A Diaghilev celebration from BRB2

When the London Philharmonic performed Daphnis et Chloé with a thrilling Australian circus ensemble during the Southbank’s Multitudes festival recently, a few of us wondered when we would ever see the ballet danced again. The same goes for many other Ballets Russes creations, long absent from UK stages, so it is a delight to see BRB2, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s junior company, champion these works – albeit some only excerpted – in Carlos Acosta’s whistle-stop touring programme entitled ‘Diaghilev and the Birth of Modern Ballet’. 

From 1909 to 1929, chiefly in Paris, Serge Diaghilev’s company revolutionised ballet, the alchemical impresario forging artistic collaborations between choreographers, composers, dancers and designers. Chief among his choreographers was Mikhail Fokine, who created four of the five works seen here. 

As well as putting the spotlight on Diaghilev and Fokine, this gala also showcased talented young dancers. BRB2 offers its artists a two-year programme aimed at helping the next generation of dancers transition from training schools into jobs with BRB or other leading ballet companies. 

The first half of the programme at the Hippodrome consisted of Les Sylphides (1909), performed in its entirety to a cluster of Chopin piano works played by Jeanette Wong rather than in Glazunov’s orchestrations. Les Sylphides is a non-narrative ballet blanc, the female dancers in long white tutus, originally designed by Léon Bakst, and fairy wings. Although plotless, an air of nostalgia hangs over the moonlit lakeside scene. Sleeves billowing, Tom Hazelby’s poet (the Nijinsky role), dances with three sylphs, partnering particularly sensitively in the melancholy C sharp minor Waltz. Ukrainian Alisa Garkavenko was suitably delicate as Prélude and Alexandra Manuel sharp as Waltz. Former BRB2 dancer Maïlène Katoch, now graduated to the main company, ethereal in the Mazurka variation, with graceful port de bras. The dozen-strong corps of sylphs were pristine and poised. 

The second half was more of a selection of highlights from Ballets Russes works, played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Paul Murphy, a luxury not afforded other, smaller venues on tour where their recording will have to suffice. Kudos to cellist António Novais for his warm cello solo that opens Le Spectre de la rose, Berlioz’s orchestration of Weber’s Invitation to the Dance. A young girl returns from her first ball clutching a rose and, falling asleep in an armchair, dreams of dancing with the rose’s spirit. Jack Easton, another BRB2 graduate, was muscular yet nimble in the Nijinsky role, partnering Ariana Allen’s enraptured girl. 

Sophie Walters particularly impressed as a suave, pearl-twirling Hostess in the Rag Mazurka from Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Biches (1924), followed by Noah Cosgriff and Ellyne Knol as a cheeky duo dressed in bathers in the Andantino. 

Not everything entirely worked. The erotic pas de deux of Zobeide and the Golden Slave in Shéhérazade (1910) was a little chaste, needing more sizzle, muscle and heaving passion than Andrea Riolo and Ixan Llorca Ferrer could muster. But the pas de deux from The Firebird was superbly done, Alexandra Manuel excelling in the fluttering mimed gestures as the firebird is captured by Marlo Kempsey-Fagg’s earnest Prince Ivan, pleading for her release, arms entwined in the classic Tamara Karsavina and Mikhail Fokine pose. In a lovely gesture, the uplifting finale was given as a sort of apotheosis with all the dancers from the previous works returning for their bows, promoting a united company spirit.

Mark's travel was funded by Birmingham Royal Ballet