Rhythm Riot – English National Ballet

Stravinsky / ‘Tru’ / Vasks

‘Rhythm Riot’

English National Ballet

English National Ballet Philharmonic
Conductor – Maria Seletskaja 

Symphony in Three Movements
George Balanchine – Choreography
Igor Stravinsky – Music
Karinska – Costume Design

Dancers –
Principal Couple I – Haruhi Otani, Gustavo Carvalho
Principal Couple II – Anna Nevzorova, Jose María Lorca Menchón
Principal Couple III = Ivana Bueno, Ken Saruhashi

Demi Soloist Couples –
Anna, Ciriano, Noam Durand
Swanice Luong, Shunhei Fuchiyama
Adriana Lizardi, Miguel Angel Maidana
Jung ah Choi, Jaime Almaraz Baizán
Hatice Çağla Ertürk, Martinho Santos

Artists of the Company

Bow Out
Micaela Taylor – Choreography
Phillip Patrick Harper Bucknor a.k.a Tru – Music
Marina Hands – Voice
Nancy Bryant – Set and Costume Design
Jessica Hung Han Yun – Lighting

Dancers – 
1st Duet – Jaime Almaraz Baizán, Thiago Silva
2nd Duet – Gustavo Carvalho, Thalina Chapin

Lindy Hop Duets – Noam Durand, Haruhi Otani, Sacha Venkatasawmy, Haru Yokoo
Trio – Aitor Arrieta, Swanice Luong, Sacha Venkatasawmy

Artists of the Company

Auguries of Innocence
Jae Man Joo – Choreography
Pēteris Vasks – Music (Musica Dolorosa, Musica Serena)
Marina Hands – Voice
Thomas Mika – Set and Costume Design
Mark Henderson – Lighting

Scene I
The Weaver of Souls – Sangeun Lee
A Skylark Wounded in the Wing – Gareth Haw
The beggars Rags, Heaven’s tear – Minju Kang

Scene 2
The Caller – Rentaro Nakaaki
The Conduit – Ken Saruhashi
The vessel – Taela Graff

Scene 3
The Weaver of Souls – Sangeun Lee
Pas de deux I – Ksenia Ovsyanik, Daniel McCormick
Pas de deux II – Emma Hawes, Gareth Haw

Artists of the Company

English National Ballet’s latest mixed bill is a somewhat ho-hum affair, a two-hour triptych comprising an undisputed masterpiece by a master choreographer and two commissions which, to put it kindly, do nothing to advance the cause of ballet in the twenty-first century.

George Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements was created as part of an incredible Stravinsky Week given by New York City Ballet in 1972 in honour of the great composer’s 90^th birthday, even though he had died the year before. A new acquisition for ENB, it shows the choreographer at the height of his powers and underlines the extraordinary affinity he had with the music of his fellow countryman, an example of artistic symbiosis which is arguably unsurpassed. Balanchine’s prowess at setting into motion an immensely complicated choreographic machine simply astonishes throughout this 22-minute-long work, the invention unflagging, the brilliance quite dazzling and the effect astonishing. The company launch themselves into the immense challenges with considerable attack and deliver a performance of great impetus, even if the absolute precision of line and musicality evades them. Strangely, the men of the ensemble seem more comfortable with its demands, and all three male ‘leads’ impress with their command of their choreography. Among the women, Ivana Bueno in Principal Couple III seemed most at home, although, after the obvious terrors of the first movement, Anna Nevzorova settled into the controlled central pas de deux alongside an assured Jose María Lorca Menchón. The ENB orchestra delivered a barnstorming rendition of Stravinsky’s still astonishing composition. Symphony in Three Movements is a superb addition to ENB’s repertoire and deserves speedy revival.

American Micaela Taylor is very much a magpie choreographer, drawing on her own diverse training (in both ballet and hip-hop) and also as a performer with Ate9, an ensemble grounded in Ohad Naharin’s ‘gaga’ movement style. For Bow Out, she draws initial inspiration from the Nicholas Brothers tap duo of the 1940s, but, disappointingly, ignores tap dancing in favour of a mish-mash of styles in which the long shadow of Crystal Pite and her approach to mass movement makes itself felt. It is a bitty work, lurching from one musical genre to another (composer/arranger Tru flits from one effect to the next), regrettably sliding into the world of Tanztheater and Pina Bausch, the dancers made to shout and grimace for no reason and to little discernible effect. It is too long, and with some judicious pruning, it could become an inoffensive work. The dancers, both men and women dressed rather nattily in tailcoats, seem to enjoy it, but it does seem something of a waste of their balletic training and undeniable talents.

Things take a distinct turn for the worse with a severe bout of performance angst in Korean choreographer Jae Man Joo’s overwrought Auguries of Innocence, a work burdened with nonsense names for principal characters in each of the seemingly unrelated three scenes. The best section is the second which is set to a recording of driving Beopgogongyang drum music and sees the ensemble, led by the superb Rentaro Nakaaki, who engage in emphatic, almost violent movement. The first is frankly something of a mess with poor lead principal Sangeun Lee prowling the stage as a left-out-in-the-rain Fairy Carabosse with nothing to do but to look seriously miserable. She is, in some ways lucky, in that she does not have to engage in the inanities of the movement around her, which sees ENB’s admirable dancers reduced to the posturings of an end-of-year choreographic show by a south coast weekend dance school. Scene 3 at least has two lead couples engage in slow partnering with plenty of impressive counterbalance, but poor Sangeun Lee returns to prowl the stage and the mood returns to that of unfettered adolescent angst. Not worthy of the company and not to be seen again…please.