Ballet Nights February 2024 Review ★★★★★

The eclectic composition of Ballet Nights is not accidental. On the contrary, it’s an attempt to create a dance show that will draw diverse audiences to its home, the Lanterns Studio Theatre in Canary Wharf.

And should those audiences be newbies when it comes to dance shows, Ballet Nights producer Jamiel Devernay-Laurence is on hand as the evening’s compere to introduce each number with just the right amount of information, delivered in a light-hearted manner.

The main draw of this show was the presence of ballet royalty, in the shape of Royal Ballet principals Yasmine Naghdi and Reece Clarke.They danced two numbers to close each half of the programme: the balcony pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet (pictured top) closed the programme, and a Russian curiosity, the short virtuoso pas de deux Spring Waters closed Part 1.

Ballet Nights, Reece Clarke and Yasmine Naghdi in Spring Waters. Photo: Deborah Jaffe
Elegant, energetic and exciting in equal measure, with full use of the theatre’s generous stage space and daring lifts fuelled by Rachmaninov’s music, Spring Waters is the perfect gala number and these two glorious dancers did it full justice.

Their return for an impassioned rendition of the Romeo and Juliet pas de deux was not less involving. If Ballet Nights can guarantee this level of performance for each of its iterations, then it’s definitely doing ballet a service by bringing its very best to a wider public away from formal opera houses.

Diametrically opposed to the ballet component, but no less thrilling, was Guy Salim’s contemporary tap number. Forget the elegant, gentlemanly Fred Astaire: this was tap in casual clothes for the modern day, strong, occasionally stomping, often aggressive, mostly tongue in cheek. It was mind-boggling and deservedly brought the house down.

Contemporary dance was represented by a number of diverse pieces. Of particular interest was Laurel, created shortly before his death by Robert Cohan, the American who did more than anybody else to bring contemporary dance to the UK, for Laurel Dalley Smith, building on what he saw as her wild, almost feral qualities.

Ballet Nights, Laurel Dalley Smith in Laurel. Photo: Deborah Jaffe
Pett/Clausen-Knight danced their own Nerve Wire, a muscular, intense number for two men set against a range of neon columns, which added a disquieting element to what was meant as an exploration of fear, set to an unnerving musical score by Sean Pett.

Ballet Nights, Pett/Clausen-Knight in Nerve Wire. Photo: Deborah Jaffe
In all, ten dance numbers of varying quality made up what was very much a dance sampler, with each half introduced by a short piano piece played by Lanterns resident pianist Viktor Erik Emanuel: Ravel’s Mirror IV: Alborada del Gracioso and Schumann’s Abegg Variations Op 1.

In another departure from traditional ballet performances, after the show the audience were invited to meet the dancers, another feature of Ballet Nights, which Devernay-Laurence feels is important to bring performers and public closer together.

Read Jamiel Devernay-Laurence's interview with Culture Whisper here