BRB2: Carlos Acosta’s Classical Selection

Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham Spa
May 11, 2024

BRB2, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s second company that offers a two-year performance programme for dancers as they transition from school to company is back on the road. If this Saturday matinée at a sold out Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham is anything to go by, they are well worth catching again, even if, with one exception, the programme is a repeat of last year. I understand a new selection is on its way for 2025, however.

Dancers join BRB2 for two years with all five of the original 2023 cohort (Jack Easton, Frieda Kaden, Maïlène Katoch, Mason King and Oscar Kempsey Fagg) will be joining Birmingham Royal Ballet as artists at the end of the current season.

There’s also plenty to admire among the new quintet: Ariana Allen and Tom Hazelby (both UK), Alexandra Manuel (USA) and Alfie Shacklock (Australia), all of whom trained at The Royal Ballet School; and Ukrainian Alisa Garkavenko, who graduated from the Académie Princess Grace in Monaco. A truly international bunch.

After reprising the idea of the dancers arriving for class or rehearsal, which I’m not entirely convinced works, the first and more classical of the two ‘acts’ opened with Maïlène Katoch and Tom Hazelby in the pas de deux from Frederick Ashton’s Rhapsody. It is very difficult to get just right, so perhaps no surprise that, while elegantly and creditably danced, they never quite matched the emotion and glorious lyrical outpouring of the accompanying Rachmaninov’s Variations 17, and especially 18, from his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Many even experienced dancers find Bournonville difficult but guesting from Birmingham Royal Ballet’s main company, Olivia Chang Clarke and Ryan Felix made light work of the pas de deux from La Sylphide. Both were intensely musical, with the elegant Felix standing out for his lightness of ballon, and neat and speedy batterie.

Frieda Kaden and Jack Easton came together for the Act II pas de deux from Swan Lake. There was a fine connection between the two, with emotion writ large on her face.

It may feature two more swans but Carlos Acosta’s Dying Swans provides something very different. Acosta puts two dancers side-by-side, first to the sound of a wintry wind, then to the familiar Saint-Saëns. To the latter, one (Ariana Allen) performs a close approximation of Fokine’s well-known original while the other (Oscar Kempsey-Fagg) dances contemporary choreography by Michel Descombes that emphasises angularity and the performer’s flexibility. The two birds’ struggles for life come together remarkably well, each solo serving to show off the other.

Alisa Garkavenko and Mason King rounded off the first half with a flourish by rattling through that bravura gala favourite, the Diana and Actaeon pas de deux. Both looked fabulous, somehow managing to keep the excitement levels up while just about staying within the visible bounds of the Everyman Theatre’s relatively small stage, which oddly extends behind the proscenium arch, meaning it’s easy to disappear from view. Garkavenko, positively soared on her jetés and fouettéd to perfection.

I’m not sure that I will ever tire of seeing Ben Stevenson’s End of Time. First up after the interval, Kaden and Easton, definitely the partnership of the afternoon, returned to capture all it’s moody melancholy in a quite sublime and utterly beautiful performance.

Rather lighter in mood, Allen and Kempsey-Fagg then celebrated the spirit of tango in Gustavo Mollajoli’s A Buenos Aires, both stamping their personality on the dance.

Edith Piaf’s ‘Je ne regrette rien,’ is one of those songs that always seems to overpower whatever dance is put alongside it. That goes for my previous encounters with Ben Van Cauwenbergh’s choreography too. Yet here, Alexandra Manuel gave the solo unexpected depth, really finding connection with the music and the words.

Having stumbled on halfway through Manuel’s solo, and halfway through a bottle of wine, Hazelby then brought the house down with a superb rendition of Van Cauwenbergh’s humorous Jacques Brel-inspired Les Bourgeois. A few swigs of the grape juice clearly does wonders for footwork!

Perhaps it simply doesn’t quite work out of context (we will find out soon when Acosta Danza perform it at Sadler’s Wells) but the pas de deux from Carlos Acosta’s Carmen just didn’t spark, despite the best efforts of Chang Clarke and Felix.

The penultimate work is this year’s new addition. Will Tuckett’s Mirrored is danced to two Ravel piano pieces (Les Oiseaux tristes and Une Barque sur l’océan) and was specially created for the BRB2 tour. The first part, slightly melancholic, shows us a meeting and a love duet, while the second purports to see that love warm up. There was no doubting the quality of Katoch and King’s dancing, but I didn’t get much spark or even sense of relationship. It also felt very one-paced. When put up against the rest of the show’s repertory, it disappointed.

Finally, Jorge Garcia’s Majisimo gave four couples the chance to let rip with a feast of bravura virtuosity. It really did sparkle. Unfortunately, the audience then has to sit through a reverse of the opening, during which the dancers come back and get part-changed before ambling off. Only then can those watching give the whole ensemble the fulsome applause they deserve. While I may be in two minds about the opening, this closing scene absolutely does not work, succeeding only in totally breaking the mood.

Garkavenko is on record as saying she thinks it is really important to have junior companies like BRB2 because they give opportunities to young dancers to show their talent and to gain experience. Quite. BRB2 also allows Acosta and Birmingham Royal Ballet to visit towns and cities where real top quality ballet is rarely seen. What’s not to like? Long may the initiative continue.