David Bintley’s Galanteries is the first piece of this triple bill, originally performed in 1986 - long before BRB was established. A piece for 12 dancers, it is a joyful and light expression of courtship and etiquette inspired by the origins of ballet in the French court of Versailles.
Matthew Lawrence and Gaylene Cummerfield are just two of the dancers worth mentioning for their pure lines and joyous exuberance. The costume and set design by Jan Blake have stood the test of time with muted tones of grey and blue against a backdrop of neutral squares of the same colours.
The second piece of the evening, also by Bintley, is The Dance House, set to Shostakovich’s first piano concerto. Interestingly, Bintley quotes Michael Jackson’s Thriller video as a source of inspiration. The design and feel is in total contrast to the first piece, both menacing and dark - tones that are reflected in the stylised costumes by the late dance artist Robert Heindel.
The third and final piece of the evening is Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, set to Mendelssohn’s famous score. The scene is set in deepest fairyland where Oberon, danced with commanding style by Joseph Caley, courts the fair Titania, danced with perfect fluidity by Natasha Oughtered.
The host of fairies is light and ethereal as they twinkle through the trees listening and watching over the lovers lost in the woods. But the evening belongs to Kosuke Yamamoto as the most high-spirited and lovable Puck who certainly ‘put a girdle round about the earth in 40 minutes’.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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