Carlos Acosta at the London Coliseum

Nu?ez?s consummate radiance; Hamilton?s glamorous allure; the way Benjamin gives lustrous shape to everything she dances

When Carlos Acosta throws a party you know it?s going to be special. And so it proves with the bash to celebrate his fortieth birthday. This week at the Coliseum he presents a survey of his illustrious career at the Royal Ballet and brings together some of Covent Garden?s finest dancers to help him. It?s a gala with a difference ? a class act that instead of trading in obvious cliches and predictable party tricks is a serious attempt at showcasing some of the meatier repertoire of the 20th century.

Like most galas, it?s a succession of solos and pas de deux. As the ballets of Kenneth MacMillan have been especially important to Acosta?s career ? shaping his transition from virtuoso wonder boy to an artist of depth and feeling ? they are well represented in the selection, with five MacMillan ballets on a programme of 13.

Acosta dances three of them. He and Marianela Nu?ez are an emotionally charged couple in the Winter Dreams farewell duet, while he and Leanne Benjamin are ferociously exciting in the murder-suicide finale of Mayerling and powerfully resonant in Requiem. The latter?s inclusion, however worthy, is a downbeat moment in the second half from which the evening doesn?t fully recover.

Benjamin and Nehemiah Kish give us the bedroom pas de deux from MacMillan?s Manon, full of amorous rapture, and Kish teams up with Melissa Hamilton for a duet from Gloria (the fifth MacMillan work) that is informed by her cool beauty. Hamilton also has the honour of performing Fokine?s Dying Swan solo ? she gives it an affecting and very womanly spin.

Acosta and Nu?ez flex their sensual muscles in Fokine?s Scheherazade, though their performance was more friendly than fevered on Tuesday night. Far happier was their extraordinary sympathy in the Apollo pas de deux and their wonderful sense of fun in Vaganova?s famous bonbon, Diana and Actaeon, which closes the first half. Exuberant and utterly adorable.

Elsewhere, Ricardo Cervera and Yuhui Choe delivered the charm of Ashton?s Rhapsody; Cervera and Meaghan Grace Hinkis produced a routine performance of Balanchine?s Rubies; and Hamilton and Eric Underwood set the stage on fire in Wheeldon?s Tryst, both dancers drenched in sensual overload and unease.

The musical resources for this programme are uplifting: the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by Paul Murphy; the Pegasus Choir and assorted soloists.

Lasting impressions? Nu?ez?s consummate radiance; Hamilton?s glamorous allure; the way Benjamin gives lustrous shape to everything she dances ? how much I will miss her now that she has retired from Covent Garden. And interesting to see how Acosta views his future, hinted at in the contemporary dance solo (choreographed by Miguel Altunaga) that sees the Cuban ending the programme on a defiantly non-balletic note.

Source: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/stage/dance/article3830597.ece

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