The Dream, Photography by Daniel Boud for the Australian Ballet.
Audiences will come to see the title piece in this triple bill of the choreographic works of Frederick Ashton and they will be right to do so. It is delightful work, gorgeous to watch, filled with charm and humour.
The curtain opens on a magical forest scene with the girls of the corps de ballet rushing about daintily in green tulle and floral crowns. We are transported into a version of Shakespeare’s play which sees the world from the point of view of the fairy folk, where the humans are ridiculous and the invisible world is the place of grace.
Mendelssohn’s romantic music and the enchanting set and costumes designed by David Walker provide a perfect backdrop to the fairy tale. This is ballet as the punters love it and it would be an ideal introduction to charm a little girl or boy attending their first ballet. Although it would mean the adult missing out (see below), I might even consider turning up for just the final ballet with a young one.
Madeleine Eastoe as Titania and Kevin Jackson as Oberon, the queen and king of the fairies, lead us into the story imbuing the quite literal dramatic choreography of the first scenes with elegance and expressiveness.
Then the human characters arrive, miming hilariously as they as they deliver comic business in broad gestures. The fabulous clowning of the rustics is particularly delightful.
But The Dream is not merely pretty and witty. Don’t be so caught up in the fairy tale that you miss the extraordinary athleticism and unusual skill of some of the dancers.
The always remarkable Chengwu Guo is extraordinarily good as Puck, Oberon’s mischievous sidekick. It’s a perfect role for him to show off his trademark leaps, which are surely as close to flying as anyone ever got without a string and pulley. He brings great charm to the role too.
Also magnificent is Joseph Chapman as Bottom, a role which requires him to dance en pointe – almost unknown for a male dancer – with a huge ass’s head compounding the difficulty. Reading about this scene beforehand, I imagined a comic turn but Ashton’s choreography creates equine grace which Chapman delivers with great skill.
The night would have been satisfying if The Dream had been the whole program but it is preceded by two other Ashton ballets, of very different styles.
The first is Monotones II, a beautiful lyrical work of balance and control between three dancers: two boys and a girl. Set to the fluid music of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies, the ballet uses original combinations and balances which require great precision. The result is almost hypnotic, a compelling work of surprising power which is all the more beautiful for the contrast it provides with The Dream.
Between the two, I found Ashton’s Symphonic Variations less successful. Six dancers in vaguely Grecian costumes move in and out of groupings in a range of combinations which are technically accomplished but without neither the emotional power of Monotones II nor the narrative pleasures of The Dream. Symphonic Variations is forgettable but no matter.
The rest of the night gives us much to enjoy and remember.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
The Dream
The Australian Ballet
Arts Centre Melbourne 4- 13 June
Adelaide Festival Centre 8-9 July
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