Requiem

Opinions always differ about everything, and others may have a different list, but when it comes to nominating which ballets count among the most beautiful ever devised, Macmillan's Requiem is one of my choices. Partly of course it is the music, Faure's one-off masterpiece with its profound and haunting sonorities and it delicious, mellifluous pacing; but this music inspired Macmillan to produce a lovely, elegaic, eloquent masterpiece of his own, full of the deep leisurely drama of the music upon which it floats, like a barque on a limpid sea.
      And then add that among those together on stage dancing this exquisite piece are Darcy Bussell, Jonathan Cope and Carlos Acosta, and the heavens part to give a glimpse of paradise. The long elegant lines of the music seem to have been written for the day that Darcy Bussell's long elegant limbs would transform tonality in time into movement in space; when she rises onto points in the Introit and Kyrie one's breath is taken away. And that is merely for a start; there is a full house of talent on display here, from Ivan Putrov and Leanne Benjamin to Lauren Cuthbertson and Deirdre Chapman, from Ricardo Cervera and Yohei Sasaki to Edward Watson and Isabel McMeekan. Between them all they dance a dream of remembrance and valediction - this after all was Macmillan's memorial to John Cranko of the Stuttgart Ballet; and the Requiem is a requiem - but which, like the music itself, is not for a moment sorrowful.
      Macmillan's choreography has sculptural, pictorial qualities; the effect he creates includes tableaux-like patterns and the use of gymnastic elements, going effortlessly from one to the other. He always sought distinctive shapes in the movements he choreographed both for the solo dancer and the ensemble; and in the framework of Faure's handsome music he finds plenty of space to manifest these qualities in strongly narrative terms, leaving a reminiscence on the watcher's mind of Blake's etchings and Gill's statues.
        Triple bills used to be standard fare at the ballet, and ballets of this length - just under one hour - fitted the format well. Now they are an awkward length for contemporary programming, which is why one sees less of them. But this one dance, especially with these dancers, would be worth an evening to itself - better still, if it could be performed twice in succession.

A Wedding Bouquet

This zany, witty, entertaining, almost surreal piece has been known to leave a good portion of an audience puzzled and disoriented. In fact it is evidence, if any were needed, of Ashton's wonderful range of invention and his good humour. The crazy-paving of Gertrude Stein's libretto, and the equally eccentric genius of Lord Berners' music, provides the scaffolding for a very amusing narrative piece in which drunkenness, romantic disappointment, a bridegroom's dilemmas, and a very intelligent dog all get to play their part.
      And as to the playing of parts: Deirdre Chapman as Webster, Zenaida Yanowsky as Josephine, Tamara Rojo as Julia and Iohna Loots as Pepe the dog more or less steal the show. The main comic thrust of events flows from their contributions, and they make them to perfection. Dazzling costumes and a highly effective staging add to the whole, resulting in a delightful entertainment of the first quality.

Les Noces

After the visual brilliance of its two predecessors in the programme, the drab colours of Les Noces has a dampening effect on the audience's perceptions - until the dance begins to hypnotise them out of the feeling. It is a dance that repays close attention, for it contains a number of beauties and much interest. The music has an absorbing complexity which the choreography imbibes, resulting in an expressive dance whose emotional content is greater than its cerebral content at first seems to allow. Ashton commissioned this dance from Bronislava Nijinska, and one can see why he admired her work. The ensemble has a role as full almost as the principals in this piece, perhaps because - as the impression they give suggests - Nijinska liked the expressive power of the ensemble as a unit. It is a fine ballet, and works well in the programme.
AC Grayling