Beauty And The Beast charms "dance city" Brighton

Friday 30 December matinee. Music, Dvorak. Choreography, Christopher Moore (artistic dir). Design: costumes Daniel Hope assisted by Hayley Turner, Val Plant; set Martyn Plant and Daniel Hope; lighting Ryan Phillips; make-up Sian Revil.

Beauty, Lizzie Brooks; Beauty’s Father, Ewan Hambleton; Beauty’s Sisters and Husbands, Katie Norman & Nathan Anson, Sophie Piper & Oliver Russell; Beast, Bayley Webster; Sorceress, Hrefna (pron ‘Retna’) Kristrún Jónasdóttir; Spirits of the Castle, Wolves, Wedding Guests, Corps: Miharu Sugahara, Lizzie Brooks, Stella Duerden, Erna (pron ‘Airner’) Kristin Jónasdóttir, Iman El Maghill Fisker, Paul Meneu, Lucy Imamzade.

Unless we’re folk tale nerds, we approach many familiar ballets unsure from which country the story originated. European, borders were vague then and many now changed. Swan Lake was a Russian ballet to Russian music on a story probably German. Ballet Theatre UK director Christopher Moore’s 2018 Beauty And The Beast built on the inspiration of its accepted original French story by Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

But Moore’s selection of Dvorak for its core music, such a vibrant and distinctively dance-influenced national voice, firmly set this production aurally in Bohemia – now of course the Czech Republic. Allied the accomplished costumes and sets in this production, by Moore’s staunch BTUK ally the last 12 years, Daniel Hope, the distinctive musical flavour clinched its impact.

Dvorak composed no ballets, yet his symphonies’ dance movements and his Slavonic Dances are so often the earworm hits we are left with and crave to hear again. Yet none of his music has been gathered and harnessed to carry any lastingly popular international full-length ballet. So full credit to Moore for his recognition, courage and faith in the Dvorak sound and feel, strength and grace. These instantly define his Beauty And The Beast. Moore has picked not only several irresistible Dvorak dances but several stretches of his atmospheric instrumental music.

There are prize items from Serenade for Strings, Czech Suite and the Slavonic Dances, but Moore also draws on the String Quartets for the scenic intimacy of Beauty and Beast’s developing relationship, on which Moore focuses three pas de deux. For two or three explosive moments of frightening dramatic danger in the production, and finding no effective operatic Dvorak, Moore has plucked from elsewhere. The first scare is set to a musical scorcher: Russian composer Mussorgsky’s rage of Baba Yaga – his penultimate Picture at an Exhibition, entitled The Hut on Hen’s Legs.

Christopher Moore’s success at Hinckley in Leicestershire includes creating a dance performance degree-course academy to feed his production company that now tours the nation’s theatres taking in more than 80 towns. Ballet Theatre UK have replaced the British-based Vienna Festival Ballet, and with interest. Over 40 years, VFB rarely stepped beyond the most popular classics. Moore has widened that pathway. BTUK’s 14-year adventure has created modern versions of full-length ballets less safe at the box office. Festive-season Brighton has seen their The Snow Queen, The Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Carol as well as BTUK’s Nutcracker.

Moore’s careful choreography is solid career training for his current touring troupe of 17, many dancers directly from the School of Ballet Theatre UK, several first-season rookies, and international with birthplaces in Germany, Iceland, France, Japan, US and Spain, and nine British-born.

This production is a revival still with spots to polish up. There were a couple of lifts perhaps needing a trifle reshaping and two crucial junctures in the story revealing Beauty’s special personal powers needed clearer telling.

First, when the Beast’s necklace gift to Beauty’s two sisters began to choke them but were too hot for anyone except Beauty herself to remove, they appeared to end up on the floor without her obvious enchanted intervention. Later, when the magic mirror the Beast sent to her family revealed his heartbreak at having selflessly released Beauty back to her beloved father, again under-emphasised was Beauty’s pivotally compassionate reaction to his distressed image in the mirror she held.

For a Christmas family matinee, no detraction in the entertainment here spoilt the ongoing enjoyment of children and parents. Hope’s costumes, as seen in previous Christmas visits here, raised the production bar in fantasy and execution, as did his stagecraft, using portable forest and castle gates cleverly swivelled to switch the audience’s perspectives on the dramatic action, and also double-sided scenery to extend furnishings in Beast’s abode. It’s important watching a touring production to remember there’s no room or time for a large removals van stuffed full of comprehensive scenery. Crucial also is the quality of the backdrops. Digital printing enhances Hope’s fine work here, too.

As Beauty, Lizzie Brooks has a busy show, matched only by Ewan Hambleton as her father in their various predicaments. Brooks is gently demonstrative in her characterisation and liquid in her line, Hambleton empathetic and humane. Moore shows their happy mutual devotion by familiarising their unified opening steps each time they begin to dance together, and the readily expressive Hambleton almost steals the show. If anything, by the show’s climax, Moore understates the ardour for the Beast that Beauty has accumulated. But the ensuing wedding celebrations soon lift and gloss over it in white and gold with tutus making their sole appearance.

The Sisters and Husbands sometimes bring entertaining fun, with Katie Norman the cheeky one. Hrefna Kristrún Jónasdóttir, one of two Icelandic twin sisters in the company, is assured and deliberate as the controlling Enchantress. And Brooks has good reason to be impressed by the Beast in Bayley Webster’s partnering. He’s well-groomed for some of this role by his declared favourite previous one – the Wolf in Sleeping Beauty’s Little Red Riding Hood divertissement duo.

It’s always gratifying to sense during the performance how appreciative and supportive the responsive Brighton dance audience is for its visiting artistes. These young professional dancers had their Christmas strivings fully and readily acknowledged and rewarded. It’s a dance city.

Richard Amey