Ballet Boyz - The Greatest Hits!

Published Thursday 8 May 2008 at 12:55 by Liz Arratoon

Dance, film, music - some live - excellence, artistry and fun. These are the elements of Ballet Boyz - The Greatest Hits!. It is an evening of pure pleasure.

Michael Nunn and William Trevitt have rightly been credited with making dance more accessible, and here they make themselves more accessible with short documentary film clips that preface the four dance pieces.

Russell Maliphant’s sublime Broken Fall, set to a Barry Adamson commission, starts things on a high note that does not drop. Many will have seen it performed with the extraordinary Sylvie Guillem. Oxana Panchenko lacks her sheer dynamism and charisma and brings a softer element that does not altogether suit the tension required for the daring acrobatic interplay with Nunn and Trevitt, and she looks slightly uncertain in the adagio-type lifts.

Red and black costumes for Christopher Wheeldon’s Mesmerics bring a splash of colour to the evening’s mostly stylishly muted palette. The Boyz and Panchenko are joined by Royal Ballet principal Edward Watson and Malgorzata Dzierzon for a gorgeously fluid piece that mixes classical and contemporary moves, set to Philip Glass’ strings.

Panchenko and Watson perform EdOx, Rafael Bonachela’s sinuous little gem before the Boyz return in suits and ties to tackle the “sequins and discipline” of ballroom in Craig Revel Horwood’s tango duel, Yumba vs Nonino. Funny and clever, all kicks and flicks, slaps and punches, it brings a fresh slant to the world’s sexiest dance.

The end is nutty - Nunn on drums, Trevitt on guitar and Panchenko on bass with their rendition of Take That’s Shine. And shine is what they do.