Royal Ballet: Visionaries – Robbins and MacMillan review

Kenneth MacMillan championed Dances at a Gathering and brought it to the Royal Ballet in 1970. His own Song of the Earth had a bumpier time arriving in the RB repertoire, though – after the ROH board rejected the idea, he had to go and create it for Stuttgart Ballet. It’s a danced embodiment of Mahler’s symphonic song cycle of the same name – a powerful, contemplative reckoning with the inevitability of death, using a selection of classical Chinese poems.

Decisive lines and sculptural, expressionist-like shapings mark the stark, bold choreography, as William Bracewell’s Messenger of Death quietly stalks a Man (Patricio Revé) and a Woman (Marianela Nuñez). In a golden autumnal light, Nuñez silently weeps for the change of season and the passing of beauty. Sae Maeda offers a delightfully tumbling depiction of youth. Seven male dancers prance to impress a group of maidens. In the fifth of the six songs, the Messenger finally, spectacularly pounces. The final song gives Revé and Nuñez their chance to duet, and the pair find a lush synchronicity together, tinging their movement with a thrilling sense of abandon. The dancing is superlative and we’re in luxury casting territory with the singers too – Beth Taylor and John Findon are transporting.

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