Joseph Sissens is one of the Royal Ballet’s most inspiring dancers. Promoted to principal this summer, he doesn’t come from a background where ballet is encouraged, and had to be supported by a neighbour even to begin fulfilling his obvious talent. He has worked hard to get where he is – a gorgeous classical prince but also an intelligent and powerful interpreter of more contemporary styles.
He is of Anglo-Jamaican heritage, which makes him one of six dancers of colour in the Royal Ballet and he has become an activist as well as an example. Legacy, “a celebration of Black and Brown excellence in ballet”, was his idea. He wanted to create an evening where they could come and be themselves. It is his giving back and looking forward.
The result is joyous – a celebratory gala that, like all such occasions, has its ups and downs, but which utterly achieves its aim of simply letting the brilliance of the dancers from the Royal, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and other companies shine in a range of different works.
There are two premieres. Arielle Smith, one of four Black choreographers on the bill, contributes Pass It On, a work whose three movements take their flavour from the music of Bobby McFerrin. In the first, three dancers in yellow shorts – Céline Gittens, Miranda Silveira and Blake Smith – pose with jazzy, sideways strolls and little shrugs. Then, to the strains of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Precious Adams introduces gravitas and expansive arabesques. Finally, Smith and Marianna Tsembenhoi dance with joy and affection. It’s a souffle of feeling, beautifully lit by Joshie Harriette.
The other new piece, AX² by Hannah Joseph, a dancer with Company Wayne McGregor, is more sombre in tone, with monochrome design and an electronic score by Cairo Brown. Its first section, for Joseph and Rebecca Myles Stewart, was full of inventive mirroring and punchy port de bras. Both stylish and sinuous, it loses energy when it becomes a quartet, but brims with potential.
The programme ranges from traditional duets from Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty to snippets of modern classics. The hip-tilting propulsion and energy of an all-male trio from Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, rigorously danced by Sissens, Francisco Serrano and Caspar Lench, makes a thrilling opener. Christopher Wheeldon’s mournful This Bitter Earth, with its Max Richter score, gives Adams and Junor Souza an aching moment of lyrical sorrow.
A swift duet from Within the Golden Hour, also by Wheeldon, sets Emile Gooding and Lench flying in sharp shaped jumps, while Takademe, by Alvin Ailey’s Robert Battle, again allows Lench to show his virtuosic leap and precision timing. The Ailey company’s own sensational dancers – Christopher R Wilson, Chalvar Monteiro and Xavier Mack – are electrifying in Sinner Man from Revelations.
In contrast, Eightfold: Strength by Hope Boykin is a powerfully contained solo for Isabela Coracy, a dancer with the pioneering Ballet Black, the company that has done so much to change the perception of ballet. Combining an inspirational text about the hardship of a woman’s life with choreography that is simultaneously contained and feelingly expressive, it’s a highlight.
The entire evening, and the accompanying exhibition in the foyer, is a reminder of how far British ballet has come in its pursuit of diversity – and how much further there is to go if the legacy of the pioneers is truly to be fulfilled.
