This gala night was not the diamond anniversary of the Royal Ballet company but of its supporters’ association – more essential than ever in times of shrinking Arts Council England grants. It’s a celebratory pick ’n’ mix of old and new, with four fresh commissions plus a company premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s For Four, from 2006.
These gala programmes are tricky. You pluck a pas de deux out of a full-length ballet – in this case Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée and Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling – and they lose their context and character to become pretty dancing, without the humour or torment, respectively, of the full ballets. But for a fan it’s like hearing a familiar chorus.
