Heinz Bosl Foundation Autumn Matinée with the Bavarian Junior Ballet

National Theatre, Munich
December 3, 2023

The Bavarian Junior Ballet (Bayerisches Junior Ballett München) and Ballet Academy of the Munich University for Music and Performing Arts came together for the second autumn matinée of the Heinz Bosl Foundation (Heinz Bosl Stiftung). It proved a fine showcase of young talent, the dancers excelling in works new and old. For much of the performance, they also had the benefit of live music, courtesy of the university’s excellent chamber orchestra, the Volta Ensemble.

The matinée included the announcement of Varvara Lobanova, student at the Academia Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and Serhii Zharikov of the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, as this year’s winners of the Heinz Bosl Prize, awarded every two years to support young dancers. Both 2023 winners are 19-years-old and young Ukrainian talents who had to leave their homeland due to the ongoing war.

As part of the matinée, Lobanova danced a variation from the first act of Giselle, in which she showed particularly expressive arms and some fine hops on pointe.

Zharikov meanwhile teamed up with fellow Cranko School student Kaela Tapper to dance Uwe Scholtz’s pas de deux, Sonata. It was the highlight of the whole show. To the andante from Sergei Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata it’s a true rhapsody in motion. As it symbolises a couple’s journey in life, it has a deeply romantic feel, helped by the way they look deep into each others eyes. There’s one lovely moment when, helped by her partner, she walks on air. Both dancers excelled, the chemistry between them wonderful. The partnering was outstanding, all the lifts executed with ease. It was insanely beautiful and utterly sublime.

The performance opened with a choreographed demonstration of class exercises by the younger university students. Unusual was that it focused on character work. The dancers gave a fine display although there were a lot of very serious faces at first. Smiles appeared as they eased, however, faces really lightening after a bit of a curtain malfunction towards the end.

Bournonville is the complete opposite of a lot of modern classicism where multiple pirouettes, flashy leaps and big extensions are seen as best. With its restraint, and especially its ballon, batterie and other quick footwork, it’s a style that students generally find difficult. But those at the Ballet Academy of the University have had the opportunity to study under teacher and Bournonville-specialist Dinna Bjørn. It showed. The selection of divertissements from Napoli was rather well done and just got better and better.

Among the highlights was a female pas de trois by Katerina Novotna, Olja Aleksic and Monami Aoki. Here and later, Aleksic in particular produced excellent ballon and a nice sunny smile to go with it. A Simon Boley solo was notable for sharp, fast batterie. Most impressive was Sarah Pimentel Quintao, however. Not only was she very neat, she seemed so at ease, finding time in the music to show us positions. It was also very pleasing to see ‘proper’ Bournonville pirouettes, that is with the working leg placed much lower than in other classical schools.

A Bavarian Junior Ballet regular at their performances, Pictures at an Exhibition takes several steps away from the well-known Modest Mussorgsky interpretation of close friend Viktor Hartmann illustrations. First, rather than the original score, an eclectic range of later versions of the composer’s music is used, including jazz and by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. And rather than exploring Hartmann’s art, choreographers Norbert Graf, Ayman Harper and Ivan Liška take inspiration from the work of famous 20th century painters. The resulting dance miniatures are as eclectic as the collection of artists and styles that provoked them. With all appearing to play to the strengths of the dancers, it was most enjoyable.

The best came early. The second dance, ‘Bander’ by Norbert Graf (inspired by Roy Lichtenstein) is a very sleek duet. Its complex partnering calls for a lot of trust, more than delivered by the superbly elegant Mallika Aithala and Jamie Constance. They were quite spellbinding.

That followed Graf’s opening solo, ‘Pelz’ (Meret Oppenheim), in which Lars Philipp Gramlich produced some excellent turns and leaps despite the restrictions of his bulky, furry trousers. Two female solos stood out. Ayesha Lucido was nicely sparky in her colourful, short, summery dress as she danced ‘Dots’ (Georges Seurat) also by Graf. Later, Alexandra Abrashina, one of the few on pointe, showed plenty of light, quick footwork in ‘Points Pattern for Pollock’ (Jackson Pollock) by Harper, a dance that had lots of Balanchine-like jazzy use of the hips.

Other excellent duets with fine partnering included Robyn Hodges and Simon Adamson-De Luca in ‘Die Katakomben’ (René Magritte) by Liska; and Pablo Armenteros and Parker Gamble in ‘Beuys for Boys’ (Joseph Beuys), a rather dark affair that appeared to have a narrative at its heart.

Among the odder contributions was ‘Picasso,’ a strange duet for Harry Ashton-Ireland in pantaloons and Naia Dobrota in female fat-suit. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be humorous, but I found it uncomfortable. More amusing was ‘Sur Real’ (Jeff Koons) that featured Parker Gamble, Pablo Armenteros, Arturo Lizana Garcia in a dance that included an astronaut, an orange ‘alien’ form that turned out to be wearing red high heels, and a giant blue puppet that interrupted them. Weird but fun.

The Bavarian Junior Ballet returned after the break in 3/4 Preludes by Richard Siegal. Set to George Gershwin’s Three Preludes, it translates very effectively the composer’s musical notes into movement. Although classically-rooted, Siegal breaks down and reconstructs familiar phrases into new ideas, tossing in dashes of dance from the period, such as the Charleston, along the way. It’s sense of fun and hints of narrative added to the enjoyment.

David Russo’s Once Upon, struggled to engage however, despite the best efforts of the university students. On a stripped back stage and with a slightly other-worldly feel, it involves a lot of slow-motion rolling on the floor with the dancers in two groups, black and white. It said little.

Given Marco Goecke’s attack on journalist Wiebke Hüster earlier in the year, it was impossible not to smile wryly as one heard the line, “Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to?” sung by Nina Simone in the masterpiece that is her take on ‘Sinnerman’ and the soundtrack to the choreographer’s All Long Dem Day (All Day Long).

The dancers of the Bavarian Junior Ballet looked totally at home with Goecke’s trademark quick, sharp movement, each shift of an arm, head, whatever, apparently sparked by a split-second electric charge. Despite his dance looking almost mechanical, it’s fascinating how Goecke’s choreography still so often speaks mood and emotion.

Among the highlights was a splendid opening duet by Arturo Lizana García and Ayesha Lucido. As elsewhere, there was no emotional closeness, just perfect togetherness in a conversation in movement in time and space. But even they were outdone by the razor-sharp Robyn Hodges, whose fabulous solo was so precise it had to be seen to be believed.

After that, the work features various groupings, the dancers in the choreographer’s trademark black trousers with naked upper bodies for the men and flesh-coloured tops for the women, sometimes flooding the stage like a flock of birds, sometimes appearing in smaller groups.

It may be darkly lit, but that’s just about all that is dark about All Long Dem Day. It was a fine, thrilling way to end a fine show.