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“Apollo," "Children of Adam”, “Theme and Variations”
Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden ,
London, U.K.
March 5-24, 2007

by John Percival
copyright ©2007, John Percival

Alastair Marriott's new creation for the Royal Ballet, “Children of Adam”, is vastly different from his only previous full-scale company piece, “Tanglewood”, made sixteen months ago. That was a plotless (although not meaningless) classical interpretation of Ned Rorem's violin concerto, which I reckoned worth more than the mere five performances it was initially granted. Presumably the RB agreed since they inserted it in their Kennedy Center programme later that season. Now he has taken his subject (and his title) from the often neglected poems of Walt Whitman and their celebration of the body's erotic beauty. Marriott presents a strongly dramatic, if not always entirely intelligible, situation involving two men, defined in the cast list as brothers, and a girl. She, played at the premiere by Leanne Benjamin, starts with a relationship with the older brother (Johannes Stepanek), and resists when his sibling (Steven McRae) tries to get involved. Eventually the younger man kills the older, but is forgiven by presumably his ghost. You might think of Adam's children Cain and Abel but situation and development are totally different, and what are we to make of six further couples who join the action? I hope this may become clearer on further viewing.

Meanwhile, Marriott's inventiveness of movement continues to please, especially in the unexpected shapes of the many lifts. Interestingly, he gives young McRae a part with hardly any of the quick twisting jumps that have featured in earlier roles for him; instead, the dancer has to suggest the boy's retarded nature through much quieter movement and acting. The ballet is based on an attractive score for string orchestra, the Concerto per Corde by Christopher Rouse, adapted in 1990 from a slightly earlier string quartet. The composer, I gather, is highly regarded in the USA but little known here (NYCB audiences will know his “Friandises”, written recently for Peter Martins). Adam Wiltshire, who collaborated with Marriott on “Tanglewood” and small earlier works, is again the designer. His setting is dominated by a huge tree: the biblical tree of knowledge, apparently. I was puzzled by the giant purple flowers which appear beneath it in the last episode, but am told this might relate to those which sprang up where the blood of dying Adonis fell.

Challengingly, the new work was given on a triple bill between two of Balanchine's masterworks. “Apollo” had fine dancing from Carlos Acosta in the title role, likewise from Mara Galeazzi and Marianela Nunez as two muses, although Darcey Bussell's phrasing did not entirely convince as Terpsichore. The Royal Ballet has danced this for many years, but “Theme and Variations” was having its company premiere. I thought it strange that Patricia Neary's restaging allowed so small and pretty a performance of these should-be grand dances to the last movement of Tchaikovsky's suite No.3. The illusion of an abstract equivalent to “Sleeping Beauty” Act 3 has gone. Johan Kobborg was the main culprit: cheered for his neat little steps, but with slack arms and a totally inappropriate grin much of the time. Does nobody remember the grandeur and nobility this role had when created in 1947 for Igor Youskevitch? I'm sure he's never been matched in it, but now the whole style is wrong, and although Alina Cojocaru tries bravely, she is too tiny to be ideal for the ballerina role. Incidentally, like quite a few other recent interpreters, Kobborg only does four consecutive ronds de jambe sautes in the man's second solo. Balanchine actually set eight, covering a full diagonal of the stage, and without that we lose what should be a breath-taking climax.

Photos are all by Dee Conway.
First: Leanne Benjamin, in Alastair Marriott's "Children of Adam"
Second: Johannes Stepanek and Steven McRae, also in "Children of Adam"
Last: in "Apollo."

Volume 5, No. 10
March 12, 2007

copyright ©2007 by John Percival
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