Heralding the Bright Days Ahead

London is a changed city this week. The cold front has come, and daylight hours have plummeted. The city is rammed with tourists, buskers, and shoppers. Commuters battle in a sea of winter coats to emerge from their tube station at 4pm and are greeted by a pitch-black sky. We’ve all made our bed: it’s London winter and there’s nothing we can do to change it for the next three months. Thank God then, for London City Ballet, delivering us an early Christmas present in a cracking mixed bill at the Royal Opera House’s intimate Linbury Theatre.

Performance

London City Ballet: Ratmansky Ashley Page’s “Larina Waltz” / Jerome Robbins’s “Quiet City” / Tasha Chu's “Soon” / Alexei Ratmansky's “Pictures at an Exhibition”

Place

Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London, November 19, 2025

Words

Eoin Fenton

Alejandro Virelles and London City Ballet in Jerome Robbins's “Quiet City.” Photograph by ASH

The company is in fine form and is thankfully merciless in their mission to inspire and rejuvenate an audience burdened by layers and runny noses. The evening opens with Ashley Page’s “Larina Waltz,” a work seen last year in the company’s first season back after decades of hibernation. It’s a homecoming of sorts for the waltz, which was originally created on a starry cast of Royal Ballet principals in the nineties. It’s a brisk, neo-classical gallop through the balletic vernacular making plenty of allusions to Petipa, Balanchine, and Ashton.

Don’t let the title fool you here though, there’s very little in the way of pleasant one-two-threes across the floor. Page has dancers burst through the space between each other. Couples whip one another around with gusto in the pas de deux. Ballet like fireworks up close and personal; it's just a bit more fun when you can see how hazardous it all is. The dancers are at ease however, smiling through the organised frenzy. Constance Devernay-Laurence is especially commanding in the lively choreography, so too is Josue Gomez with his gasp-inducing double cabrioles.

Jimin Kin and Alejandro Virelles in “Larina Waltz” by Ashley Page. Photograph by ASH

A real focus of the night is a rare revival of Jerome Robbins’ “Quiet City,” a near-forgotten piece for three men created in the early eighties for New York City Ballet. The piece is tender and lyrical, a world away from Robbins’ punchier, more character-driven ballets from his tenure in New York. Surrounding the trio is a small crowd of younger dancers dressed in black who part to make room for the main action. The three dancers look somewhat angelic in their white leotards. They’re angelic in manner too, heraldic but fragile, floating around the space as if seeking resonance.

To no avail. The angels retreat to spread their gospel elsewhere, having found no response from the onlookers—who simply return back to their initial clump, unchanged and unmoved by what they saw. There’s a distinctively urban darkness to the work, anonymous and perhaps a little cold in the way one is when trying not to engage a street performer during December in Covent Garden. You feel as if Robbins made one final plea of connection, rallying against the “greed is good” Wall Street mentality that was seeping into the ethos of New York. Robbins here shows purity, clarity of line and generous extensions, bodies that glide through the dark expanse. An earnest and emotional little gem of a work that deserves its place in his canon. Kudos in particular to Arthur Wille, a dancer with a gorgeous facility and an eye for subtlety.

Sahel Flora Pascual and London City Dancersin Tasha Chu's “Soon.”Photograph by ASH

Keeping with this emotional thread is a world premiere from Tasha Chu. “Soon” explores anticipatory grief, the feelings that hit us before we even begin to experience the loss. The vocabulary here is much looser than what we’ve seen before, wholeheartedly embracing contemporary techniques. The dancers of LCB still pull it all off, even the dreaded floor work which never looks quite right on most classically trained bodies. Chu’s figures undulate and spiral, rolling in a sea of anxiety and panic. Sahel Flora Pascual finds herself between the world of the living and the lost as she becomes obsessed with contemplating grief. It’s a strong opening statement from the young Chu, who will continue to refine her style with her ongoing work with the company next season.

Joseph Taylor in Alexei Ratmansky's “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Photograph by ASH

From an emergent voice to a firmly established voice, we move on to what has become a modern classic from Alexei Ratmansky, whose repertoire is seen far too sparingly in Britain. “Pictures at an Exhibition” premiered eleven years ago, also with New York City Ballet, and has entered the repertoire of a host of major companies, getting the permission for such a small company to do the work is a real testament to what these dancers are capable of. Made up of episodes inspired by Modest Mussorgsky’s original music and watercolours by Wassily Kandinsky, the work paints with every emotional palette. There’s swooning romance, hammy melodrama, there’s even a brilliantly stroppy dance for four ladies, sulking off together like depressed showgirls.

It’s all so palpably joyous, as if Ratmansky just had fun while piecing together each little section. The choreography frequently bounces playfully between the serious and the silly, the awkward and the beautiful. There’s an innocence and wonder to the piece. Though seemingly carefree there is too a great deal of technical wizardry. The partnering is hazardous especially for the women frequently being flung into the air or caught mid-flight. The nippy changes in direction are enough to make your ankles wince. But for the dancers it seems as natural as a fit of giddy dancing. It’s an infectious kind of giddiness that has you wishing to just see it all again, to get that last bit of sunlight that London City Ballet is keeping hidden in the Royal Opera House. This is a company roaring with enthusiasm.

Eoin Fenton

Eoin (they/he) is a dance maker and writer based in Cork (Rep. of Ireland), and London (UK). They have danced across Ireland and London in venues including The Place, Project Arts Centre Dublin and Galway Cathedral. Eoin graduated with a BA in Choreography from Middlesex University in 2024 and began writing as part of the Resolution Reviews programme. They are a regular contributor to A Young(ish) Perspective.

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