It was only four months ago that a devastating earthquake struck the tiny mountainous country of Nepal, destroying whole villages and making hundreds of thousands homeless. Then, on top of that disaster came another quake a month later, followed by the onslaught of the monsoon season.
To raise funds to provide vital assistance to help the Nepalese people rebuild their homes and their lives, the dancers of New English Ballet Theatre (NEBT), joined by guests from The Royal Ballet, staged a gala of dance at the intimate St James Theatre in London. It proved a highly enjoyable evening of excellent dancing and interesting choreography.
NEBT may be a small and relatively new company — created in 2010 —but its young dancers show prodigious talent, displaying sound technical ability, musicality, inner passion, and outward joy of dancing. Despite its name, of the twelve dancers listed in the programme, only four were British—the others coming from Europe, Australia and America. However, their different training disciplines blended seamlessly, while still allowing individual talent to shine.
The programme opened with Tangents, choreographed by Daniela Cardim Fonteyne and involved three couples interacting to different sections of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This was followed by a short film on Nepal and a speech about what has already been achieved by the Nepal Earthquake Recovery Appeal 2015. The next piece Toca by Érico Montes to music by Villa-Lobos, was based on a Portuguese story about a boy and girl separated at birth, who meet up in later life. They unknowingly fall in love, only to discover they are siblings. Alessia Lugoboni and Paul Oliver danced with fluid poignancy, their movements clearly telling their sad tale.
After the two works showing off young talent on the brink of their careers, the next piece demonstrated what experience — and hard work — produces. Royal Ballet dancers Olivia Cowley and Gary Avis performed Alastair Marriott's Lieder, a creamy smooth work that certainly has that ‘wow’ factor. Dressed in a short black tunic, Cowley constantly moved to the soothing tones of Brahms, splicing the air with her long beautiful legs and producing sculptured images. Throughout she was expertly and carefully supported by Avis who showed himself an exceptional partner. Elegant and handsome, his timings were perfect — always there to spin a leg around, to catch, lift, turn and bend Cowley’s super flexible body. They were pure magic and surely proved an inspiration to the young dancers.
The final piece of the first half was great fun. Kristen McNally’s Mad Women showed five identical girls in tight orange capri pants, bra tops and orange bandanas demonstrating the flirty and provocative moves of nightclub dancers. And yet, underlying their sexiness were ulterior motives. Like robotic look-alike dolls they enticed the pizza delivery men to their doom to show the dominance of women. The piece, lit brilliantly, was danced with great pizzazz and enthusiasm and proved a sure hit with the audience.