Romantic Revolution
London Palladium
Monday 18th Sept 2017
“For one night only, London Russian Ballet School (LRBS) will continue its collaboration with the
world-famous Bolshoi Ballet and Theatre, bringing ballet and classical music to young people in
London.
800 children from Lambeth, Brent, South West and West London, who have never visited a theatre
to see ballet and most of whom have never heard of the Bolshoi Ballet, will join the audience at the
London Palladium for free, with transport provided. Romantic Revolution is a philanthropic
endeavour to engage these young children in ballet and impart the richness of this art.
Leading Bolshoi principals will present an outstanding programme with LRBS students, to include
the spectacular classic Don Quixote. A new work will be premiered which has been specially created
for Alexandrova and Lantratov. Accessibility is the driving force of Romantic Revolution with tickets
priced affordably to enable as wide an audience as possible to see Bolshoi artists perform.
LRBS, based in Clapham, is a vocational school and charity which teaches ballet to and educates
young people from widely diverse backgrounds. Its Artistic Director, Evgeny Goremykin, danced
with the Bolshoi Ballet for over twenty years and founded the school on the principles of his own
ballet education with a dominant ethos of opportunity and inclusivity.
The goal of the school is to give students the best of the past in order to work for the future; in this
vein, students train with former artists of the great theatres and ballet schools of Russia where
tradition and knowledge are passed from one generation to the next. LRBS believe that the Russian
method, one of the finest in the world, may be applied to any individual with great success.”
Review by the Decadent Designer, 2 Stars
Although this performance showcased incredibly talented, beautiful, ballet dancers it lacked in technical theatre competence and so for the purposes of this “Technical Review” it has suffered.
As I took my seat (which had been lost in booking process) I noticed the London Palladium house rig was being used and tabs warmers were positioned to light… black tabs! Lighting Designer, Roz Maylon had a couple of nice states in the show but the nasty crossfades and over use of follow spots on an overly lit stage failed to excite and add drama to these incredible, dramatic, ballet numbers.
The sound by Marc Soame of SoTech was, in places, worse than average. Despite the School paying for a petite orchestra most of the dances were performed to low quality tracks that could’ve been ripped off Youtube and came with a rather un-lovely added white noise effect.
I think if the technical theatre aspects of this show had pulled it’s socks up it could have been a brilliant evening of entertainment. Some of the dancers were incredibly slick, graceful and incredibly talented.The photos (Igor Zakharkin) speak for themselves.
Three people’s performances that really stood out to me were Natalie Carter, who commanded the stage in her Nymph solo accompanied by Pasha Mansurov’s brilliant flute solo, Bolshoi Ballets Vladislav Lantratov and Maria Alexandrova’s skill would’ve been difficult for anyone to miss. Their incredible performances really lifted the show from good to very entertaining.
Although the dancers’ skill is undeniable unfortunately the performance lacked technical prowess.
