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Gala for Grenfell


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My husband and I went to this tonight and I must say that we really enjoyed it. The huge mixture of dance styles and the (mostly) swift links between pieces prevented one from flagging even though it was a long evening with two acts of approximately 70 minutes each. A decision was made that the dancers should perform in their practice clothes (in acknowledgment of the fact that the Grenfell Tower survivors lost everything when they fled for their lives) and there was no scenery and minimal changes of lighting. It was interesting to see which pieces worked best in this setting. Standouts for me were the hip-hop piece choreographed by Tommy Franzen (I can see why he's won so many awards) and performed by him and Xena Gusthart, an excerpt from ZooNation's Mad Hatters Tea Party (which Franzen also performed in) and a duet from An American in Paris performed by Leanne Cope and her very engaging partner, Ashley Day. I was also very taken by Danny Collins who performed in an excerpt from Drew McOnie's Jekyll & Hyde. Arlene Phillips is to be congratulated for assembling such a huge cast of dancers at such short notice in such a worthy cause.

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Thanks for this, Aileen.  Given the nature of this board I'm sure it would be keenly appreciated if the 'ballet' pieces might be defined and your expert opinion of them rendered for those of us not able to see it.  Much thanks if such is possible for your good self. 

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The ballet pieces were:

 

1 a pdd from Esmerelda performed by Rina Kanehara and Aitor Arrieta from ENB;

 

2 the White Swan Adagio performed by Ekaterina Chebykina and Xander Parish from the Mariinsky;

 

3 an excerpt from Three Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan performed by Romany Pajdack;

 

4 a Christopher Marney piece entitled performed by  Sayaka Ichikawa and Jose Alves from Ballet Black; and

 

5 Qualia performed by Olivia Cowley and Ed Watson.

 

All the dancers had to contend with some rather large standing lights which encroached upon the available space but all performed very well. Kanehara was obviously nervous about her balances and had a slight wobble early on in her fouettés but recovered very stylishly. The performance received a lot of loud applause. I couldn't take my eyes off the willowy frame of         Chebykina. The were no lifts accompanying the diagonal 'hops' across the stage but I don't know whether this was due to space or Heath and Safety considerations or whether the lifts do not occur in the Mariinsky version. Again, it was well received by the audience. Pajdak performed very winningly but it's a very slight piece IMO. Ballet Black's piece was charming and I was really taken by Ichikawa but, like the Brahms Waltzes, it didn't go down terribly well with the audience, which was a shame. Qualia received the most applause for the ballet contributions. The combination of Cowley's tall, slender physique, so well suited aesthetically to this work, and the extraordinary shapes created by the dancers make it a very striking piece.

 

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Although I believe one couple were arriving at the theatre straight from Heathrow.

because of the nature of this gala and its "low key" nature ....but not in dancing standards of course...I don't really want to comment too much but my favourite was Akram Khan piece....which he apparently composed for the Japanese Tsunami victims...and I enjoyed the dancing from the Jekyll and Hyde piece too. 

A lovely evening and atmosphere in the theatre.

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14 hours ago, aileen said:

I couldn't take my eyes off the willowy frame of Chebykina. The were no lifts accompanying the diagonal 'hops' across the stage but I don't know whether this was due to space or Heath and Safety considerations or whether the lifts do not occur in the Mariinsky version. 

 

They do these lifts, Aileen, in the Mariinsky version. So far all - Parish, Ivanchenko, Latypov and Askerov - did it last week. Tomorrow we will see if Parish and Chebykina will do it on the ROH stage.

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