A few years ago, former Royal Ballet principal Carlos Acosta, the charming dynamo at the head of Birmingham Royal Ballet, followed the lead of Dutch National Ballet and ABT Studio Company by creating a secondary company, BRB2, of ten dancers aged 18 to 22, at the start of their dance journey, with the chance of being absorbed into the main company after two years apprenticeship with BRB2. And does he make them work for it with his select dance programmes for them…
Tonight’s opening of Mr Acosta’s latest celebration gala for his present BRB2 ten-strong troupe of dancers is in its hometown for the first night then it travels to Sadler’s Wells East (9–10—already sold out, I believe ), Poole Lighthouse (13–14), and Derngate in Northampton (17). It’s not his first Classical Selection programme and won’t be his last I imagine.
It’s an ambitious programme and one of historical note—Les Sylphides, Schéhérazade, Le Spectre de la rose, Les Biches, The Firebird, all but one choreographed by Mikhail Fokine for the Ballets Russes. Much has been written about Diaghilev and his famous dancers, fabulous exhibitions displayed at the V&A, many companies have their works in their repertoires… The bar has been pitched high for the youngsters… how better to learn and preserve ballets but on their bodies…
Tonight’s has the luxury of live music (wonderful music) from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia orchestra under Paul Murphy, which will not tour with the dancers, as touring has to be light, but there will be live piano by Jeanette Wong (Chopin’s polonaise, dreamy nocturne, mazurka, waltz, tarantella and more for the half-hour Les Sylphides, which opens the evening) and a recording made of this first night musical performance.
Originally called Chopiniana, it premièred in Paris in 1909 as the newly titled Les Sylphides. And tonight’s dancers do it proud. Some company dancers and some from outside have been called in to pad out the numbers to sixteen. But, my eyes are on the lovely Alisa Garkavenko, trained at Kyiv State Ballet College, Vaganova Ballet Academy and Académie Princess Grace. In the programme notes, she says her dream role is Giselle, and indeed she is a Giselle in the making with her lyrical arms and sweet face.
This dreamy Romantic ballet is followed by exotic erotica, a pas de deux from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Schéhérazade, sultry, sexy... and Eastern-influenced designs by Léon Bakst. Arabian nights transposed to Paris where they loved it. These days it can be tricky to do, not least for its cultural caricature. Ixan Llorca Ferrer as the Golden Slave, which Nijinsky made his own in 1910, brings energy, ballon and a broody look to the role.
Le Spectre de la rose from 1911 was also one of Nijinsky’s signature roles, again with design by Bakst. A short piece but a testing one for the male, which an unrecognisable in his rose cloche hat artist Jack Easton, formerly of the 2022 BRB2 intake, tries on for size. Dated but delightful, Carl Maria von Weber’s music superlative. And a lovely cliché now, that leap through the window.
Bronislava Nijinska breaks the Fokine spell with her witty 1924 jazz era Les Biches (a doe, a female deer, but slang for a woman of easy virtue) to Poulenc’s gorgeous music. This requires some acting and playing to the audience, which Sophie Walters does with aplomb. A society hostess with long cigarette holder, lots of long strings of pearls, a huge feather headdress and marvellous footwork.
But the comedy comes from the pas de deux by Ellyne Knol and Noah Cosgriff (lovely feet). He’s a body building type in beachwear, she taller than him. He shows off his muscles by lifting her like a log. Those were the carefree anything goes days on the Riviera…
The Firebird (1910) is another big challenge. A short extract, which demands much from the ballerina, music by Stravinsky, his first for ballet—Diaghilev was nothing if not persuasive—and original design by Natalia Goncharova. Many top ballerinas have tackled it. It must be petrifying to take her on. Alexandra Manuel—with Mario Kempsey-Fagg in the supporting role of Ivan Tsarevich—does her best, and will get better.
But, as it’s a travelling light production, the design for all the ballets are by Matthias Strahm, who does an excellent job of extracting the essence from the originals. All in all, a lovely evening, the music especially—who wouldn't want to dance to it… The audience is appreciative, as am I. And then, as if right on cue, just as The Firebird finishes and the Finale reverence, an amalgam of what went before, begins, a genuine fire alarm sounds. How’s that for a memorable evening!
Carlos Acosta is such an asset to the city of Birmingham, not just to the ballet. His mind seems to work overtime. Now he is planning a new production, a rewrite of La Bayadère to be titled The Maiden of Venice, for September 2026. With its dubious outdated elements rethought. Does his brain ever sleep?