Constantly seeking pastures new (Ballet Nights is visiting Brisbane late September), the irrepressible impresario Jamiel Devernay-Laurence brings his brainchild for one night only to Chelsea’s Cadogan Hall, once a church, with a larger seating capacity (950) than at Canary Wharf’s Lantern Studios.
Former soloist of Scottish Ballet Devernay-Laurence, only a year into his role as founder and artistic director of Ballet Nights, makes for a charming host and confident compère, introducing each number (there are ten in this hotchpotch, or should I say potpourri, of an evening), giving detail and anecdote (and I must say acoustics are better here), but I’m conflicted about the necessity for this role. It slows momentum and flow.
But he gives eclecticism a good name with his choices, ranging from well-known classical pieces through to contemporary dance, student work, spoken word, and tap. As before, both halves of the evening are opened by Viktor Erik Emanuel on piano, Chopin and Ravel.
Both halves end with performances from stars of English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet. ENB principals Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw perform the White Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake’s Act II… from the Royal Albert Hall to Cadogan Hall… In this intimate space, visibility lines exceptionally good, one is in thrall to technique and timing, Lee’s stretching of phrases, Haw’s attentiveness.
The evening ends with Steven McRae, recovering from a serious injury, in his own tap choreography, the very brief but aptly titled Fortitudine, accompanied on violin by Charlie Siem, music The Drummers by the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. In kilt and white vest, floppy hair, I mistake him for a beefed-up, caber-tossing participant of the Scottish Highland Games. He has fun in duet with Siem’s fiddle.
In between is a jazzy solo by Jordan James Bridge, September, In the Rain, strongly danced by Constance Devernay-Laurence; Tanzt (composer and singer Madil Hardis), Pett / Klausen-Knight’s fierce duet for Rebecca Bassett-Graham (from Company Wayne McGregor) and James Pett, a battle of wills and discarded clothes; Bolshoi-trained Joy Womack in a lyrical solo, Introducing Joy, by Constant Vigier to Glinka, she and the music played live by Emanuel send shivers down the spine; and Set Fast, seen in Ballet Nights 005.
The most dynamic and interesting is the latter, danced by seven students of Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Amari Webb-Martin, Evie-Leigh Savage, Lottie Hawkins, Matthew Potulski, Jemima Sparrow, Phoebe Dowglass and Rory Clarke. Choreographed by Grace O’Brien, pulsating music by Zoe Keating, a touch of street, flex and flutter, and exquisite timing, it is good to see them again, and the change of venue, better lighting, brings out facets of its geometry afresh.
The second half has a witty, playful, ballroom-influenced duet, courtesy of ENB, Cha Cha and Tiara, choreographed by Rentaro Nakaaki, whose parents were ballroom dancers (thank you Mr Compère for that snippet). Julia Conway and Eric Snyder in identical costumes of black with white cross stitching down the front I take for Pierrots or marionettes. One minute they are performing complicated lifts, the next their shoulders droop. Conway, as always, conveys a lot with facial expressions. Music is by Xavier Cugat & His Orchestra. Pure delight.
The other piece that gets my juices flowing is The Four Seasons / Summer, choreographed (though it looks liberatingly freeform) and danced by Sarah Jane Taylor and James Wilton, to Vivaldi recomposed by Max Richter. Acrobatic—handstands even—Taylor and Wilton are dynamite. Modern baroque taken at a pace: exhilarating, exhausting, yet energising. Entwined contact work is superlative. They make an impact.
If and Leto are positively tame by comparison, we need the calm as well as the storm. Rudyard Kipling’s If, read by Jonzi D advising the younger man, Alexander Fadayiro, about life, is choreographed by Devernay-Laurence—another string to his bow… A slight piece, a walk through of the poem, it is a palate cleanser or an amuse bouche in a twelve-course gourmet meal with its variety of tongue-tinglers.
I leave Leto to last, as it is another string on the bow, or finger in a pie—Devernay-Laurence has teamed up with Nashville Ballet, this their first visit to the UK. Performed sweetly by Sarah Pierce and James Lankford, a neoclassical work referencing Greek mythology by Nick Mullikin to Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, played live by Emanuel. Leto is the mother of Apollo and Artemis, whereas its dreaminess makes me think of Lethe. McRae soon shakes us out of that.
Devernay-Laurence’s infectious enthusiasm, his verve and dedication, his promotional chat can’t quite mask the mixed results, but it's the networking effort that counts, his determination to bring new crowds and new commissions to the ballet dance world.