Dasa Wharton took her camera to the London Coliseum to capture the English National Ballet's latest double bill: Song of the Earth and La Sylphide
Song of the Earth
Choreography – Kenneth MacMillan
Staging – Grant Coyle
Designs – Nicholas Georgiadis
Lighting – John B. Read
Dancers included: Tamara Rojo (The Woman), Joseph Caley (The Man) & Fernando Carratalá Coloma (The Messenger of Death)
Singers – Rhonda Browne (contralto) & Samuel Sakker (tenor)
Financial Times – Clement Crisp
At the heart of the piece, Rojo's tremendous incarnation of the Woman. It is a role she dances by right, but here the full intensity of her grand gifts — the lustrous forms of the dance, her emotional power and musical sensitivities, her integrity as an artist — gave the choreography a marvellous eloquence. Her dancing spoke MacMillan's thoughts, honoured his vision, told his truths. Caley was very fine, his dancing sincere and brave in outline — he has found a grander self in this new company. Carratalá Coloma — clear, strong, sensitive in musical responses — was a watchful, inevitable Messenger.
The Sunday Times – David Dougill
As the Messenger of Death, an artist of the junior ranks, Fernando Carratala Coloma, was outstanding: he gripped us from his first soaring leaps over the stage, with lithe athleticism and dramatic subtlety.
The Guardian – Judith Mackrell
As the Woman, Rojo is physically extraordinary, articulating both the delicate chinoiserie and stark expressionism of her choreography with a compelling, musical authority
The Stage – Anna Winter
Both male and female ensembles capture the choreography's sculptural stylisation with the restraint it demands. At the centre of it is Tamara Rojo, who lends a fine ferocity to the role of the Woman. With each inflection of the wrist she seems to embroider the air, measuring out time with a blend of rage and resignation.
The Arts Desk – Hanna Weibye
Freshness fairly reeks from Fernando Carratalá Coloma, who has only just joined the company as an Artist but performed the Messenger of Death on opening night (in place of an injured Aaron Robison) with impressive vigour and precision. A fitting counterpoint to Coloma's freshness is Rojo herself as the Woman, bringing her worlds of age and experience to bear in playing a character who must confront death. Rojo's wide, solemn eyes seem to be fixed on a horizon beyond our sight and her every move is deliberate and meditative; where the capers of the supporting dancers give the piece its song, she is its connection to the earth.
La Sylphide
Original Choreography – August Bournonville
Producers and Stagers – Eva Kloborg, Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter & Frank Andersen
Designs – Mikael Melbye
Lighting – Jørn Melin
Cast included:
Jurgita Dronina – The Sylph
Isaac Hernández – James
Anjuli Hudson – Effy
Daniel Kraus – Gurn
Madge – Jane Haworth
The Sunday Times – David Dougill
As James, the Scotsman enticed away from his wedding by the Sylph, with fatal results for them both, the Mexican star Isaac Hernandez adds another handsome role to his repertory, dancing with brio in Bournonville's exhilarating solos. The Russian-born Jurgita Dronina, precise and lilting in her dances, captures the innocence and capriciousness of this creature of the air. Jane Haworth seethes and gloats as the cursing witch Madge, relentless in vengeance; while Anjuli Hudson as the jilted Effie and Daniel Kraus as Gurn, who marries her on the rebound, give well-judged accounts.
With a stylish company performance, including the spirited Scottish reels, to Herman Severin Lovenskiold's lively melodies, La Sylphide is welcome back to ENB.
The Arts Desk – Hanna Weibye
Dronina's fleet, precise footwork and perfectly inclined head are a joy to a ballet geek's heart, while her mime should be a joy to everyone, not only for its entirely believable emotion, but for the tiny details that make her a sylph through and through.
The Stage – Anna Winter
Jurgita Dronina, also a principal at the National Ballet of Canada, makes for an expressive Sylph, demonstrating the fleet footwork, fluttery fingers and softly-angled upper body carriage that's characteristic of the Danish Bournonville style. As James, Isaac Hernandez shows off compass-point control of the calves through sets of ecstatic beaten steps
The Independent – Zoë Anderson
Jurgita Dronina is all innocent mischief as the sylph. She's less steady in the balances, but captures the character's supernatural airiness. Isaac Hernandez makes a headstrong James, dancing boldly and acting vividly, though he's still developing the upper-body ease of Bournonville style. As Effie, Anjuli Hudson moves effortlessly from mime to dance and back again, giving the character real heart. Jane Haworth brings a sardonic edge to Madge the witch, while Precious Adams shines as a solo sylph.
The Guardian – Judith Mackrell
Isaac Hernández's James does look like a man worth fighting over: his beautifully filleted beats and bounding jetés are among the evening's highlights.
As the titular spirit Sylphide, who seduces mortal James away from his intended bride, Jurgita Dronina is appealingly light-spun: her arms are pretty, her footwork skimmingly fast; emotions flit across her face with sweet transparency.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
