Stuttgart Ballet at Sadler’s Wells – Made in Germany [13 Short Ballets]

Hommage à Bolschoi [UK Premiere]
Fancy Goods
Sssss… [Solo]
Little Monsters
Le Grand Pas de Deux
III Movement from Initials R.B.M.E.
Kazimir’s Colours – Pas de deux
Romeo and Juliet – Pas de deux
The Lady of the Camellias – Pas de deux
Äffi
Fanfare LX
Mono Lisa
The Seventh Blue – Finale

Hommage à Bolschoi [UK Premiere]
Maria Eichwald, Filip Barankiewicz – Dancers
John Cranko – Choreography
Alexander Glazunov – Music

Fancy Goods
Dancers – Friedemann Vogel &Ensemble
Marco Goecke – Choreography
Sarah Vaughn Hi-Fly, Wave – Music
Marco Goeckem – Staging & Costumes
Udo Haberland – Lighting
Sssss… [Solo]
Dancer – Pablo von Sternenfels
Edward Clug – Choreography
Frederic Chopin – Music
Thomas Mika – Sets & Costumes
Edward Clug – Lighting

Little Monsters
Dancers – Elisa Badenes, Daniel Camargo
Demis Volpi – Choreography
Elvis Presley – Music
Katharina Schlipf – Costumes

Le Grand Pas de Deux
Dancers – Alicia Amatriain, Jason Reilly
Christian Spuck – Choreography
Gioachino Rossini – Music
Nicole Krahl – Costumes

III Movement from Initials R.B.M.E.
Dancers – Maria Eichwald, Evan McKie & Ensemble
John Cranko – Choreography
Johannes Brahms – Music

Kazimir’s Colours – Pas de deux
Dancers – Anna Osadcenko, Friedemann Vogel
Mauro Bigonzetti – Choreography
Dmitri Shostakovich – Music
Lucia Socci – Costumes
Carlo Cerri – Light

Romeo and Juliet – Pas de deux
Dancers – Hyo-Jung Kang, Alexander Jones
John Cranko – Choreography
Serge Prokofiev – Music
Jürgen Rose – Sets & Costumes

The Lady of the Camellias – Pas de deux [Ballet in three acts by John Neumeier based on the novel of Alexandre Dumas]
Dancers – Sue Jin Kang, Marijn Rademaker
John Neumeier – Choreography
Frédéric Chopin – Music
Jürgen Rose – Sets & Costumes

Äffi
Dancer – Marijn Rademaker
Marco Goecke – Choreography & Costumes
Johnny Cash – Music
Udo Haberland – Light

Fanfare LX
Dancers – Anna Osadcenko, Evan McKie
Douglas Lee – Choreography & Scenography
Michael Nyman – Music

Mono Lisa
Dancers – Alicia Amatriain, Jason Reilly
Itzik Galili – Choreography
Thomas Höfs & Itzik Galili – Musical concept & Composition
Natasja Lansen – Costumes
Itzik Galili – Light design

The Seventh Blue – Finale
Dancers – Soloists and Corps de Ballet
Christian Spuck – Choreography

The arrival of Stuttgart Ballet in London is to be greeted with much enthusiasm; one of the world’s foremost companies, it is, in the manner of The Royal Family, our closest German cousin, having been re-founded in 1961 by the British-trained and former South African choreographer John Cranko. At the Sadler’s Wells Theatre inside the Stage Door, there is a memorial to Cranko – his early works for the company that was to become The Royal Ballet and The Birmingham Royal Ballet were huge audience favourites. Like the British companies, it too, performs a mix of narrative and abstract work and dances in a principally lyrical style. But where the paths have parted is that after Cranko’s untimely death in 1973, Stuttgart has not been in short supply of choreographers, unlike The Royal Ballet in particular, which since Ashton’s and MacMillan’s deaths have continued to scramble about in search of a dance creator of quality.

‘Made in Germany’ was a brave and not wholly coherent thirteen-piece romp through the Company’s home-grown catalogue – there were exceprts from several choreographers, from Cranko himself (Hommage à Bolschoi has never been seen in the UK) to the latest ‘discovery’, the young Demis Volpi. Not all the pieces were well chosen: Marco Goecke’s Act III Äffi featuring the impressive Marijn Rademaker twitching and turning to a selection of Johnny Cash was simply too similar to the Act I Fancy Goods which featured the extraordinary talent of Friedemann Vogel doing pretty much the same to Sarah Vaughn, both men in black trousers and bare chested. Indeed, the bare chests of the Stuttgart men became something of a theme, most wearing minimal pants, too – it must be a house style. Most impressive were Rademaker and Sue Jin Kang dramatically white-hot in the Lady of the Camelias excerpt, Alicia Amatriain and Jason Reilly in the capoeira-flavoured Mono Lisa and the technically and emotionally challenging third movement from Cranko’s wondrous R.B.M.E., featuring a serene Maria Eichwald and the lissome Evan McKie.

This was a showcase not only of the breadth of choreographic talent that the company has enjoyed and continues to enjoy (Volpi’s enchanting Little Monsters with the excitingly talented Daniel Camargo was another high-point), but also showed-off the company’s dancers. Stuttgart has an ensemble which would make many a director green with envy. The men are world-famous – strong, lithe and with keen dramatic gifts – but we see also a strong line-up of female principals who now give them a run for their money. It is rare, however, for any ensemble to boast so many excellent male dancers, each with his individual talent (the British Alexander Jones is an intensely lyrical dancer who has risen to the rank of Principal), each impressive in his own right. This is clearly something that company director Reid Anderson has continued to foster in the same way as Cranko did when he, Anderson, was a dancer, and it marks out Stuttgart Ballet as an ensemble of uncommon depth of talent.