Kenneth MacMillan - Steps Back in Time review: An intimate celebration of a master's early work

1/5
Emma Byrne20 April 2018

Kenneth MacMillan is one of British ballet’s most celebrated exports, with companies fighting to stage his big three-acters: Mayerling, Manon, and Romeo and Juliet.

Yet he left behind a rich legacy of smaller works, many rarely performed. So all kudos to Viviana Durante, one of his last muses, for putting together this fascinating programme of three of his early ballets, staged in the intimate Pit theatre. Beg for a ticket if you have to.

MacMillan didn’t usually go in for fairy tales, but the opening extract from House of Birds is pure Brothers Grimm. There’s a witch who turns children into birds, the young lovers who break the spell and (spoiler alert) a gruesome death. Lauren Cuthbertson is luminous as the Girl, all fluttering bourrées, then spiky brilliance after her transformation, strongly supported by Thiago Soares.

Danses Concertantes is the evening’s most classical work, but with flashes of pure MacMillan brilliance alongside the Stravinsky score. But why so short? Akane Takada and José Alves make easy work of the extract’s precise choreography, but with just three minutes on stage, they don’t get the time they deserve to shine.

Arts picks of the week: 16th - 22nd April

1/5

Laiderette, about a circus girl who goes to a ball, is an early take on themes of rejection and exclusion. Yasmine Naghdi, who has already proved herself a very fine MacMillan Juliet, is wonderful as the girl publicly shamed. You feel every drop of her humiliation.

Until April 21

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