A Night at the Museum with Birmingham Royal Ballet

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
June 27, 2024

‘Night at the Museum’ immediately brings back memories of Shaun Levy’s 2006 fantasy comedy film about a newly recruited night security guard at New York’s Museum of Natural History, who discovers that an ancient curse causes the animals and exhibits on display to come to life and wreak havoc. Thankfully, there was none of that at Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery, but this special evening with Birmingham Royal Ballet produced plenty of enjoyable magic all of its own.

As BRB Chair Sir David Norrington observed, it is important that art and culture organisations in the city work together if they, and their arts, are to thrive and prosper. Aimed at both ballet and art fans, the relaxed evening was part of a week-long residency by the company at BMAG that included demonstrations, performances, chances to watch and join in dance classes, as well as practical workshops offering an introduction to making a ballet tutu.

The evening really took flight for ballet lovers in the museum’s Waterhall, where dancers from the company performed excerpts from three classics along with the world premiere of a new ten-minute cracker of a work by Olivia Chang Clarke.

All was amiably hosted by Jonathan Payn, who grabbed a few words with the dancers after their performances. After a perfect rendition of the Fairy of Joy from The Sleeping Beauty,  Lucy Waine commented how it was, “So technical and classical. You can’t hide anything. Especially when you can see everyone in a space like this!” Also from The Sleeping Beauty, Yuki Sugiura danced the Fairy of Modesty, before a bright and bubbly Chang Clarke sparkled as the Fairy of Song.

BRB2 dancers Alexandra (Sasha) Manuel and Mason King were captivating in the Act II pas de deux from Swan Lake. King is a fine, considerate Siegfried, but the dance is really about Odette. Manuel shone, her whole body expressive, but especially her face, which spoke volumes. Having sat through the pas de deux countless times, it was a rare privilege to see it so close up. At times, those in the front row could quite literally have reached out and touched the couple.

The quality kept coming as Waine then returned with Haoliang Feng in the first part of the Grand pas de deux from The Nutcracker.

But the highlight was Chang-Clarke’s new Melody in Three, specially commissioned for the event by the London Ballet Circle. The choreography for four couples that forms the opening and closing sections is as bright and playful as the Mozart to which it is danced, the music played live by a quartet of young musicians from the Birmingham Conservatoire. Chang Clarke made the most of the small space with lots of changes of direction. While classical through and through, dotted throughout are quirky little moments that make you smile. And the dancers seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were.

The central pas de deux, danced by Reina Fuchigami and Shuailun Wu to a de Beriot violin solo played by Co-Leader of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, violinist Joana Valentinaviciute, is slower and more considered, although again not without the occasional eccentricity. It also neatly picks up on little moments from the opening movement.

Commonplace, abroad, I’ve long wished that BRB would hold a couple of evenings a year, maybe in the Patrick Studio, where company dancers could show their choreographic skills. Chang Clarke previously showed her dance-making skill while at Elmhurst Ballet School, but I can’t help feeling there must be others in the company who deserve a chance too. If Melody in Three is anything to go by, the talent is there. Hugely enjoyable, it deserves to be seen more widely. Indeed, it would make a fine finale to next year’s BRB2 programme.

Earlier, in the Gas Hall, the audience enjoyed a glass of wine as they strolled around the Victorian Radicals exhibition, which includes some of the world’s most famous Pre-Raphaelite paintings, exquisite drawings, jewellery, glass, textiles and metalwork.

But there was dance here too, one of the rooms featuring a performance installation. Part of BRB’s Virtual Stage project and in collaboration with Holosphere, it used a motion tracking system to capture human movement and transforms it into real-time digital art. As Fuchigama and Wu danced the pas de deux from Melody in Three, moving images appeared behind them. It was interesting but, as always seems the case, I’m not convinced. These things are only as good as their programmers. While there were times when you could see the connection, too often, and especially when it produced a bunch of cloud-like formations, it was obscure to say the least.

Finally, displayed in the entrance to the Waterhall, the evening also allowed sight of 223 pointes, a new sculpture by Birmingham based artist Clare Elisabeth. Created from discarded pointe shoes and featuring a swan (Odette) emerging from a tower of footwear discarded after performance, it is rather beautiful.

As was said at the end, “We are a great city, but even greater when we celebrate our art and culture.” Hear, hear to that.

Birmingham Royal Ballet return to the Birmingham Hippodrome in the autumn with La Fille mal gardée (September 25-28, 2024) and the world premiere of Luna (October 3-5) Carlos Acosta’s final part of his Birmingham Trilogy.