Last Updated on November 12, 2025
The Best of ‘Mr B’
5.0 out of 5.0 stars
On Friday, 28th March, The Royal Ballet opened its triple bill of ballets to celebrate the giant of 20th century ballet worldwide, George Balanchine, who transformed American ballet, was the creator of the Neoclassical style and created over 465 works.
He was born in St. Petersburg and trained at the Imperial Ballet School, later moving to Europe; it was here that he met Sergei Diaghilev and joined the groundbreaking Ballet Russes as a choreographer. He changed his name from Balanchivadze to Balanchine at Diaghilev’s urging and is widely known as ‘Mr B’.
This programme presented three contrasting ballets – Serenade, Prodigal Son and Symphony in C- that were originally made for different companies, both for young dancers and established stars of the ballet. It is part of the ‘Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels’ Festival that continues until April 8th 2025.
Patricia Neary (‘Pat’) staged this production and Kevin O’Hare paid tribute to her front of stage at the start, citing her considerable influence over the Balanchine world, her reputation as being both inspirational and irreplaceable, and her responsibility for staging Balanchine’s works both for the Royal Ballet and internationally for the last fifty-seven years. She was a former student of Balanchine and became his voice around the world, ensuring that performances of his work are in keeping with his standards. She is now retiring from her globe-trotting for a well-deserved retirement, and at the end of the performance she was invited on stage to receive a shower of flowers and applause.
Serenade, to the music of Tchaikovsky (Serenade for Strings in C) was the first ballet of the evening. This work is described as one of pure dance, a beautiful minimalist piece created in 1935 with Lincoln Kirstein (who had invited Balanchine to America) for students at the School of American Ballet, which Balanchine had created as soon as he arrived in America from Europe in 1933. Some of the mistakes that Balanchine’s students made in the original rehearsals were incorporated into the choreography to add to its charm, such as a girl arriving late or a student’s fall. Serenade was enhanced by simple staging and dreamy blue lighting, with elegant costumes designed by the Russian-American costume designer Karinska, powder blue sheer skirts for the ballerinas and royal blue leotards for the two men. Karinska regularly worked with Balanchine thereafter, including at the New York City Ballet, founded by Balanchine in 1948, where she was leading costume designer.
Serenade is a ‘plotless’ work; there are stylish combinations of movements that seem to tell pieces of stories, expressed in various groups, solos and pas de deux, pas de trois and pas de cinq, and tableaux of formations, held just for the right length of time for the audience to appreciate the beauty. A large group of ballerinas stand in an ‘orange-grove’ formation, where every dancer can be seen, and begin the ballet together with arms raised like Greek goddesses.
The Principals Lauren Cuthbertson (Waltz Girl), Mayara Magri (Russian Girl) and Melissa Hamilton (Dark Angel) all danced with great virtuosity and musicality, as did the elegant William Bracewell and striking Ryoichi Hirano. Cuthbertson and Bracewell’s pas de deux was sublime, full of delight and lyricism, and the moment at the end when Lauren is raised up at the end and carried aloft was a stunning vision.
There is an dramatic scene when Hirano, manoeuvred by Melissa Hamilton as the Dark Angel, meets another woman (Lauren), lying down disconsolate after apparently ‘falling’. The pas de cinq with Mayara Magri and four others was soft and graceful.
The Prodigal Son, based on Jesus’ parable, was the second ballet, created in 1929 for the Ballet Russes. Cesar Corrales was an energetic Prodigal, and Natalia Osipova was a powerfully alluring siren. The set was by the French designer Georges Rouault, who excelled at religious and graphic work, and the music was by Sergei Prokofiev.
We all know the basic story; a bored young man seeking thrills and adventure demands his inheritance, abandons his family and goes in search of a fun life. He loses everything, realises his mistakes and comes back, repentant, to his father and family. It was a pity in this retelling, that the father is not actively ‘looking out’ for the son, as he is in the parable; instead, the sisters bring the father out from the tent, lessening its emotional and spiritual power. The older brother is missing as well, which would add more depth – potential perhaps for another longer adaptation of The Prodigal Son one day.
A group of nine men are the Prodigal’s drinking companions and assist in the Prodigal’s descent into depravity; their choreography is stark and unnerving but also very expressive and entertaining. They are dressed in green and black costumes with bald heads, necessarily ugly to represent their vices.
The pas de deux between Corrales and Osipova was provocative and a fascinating look at the Siren’s seductive power. Dressed in red, white and black with a tall headdress, she mesmerises him with her ‘snake-like’ dance with her long red cloak and her steps en pointe, eventually wrapping herself around him like a hoop. The use of the wooden furniture as a gate/table and how it was manoeuvred by the men was remarkable. Corrales was dynamic and compelling throughout, and the emotional end scene, as he crawls back to his father and is wrapped by him in his cloak, was convincingly repentant.
Symphony in C, with music by Georges Bizet, was a lively and dazzling end to the programme, created for the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1947 and designed for The Royal Ballet by Anthony Dowell.
It was originally entitled Le Palais de Cristal and was created as a showcase for all members of the company. There are four movements of differing moods: the first bright and speedy; the second slow and expressive to show off the ballerina’s poise and balance; the third energetic with lots of leaps; the fourth very fast, complex, and for the whole cast.
Each movement has its own ballerina dressed in sparkling white tutu and her partner, dressed in contrasting black, accompanied by two demi-soloists and members of the corps de ballet. The couples were Fumi Kaneko and Vadim Muntagirov in exuberant mood, a beautiful Marianela Nuñez with Reece Clarke, Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Daichi Ikarashi, and Leticia Dias and an exhilarating Joseph Sissens. It is a dance of amazing patterns, wonderful leaps, and heavenly partnering, especially when Marianela fell back into her partner’s arms.
This triple bill of Balanchine, full of grace and charm, was a very enjoyable evening of excellent dancing which I would thoroughly recommend, and I would urge you to buy a ticket quickly. It will continue until 8th April.
Book tickets here at https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/balanchine-three-signature-works-dates
Royal Ballet and Opera
Bow Street
London
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