Review: Paris Opera Junior Ballet in London – fine artists who were given little chance to shine
Jonathan Gray sees the Paris Opera Junior Ballet and although there was dancing of dashing brilliance the programme let them down.
| Title | Allegro Brillante – Cantate 51 – Requiem for a Rose – Mi Favorita |
| Company | Paris Opera Junior Ballet |
| Venue | Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London |
| Date | 20 June 2025 |
| Reviewer | Jonathan Gray |
A new entrant to the world of ‘Junior’ ballet companies that aim to offer young, recently-graduated dancers the opportunity to perform and gain valuable stage experience, the Paris Opéra Junior Ballet was launched last year, and its cohort of 18 – all aged between 18 and 23 – made its London debut at The Royal Ballet’s Next Generation festival in the Linbury Theatre on 19 June. Most of the company are French and have trained at the Paris Opéra Ballet School, although several have studied at schools such as the Ballet of La Scala, Milan, The Royal Ballet School and the Korean National University of the Arts, so standards were high.
The young artists performed like an ensemble rather than a group of promising individuals given the chance of a ‘star turn’, as demonstrated the week before by American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, and yet their inexperience showed. The programme, which I saw at the matinée on 20 June, opened with George Balanchine‘s Allegro Brillante. It’s hardly one of the master’s finest works but, choreographically speaking, the programme went downhill from there onwards.
The Paris Opéra Ballet has one of the largest repertoires of works by Balanchine outside America, and the Junior company had obviously been well prepared for Allegro Brillante. I felt the dancers took to the stage cautiously – perhaps they are more used to performing on larger, raked stages, unlike the flat stage of the Linbury – but they were impressive. The French-Swedish dancer Natalie Vikner took the difficulty of the ballerina role well in her stride, although she could afford to project a more dazzling personality, especially in her mercurial, fast-paced solo, and a more daring, off-balance relish of the choreography. She was well partnered by the Italian-born and trained Davide Alphandery, who combined dancing of dashing brilliance with grace and good manners. The ensemble were also good, although they needed more space for the dancing.
Next came Maurice Béjart’s Cantate 51, performed to J S Bach’s Cantata 51 for solo soprano and trumpet, a surprisingly restrained work from the king of choreographic excess, and based around the Biblical story of the Annunication. Don’t be fooled, however, as the ballet seemed little more than an opportunity for a gorgeous young man, in the guise of the Archangel Gabriel, to dance beautifully in nothing but a gleaming pair of white tights. Luckily for the audience, Spanish-born Jaime Almaraz Baizán performed with a beauty and grace that was surprisingly erotic and voluptuous, and I was struck by the elegance of French dancer Laure Ravera as one of the supporting women who performed strings of neo-classical steps around the figures of Mary and Gabriel. Angelique Brosse, also from France, was dignified in the role associated with Mary.
More divine music was heard in Annabelle López Ochoa’s Requiem for a Rose, danced to the second movement of Franz Schubert’s String Quartet ‘Death and the Maiden’, although I could detect absolutely no relation between the music and what the ensemble were performing on stage. It was very well danced, but the ballet was a wasted opportunity; it neither explored the complexity of the emotions found within the music, nor did it offer the cast anything but the most generic of choreography. Disappointing.
Worse was to come, however, with the final work on the programme, José Martinez’s Spanish-themed comedy Mi Favorita, danced to ballet music from Donizetti’s opera La Favorite. The humour, sadly, fell spectacularly flat at almost every turn, and simply helped to underline the inexperience of the dancers, who were additionally hampered by some ill-fitting, unattractive costumes. Not a good way to end a performance by some fine artists who were given little chance to shine as individuals.
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.
