English National Ballet’s year is structured by crowd-pleasing classics – in between come sparky programmes where the artistic director’s ambitions can cut loose. Aaron S Watkin’s first programme as leader offers a cherished neoclassical ballet plus two premieres by choreographers less familiar to British audiences. All three works have magnificent scores, sumptuously performed.
Les Noces, Ascent to Days, makes a substantial centrepiece. American choreographer Andrea Miller asks how we live with tradition that damages as much as it sustains. Stravinsky’s score is a terrifying stunner – the lyrics describe a wedding but sound like carnage. Miller’s craggy dance beats against harsh cliffs of clamorous song, performed by the Opera Holland Park chorus, dressed in black and backed against the walls.
