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La Fille Mal Gardee at the Birmingham Hippodrome
La Fille Mal Gardee by the Birmingham Royal Ballet started a four night run at the Birmingham Hippodrome last night, and delighted and charmed audiences with it’s story of true love almost thwarted by the power of money. The ballet was created by Frederick Ashton in 1960 and is the simple story of the beautiful Lise, in this instance played by the enchanting Beatrice Parma, who is deeply in love with a poor farm lad called Colas(Enrique Bejarano Vidal – just perfect). They are perfectly matched but Lise’s mother, the widow Simone wants a better (read richer) match for her beloved daughter. She finds this in the umbrella obsessed Alain,…
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Birmingham Royal Ballet Breathe life into Coppelia
The Birmingham Royal Ballet Autumn season concludes its Birmingham run this week with the opening at the Hippodrome of Sir Peter Wright’s Coppelia , directed by Carlos Acosta. I was at the press night last night and, once again, the BRB showed why they are one of the world’s greatest ballet company’s with a production that is grace and charm personified. The story of Coppelia is one full of humour and deception, featuring the aged old love triangle between a boy,a girl and a wooden doll. Of course, the village Lothario Franz doesn’t realise that the new object of his lust, the beautiful lady who sits on the balcony of…
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Three Short Ballets from the Birmingham Royal Ballet
Last night saw the opening of the second show of the Birmingham Royal Ballet summer season for 2017. This time audiences were in for a treat, as a triple header of three short ballets charmed, thrilled, amused and shocked in equal measure. The ballets performed were Arcadia, a new ballet from BRB alumni Ruth Brill, the classic haunting Le Baiser de la Fee’ and the Gilbert and Sullivan inspired ‘Pineapple Poll’. Each ballet was wonderful in its own way – three very different ballets in very different styles. Arcadia Arcadia is the story of Pan, the god of Arcadia, and has a wonderfully earthy central performance from Brandon Lawrence. Visually…
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Dirty Dancing At The New Alex Theatre
Top five chick flicks of all time? If you ask anyone who was a teenager in 1987 they will surely have Dirty Dancing as their number one choice. The coming of age story of Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman, an idealistic young woman who finds her beliefs and hopes tested when she takes a Summer holiday at Kellermans family resort. However she also meets the enigmatic, sexy Johnny Castle when she has to cover for his pregnant dancing partner Penny. They fall in love, but Johnny is certainly from the wrong side of the tracks and is not going to be the choice of her doctor father. Dirty Dancing is one of…
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The Red Shoes – A new classic from Matthew Bourne
A new classic ballet came to life last night, as Matthew Bourne’s version of Powell and Pressburger’s ‘The Red Shoes’ came vividly to life on the stage of the Birmingham Hippodrome. The beautiful haunting story of dancer Victoria Page, and how she is destroyed by her talent and love, is one of the great movies, and now, in the hands of a superb company, the tale that started life as a rather brutal fairy story is recreated for the stage, and shows once again why Matthew Bourne is rightly recognised as a genius of modern dance. The Red Shoes is a story of love, jealousy, obsession and determination. Aristocratic Victoria…
