Happy birthday to Northern Ballet Theatre. The Leeds-based troupe has been dancing the boards for 40 years, and while some are sniffy about anniversaries and others sniffy about NBT itself, the company’s able dancers and tidy orchestra are a respected part of the dance scene.
NBT also shows signs of doing more than the family-friendly ballets for which it is known. In fact, this diversity is not new. Gillian Lynne’s A Simple Man, made 20 years ago, is about the anything but simple LS Lowry whose complicated relationship with his mother will give you the vapours. Made for one-time NBT director Christopher Gable and the ballerina Moira Shearer, it was danced by a younger generation last night to powerful effect.
Set to Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Angels In The Architecture is a more recent example of NBT spreading its wings. Its Shaker themes of Christianity and cleanliness may sound priggish but the prayer and cross gestures and dancing with brooms were gently pleasing.
Less successful was As Time Goes By by David Nixon, NBT’s current director. The problem is that the popular tunes he’s chosen are too samey — all slow, soppy numbers crying out for some zing.
NBT’s success lies in it dancing what suits its abilities. Wisely, it doesn’t attempt virtuoso works, sticking instead to ballets that flatter. It won’t break boundaries but it means many happy returns.
Mixed bill tonight only, then Romeo and Juliet Thurs-Sat (0844 412 4300, www.sadlerswells.com).
Northern Ballet Theatre: Romeo & Juliet
Sadler's Wells
Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN
