ENB Mixed Bill - 4 Nov

[Tracey]

Just back from tonight's performance and my BF has been called into work because of a faulty power switch which has taken down half the office's computer systems, so he has to go and bring them all back online again!!

Anyway, ballet! It's the first time I've seen all of these ballets so it was a truly interesting evening.

Drink to me only with thine eyes

I'm not a big fan of contemporary music, so this took a little time for me to get into - really after the music settled into something more harmonised. Some really challenging choreography with unpredictable enchainements, but most of the cast managed to make it look easy.

Trapèze

I really enjoyed this. It seems that it's new choreography by Christopher Hampson on Prokofiev's original score. The ballet is set around a trapeze with a bar that's approximately 5ft above the stage hanging from a frame. Six dancers comprising three 'couples', two male/female couples and one female couple. The main male/female couple (Sarah McIlroy and Jan-Erik Wikström tonight) perform their first pas de deux on the trapeze. McIlroy also had a beautiful solo on the trapeze where she shows amazing upper body strength combined with grace to make it all seem effortless, including a one-handed balance leaning against one of the hanging ropes, and the splits above the trapeze bar with her feet pushing the ropes either side! There is some really interesting choreography, definitely worth seeing if you can get to a performance.

Melody on the move

How much fun was this! This is a new work from the ENB by Michael Corder - a suite of 8 dances performed to classic British light music of the 1930's - 1950's. They were comprised of one opening showpiece, with the corps providing a musichall style opening; 2 'comedy' pieces, the most memorable being 4 working class housewives and a middleclass housewife wearing tutus with their hair wrapped in turbans 'Hilda Ogden' style (for those of you that know Coronation Street of old!!) and marigolds - after waving their husbands off to work the middleclass housewife runs off with the milkman; the remaining pieces were more classic and the whole thing was rounded off with a musichall style finale.

Thoroughly enjoyable evening! Agnes Oaks gave me goosebumps tonight, both in Drink and in Melody, but especially in the latter in a pas de deux to The Girl from Corsica with hubby Thomas Edur. Trapèze was excellent, as was the footwork in Drink.

Go see if they're coming to a theatre near you!

Tracey

[Mel Johnson]

Thanks for the intelligence, in more ways than one!

I'd love it if the ENB came to a theater near me here in America! We see and love the Royal regularly, but most American audiences are entirely innocent of the compound/complex world of British ballet, because we don't see the larger picture.

[Alexandra]

Yes, ENB hasn't been here (DC) since it was London Festival Ballet!

Thank you, Tracey -- the best thing about the Net is that we can get an idea of what's going on where we're not. This was a lovely review, and I hope to read more from you.

[Kate B]

Sounds good Tracey. I saw Sarah McIlroy do a piece at the Dance Umbrella Gala night - she is a stunning dancer, really expressive and her technique is flawless but still interesting.

[Tracey]

Your very welcome . Seeing Cinderella on Friday night, so will try to do a similar job after that one.

[Lynette H]

Are you sure it was Sarah McIlroy at the Dance Umbrella Gala ? Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur of ENB appeared at that, in a Wayne MacGregor piece that was very popular, but I didn't see Sarah McIlroy's name on the cast sheet on that occasion. I did admire Sarah in the lead role in MacMillan's Rite of Spring earlier in the year - a very gutsy performance. She was promoted to principal immediately afterwards, I think.