United Kingdom Ivan Putrov’s Dance for Ukraine: London Palladium, 18.2.2024. (JO’D)
This gala was in aid of the arts in Ukraine and especially a new production for Ukrainian National Ballet of Frederick Ashton’s La fille mal gardée, the first British ballet to enter its repertoire. It all began with the Ukrainian National Anthem and Prayer for Ukraine, sung by mezzo-soprano Ksenia Nikolaieva and members of the ROH Songs for Ukraine Chorus. It ended with an extract from Kenneth MacMillan’s Gloria (1980), a ballet that was the choreographer’s ‘lament’ for the men who died in the First World War. In between were a selection of pas de deux, pas de trois and solos from classical and neoclassical ballet and contemporary dance, mostly with pre-recorded music.
As in any gala, the quality of the pieces varied. Olga Golytsia, from Ukrainian National Ballet, moved with remarkable softness and smoothness through the opening Forest Song (1946), partnered by Volodymyr Kutuzov from the same company. The Royal Ballet principals Lauren Cuthbertson and Matthew Ball brought expression to a contrastingly earthier pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet. Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw, relative newcomers to English National Ballet, suited the rather cold neoclassicism of choreographer David Dawson in Metamorphosis (2021).
Olga Smirnova, a principal of Dutch National Ballet, made something delicate and fine of Dying Swan (1907), to live accompaniment of piano and cello: the arms suggestive of broken wings; the raising of the head before it is lowered forever; the hand that comes to rest, very slowly, on the stage floor. (Smirnova retuned later to dances Carmen Suite with Denys Matvienko.) This was preceded by two solos of lesser intensity: Denys Cherevychko, former principal of Wiener Staatsballett, attractively fluid in arms and legs in the brief mazurka from Suite en Blanc (1943); The Royal Ballet’s William Bracewell, to live accompaniment by a pianist playing Rachmaninoff, in Andrew McNicol’s anguished Preliwd (2024), created for Bracewell and premiered at the gala.
The first part of the programme closed with Ivan Putrov himself and Grace Jabbari, from the Russell Maliphant Company, in that choreographer’s Two by Two (1997). A chance to see the relationship that dancers of different backgrounds and ages ‑ classical and contemporary, older and younger – have to movement and gravity.
Part Two of the gala saw Marianela Nuñez and Lukas B. Brændsrød (principal and first soloist of The Royal Ballet respectively) moving around each other in the duet from Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain (2005). The configurations are ungainly, but the piece was greeted with warm applause: for its sense of intimacy, for its two dancers, for the music of Arvo Pärt’s Speigel im Spiegel.
Yuuri Hidaka, of Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo, showed musicality and precision in Asuka (1957). Gala stalwart Dmitry Zagrebin, a principal of Royal Swedish Ballet, impressed by his petite batterie in a pas de deux from La fille mal gardée (choreographed by Alexander Gorsky). A red-booted Volodymyr Kutuzov returned to make his mark in the Gopak from Taras Bulba (1941).
And then the extract from Kenneth MacMillan’s appropriately solemn Gloria to music by Poulenc. Joseph Taylor (Northern Ballet), Minju Kang and Lorenzo Trossello (English National Ballet) captured, in a memorable way, the passion, urgency and beauty of the choreographer’s ‘favourite among his own ballets’.
John O’Dwyer
Featured Image: performers involved in Ivan Putrov’s Dance for Ukraine
Ukrainian National Anthem and Prayer for Ukraine
Ksenia Nikolaieva (mezzo-soprano), Urška Horvat (cello), Sasha Grynyuk (piano), Members of The Royal Opera Chorus, ROH Songs for Ukraine Chorus and conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson
Forest Song (pas de deux)
Choreographed by Vakhtang Vronsky
Performed by Olga Golytsia and Volodymyr Kutuzov
Romeo and Juliet
Choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan
Performed by Lauren Cuthbertson and Matthew Ball
Metamorphosis
Choreographed by David Dawson
Performed by Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw
Le Corsaire (pas de trois)
Choreographed by Marius Petipa after Joseph Mazilier
Performed by Marianna Tsembenhoi, Luca Acri and Vladyslav Bosenko
Suite en blanc (mazurka)
Choreographed by Serge Lifar
Performed by Denys Cherevychko
Preliwd (world premiere)
Choregraphed by Andrew McNicol
Performed by William Bracewell
Dying Swan
Choreographed by Mikhail Fokine
Performed by Olga Smirnova
Two by Two
Choreographed by Russell Maliphant
Performed by Grace Jabbari and Ivan Putrov
After the Rain
Choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon
Performed by Marianela Nuñez and Lukas B. Brændsrød
Asuka
Choreographed by Asami Maki after Akiko Tachibana
Performed by Yuuri Hidaka and Tomoharu Yonekura
La fille mal gardée (pas de deux)
Choreographed by Alexander Gorsky after Marius Petipa
Performed by Francesca Velicu and Dmitri Zagrebin
Carmen Suite
Choreographed by Alberto Alonso
Performed by Olga Smirnova and Denys Matvienko
La fille mal gardée (pas de ruban)
Choreographed by Frederick Ashton
Performed by Sabine Strokša and Philip Fedulov
Gopak from Taras Bulba
Choreographed by Rostislav Zakkharov
Performed by Volodymyr Kutuzov
Gloria (pas de trois)
Choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan
Performed by Minju Kang, Joseph Taylor and Lorenzo Trossell