Synopsis
Programme
Impressions/Performances
Ballet Central have produced some wonderful shows in recent years so when you note from the programme cover that this is Ballet Central's 25th Anniversary Tour you could be forgiven for thinking that all the stops will have been pulled out and that you are about to experience a really special evening. Unfortunately that is not the case. Not only does this years offering fail to raise the bar on past tours, it fails to live up to the standard of the last two years in particular. That is absolutely no reflection on this year's crop of students, I hasten to add, who were by and large as technically proficient as any of their forebears. Rather it is the choreography and selection of pieces that is largely uninspiring and fails to live up to expectation. Particularly disappointing to my own personal taste was the complete absence of any classical pieces (some are included in the repertoire but none were performed on the night).
There were some good parts of course. The Pas de Deux from Dracula is a powerfully dramatic piece, and was well performed although it lacked a little from the lack of any scenery to set the mood. Knot Garden was a simple and happy piece if not particularly innovative, employing the entire company. The Pas de Trois from Illuminations was colourful and elegant, and Shift, about a group of 1940's factory workers involved in factory war work worked well in capturing the spirit of the time blending movements depicting hard graft with elements of swing. Let Yourself Go, by contrast, to me felt a little out of place, more like it belonged on 'Come Dancing' that in an exhibition by a ballet school. Other than that, the main problem with it was that the dancers didn't - let themselves go that is. It felt a little restrained as though the dancers were going through the motions without really beleiving in it.
The best was saved till last with Michael Pink's I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire, a whimsical piece of ballet theatre telling the story of a rendevous between two quarelling film stars in a tea rooms on the English coast sometime during the 1930's. As well as the film stars there is a mousy autograph hunter who turns vamp, a pair of public school cricketers, two giggly school girls and a very athletic waiter (who masters a tricky solo towards the end). There is lots of comic interaction between the various characters, including a very amusing pas de duex between the male film star and his reluctant leading lady, and a particularly charming sequence involving the two schoolgirls vying to attract the attention of ther movie idol.
Verdict
A pleasant evening but below par compared to Central Ballet's other productions of recent years.
Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net