on27, 28, 29, 31 July and 1,2, 7 Aug at 19:30 and 14:00 on 29 July, Anna Karenina on 3, 4 Aug at 19:39, Contrasts a triple bill consisting of Carmen Suite, Infra and Paquita Grand Pas on 8, 9 Aug at 19:30 and La Bayadere on 10, 11, 12 August at 19:30 and also at 14:00 on 12 Aug. Tickets will be on sale from 7 March for Friends of Covent Garden and 28 March for everyone else.
Other treats coming to Covent Garden are Wayne McGregor's Woolf Workswhich I missed first time round, a mixed bill consisting of David Dawson's The Human Seasons, Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain and a new ballet by Crystal Pite, Balanchine's Jewelswhich is unmissable and three of my favourite Ashton works, The Dream, Symphonic Variations and Marguerite and Armand. I may be reaching for a tissue as memories of Fonteyn and Nureyev, Sibley and Dowell come flooding back.
just down Long Acre and right at St Martin's Lane lies The Coliseum where English National Ballet will stage Mary Skeaping's Giselle (see English National Ballet's other Giselle22 Oct 2016). English National will run Akram Khan's Giselle at Sadler's Wells from the 20 to 23 Sept 2017. As a van Manen fan I am looking forward to the company's Pina Bausch, William Forsythe and Hans van Manen triple bill between 23 March and 1 April 2017. Having grown up with Festival Ballet's Nutcracker at the Festival Hall it will be good to see them reclaim that space with their Romeo and Julietbetween 1 and 5 Aug 2017. I saw that production when they were in Manchester on 28 Nov 2015 (see Manchester's Favourite Ballet Company29 Dec 2015). A special treat for me as I have been following her ever since she danced in Leeds was Sarah Kundi's performance as Lady Capulet.
The show from Birmingham to which I am most looking forward is Ruth Brill's Arcadia and I explained why in Ruth Brill's Arcadia 16 Dec 2016, It will be performed with The Moor's Pavane and Wink on the company's tour of the South (Cheltenham, Poole and Truro) and at the Hippodrome with Cranko's Pineapple Poll and Macmillan's Le Baiser de la Fee. Talking of Cranko, the Dutch National Ballet (which was my company of the year in 2016) will dance Onegin in April, That will be unmissable as will Juniors Go Dutch at the Meervaart. Crossing back to the Hippodrome, the Birmingham Royal Ballet's Coppeliais another "must see."
I shall be in the audience for Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretelin Newcastle next month and also for their visit to Sadler's Wells in June with Emergence and MC14/22 (ceci est mon corps). I shall gladly travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh for Christopher Hampson's new Rite of Spring as well as another Baiser de la Fee in Scottish Ballet Dances Stravinsky. Finally, the company will re-stage Peter Darrell's version of The Nutcracker for Christmas in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness. Having seen The Nutcracker two years agoI recommend it highly (see Like meeting an old friend after so many years4 Jan 2015).
Other shows I hope to see will be Kenneth Tindall's new Casanova. Daniel de Andrade's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and David Nixon's The Little Mermaid for Northern Ballet, Ballet Black's triple bill with new works by Martin Lawrance, Michael Corder and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Alexander Ekman's Swan Lakefor the Norwegian Ballet in Paris. The Norwegians impressed me considerably on World Ballet Day.
The Royal Opera House announced its 2016-2017 season yesterday and released a video of a discussion between Kasper Holten and Kevin O'Hare about their respective companies' offerings. So far as ballet is concerned the season starts well with La Fille mal gardéeand ends well with three glorious works by Ashton. There are also one or two treasures in between like Jewels but it also includes one not very welcime surprise.
I am talking, of course, about the revival of Anastasiawhich I saw in 1971 and which I have never been tempted to see again. According to the performance database there have been two productions. The first by Sir Kenneth MacMillan ran between 22 July 1971 and 1 Dec 1993 and the second, produced by his widow, between 2 May 1996 and 12 May 2004. The work is about Anna Anderson who claimed to be the Archduchess Anastasia a member of the Romanov family who had ruled Russia until the revolution. We now know from DNA tests that Anderson was an imposter and that the grand duchess almost certainly died with the rest of her family at Ekaterinberg but that was not known for certain in 1967 when Sir Kenneth created the first version of the ballet.
It is a very long time since I saw the work but I distinctly remember some film and some very dissonant music. Nowadays that would be commonplace. We would probably call it multimedia. In the pre-digital 1970s it was unusual. I saw it when I was in my early twenties when I would have been my most receptive to new ideas. If I didn't take to it then I am quite unlikely to take to it now. I gave Nixon's Swan Lakea second chance last month and found that the judgment that I had formed in 2004 had not changed (see Up the Swannee17 March 2016). One of the threads of an internet forum to which I subscribe and occasionally contribute was "What is your LEAST favourite ballet?" to which I wrotethat it was a dead heat between Northern Ballet's Swan Lake and Beauty and the Beastand Anastasia. Beauty and the Beast is also about to be revived. If I say that Jonathan Watkins's 1984 which I have seen twice is not too far behind you will understand that 2016 will not have been a very good year in that regard.
However, that is all a matter of taste and my taste may not be your taste. Each of the ballets on my "least favourite" list has its aficionados some of whom are surprised and even a little hurt to find someone with a contrary view. Anastasia has not exactly been big box office over the last 50 years but that may change as it is to be streamed to cinemas on 2 Nov 2016. I shall not be traipsing down to London to see it and I will have to be at a very loose end even to take the bus to the Huddersfield Odeon.
One ballet that is definitely worth a trek to London is The Sleeping Beauty. This is one of my favourite ballets but one that I was surprised to find on quite a lot of subscribers' least favourite list. I have already seen a very creditable performance by the Chelmsford Ballet (see A Real Beauty: Chelmsford Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty25 March 2016) and I am about to watch Sir Peter Wright's production for the Hungarian Ballet in Budapest (see The Hungarian National Ballet's Sleeping Beauty24 Feb 2016). Funny isn't it that ballets like buses seem to come along in threes. I can see why some folk don't like it. It is a bit long and the story of the disappearance of a whole kingdom is even more unbelievable than girls morphing into swans or wilis but, hey ho, the music is lovely and divertissements like the bluebird pas de deux are among the most enchanting in dance.
Even more worthy of an awayday to the Smoke will be Balanchine's Jewelswhichwill be running this time next year. Balanchine is one of my favourite choreographers and Jewels along with Serenadeare among my favourite works. I missed Jewels when the Dutch National Ballet did it last season and also in the cinema when it was streamed from Moscow as I was travelling up from High Wycombe after seeing the Royal New Zealand Ballet's Giselle. Wild horses won't keep me from Covent Garden this time.
Having enjoyed Wayne McGregor's Chroma when performed by the Dutch National Ballet as part of its Cool Britannia triple bill last year (see Going Dutch29 June 2015) I am looking forward to the Wayne McGregor triple bill (Chroma / New Wayne McGregor / Carbon Life) in November. I am also looking forward to new works by McGrego's protégés, Charlotte Edmonds and Robert Binet in the Clore Studio. I have already been introduced to their works by the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet8 Feb 2015 and Ballet Bubbles16 Feb 2016). If these young choreographers are good enough for Ernst Meisner and his outstanding young dancers then they are good enough for me.
The Christmas show this year will be The Nutcracker again. This is in honour of Sir Peter Wright's 80th birthday. It will be just as I like it with a real Clara Stahlbaum (not Edwards) somewhere in Mittleeuropa and not on the banks of the Thames, no balloons, no rodents hanging on into Act II, a Columbine and Harlequin, a Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier and all the usual divertissements. As reassuring as turkey with all the trimmings, Christmas pud and mince pies.
Woolf Works, another McGregor ballet, is to be revived. I missed it first time round largely because I find Virginia Woolf's Orlando a bit too close to the bone. Those who have read the book and know me will understand why. But the ballet has been received enthusiastically and the video of McGregor's rehearsal with Edward Watson indicates why. So maybe I shall give it a try this time round.
A lot of new work this season together with some old favourites. Something for everyone and quite enough to keep me happy. Happily the Dutch National Ballet will be dancing La Bayaderein November which is just about the same time as Anastasia so I have a lot to relish and little to dread.
When I travelled to Amsterdam to see the Junior Company Dutch National Ballet for the first time last November nothing could have been easier or more pleasant. Contrast it with my trek to the capital of my own country to see them again at The Linbury. That journey could not have been more trying and cost a great deal more.
The flight to Amsterdam lasted 45 minutes. Though we are not in Shengen customs and immigration took minutes to clear. Outside the terminal at Schipol airport a bus was waiting to take me to my hotel in the Leidseplein which cost something like 4 euros. The hotel was literally across the road from the Stadsschouwburg where the Junior Company was performing. You can actually see a bit of the theatre in the photo on the hotel's home page. I booked through Booking.com and got a room with a shower for under 100 euro. The hotel is about a quarter of a mile from the restored Rijksmuseum where I gorged my eyes on Rembrandt and the other masters. The performance at the Stadsshouwburg was magnificent (see "The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013" 25 Nov 2013). After the show I consumed a traditional Dutch 3 course meal at The Pantry with a glass of beer for about 35 euros. I remember that the speciality of the house had a long Dutch name but looked and tasted very much like cottage pie. I then wrote my review using one of the hotel's computers in the business centre rather than its expensive wifi, had a good night's sleep and caught my bus back to Schipol at 06:30 in good time for my flight home.
I live in Holmfirth in the Pennines near the Peak District National Park. It is a beautiful part of the world and I have a 4 bedroom house with stunning views for the cost of a dog kennel in Kensal Rise. It is only 200 miles from London as the crow flies. No distance at all to an Angeleno or a Sydneysider. But have you seen the train fares to Euston, King's Cross or St Pancras? Or the cost of parking at a mainline station car park? Or the time you need to allow to pick up your ticket from the temperamental ticket machines?
Through trial and error over the years I have worked out that the best way to London is to drive to Luton Parkway (164 miles away) where I can park for £2 after 17:00 and take Thameslink to Farringdon or Holborn Viaduct for £9.35. When the M1 is clear the drive to Luton Parkway from Dodworth takes 2 1/2 hours - only an hour longer than the drive to Sheffield or Manchester and the time you have to allow for parking and getting your ticket. But right now the M1 is not clear. There is a 20 mile stretch of roadworks from Derbyshire to Sheffield which will take a year to finish and when there is an accident as there was yesterday it takes hours for the carriageway to be cleared. If you break your journey in London even at a Travelodge you're talking about serious money. And as for restaurants ..... £75 for a curry for 3 in Drury Lane.
Even more annoying than the prices and congestion in London is the arrogance of London audiences who can't acknowledge excellence from outside when they see it. They were presented with excellence by Scottish Ballet two weeks ago (see "Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet" 15 May 2014) and all that they could do was grumble that Pastor's ballet was not the same as Macmillan's. I have already mentioned the reluctance of the audience at the Linbury to give those marvellous kids of the Junior Company the accolade that they had received in Amsterdam and which they so richly deserved in London after dancing their hearts out ("And can they fly! The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company at Covent Garden" 30 May 2014). And when I happened to mention in a discussion on Ballet Black that Christopher Marney is my favourite living British choreographer I was answered by a post of a long list of others the inference being that I can't possibly have seen very much. When I pointed out that my respondent had omitted David Nixon and Tindall from his list I received an even more condescending observation in reply.
So I have been looking round for an alternative to London and I think I have found it in Amsterdam. Just look at the programme of the Dutch National Ballet for the coming year. Right now they are touring with Ashton's Midsummer Night's Dream and Paquita in Dreams. Next month they are launching Pastor's Tempest. Having been thrilled by Scottish Ballet's Romeo and Juliet I am eager to see more of his work. It may not be possible as the 21 clashes with Northern Ballet's Mixed Bill and the 29 clashes with Northern Ballet Academy's Friends Gala. But I will be back for van Dantzig's Swan Lake in September (of which we got a little taste on Thursday) and Jewels and Cool Britannianext year.
Of course I won't give up on London altogether. I still love the Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet, Rambert, Ballet Black and so much more. You will still catch me occasionally at the House, the Coliseum and the Wells. I am braving the roads yet again tomorrow to see Clement Crisp interview Lady Macmillan and Donald Macleary's Masterclass at Ivy House, Anna Palova's old home at 15:30. I am staying over to see Chris Marney at the London Ballet Circle. But London had better look out. Amsterdam, Paris and Copenhagen are serious alternatives for a change of scenery.
I am something of a fan of the Bolshoi's HDTV broadcasts as readers will recall from my review of Spartacus. They are the next best thing to seeing ballet on stage. In one important respect they are actually better because their engaging presenter Katerina Novikova interviews people like Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi's artistic director, and Merrill Ashley, the US ballerina who helped the Bolshoi stage Jewels.
Ballet goers have seen a lot of Jewelslately. The Bolshoi brought it to London a few months ago (see Luke Jennings's review in The Observer 18 Aug 2013) and the Royal Ballet has just staged its own version as an alternative to all those Nutcrackers that appear over Christmas. Choreographed by George Balanchine for the New York City Ballet the work consists of three acts each of which could stand as a ballet in its own right.
The programme notes say that the ballet was inspired by the beauty of the gem stones at the jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels though the Wikipedia entry quotes Balanchine as saying that "The ballet had nothing to do with jewels. The dancers are just dressed like jewels." And so they are:
green in the first act to symbolize emeralds the women in romantic tutus dancing to a Fauré score;
red in the second to symbolize rubies the cast dressed as for a Broadway musical dancing to Stravinsky; and
white in the third to symbolize diamonds the women in classical tutus dancing to Tchaikovsky.
According to the presenter there was to have been a fourth act where the dancers were to be in blue to represent sapphires but that never came off. A pity though it would have made for quite a long ballet.
Ms Novikova also said that each of those gems or colours was to represent a city that was important to Balanchine and its associated dance tradition. Emeralds were to represent Paris and the romantic ballet as well as wine and perfume and some of the other good things in life; Rubies New York with its razzmatazz and all that jazz; and Diamonds were to stand for St Petersburg and the classical ballet.
There was a bit of criticism in the press and also in BalletcoForum of the first and second acts but everyone seems to have liked Diamonds and I certainly did. That act reminded me of Serenadewhich Balanchine had created over 30 years earlier and which Boston Ballet had performed in London on 4 July 2013 (see
The Bolshoi has helpfully published a cast list so that you can see who did what on Sunday. I liked all of the dancers and it would be unfair for me to single any of them out for special praise. Ms, Novikova did tell one of the principals (I won't say which for the reasons I have just given) that her performance was "stunning" and it was so good to see her smile as she accepted the compliment. The truth is that they were all stunning and although I have my favourites I can give no good reason for my choice.
The next HDTV transmission from Moscow will be Ratmansky's Lost Illusions on the 2 Feb 2014 which alas clashes with Sibley and Crisp at the Royal Ballet School and wild horses will not drag me from another chance to glimpse Antoinette Sibley, my favourite ballerina of all time.
