London City Ballet - Momentum bill

London City Ballet’s 2nd season tour of 4 works includes testing choreography from such international masters as Balanchine & Ratmansky…

Lydia Hough and Joseph Taylor in Alexei Ratmansky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’. © Photography by ASH

London City Ballet
Momentum: Haieff Divertimento, Consolations and Liebestraum, Soft Shore, Pictures at an Exhibition
★★★★✰
London, Sadler’s Wells
13 September 2025
londoncityballet.com
www.sadlerswells.com

Having made a fine start last year, London City Ballet’s latest incarnation is now touring its second bill, and it certainly feels more ambitious, notably including testing choreography from such international masters as Balanchine and Ratmansky. Once again, star ballerina Alina Cojocaru guests and heads an eager, 14 strong, company of dancers of various maturities. Besides Cojocaru, it was notable that Joseph Taylor and Constance Devernay-Laurence (ex-principals with Northern and Scottish Ballet, respectively) added lustre to all they touched.

The evening nominally opened with the toughest of the tough — the neoclassicism of George Balanchine. Haieff Divertimento is a little-known piece from 1947 that was lost, salvaged/recovered in the 1980s, and given occasional outings since by New York City Ballet (NYCB) and Suzanne Farrell’s company. It’s a quirky work from Balanchine’s early years, and given the plethora of impressively great pieces he made, you understand why this got misplaced for a good while and isn’t seen often. As a composer, Haieff is not widely known, and like the movement, it also feels fine, quirky, and something you might overlook for a while. The problem is Stravinsky — his music often powered Balanchine to do great things, and Haieff channels some of Stravinsky’s approach but is lighter and for the most part is way less distinct, if sometimes joyful and with pastoral sections. The movement is both full of stately reverence and playfulness and feels as if Balanchine is experimenting and honing his neoclassicism. I’d be interested to see what full-on, steely-legged American dancers make of it, because there felt too much softness in this rendition of Balanchine’s movement — a lack of attack and full gusto. It’s not a bad piece, and it was not danced badly, but you had the feeling of an opportunity well lost in choosing to showcase some non-mainstream Balanchine.

The company looked much more at home in Liam Scarlett’s Consolations and Liebestraum. From 2009, it’s an early work before Scarlett became widely known, and it holds up pretty well. To some emotionally charged Liszt (sadly rather over-amplified at the Wells), it’s very easy to read, as three couples show various aspects of a loving relationship over the decades. It’s not at all a rose-tinted view but real ups and downs, including despair, all drawn in sensitive classical steps and pas de deux. The best of the three sections is the duet for Jimin Kim and Nicholas Vavrečka in the middle years — easily the most charged and rocky in intensity, though it features one unfortunate bit of partnering where Kim, perched high above her partner, has to change her position, and it looks horridly effortful. It’s used twice too. If Scarlett were still around, I fancy that might have been adjusted. Alina Cojocaru is heartbreaking as the older partner who, alone on stage, tops and tails the work — as she looks back over the past and is deeply and touchingly supported by Joseph Taylor. Consolations and Liebestraum is not perfect, but it is accomplished and a good fit for the company. Also worth noting are the fine programme notes by Laura Morera.

The new work for the evening — Soft Shore — came from Florent Melac, a principal (or Premier danseur) with the Paris Opera Ballet. It’s early in his choreographic journey, and you can see that, like Scarlett, he picks up on emotions, this time using some beefy Beethoven (again rather over-amplified) as his foil. It really comes down to two back-to-back duets, one for a pair of men and one for a man and a woman. In her duet, Constance Devernay-Laurence does her all to breathe life into sweeping movement that feels a bit hollow and generic — but she’s not helped by a largely uncommunicative Alejandro Virelles. However, the same-sex duet for Arthur Wille and Joseph Taylor has much more grit to it as they bob, weave, bend, and expansively support each other every which way.

After the interval came the best work of the evening — Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. In writing about its NYCB 2014 premiere, Marina Harss concluded, “If only every ballet felt this vital and alive.” For ten dancers to the ten movements of Modest Mussorgsky’s eponymous suite, all life in its idiosyncratic variety seems to pop out here at one time or another. The music, sometimes light, sometimes bombastically heavy, was a graphic response to an exhibition of works painted by Viktor Hartmann. Rather than use the Hartmann pictures, the designs here are based on a Kandinsky abstract painting brought to life in projections by Wendall K. Harrington and on glorious floaty costumes by Adeline Andre. The steps are classical but given playful twists and little narrative flurries, if without any dramatic throughline — it’s rather like consuming a series of hors d’oeuvres or particularly tasty morsels. It’s fast-paced as dancers emerge in many combinations, please us with their classicism, and then fold in some distorted movement that makes you smile at its fleeting originality. It’s a work I’d love to see again and many times too. Its inclusion here is a real reminder that we see too little Ratmansky this side of the pond, which is a bit odd given his European (Ukrainian) ancestry.

I have to mention the live pianist for the night — Reina Okada — who did a fine job with testing scores. But as I’ve indicated, they do need to dial down the amplification. These are works with a wide dynamic range, and it sounded way too ragged at times. Also worth noting that all four works on the bill are from male choreographers. However for the very last date in the run, at the Royal Opera House, a work by the contemporary Tash Chu is part of the mix. Hopefully she and other female creatives will feature more fully in other tours.