★★★☆☆
Being a ballet lover, the concept of an evening dedicated solely to ballet immediately captured my attention. Ballet Nights is a showcase celebrating dance in all its glory, and uniting dancers with numerous styles and disciplines.
The show started on an awkward note, the lights dimming and audience hushed while four musicians silently fiddled with stands and prepared their instruments, a moment that foreshadowed technical issues yet to come.
Despite this, the moment subsided as the lively Quartet Concréte opened the show with ‘Intermezzo’ and ‘Shine No More’, their sound blending Nordic folk and fascinating rhythms. Violist Dominic Stokes reappeared numerous times throughout the evening, opening the second act with ‘Viola Sonata’, and duetting with the effortlessly serene Leila Wright in String Theory, a unique collaborative performance between musician and dancer.
Jamiel Devernay-Laurence hosts the show, introducing each performer and their career highlights as well as discussing the significance and style of each piece. He’s an informative host but the stories of certain pieces are still lost since they are shown as fragmented pieces.
The show’s biggest strength is the diversity and variety showcased across each routine. Never have I seen a show that packs in so many bold perspectives, unique fusions, and abstract concepts. It’s completely jam-packed with performances, from Guy Salim’s fast-paced rhythmical solo Temperature to the body-melding contortions and the striking vogueing of Ekleido’s Splice. The abstract shapes and percussive charm of Rambert’s Atlas, to BlacBrik’s stylishly jazzy Death of the Bachelors.
As a sucker for the classics, The Don Quixote Suite by Birmingham Royal Ballet was of course one of the highlights of the night for me. Riku Ito and Miki Mizutani were enchanting to behold with astounding talent and blissful chemistry. Their shimmering white costumes accented a jaw-dropping classical performance, complete with dizzyingly elongated spins and perfectly refined postures.
Similarly, Denys Cherevychko’s Les Bourgeois and Kintsugi solos were performed with versatility and poise, combining precise classical technique with engaging storytelling; his exaggerative drunkard expressions earning audible chuckles from the audience. It was heartwarming to see the Northern Ballet Schools’ lively Bellwether suite, allowing budding students to flaunt their skills alongside the myriad of talented industry veterans.
The night’s other performances included Travis Clausen-Knight and Isabelle Evans’ mesmerizing AE duet, and Constance Devernay-Laurence’s elegant rendition of ‘I Married Myself’ fromthe series Étoile (where she also starred as a dancing-double).
Even if a piece isn’t your style, it feels impossible not to appreciate the talent and creativity behind each performance.
Technically, the show is a little lacklustre, with blank staging and underutilised lighting effects (outside of a few visually striking routines). This sparsity was best combatted by moments of darkness and contrast, where dancers were spotlighted, drenched in intense red beams, highlighted by angular boxes of light, or the set was filled by larger ensembles. However, these moments were few and far between. Additionally, alongside a couple of negligible trips and unsynchronised slips, there were several awkward transitions and uncomfortably long routines that stalled the show’s momentum.
On the one hand, Ballet Nights is a dazzling showcase of dance ingenuity, showcasing the creativity of talents from multiple disciplines and backgrounds. On the other, the show lacks technical direction with several clunky moments and a bland set juxtaposing extraordinary routines.
Ballet Nights tours the UK until October 3.
Photo: Emily Nuttall
JADAR 