The past few months have been difficult for all of us, but for dancers, life has been especially challenging. Starved of the opportunity to perform, they have had to maintain a level of fitness by taking daily class in their own homes via Zoom.
So it was with great excitement that the Royal Ballet took to the Opera House stage last Friday, for a special gala. There was a live audience (many were nurses and students), but only a few hundred, and everyone had to wear masks and sat socially distanced. The orchestra spread out in the stalls – now cleared of its plush rows of seats – and the dancers were in their own “bubbles”, with ample space to dance on the huge stage.
The evening began with the overture to The Sleeping Beauty, appropriate as the ballet has always been danced at special “opening” nights. There followed a selection of snippets illustrating the wide range of the company’s repertoire, from Hofesh Shechter to Ashton and MacMillan. Unlike us lesser mortals who have discovered the joys of bread-making during lockdown and subsequently gained pounds, the dancers looked lithe, supremely fit and on top form.
There were many standout moments: Sarah Lamb was elegant and precise in the Diamonds pas de deux from Jewels; Matthew Ball leapt around the stage with explosive force in an excerpt from Carousel; Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambe charmed in the Act I pas de deux from La Fille Mal Gardee. At the end of the coda there were no surrounding dancers on stage to click their fingers, but the audience started applauding in time to the music – what a wonderful moment! (And what a fine Lise O’Sullivan will be when the ballet is staged in full…I live in hope.)
There were two Oberons dancing in The Dream – William Bracewell in the Scherzo and Alexander Campbell in the pas de deux, proving to be a secure partner for Laura Morera’s luscious Titania.
Marianela Nunez brought out her flirty and playful side in her solo from the famous Don Quixote Act III pas de deux, and Akane Takada was a serene Odette in a snippet from Swan Lake.
As a finale, the entire company danced a modified version of Elite Syncopations, that wonderful jazz ballet with wacky costumes by Ian Spurling. The dancers’ sheer delight at being back on stage was highly infectious (hopefully the only thing that was), and it brought the evening to a joyous close.
A film of the performance will be available to watch on demand until Sunday November 8 www.roh.org.uk