Balanchine may have choreographed Apollo back in 1928, yet the choreography of this seminal neoclassical ballet, with its images of flappers, swimmers, neon street signs, Balkan folk dance and Greek drama, plays as wittily with references as any postmodern dance work. To dance it well, the cast of four need to possess a split-second instinct for the shape of each phrase. They need to have intelligent style and technical prowess.
English National Ballet's Alexis Oliveira, who danced the title role on Saturday afternoon, often gets close. He has beautifully moulded arms and shoulders that carry much of the role's poetry - braced at one second like an eagle's wings, touching fingers with Terpsichore at another, in an echo of Adam and God in the Sistine chapel. Yet Oliveira doesn't yet have the measure of the role's narrative premise - the concept of a coltish godling growing towards his Olympian destiny as he dances with his three Muses.
But then Terpsichore, Polyhymnia and Calliope don't have much sense of their roles, either. Wary, or ignorant, of the quirks and grandeur that the ballet demand, the Muses smudge the edges of their steps. Only Elisa Celis as Polyhymnia shows sufficient daring to risk Balanchine's most strident and exaggerated moves.
The company performing at Woking (half of ENB's ranks, since the company is split on a two tours) look much happier in Christopher Hampson's Perpetuum Mobile. Created four years ago, this a far more conventional ballet than Apollo, its classroom steps resting squarely within the English tradition. The ballet provides a nicely crafted showcase for the dancers - allowing them to show off their familiar skills to the solid metrics of Bach's Violin Concerto in E major.
Hampson's piece is flattering to the men in the company - who boast between them some good jumps and elegant feet. The Grand Pas from Petipa's Paquita, however, is a showcase for women (only one man appears in its ranks of grandly Imperial dancers) and the oddly mismatched ranks of soloists and chorus laboured visibly in their efforts to match the extrovert fizz of Minkus's score. Again Elisa Celis stood out as having some inkling of what a ballerina might need to be. Though still only a junior soloist, she took centre stage and pushed her technique to its limits.
At the Hall for Cornwall, Truro (01872 262466) tomorrow and Wednesday, then tours to Barnstaple and Malvern.
