La Valse/ Monotones/ Marguerite & Armand, Royal Ballet | reviews, news & interviews
La Valse/ Monotones/ Marguerite & Armand, Royal Ballet
La Valse/ Monotones/ Marguerite & Armand, Royal Ballet
A quarter of a century after Ashton's death, his legacy survives, and grows
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/mast_image_landscape/public/mastimages/Edward%20Watson%2C%20Marianela%20Nunez%20and%20Federico%20Bonelli%20in%20Monotones%20II.%20Photo%20Bill%20Cooper%2C%20ROH..jpg?itok=YB99gtUx)
Genius does not mean having no influences. Monotones, one of the very greatest of Frederick Ashton's ballets, is heavily influenced by other works: by George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations and Apollo, by Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère. And it in turn has influenced other great works: Kenneth MacMillan’s searing Gloria would not exist without this unearthly, moon-calm vision.
Monotones II, the second or “white” half, was created first, a gala piece which defies the usual fate of gala pieces. The starkness, the heroic simplicity and grace of this trio was immediately apparent, and Ashton choreographed a frontispiece, as it were, to introduce it. Monotones II features a woman and two men, and thus I was created to mirror its shape by being choreographed for two women and one man (all ably danced last night by, for I, Emma Maguire, Akane Takada and Dawid Trzensimiech; and for II, Marianela Nuñez, Federico Bonelli and Edward Watson).
The ebb and pulse of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes suites permits Ashton to produce ribbons of dance: in Monotones I, a back-and-forth pull-push effect, at its most simple and beautiful in the travelling arabesques, the women then the man leading and returning, as though tied with invisible bonds; Monotones II is a more liquid unfurling of linked arms and posed arabesques, so seemingly unstoppable that, like the entry of the Shades in La Bayadère, the viewer feels bereft when the series ends.
Two other gala pieces feature on this Royal Ballet Ashton commemoration (it is now a quarter-century since his death). The “Meditation” from Thaïs is a pas de deux that takes Massenet's well-known violin intermezzo and does, well, not much with it. The always valiant Leanne Benjamin does what she can, but her partner, Valeri Hristov, was not at his best last night, and was additionally burdened by Anthony Dowell’s Peter-Pan-does-the-Orient costume.
By contrast, Yuhui Choe and Alexander Campbell (pictured above right) made fine work of the Voices of Spring duet created for a production of Die Fledermaus. Campbell’s neat, beaten footwork was a pleasure (as is his Tintin-style quiff), and Choe’s little farewell flutter of her arms in the final lift was as joyous as it was unexpected.
The star-power for the evening, however, was in Marguerite and Armand, Ashton’s retelling of the Alexandre Dumas story of La dame aux camélias. Originally choreographed for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, it is heavy on attitudinizing, light on choreography, and apart from the pleasure of seeing (pictured left) Tamara Rojo (in her formal farewell to the Royal Ballet) and Sergei Polunin (in his formal let’s-make-friends-again return), the piece wears badly, with more dated costumes, this time by Cecil Beaton. (Do Marguerite’s admirers demand hardship pay for appearing in public in those dreadful wigs?)
A patchy bill, therefore, but for the pleasure of Monotones, so rarely performed, almost anything is endurable.
Watch Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in Voices of Spring:
Share this article
Add comment
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Dance
![Primrose path: Artists of the Royal Ballet in 'Les Rendezvous', Frederick Ashton's first significant ballet, made in 1933](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Artists%20of%20The%20Royal%20Ballet%20in%20Les%20Rendezvous%2C%20The%20Royal%20Ballet%20%C2%A92024%20Tristram%20Kenton.jpg?itok=RdfXoFMz)
![Queen of the Night: Rocio Molina, the only flamenco dancer ever to win a prize at the Venice Biennale](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/AL%20FONDO%20RIELA%20%C2%A9%20O%CC%81scar%20Romero%20%C2%B7%20005_0.jpg?itok=xhgyuw_h)
![Summer's lease: Francesca Hayward as Perdita and Marcelino Sambé as Florizel in Christopher Wheeldon's three-act ballet The Winter's Tale](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Francesca%20Hayward%2C%20Marcelino%20Sambe%CC%81%2C%20The%20Winter%27s%20Tale%20%C2%A92024%20ROH.%20Ph%20Andrej%20Uspenski.jpg?itok=kZJ7S4_m)
![Lean and hungry: an ancient spirit (Benedict Stewardson) steps out of the shadows in 'All You Need is Death'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/041124-allyouneedisdeath-1_ggnej3.jpg?itok=siqP3r3b)
![Knaves of hearts: Isabella Gasparini and her consorts in a rare revival of 'Danses Concertantes', the first work by a young Kenneth MacMillan for what was to become the Royal Ballet](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/J%20Sissens%2C%20L%20Dixon%2C%20I%20Gasparini%2C%20M%20Masciari%2C%20L%20Acri%2C%20Danses%20Concertantes%20%C2%A92024%20Tristram%20Kenton.jpg?itok=kmQ5-Zc6)
![Seeing red: Minju Kang as Carmen and Rentar Nakaaki as Don José in Johan Inger's 'Carmen'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/PRESS_Minju-Kang-as-Carmen-and-Rentaro-Nakaaki-as-Don-Jose-in-Johan-Ingers-Carmen-%C2%A9-Laurent-Liotardo-6.jpg?itok=xGalcQuB)
![Dancing balloonheads Philip Connaughton and Deirdre Griffin go further than you thought possible in 'WAKE'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/PhotoBy-RuthMedjber-3499.jpg?itok=eMpEWiAS)
![Moonlight sonata: The corps of swans in the Royal Ballet's 2018 production of Swan Lake, now on its second revival](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Swan%20Lake%20%C2%A9%20ROH.%20Photographed%20by%20Tristram%20Kenton%20%285%29.jpg?itok=LCjfQ1ID)
![Paco de Lucía at the Flamenco Festival in Malaga in 2007](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Paco%201.jpg?itok=DMjR9FBL)
![Slow-motion seduction: Marianela Nuñez and Lukas Brændsrød in 'After the Rain'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Marianela%20Nun%CC%83ez%20%26%20Lukas%20B.%20Br%C3%A6ndsr%C3%B8d%20in%20After%20the%20Rain%20%C2%A9%20Andrej%20Uspensky.jpg?itok=vQDdo4pg)
![Children at play: the company in Tanztheater Wuppertal 's Nelken](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Nelken%20by%20Uwe%20Stratmann.jpg?itok=7V4TBxZx)
![Night flight: Joseph Sissens in Robert Binet's 'Dark With Excessive Bright'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Joseph%20Sissens%2C%20Robert%20Binet%27s%20Dark%20with%20Excessive%20Bright%20%C2%A92024%20ROH.%20Ph%20Andrej%20Uspenski%20%284%29.jpg?itok=RF0S80Cp)
Comments
I have the impression that,
I think Judith Flanders was
Each to their own of course,
I enjoyed the entire bill,
I fail to see how could
Why is it pretentious to
Absolutely agree that