Pas-de-deux

20th April 2009 by Violette

A few weeks ago, Mr Omneo guest-blogged on the This is Now blog, sharing his thoughts on the music of ‘now’. We exchanged several tweets over on Twitter and he ended up offering me tickets for Sylvia at the London Coliseum. As I enjoy ballet a lot and I’m a regular at the French National Opera in Paris, this last minute gift was a really nice (and welcome) surprise.

Léo Delibes created Sylvia in 1876: though the ballet is not very well-known, its composition however has remained famous for inspiring some of the most famous dancers and musicians. Tchaikovsky even claimed that he would have not composed Swan Lake if Sylvia had been released first.

The plot is a bit complicated to describe, it takes us through time to a mythical forest, a cave and a temple, with a crowd of charming and delightful characters, including a pirate with a wooden leg and a drunk caveman.

What is fantastic about Sylvia is that, though the music remained the same over the years, productions have modernized the choreography quite a lot, rewriting it to incorporate modern techniques and new movements.

The troupe of the Birmingham Royal Ballet who danced last Thursday was a proof that despite the extravaganza of the decor and the plot, ballet remains at the heart of ‘now’. I have to pay tribute to Chi Cao and Nao Sakuma, as Amynta and Sylvia, the lead characters, for delicately phrasing their steps and pointe work, letting the design fade away and keeping us right there with them on stage.

tagged ballet ENO leo delibes this is now