Dance Review by Nadine Meisner

BRINGING BACK THE FIRE

IT IS always a pleasure to see Fokine’s «The Firebird», with its glorious designs and Russian folklore, back in the Royal Ballet repertoire at the Royal Opera House. At least the bomb - hoaxers whose phone calls interrupted Wednesday’s performance had the taste to wait until that ballet was over and the interval started. Their nasty little «bloodbath» warning had everyone piling into the streets for 40 minutes, drinks still in hand, dancers still in costume. But, as in «The Firebird», good overcame evil and the company resumed its unfinished business with Bintley’s «Tombeaux» and Forsythe’s «In the middle, somewhat elevated».

Stravinsky may later have sneered at the so-called musical derivativeness of «The Firebird», his first ballet store; yet what a terrific overture. Its frisson of mysteriousness, dark and expansive, may have seemed even more atmospheric under Bernard Haitink’s baton a few years back, but Barry Wordsworth did not do so badly, either.

The company's guest ballerina, Nina Ananiashvili, only just recovered from an injury, made her debut as the Firebird, opposite Stuart Cassidy’s own debut as Ivan Tsarevich, her captor. Slender and quicksilver, her orange-red tutu and a feathered head-dress flickered like flames with her darting jetes and abrupt changes of direction. She used her huge dark eyes eloquently; she looked fragile and poignant.