Reviews
SUNDAY EXPRESS
"..Mozart's glorious choral score..the exhilarating sight
of a bunch of dancers on their way up....an inspired and inspiring
choice...Jonathan Ollivier's
powerful performance of Death. Jonathan Renna and Ginnie
Ray are eye-catching apart but explosive together
and the company as a whole can claim a stunning victory.."
MAIL ON SUNDAY
"..full marks to Northern Ballet Theatre for trying something
completely different....Yes, it's pretentious and portentious,
but it's also weirdly gripping, and NBT's dancers rise to
the challenge it presents....staged with precision and danced
with energy and commitment.....a bold experiment must be welcomed
at a time when ballet has become so conservative."
SUNDAY TIMES
"..ambitious and impressive.. Jonathan
Ollivier..makes a physically impressive Death...there
is fleet, expressive dancing for Christian
Broomhall...The company dance with vigour"
INDEPENDENT
"..wholehearted and brave performances from the company's
orchestra (under John Pryce-Jones'
baton), the singers (the Leeds Festival Chorus led by four
soloists) and, on stage, the dancers...NBT cast meet the unfamiliar
challenge of sacred music (Mozart's Requiem) and spiritual
themes with fire in their own souls – all of them. Jonathan
Ollivier summons all his dark drama and considerable
athleticism as the figure of Death.... Desiré
Samaai and Christopher
Giles are a vivid Couple...and then there
are the three figures called just M, played with such conviction
by Christian Broomhall,
Hironao Takahashi
and Jonathan Renna that they practically haul their guts out.."
TELETEXT
…sublime visual pleasure of watching Northern Ballet
Theatre.. it invites the company to unite for something special,
and the invitation is fully accomplished.
..The message here is that Death comes
to all of us, no matter how small or how great we be, and
Jim Orrante's performance is, to say the least,marrow-chilling….
There are several outstanding performances - Christopher
Hinton-Lewis is stunningly effective as the
Mozart that Death prophetically places in his own suitcase,
the better for his journey into the after-life, and Simon
Kidd is the man who tries to gesture a pair
of V-shaped fingers at Death, but whose fate is already sealed….
Requiem!! is a brave and original dancework,
honest and loyal and true to the original, and remarkable
because it expands it without being clever or trying too hard.
..Requiem sends you away from the theatre
with sensory overload - a feat in itself. It's a parabola
of humanity today - hell-bent, it seems, on our own nemesis.
Which makes one both - strangely - rather afraid and also
elated. Mozart, the old genius, still has his fingers on the
pulse.
YORKSHIRE EVENING POST
Accompanied by a live chorus the impact of the prouction is
impressive - as is the set...An ambitious production, it would
have been easy for the dancers to have been daunted at the
prospect of trying to match the power of Mozart's music, but
they have clearly worked hard."
GUARDIAN
"Northern Ballet Theatre has taken a bold step away from
narrative dance dramas.....a powerful, surreal exploration
of humankind's dance with death, set to a dramatic arrangement
of Mozart's Requiem......the work gives the company the chance
to shine as an ensemble......Death, danced with stealthy grace
by Jonathan Ollivier...Scherzer
is full of surprises, and her images zap you....the choreography
is tight and needle-sharp. Especially the powerful Christian
Broomhalll....and Jonathan Renna."
METRO
"The dancers are superb. Jonathan
Ollivier dancing the figure of Death with
looming malevolence; the technical prowess of his ropework
is spellbinding......both set and costumes are elegantly understated....Hironao
Takahashi executes a breathtaking solo to
the accompaniment of stark percussive tapping."
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