13 January 2010

An introduction to the three ballets being performed on the North/East leg of Birmingham Royal Ballet's spring tour: Allergi diversi, Grosse Fuge and The Centre and its Opposite.

Birmingham Royal Ballet this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, having moved to the Midlands from London in 1990. Before then, the Company was known as Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet. When SWRB came to celebrate their own 40th anniversary in 1987, among the highlights was Allegri diversi, a new piece by David Bintley, who would go on to become Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet some years later.

In programme notes from the very first of these regional tours in 2002, John Percival noted of the score to the non-narrative piece that 'The two Rossini pieces which Bintley used were never meant by their composer for dancing, but their rich melodies, pace and orchestral colour make them enchantingly suitable. If anything, they resemble the style the composer used in his operas, and Bintley matched the singing quality of the music, also its form, with movement that builds brilliantly on the use of just a few contrasted steps, shaped smoothly together into a harmonious whole.'

He went on to conclude that: 'Today's cast do not have the advantage of the original ensemble, who had the roles made specifically for their talents, but they are going into a joyous work, full of happy invention, and it will be surprising if they do not respond accordingly.'

The second ballet being performed on the North/East tour does indeed see the original cast performing the roles, having been created on Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2009. Entitled The Centre and its Opposite, and choreographed by Australian Dance Theatre's Artistic Director Garry Stewart, it is perhaps the most challenging.

Taking energy from its score, the piece attempts to invert the focal point of the performance space: rather than the artists taking turns to come forward and dance for the audience, they are simultaneously pitted against one another, vying for attention from different parts of the stage.

David Bintley recently described Stewart's piece as being 'probably the most extreme piece that we have ever done'. However he also points out that it was influenced by the Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers on whom it was created, and so like the other pieces in the programme it still has its roots in classical ballet. The score however is very much of a contemporary nature, its thrilling industrial edge having wowed audiences on last year's tour of the South West and as part of the Company's autumn programme Quantum Leaps.

The music for Grosse Fuge, meanwhile, was deemed by the dancers who performed it to be not contemporary enough when it made its debut in 1978. Created on Netherlands Dance Theatre, who were more at home with scores from the latter half of the 20th century, the choreographer's choice of music by Beethoven was at first deemed an unpopular one.

The choreographer in question was Hans van Manen, and despite the protestations of his cast, the period of work including Grosse Fuge is considered the time during which his full maturity as a choreographer was revealed. Also turning-in starkly effective costume designs the piece sees the men stripped to the waist with belted black trouser skirts that swirl and swish to highlight the aggression of their steps, while the women's vulnerability is brought out in simple flesh-coloured leotards set off by hair pinned elaborately in a tiara motif.

Van Manen, who also created Twilight, the battle-of-the-sexes highlight from 2008's tour of the North East, presents here a more delicate and sensual interplay between four couples. Birmingham Royal Ballet have enjoyed a long relationship with the choreographer, and these performances mark the first opportunity to see the Company perform Grosse Fuge for over a decade.

Over the three pieces in this bill, Birmingham Royal Ballet offers a taste of what makes the Company so strong at the moment, as well as a unique chance to see ballet that you will not see anywhere else. As Director David Bintley recently commented: 'What have we won awards for? Not the full-length story ballets that everybody does, but the shorter, more adventurous works, that's where the critical acclaim comes.'

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ENDS