Ballet Icons Gala 2024 Review ★★★★★

There were many highs, just a few lows and lots of points of interest in this year’s Ballet Icons Gala, which brought to London an impressive cast of ballet stars from across the world in a programme that went well beyond the usual gala staples to offer new, original material, including a couple of UK premieres.

The two highest points of the evening both involved the Royal Ballet principal Vadim Muntagirov. Supremely elegant and a glorious dancer, Muntagirov opened the programme with the equally dazzling fellow Royal principal Fumi Kaneko, in Grand Pas Classique (pictured top).They put a smile on my face and set the bar impossibly high for those coming after.

Later in the second half of the programme, Muntagirov returned to partner Olga Smirnova, a Russian principal now in voluntary exile with the Dutch National Ballet, in the pas de deux from Balanchine’s Diamonds.


Ballet Icons Gala 2024, Olga Smirnova and Vadim Muntagirov in Diamonds. Photo: Jack Devant
Set to Tchaikovsky’s music and designed by Balanchine to evoke the splendour of imperial Russia, this glittering, unhurried, impeccably classic pas de deux found the perfect exponents in Smirnova, with her assured technique and cool hauteur, and Muntagirov, a noble, attentive partner.

Two pieces brought steamy sensuality to the stage: The Thinker, a self-choreographed piece by Sergio Bernal inspired by the sculpture of Rodin, which blended contemporary movement with flamenco to show off the practically naked body as sculpture – it was narcissistic, a touch self-indulgent and totally mesmerising. In the second half, the Royal Ballet’s Melissa Hamilton and La Scala’s ever young Roberto Bolle, evoked the dark recesses of Caravaggio’s soul in the eponymous pas de deux choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti.


Ballet Icons Gala 2024, Roberto Bolle and Melissa Hamilton in Caravaggio. Photo: Jack Devant
Matthew Golding and Spain’s Lucia Lacarra brought a poignant evocation of the separation caused by war in Remembrance (from Lost Letters), danced against a background of poppy fields to music by Max Richter, which had its UK premiere here; in another premiere Rome-base Eleonora Abbagnato and Sergio Bernal danced Proximity or Closeness, by the young choreographer Ermano Sbezzo.

ENB’s Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw displayed their impressive contemporary technique and preternatural mutual understanding in William Forsythe’s deconstruction of classical ballet In the Middle, Somewhere Elevated, to Thom Willems pounding score.


Ballet Icons Gala 2024. Gareth Haw and Sangeun Lee in In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated. Photo:Jack Devant
There was a rare opportunity to see a dancer from Paris Opera Ballet, in the person of the captivating premiere danseuse Bleuenn Battistoni, lovingly partnered by Bayerisches Staatsballett’s principal Julian McKay in Renaissance, a glamorous piece by Sébastien Bertaud costumed by Balmain.

There were, of course, fireworks a-plenty, as is only to be expected from these events. Young Motomi Kiyota of Hungarian National Ballet proved a thrilling live wire in Le Corsaire; and Natalia Osipova, partnered by Dutch National Ballet’s newly minted principal, Giorgi Potskhishvili, fairly brought the house down with an excerpt from Don Quixote.


Ballet Icons Gala 2024, Natalia Osipova and Giorgi Potskhishvili in Don Quixote. Photo: Jack Devant
I don’t believe there are even names for some of the mind-blowing steps and jumps created by Potskhishvili, the kind that make you laugh out loud in disbelief at the sheer audacity on display; and Osipova could be excused the touch of vulgarity she brought to her Kitri, so vivacious and crowd-pleasing was her dancing.

Live music was provided by the English National Ballet Philharmonic under the baton of Maria Seletskaja.

FULL CAST OF BALLET ICONS GALA 2024: Vadim Muntagirov, Fumi Kaneko, Francesca Hayward, Herman Cornejo, António Casalinho, Margarita Fernandes, Riho Sakamoto, Constantine Allen, Sergio Bernal, Bleuenn Battistoni, Julian McKay, Travis Clausen-Knight, James Pett, Evelina Godunova, Motomi Kiyota, Olga Smirnova, Yasmine Naghdi, Reece Clarke, Skylar Brandt, Melissa Hamilton, Roberto Bolle, Lucia Lacarra, Matthew Golding, Camila Bocca, Osiel Gouneo, Eleonora Abbagnato, Sangeun Lee, Gareth Haw, Natalia Osipova, Giorgi Potskhishvili.