Dance up close. Ballet Nights launches in London’s Docklands

Lanterns Studio Theatre, London
September 29, 2023

After a one-off show at Lanterns Studio Theatre in October 2021, Ballet Nights is back. This time with a full autumn season of three programmes, on the final weekends of September, October and November.

Ballet Nights is about telling stories, former Scottish Ballet soloist and Ballet Nights artistic director Jamiel Devernay-Laurence told the audience. That doesn’t just mean in the dance itself, but also in his introductions to each piece, most of which came with little anecdotes about the artists themselves. Devernay-Laurence is certainly an easy-going host, occasionally nicely self-deprecating, and never spoke for too long, but whether the format will appeal to regular dance-goers, I’m not sure. But top marks for innovation and it’s certainly worth a try.

Each programme in the season mixes classical, neoclassical and contemporary dance. There are excerpts from well-known works but also new choreography from emerging artists.

After pianist Viktor Erik Emanuel had treated us to a beautiful rendition of Chopin’s complex but pleasing Variations Brillantes, the first dance saw The Royal Ballet’s Melissa Hamilton imbue Mikhail Fokine’s The Dying Swan was great grace and melancholy. The solo is performed way too often but Hamilton gave everyone a real treat.

With partner Ryoichi Hirano, it also fell to her to close the show, this time with the divine Second Movement pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto. Inspired by a dancer warming up at the barre, it’s cool and sumptuous. The pliant Hamilton was a model of precision, Hirano (on his 40th birthday) a strong partner. It’s compelling anyway but this close even more so. It was easily the highlight of the evening.

Back in ‘Act One,’ Hamilton’s Dying Swan was followed by Northern Ballet duo, Joseph Taylor and Julie Nunes in You Will Get Your Wants by Gavin McCaig. It’s fluid with a lot of reaching out, looking at, it seems at something we cannot see. Beautifully danced too with a lot of strong partnering. A programme note about McCaig’s inspiration, or a few words during Devernay Laurance’s introduction, would have added greatly, however.

Devernay Laurence is keen that Ballet Nights should present now rarely seen masterworks as well as dance from those we all know well. So to the pas de deux from MacMillan’s Isadora that closed the first half of the evening. Isadora Duncan was free-spirited and passionate. Edd Mitton and Amy Thake of Yorke Dance Project, she often with a playful glint in her eye, oozed sexuality and desire as they gave us all that and more in a perfect, charged, performance.

Fireworks of a very different sort came with Czárdás, a quite dazzling ballet meets tap piece choreographed and performed by The Royal Ballet principal Steven McRae in sparkling trousers and black jacket. At times, it seemed like he and violinist Vasko Vassiliev were in a race to see who could go fastest. The speed was incredible.

The post-interval performances opened with another piano recital, this time Liszt’s Ballade No.2. It has operatic grandeur but it’s opening menacing, stormy rumblings set the tone for what is quite a dark, often melancholy piece, full of shifting moods. It felt a strange choice for an evening like this; and very long.

Things perked up enormously with the arrival of former Scottish Ballet principal Constance Devernay-Laurence in the Gamzatti Variation from La Bayadère. It may be very short but her jetés and arabesques were exquisite. You would never guess this was her first public performance after injury.

Of the evening’s two contemporary pieces, a new, specially commissioned untitled short solo by Company Wayne McGregor dancer Jordan James Bridge to music by Rival Consoles was by far the most interesting. It starts quietly before exploding into dance that eats up the space. Blessed with the most wonderfully fluid upper body (his back especially just sings), he’s also one of those dances who just demands to be watched.

In contrast, Peter Leung’s All In Passing, danced by New English Ballet Theatre and the only group work of the evening, struggled to hold the attention. That’s despite some complex and skilful use of the ensemble, and some solid partnering that includes what sometimes feels like the now obligatory male and female pairings. It’s pleasant, but not exactly bold. But then joy and that exquisite duet from Concerto to send everyone away happy.

Ballet Nights was an enjoyable evening although there is probably still some convincing to do regarding the location (it’s less than 20 minutes from Bank and a short walk from South Quays DLR station), and some fine-tuning needed of the format, but it was a good start. One senses that the will is there, as is the support of the dance community who recognise the value and importance of platforms like this and of trying something new. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

Finally, a word on the venue, which will be new to most. From the outside it looks nothing. You could easily walk straight past it. Inside, the vastness of the space and roof construction always reminds me of an ancient tithe barn, a building used for threshing and storage of the tenth of crops that every peasant used to give to the church. The stage is huge too. There’s a reason why big musicals regularly rehearse there. And perhaps best of all, the audience is seriously close-up. With just 350 seats and only a few rows, no-one is far from the action. Those in the front row are literally inches from the stage. The very shallow rake of the seating does need addressing though. While probably fine for something like stand-up comedy, for dance, it’s a big problem. Seeing the whole body, legs and feet included, is rather important. I wonder just how much of the largely floor-based Isadora those in the back rows actually saw.