Dance

Anniversaries are an ingenious way of generating interest. They catch the eye of the punters, get the dancers invigorated and the critics buzzing. A pair of anniversaries happening right now commemorates milestones for London’s two senior dance companies. The Royal Ballet has reached 75 and Rambert Dance Company will turn 80 on June 15.

Rambert is at Sadler’s Wells until Saturday. The Royal is currently showcasing its new production of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’.If any one ballet can encapsulate the Royal Ballet, this is it. Danced by the company since 1939, it was the opening night attraction when the Sadler’s Wells Ballet (as it was then still known) moved from north London to Covent Garden at the end of World War II. It was also the opening night production at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1949 when the company took New York by storm and Margot Fonteyn, its star ballerina, ended up on the cover of Time. Feature continues

The Royal Ballet’s crowning achievement, ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ is an ideal vision of what the words ‘classical ballet’ conjure up in most people’s minds: spectacular settings, opulent costumes – literally hundreds of them – an orchestra on top form and dancers who confidently show us that they rank among the very best in the world.

This is ballet’s holy grail. It’s Mount Everest, but is not set in stone. Over the past dozen years the company presented a pair of productions that failed to scale its heights, or to reach its complete glories. Now, thanks to the efforts of company director Monica Mason and her creative collaborator Christopher Newton, things look as if they are back on track.

Even so, there have been some bitchy comments circling around. Ignore them. There is no point in going on about what this new production is not. Reality insists that we deal with what it is – and what it is is damn good.

On June 15 1926 the Polish dancer and teacher Marie Rambert presented a short ballet by her pupil Frederick Ashton at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. This marked the birth of what was to become Ballet Rambert. Things have moved on a very long way since then. In 1966, Ballet Rambert burned its pointe shoes and moved into the modern era.

This week’s programme at Sadler’s Wells is a perfect company snapshot – a hit revival from last season, the company’s debut performance of an American masterwork and a world premiere – all in the space of two hours.

The premiere (pictured above) is from British choreographer and director Aletta Collins. Called ‘bloom’, it is her first work for Rambert and is likely to be a slyly subversive look at ‘that perfect romantic moment’. Its score includes tracks from the Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks.

The masterwork is Merce Cunningham’s ‘Pond Way’. There’s no story here, just gorgeously sensuous contemporary movement. Now 86, and the grand old man of dance, Cunningham created ‘Pond Way’ for his own New York-based company in 1992. The backdrop is by painter Roy Lichtenstein and the soundscore was devised by Brian Eno. It’s the eighth of Cunningham’s dances to be performed by Rambert.

There are 11 dancers in ‘Pond Way’, 16 in ‘bloom’. Mark Baldwin’s ‘Constant Speed’ brings on the entire company. Giddy and bright, with a series of costumes that run through the rainbow, it is danced to the music of Franz Lehár. ‘Constant Speed’, commissioned by the Institute of Physics to celebrate Einstein Year, premiered at Sadler’s Wells in May 2005. But you don’t need to know anything about scientific theories to enjoy its whizzing fun. This is a party piece worthy of any anniversary celebration.