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Music by
Sergei Prokofiev
Choreography by
Andre Prokovsky
Directed by
Robert Denvers
Music performed by
the Royal Ballet
Sinfonia
Juliet
Aysem Sunal
Romeo
Jeroen Hofmans
Mercutio
Alain Honorez
Tybalt
Giuseppe Nocera
Nurse
Agalie Vandamme
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Sadler's Wells
Royal Ballet of Flanders
6 - 10 May
2003 |
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When Jeanne Brabants
created a ballet company in 1969 aimed
at becoming an internationally recognised
Belgian institution, she could only
have dreamed about the heights of excellence
it would reach. The most notable curve
of ascent began after Robert Denvers
became Artistic Director in the mid-1980s.
The ballet school in Antwerp, and the
increasing attractiveness of the troupe
to dancers from elsewhere in the world,
ensured a supply of superbly trained,
highly talented dancers for Denvers
to meld into an outstanding group. Denvers'
fame as a teacher is justified in the
result. He brings his experience of
Bejart and Balanchine to the mixture,
shaped by a personal understanding of
the purest classical disciplines.
For this
material Andre Prokovsky's version of
Prokofiev's Romeo
and Juliet
is perfect. The Prokofiev score has
been cleverly edited to forge a tighter,
swifter narrative – the loss of
time for the nurse and some of the side-play
might be regretted by purists, but is
wonderfully justified in the resulting
interpretation.
But indisputably
the best thing about this performance
is the dancing itself. It is not often
one can pass over almost perfect ensemble
work by the company, or delightful supporting
dancing in the Act II Divertimento,
to focus on performances of such outstanding
merit as those by the two leads and
by the irrepressible, athletic, funny,
exquisitely-executed Mercutio. The latter
role is danced by Alain Honorez, a spindle-shanks
of towering talents and demonic energy,
who almost (but not quite) upstaged
the leads with his dazzling display
of movement.
Jeroen
Hofmans is a fine, mature, handsome
Romeo, quietly but powerfully expressive,
as talented an actor as dancer. His
is the best interpretation of Romeo
I have ever seen. And he could not have
been bettered as partner for the show's
supreme star, Aysem Sunal, who is a
stunning Juliet, an actress of genius
as well as a dancer so light and frail-seeming
that she seems almost a wraith - yet
who is strong, exact, profound and moving
in every gesture, instinctively dramatic,
but with a precision and fineness of
adjustment that makes everything she
does and feels project to the audience
as utterly genuine. It was a breathtaking
performance, and a stroke of brilliance
in it is that Juliet awakes before Romeo
dies, so that they dance their love
and joy together before the poison takes
its effect on him, making this a more
moving ending than in any other version,
even the original.
This
is a company and a performance to celebrate
without reservation, and one hopes to
see much more of them at Sadler's Wells.
AC Grayling
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