Northern Ballet, Made in Leeds review ★★★★★

Under its previous veteran director, David Nixon, Leeds-based Northern Ballet developed a solid reputation as a purveyor of full-evening narrative ballets. Works such as Cathy Marston’s Victoria,, a danced biography of the eponymous queen, and Kenneth Tindall’s Casanova, for example, were plot and character driven, clearly narrated and cogently acted by a cohort of specialist dance actors.

Made in Leeds gives London an opportunity to assess the path the company’s new director, former Royal Ballet principal Federico Bonelli, is drafting for Northern Ballet. In a programme note Bonelli acknowledges the company’s reputation as a specialist in story-telling and states this bill is intended ‘to invite new voices into this narrative.’

The programme assembles work by two choreographers who are fast establishing a reputation for original and accomplished creations: Ballet Black’s Mthuthuzeli November and former ENB dancer Stina Quagebeur, and a piece by an outstanding dancer who’s just started turning his hand to choreography, Dickson Mbi.

Mthuthuzeli November’s Wailers is billed as ‘a work that gives thanks to life’. The set is a simple, cracked, dry-earth wall which points directly towards the Africa of November’s birth, as indeed does the musical score credited to November himself.

Two women representing Grand Mother (Aerys Merill) and Mother (Sarah Chun) huddle centre stage.

Aerys Merill and Sarah Chun in Mthuthuzeli November's Wailers. Photo: Emma Kauldhar
They are surrounded by four other women in simple white dresses with black trim (costume design Yann Seabra), the same palette for the costumes of the six men who will later join them. This is very much a hymn to the strength and resilience of African women, the role of the male dancers unclear.

Their African-infused dances are never less than interesting and harmonious, though the story-telling is not always clear; and the use of pointe shoes for the women is incongruous.

Stina Quagebeur’s Nostalgia (pictured top), set to a wistful score by Jeremy Birchall, explores memories through two red-clad couples, who alternate in brief snatches separated by blackouts, each appearance denoting a different feeling: anxiety, pleasure, yearning.

Partnering Minju Kang as the principal couple, the very elegant Jonathan Hanks caught the eye. Quagebeur’s choreography, both for the individual couples and for the ensemble that will later join them is impeccably classical, creating beautiful lines, effortless lifts and flowing movement.

Dickson Mbi’s Ma Vie Live can only be described as a frenzied delirium. Purporting to explore the life of the 18th-century libertine Giacomo Casanova, it has the appropriate props with powdered wigs, corsets and voluminous skirts.

Minju Kang in Dickson Mbi's Ma Vie. Photo: George Liang
It is, however, very much an early creation with far too many ideas thrown at it at the expense of coherence. Halfway through, 10 dancers evolve from impeccably sedate court dances to an orgiastic ball, their sheer energy and synchronicity aided and abetted by Roger Goula’s thumping score. Quite exhilarating, but what does it amount to? What story does it tell?

Throughout, Northern Ballet's dancers performed with professionalism and commitment and the star rating of this review acknowledges their performances.