Linbury Theatre, Royal Ballet & Opera, London
November 20, 2025
London City Ballet gave a wonderful evening on the debut at the Royal Ballet & Opera’s Linbury Theatre. It seems remarkable that, after its three decades hiatus, it was only in 2023 that the company was revived under the inspiration of artistic director Christopher Marney in 2023. Since then, it has given over 100 performances across Europe, America and Asia, garnering a deserved reputation for quality of dancing, and for programming that combines revivals of historic, classic ballet pieces, alongside visionary new choreographic work.
The company just gets better and better. The eleven dancers were outstanding in their grace, fluidity, musicality and interpretation, and that’s without the presence of guest artists, Alina Cojocaru, who did not perform on this evening.
Rebirth opens with something familiar: Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz. Danced to the waltz from Act 2 of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, the dancers gave a joyous rendition.
Photo ASH
The revival for the evening came with Jerome Robbins’ classic Quiet City, created in 1986 for New York City Ballet in memory of dancer Joseph Duell who committed suicide earlier that year. Not performed by NYCB since 2006, it’s danced to an orchestral suite by Aaron Copeland that grew out of incidental music for a production of an Irving Shaw play.
Very different in mood to Larina Waltz, the melancholic ballet presents two groups of shadowy men and women dressed in sombre clothes, whose lives are affected by the arrival of a young man. It was, again, beautifully danced.
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Soon is a new piece by the up-coming and highly thought of choreographer Tasha Chu. The premise of this ballet is pre-mourning, anticipatory grief, as the programme notes put it. Sahel Flora Pascual, dancing the female lead, gave an expectational performance. The music, Sam Robinson and Gavin Bryars’ lament, Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, which largely consists of a single phrase repeated over and over again, may have inspired Chu but certainly did nothing for me, however.
Photo ASH
Rebirth ends as it starts with the familiar: Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, danced to Mussorgsky’s music of the same name. Beautifully crafted choreography, well-danced, and all in front of Wendall K. Harrison’s ever-changing and mesmerising projection of Kandinsky’s art squares and concentric circles.
It truly was a great evening of dance, and it’s wonderful to see London City Ballet right back centre of the ballet world.