A big welcome back! London City Ballet, a touring company founded by Harold King, closed in 1996 due to financial difficulties. Almost thirty years on, it returns to London, following a tour of England and China, with Christopher Marney as artistic director of a small and flexible group of 14 youthful dancers.
The repertoire includes both older works, which are no longer in the mainstream, and new works. The performance begins with newsreels and photographs of the company when Princess Diana was their patron. There are five short pieces.
Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz (1993), five couples, dance to Tchaikovsky’s music for the grand ball scene in Eugene Onegin and get the evening off to a gentle, buoyant start. Arthur Wille stands out here and whenever he appears.
Kenneth Macmillan’s Ballade (1972), which was performed only once in Lisbon, has had to be recreated from notation. Four dancers, three males, one female, all dressed in white, sit on white chairs at a white table and play cards. The men flirt with her, one by one. Who does she prefer? The music is by Gabriel Faure and the woman is played by Alina Cojocaru.
Ariele Smith’s Five Dances (2024), is a celebration of dance in its purest form to music by John’s Book of Alleged Dances composed by John Adams, which aims, says Smith, to uplift and spread joy, which it does in spades.
Kenneth Macmillan’s Concerto Second Movement (1966), to music by Shostakovich is a pas de deux in which Joseph Taylor partners Isadora Bless, showcasing her classical precision.
Christopher Marney’s Eve (2022), to music by Jennie Muskett is about Adam and Eve and the Serpent’s seduction of Eve, who is portrayed not as a symbol of sin but as a person full of intellectual curiosity. Cira Robinson is Eve. Alvaro Madrigal is the half-human Serpent.
Once she has bitten the apple, the stage fills with lots of Adams and Eves, all in naked suits, creating beauty and life in an erupting world. They slide, roll and build human sculptures.
London City Ballet’s successful resurgence is good news for ballet and balletgoers.
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