Czech visitors thrill at The Grange Festival: National Ballet of Brno in Oktetto

Dance at the Grange, The Grange Festival, Arlesford, Hampshire
June 6, 2024

Dance returned to The Grange Festival this year with the first ever visit to the UK by The National Ballet of Brno (Baletu NdB, Národní divadlo Brno), ahead of the participation of their second company, NdB 2, in The Royal Opera House’s Next Generation Festival in the Linbury Theatre (there are also plans for a NdB 3 for mature dancers, along the lines of the former NDT3). With over 40 dancers, NdB is the Czech Republic’s second largest company, and celebrated its centenary in 2020.

For the main company’s visit, artistic director, Mário Radačovský curated Oktetto, a selection of works that included familiar classical ballet jewels and newer pieces, alongside more contemporary choreography, plus a world premiere created specially for the occasion. It was a programme designed to show “What we are, who we are, and to give a taste of what we do,” as he put it in one of several delightfully laid back chats to the audience. A fine evening of high-quality dancing, it succeeded on every level.

Things got off to a light start with Radačovský’s Rossini, an extract from his ballet, Michelangelo. Danced to the overture from the composer’s La Cenerentola, it’s essentially a gentle caricature of male musculature. From the classical sculptural poses of the opening, the six male dancers have a lot of fun with the sometimes quirky choreography and each other. On an individual level, one fine series of repeated pirouette, double tour by João Gomes stood out.

Also by Radačovský, Spolu (which translates as ‘together’), is about searching and finding, and connections with others. It’s a very personal work, the impetus for its creation coming from the dissolution of his Ballet Bratislava, and a ballet that reflects on the fact that we are always part of a community and need other people for a fulfilled and happy life.

Performed to Franz Schubert’s string quartet Death and the Maiden, the lonely figure of Arthur Abram is gradually joined by others in a walking pattern that fills the space and from which snippets of movement sequences, then a series of duets emerge.

Earlier in his career, Radačovský spent a long time in the Netherlands, and it was impossible not to keep coming back to Hans van Manen in the sense that each of the duets is very human and comes with its own hint of narrative, each a snapshot of a different relationship, each fusing easily neoclassical and contemporary dance. A chorus of more minimalist movement from the others never gets in the way.

Each duet had much to offer but my favourite was the fifth, a beautifully fluid number for Anna Yeh and Glen Lambrecht, although the stronger, more powerful dance for Ivona Jeličová and Ilia Mirinov ran it close.

The first half rounded out with four big classical pas de deux. Common to all was the exemplary partnering, fouettés that were right on the button, and fabulous leaps and turns. Momona Sakakibara, who had the wonderful knack of being able to find time to momentarily hold positions before pushing on, and Shoma Ogasawara gave a fine Le Corsaire.

Next up was the seductive subtlety of the Black Swan pas de deux from Robert Strajner’s Swan Lake. An Se Hyun was totally in character as Odile as she reeled in the tall, handsome Robert Hyland. Her fouettés were not only remarkable for their accuracy, but also that, again, she seemed to find so much time in the music while performing them.

More fireworks followed from Chanell Cabrera and Adrian Sanchez in now Paris Opera Ballet director José Carlos Martínez’ production of Don Quixote, memorable for the all-out fizz they gave it from the very start and some insanely long and secure unsupported balances on one leg by her.

Brno’s big claim to ballet fame is that it is was the setting for the first ever performance of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet in 1938, choreographed by Ivo Vania Psota. So, it was only right that the final pas de deux was the Balcony Scene from that ballet, albeit Radačovský’s 2019 version that takes the ballet away from Verona, reworking the story as a modern dance drama. The pas de deux has everything you could wish for, though, including what looked like several nods to more familiar choreography elsewhere.

In black hoodie and trousers, Robert Hyland made for a very youthful Romeo. Gloria Benaglia was a gorgeous Juliet happy to throw herself into her lover’s arms. At time quite playful, the dance saw both wreathed in smiles and the emotion of the moment and the joys of first love washed over them. The highlights just kept on coming including one lovely moment at the end when she runs off, except that she can’t resist coming back for one last kiss.

First up after the break was Nacho Duato’s Gnawa, recently performed in Britain on the visit of Sao Paulo Dance Company. With a suggestive musical score by Hassan Hakmoun and Adam Rudolph that incorporates Spanish and North African sounds including fabulous drum rhythms in the opening section, it’s a work that combines sensual elegance with contemporary angularity.

The dance moves easily and organically from group sections to duets, the choreography aligned closed with the music’s drive and rhythms. The togetherness was excellent throughout.

In the Magreb, ‘gnawa’ refers to members of different mystic Muslim brotherhoods. who use song, dance and ritual as a means of reaching ecstasy. Duato introduces a ceremonial element when the dancers carry on candle lamps that are lined up across the front of the stage before the work culminates in the work’s central woman, Emilia Vuorio, marked out by being dressed in a flesh unitard rather than a black dress, being raised skywards by the other as if trying to reach out to a higher being.

Finally to the evening’s premiere, a new commission by The Grange Festival to The Hidden Face by John Tavener, featuring recorded performances by Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Festival director Michael Chance (counter-tenor) and Fretwork (viol consort).

Taverner’s 15-minute ethereal composition is a prayer of sublime serenity, a work that he has explained should “hold within it a whole tradition with nothing personal or idiosyncratic, as in ikon painting.” I’m not sure we got to that but strange, mysterious images are certainly created by Radačovský and his cast of ten, who dance in tight-fitting black tops, shorts and full face masks.

Duets are wrapped within an inner stillness, taking place while others stand still, many with backs to the audience. Bodies caressed and heads held gently are recurring images. Like the music, these beings seem to come from a different dimension. Consummate discipline and poise were everywhere. While it all has a stark beauty and is totally absorbing, that you can’t see faces makes The Hidden Face strangely unsettling and makes you feel distanced.

Taverner’s prayer encourages us to listen with a heart that has become so soft that the face is no longer hidden. “Hide not thy face” is repeated several times in the text. That point eventually comes when one of the women has her mask removed and is left along in very, very slowly fading light.

Except it wasn’t the end. Oktetto became ‘Nonetto’ as Radačovský appeared to announce a bonus: another Black Swan pas de deux, this time from his 2015 Black and White, a contemporary, adapted version of the classic.

Again, it’s personal. Aged 27, and a dancer with NDT, Radačovský was diagnosed with cancer. He lost 70% of his muscle mass and 30% of his lung capacity as he went through a series of treatments but, as he explained, watching the swans on the lake he could see from his hospital bed, he made a deal: if he survived, he would create his own version of Swan Lake. He did, telling the story very much from the perspective of Siegfried, focusing on a moment when a cancer diagnosis turns his life upside. If this pas de deux is any measure of it, it’s terrific.

The ballet sees Siegfried seek refuge in romantic relationships with two very different women. Here, with Shoma Ogasawara dressed in grey business suit and tie, the jacket of which flew dramatically on tours en l’air, it’s the seductive An Se Hyun, in a revealing short black number. It’s a pas de deux of darting limbs and many daring lifts with Ogasawara weaved around her partner’s neck and body time and again. They made it look easy.

It was a fabulous evening and one can only hope the company get back sometime, and can be seen by a wider audience.