Soggy in the corps

There are many different ways to start a ballet season, but an artistically disjointed triple bill is not the ideal one. Even on paper the Royal Ballet’s opening programme for 2006/7 looks awkward, and the rationale behind joining Balanchine’s Violin Concerto (1972), Jirí Kyliàn’s Sinfonietta (1978) and Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries (1973) remains unclear. Little matters if each work boasts an important, non-dance-specific score — something that prompted the most welcome presence of Antonio Pappano in the pit. And little matters when each of the three works represents a significant moment in late 20th-century ballet history. But to come across as successfully woven, a mixed programme requires much stronger artistic, cultural and stylistic links.

Indeed, things would have probably looked better had the dancing not been weak on the night I went. Balanchine’s Violin Concerto is, arguably, the epitome of translating music into choreography — for which Balanchine remains unsurpassed. As such, the ballet requires clockwork perfection, for any discrepancy between danced action and musical execution seriously vitiates its sheer beauty.