Dance: Tempting and triumphant

London City Ballet
Resurgence
choreography Ashley Page, Kenneth MacMillan, Arielle Smith, Christopher Marney
dancers Alina Cojocaru, Cira Robinson, Álvaro Madrigal Arenilla, Arthur Wille, Alejandro Virelles, Joseph Taylor, Isadora Bless, Nicholas Vavrečka, Miranda Silveira, Bárbara Verdasco, Jimin Kim, Nicholas Mihlar, Ayça Anil, Ellie Young
music Jennie Muskett, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, John Adams, Gabriel Fauré
lighting Andrew Murrell • projection Duncan McLean
costumes Emily Noble, Stevie Stewart
Sadler's Wells, London • 11-14.Sep.24 ★★★★

Almost 30 years since it was disbanded in 1996, London City Ballet returns to the stage at Sadler's Wells with an eclectic array of dance. And the programme also includes short documentary films that, like the dance pieces, explore the company's history and look forward to the future. In some ways, this feels like a graduation performance, with students showing off their serious skills on a blank stage that shifts with coloured lights and expressive costumes. It's also a joy to watch, uniformly fluid and buoyant, with moments of sharp impact.

Nearly forgotten, Ashley Page's Larina Waltz was created in 1993 to showcase principal couples during a tribute to Tchaikovsky. The old school choreography is fizzy and bouncy, as five pairs take turns in the spotlight, leaping and twirling, then coming together to make a group impact. Kenneth MacMillan's Ballade is a gorgeous piece for guest artist Alina Cojocaru and three men who are sitting around a table. The guys take turns making her float weightlessly around the stage as they lift her into the air and elegantly pass her between them. The narrative loosely offers each as a possible partner, but there's never a sense of competition, as the tone remains light and playful, and ends on a sweet note.

Arielle Smith's Five Dances is an evocative series of performances that are marked with shifting colours and light, as six dancers appear in various groupings, sometimes in couples or alone. The first piece is classical, and the movement becomes increasingly modern through each dance, creating visceral shapes as the performers run, leap and, in the articulate Arthur Wille's case, slide. The music also becomes increasingly rhythmic, adding kinetic energy to the physicality. There are also some terrific sight gags and group formations, culminating in a fabulous final leap. Concerto (Second Movement) is another piece by MacMillan, as Joseph Taylor and Isadora Bless tentatively approach, then he supports her, lifts and places her in a variety of beautiful positions. It's lyrical and intriguing.

Finally, Eve is choreographed by the company's artistic director Christopher Marney. It begins with a clever use of projection before leading into a new take on Eve's interaction with the serpent. Cira Robinson is spinning alone on stage when the shadowy serpent (Álvaro Madrigal Arenilla) begins bargaining with her. Tender and sensual, their full-bodied dance reveals a fascinatingly complex connection as the story develops vividly. This includes the sudden appearance of an apple, as well as a group of dancers in skin-toned costumes who envelop her. And an inventive use of shadows create moments of dramatic intensity.

While everything here is performed with stunning levels of skill, there's an almost stubbornly dated feeling to the entire programme, partly because of the simplicity of the stage design and also because each number is so resolutely binary, with men leading each dance as they show off their women. But there are breathtaking elements scattered throughout, and hints that the tables are turning. 

For details: LONDON CITY BALLET >

photos by ASH • 12.Sep.24