Birmingham Royal Ballet at Birmingham Hippodrome

Mar 6 2009 By Susan Turner

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s triple bill offering might be mis-titled Pomp and Circumstances, but forget the credit crunch and buy a ticket.

It is one of the most enjoyable and entertaining mixed programmes presented by the company for some time.

It’s impossible to dislike the immensely likeable ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café with its catchy tunes and stunning designs – and its dark underlying endangered species theme as relevant in 2009 as it was when Bintley conceived the piece 20 years ago. Or indeed Ashton’s charming Enigma Variations, a sepia photograph of the composer Edward Elgar’s friends and family come to life.

Or Serenade, Balanchine’s tribute to classical ballet and in particular the female dancer, choreographed in his hallmark no-frills style.

It is a perfectly balanced mix of old favourites, with the programme graduating from pure classicism to a funky feel-good finale that sends the audience out with a tune in their head and joy in their hearts.

Although none of these short ballets are new to the repertory, few of the current dancers have performed them – yet they delivered with astonishing confidence and verve, and entirely without pomp. The pieces do not lend themselves to stars either in spirit or via the choreography and it seems unfair to single out any individual from the seven numbers of Still Life. Without exception, all were excellent.

Hayden Griffiths’ sliding backdrops and striking costumes and John B Read’s lighting for Still Life should be highlighted, however, as must Julia Trevelyan Oman’s beautifully detailed Edwardian designs for Enigma Variations.

And the programme is a musical treat from start to finish, taking us from Tchaikovsky’s elegant Serenade for Strings to Elgar at his mellow best through to Simon Jeffes’ daffy rhythmical score with its African beat, reggae and jazz influences.

Running time: Two hours, 30 minutes. Until Saturday.