Review: London City Ballet Double Bill – Firebird ★★★★

firebird london city ballet image credit Ash Ellie Young and Joseph Taylor

Like a phoenix, or a firebird, London City Ballet has emerged from the ashes. Under artistic director Christopher Marney, the company is three years old in its current form and now stops at Sadler’s Wells in London as part of a world tour, with a double bill named for Firebird.

Firebird is a drawcard for many: Igor Stravinsky’s music paired with Glen Tetley’s iconic 1981 choreography for the Royal Danish Ballet. This is its first UK revival, meaning the ballet has been absent from our stages for forty-five years. Marney calls the process of reviving it “artistic archaeology”, the work pieced together from fragments of video, notes and archive footage. Sharing the bill is a pared-down version of John Neumeier’s Ghost Light, a ballet born of Covid, and the two could hardly be more different: one tells a story, the other holds a mood.

Ghost Light, set to piano music of Franz Schubert, comes first and runs for 55 minutes. Neumeier choreographed it in 2020 from separate “bubbles” of six dancers who had to live together in order to rehearse, so the sections were created in isolation from each other. The title comes from the single lamp left burning on empty US stages while theatres were closed. By design there is no overarching story and it feels lyrical, lilting and lonely. Classical ballet is fused with more modern moves and we see shuffles, chest beating and a striking arm movement that reminded me of those Newton’s pendulums one used to see on office desks.

As a meditation on the emotion of Covid times, it worked. It began with the confusion of what had happened to our ordinary lives as Alina Cojocaru arrived ready to dance Odette to an empty room with a toppled chair. Couples came together in a succession of group numbers, duets and pas de deux, in ever-changing pairings, giving a sense of disorientation. Isolated figures, caught in a spotlight, sought connection and then separated again. This reflected the detachment from others that Covid brought and the extreme intensity in the times when you were together.

After the interval, Firebird was a bold, exciting, recognisable story with love, anger, fighting and a clear narrative arc. It has been beautifully and painstakingly restored to reflect the 1980s designs, and it was a pleasure to know that Mette Hønningen, the original Firebird whose memories guided the reconstruction, and the designer John Macfarlane were both there on the night. They were greeted with warmth by the audience and the dancers.

The painted backdrops were stunning. First came a forest that gradually changed and darkened as the story turned. Later came a stark, brash scene of abstract violence. Macfarlane’s costumes did as much work as the sets. Long black dresses resembled those of a witches’ coven and made great shapes from which the pink and red Firebird emerged. The autumn dresses lent a lightness to the corps.

The relationship between Firebird (Ellie Young) and Ivan (Joseph Taylor) was connected throughout, which adding narrative power. The antagonist Kotschei (Arthur Henderson) had movements which bled into each other and were almost animalistic in parts. The conflict scenes were powerful and visceral, especially between Henderson and Taylor. As the story built to its final crescendo, the formations, backdrop and costumes finished with an almost religious, reverential feel.

London City Ballet’s avowed aim is “preserving dance heritage, crafting future stories”. This double bill successfully does both. First, we see our recent global pandemic experience reflected in dance form. How we lived is a story that will be told down the generations. Then we are treated to a classic folk tale, lovingly revived in an iconic format 45 years old.

London City Ballet is well placed for the rest of their world tour.

[Thank you to Bread and Butter PR for a gifted ticket for an honest review.]

Image credits: ASH