Double debuts in major classical ballets are not common occurrences, and when both debutants have already shown exceptional technical prowess, it is a privilege to be in attendance. I have been following the progress of Joseph Sissens and Mariko Sasaki with interest since they first arrived in The Royal Ballet, and neither has ever disappointed: would they continue that unblemished record in the very demanding roles of Siegfried and Odette-Odile in Swan Lake? I’m pleased to say the answer is yes, although as is only to be expected there is more to develop from both of them.
Sissens, with his beautiful legs and feet, his elegant lines, his charm and his attention to detail in his work, topped his technical talent with an impressive characterisation. He doesn’t show us a King in waiting, instead revealing a young, sensitive man who genuinely does not want the role and perhaps never will. He’s a George VI rather than a Richard III. This gentle characterisation enables him to show developing maturity when he meets Odette and love burgeons, making his destruction by sorcery especially moving. Sissens also managed to show a kind of desperation for affection from his mother, which worked perfectly with Elizabeth McGorian’s beautiful and conflicted Queen, desperate herself to engage with her son but under the influence of the evil Rothbart disguised in human form.
As for the dancing, it is a pleasure to watch, innate musicality burnishing all Sissens’ work. Nerves will dissipate with experience, enabling more confident turns with more secure finishes. The moment near the end of the Black Swan pas de deux, as Odile executes a developpé à la seconde, was remarkable not only for Sasaki’s strength, but also for Sissens’ eye-popping instep as he presented his foot while supporting her. There were one or two minor partnering slips; Sissens can lift with the best of them and is always on the lookout for the ballerina’s centre of balance, but, again, nerves were at play in some of the landings from lifts.
Sasaki is so strong technically and physically. She too has very elegant lines, and she works her legs and feet with intelligence to serve whatever choreography she is given. Again, some of the finishes were not pristine but there was nothing to mar the performance, and she, like Sissens, is a pleasingly musical dancer. Her Odette is soft, damaged, febrile with tension (not just nerves, but intentional!); her Odile is wicked, fierce and gloating. Sasaki brought a nice sense of dynamics to her dancing in both roles, so that we saw the final extension of each movement for a crystalline moment with no deleterious effect on her fluidity of movement. The Act 2 pas de deux showed off her lovely lines to perfection, and her distress at being torn away from Siegfried at the end of the act was palpable. She managed Odile’s difficult work capably, and the fouettés presented no difficulties, although eventually she will form them more elegantly.
Giacomo Rovero is another dancer I’m watching closely. He always drew the eye in the corps de ballet for his acting at the side of the stage, and he brings those characterisation skills to the forefront in the role of Benno, creating a lovely balance in his relationship with Siegfried.
Congratulations to Martin Georgiev who was consummately considerate in the pit, particularly in Act 3, matching the tempi to the dancers’ needs.
Watch out for Sissens and Sasaki: nothing can stop them now they have mastered this most demanding of classics.
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