Les Patineurs/Tales Of Beatrix Potter

Published Monday 31 December 2007 at 13:00 by Katie Colombus

The beauty of Frederick Ashton is celebrated in all its glory in this festive double bill from the Royal Ballet.

Both short works illustrate perfectly his knack for combining the danse d’ecole with pure joy of movement. In Les Patineurs we see solos, pas de deux and the corps sashaying and gliding around an ice rink overhung with snow covered branches on a softly lit stage. They use highly technical movement vocabulary - chasse steps, impressive foutte spins, soft pirouettes and celebratory leaps. There is no miming, no storytelling, and no plot. The whole body is used to convey joy, pain, love and friendship with, for example, markedly different arm gestures combined with steps that we are used to. Individual flourishes and detail are added to dress up everyday balletic steps.

The audience is drawn in by the simplicity and grace of the movement, the sumptuous velvet costumes of white, red and blue. They are allowed to sit back and enjoy the spectacle and fun of this wintry scene and at the same time appreciate the marvellous techniques of the dancers.

Duetting lovers Alexandra Ansanelli and Valeri Hristov melting into one another and dancing triumphantly in sparkling white velour are particular crowd pleasers, and Jose Martin - although not technically perfect - has charm and sparkle enough to get the audience going.

The Tales of Beatrix Potter also steers clear of mime, storytelling and complicated narratives. Instead, wonderful woodland scenes are played out by dancers in fantastic costumes and masks - the suave and sharply dressed sly fox, who leaves his paper to try and cook up a feathery bottomed Jemima Puddle-Duck, the booted and stripy-tighted Mrs Tiggy-Winkle dancing over the hill and far away, the pigs who go out to make their fortune in the world, the town mice who wreck Tom Thumb’s dolls house and poor Squirrel Nutkin who loses his tail.

The company recreating the magic of these books and bringing favourite characters to life is every child’s fantasy. And likewise, Peter Rabbit’s beautiful and magical garden of dreams will transport every adult straight back to their childhood.