Review: Diaghilev and the Birth of Modern Ballet with Birmingham Royal Ballet 2
Jonathan Gray sees BRT2 in Les Sylphides, Le Spectre de la rose, and extracts from Scheherazade, The Firebird and Les Biches – a programme that failed to come to life.
| Title | Diaghilev and the Birth of Modern Ballet Les Sylphides | Scheherazade pas de deux | Le Spectre de la rose | Les Biches Rag Mazurka and pas de deux | The Firebird solo and pas de deux |
| Company | Birmingham Royal Ballet 2 (BRB2) |
| Venue | Sadler’s Wells East, London |
| Date | 10 May 2025 |
| Reviewer | Jonathan Gray |
Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes continue to have the power to entice an audience. How else can you explain, nearly 100 years since the company disbanded following his death, that the ballets Diaghilev commissioned still capture the public imagination? It was enterprising, then, for Birmingham Royal Ballet 2 (BRB2) to stage a small selection of works drawn from the repertoire of the Ballets Russes for its Diaghilev and the Birth of Modern Ballet programme, especially as some of the ballets have not been seen in the UK for many years. The programme played to four sold-out houses at the new Sadler’s Wells East over the weekend of 9-10 May. Made up of talented and likeable young dancers who have recently graduated, and formed just three years ago, BRB2 is Birmingham Royal Ballet’s junior company. However, good as these novices are, I felt it was brave (or perhaps foolhardy?) to ask such inexperienced artists to tackle works that would challenge even more experienced dancers. On this occasion, unfortunately, their inexperience showed.
The programme opened with Mikhail Fokine’s rarely seen Les Sylphides, once a staple in the repertoire of just about every ballet company in the world. The dancers performed conscientiously, as if they had been carefully rehearsed, but sadly the ballet failed to come to life. I admired the dedication of Alisa Garkavenko and Tom Hazelby in the pas de deux, and Alexandra Manuel and Maïlène Katoch in their solos, but the soft, gentle, Romantic mood of the ballet seemed to be elusive to the dancers, who were not helped by a set and costumes that would have had the original designer, Alexandre Benois, turning in his grave. (I have a suspicion that BRB2’s set was designed by the late Peter Farmer for a completely different ballet. If so, this should have been credited correctly in the programme.) Chopin’s music was played live on the piano – at times a little too slowly – by Jeanette Wong.
The second half of the programme was performed to recorded music played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and conducted by Paul Murphy. The section was made up of shorter works (the complete Le Spectre de la rose, plus extracts from Scheherazade, The Firebird and Les Biches) that were also hindered by an adaptable set by Matthias Strahm that gave little impression of the magnificence of the original designs by Léon Bakst, Natalia Gontcharova and Marie Laurencin.
The duet from Fokine’s Scheherazade is pure hokum, and Andrea Riolo and Ixan Llorca Ferrer looked a little lost in its “exotic” but dated posturing. Similarly, in Les Biches, with its chic “1920s” choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, neither Sophie Walters in the Rag Mazurka, nor Ellyne Knol and Noah Cosgriff in the pas de deux could quite capture the worldly sophistication or the enigmatic, nonchalant poise of their dances. Alexandra Manuel, partnered by Marlo Kempsey-Fagg, made a strong attempt at the solo and duet from Fokine’s The Firebird, and Charlotte Cohen and Jack Easton gave a sweet, almost innocent account of Fokine’s Spectre. Better coaching, from people who really know these ballets, would have helped the dancers enormously.
If I was disappointed by this tribute to the Ballets Russes, it did make me long to see most of these ballets again, especially Les Biches. When they are presented with authority, and in their superb original designs, they are unbeatable, so I will put in a plea for more of them to be performed, please, to Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Royal Ballet, or any other company that used to perform these works regularly. They should also include those works by another great Ballets Russes choreographer, Léonide Massine, that have entirely disappeared from the stage.
Jonathan Gray was editor of Dancing Times from 2008 to 2022.
He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. He was on the Curatorial Staff of the Theatre Museum, London, from 1989 to 2005, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty.
Jonathan Gray has also contributed to the Financial Times and The Guardian, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005. He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
I attended the first night performance of BRB2 at the Birmingham Hippodrome and would like to agree and echo Jonathan Gray’s comments totally. In reference to designs: I noticed that the male dancer in Les Biches looked so wrong without his slicked down in the style of the period. Thank you.
By all means, a revival of “Gaite Parisienne,” coached by several people who know the style–and can inculcate it in receptive dancers. It’s not all about obscenely high extensions and quintuple pirouettes. A pre-performance lecture might be needed for a “young” audience.
I wasn’t able to open the photos of Scheherazade or Spectre to have a good look at the dancers. All the others were fine.
Jonathan Gray should get off of his pedestal.
The dancers deserve all credit for very authentic interpretations.
Les Sylphides wasn’t too slow.This is also authentic which elaborates the lyrical style.
Something which has been in short supply over the years.
The scenery was adequate enough for a production that had short pieces that needed to be changed quickly
All in all, a performance to maintain that classical and neoclassical ballet is alive and well appreciated.