LONDON City Ballet, former resident company of Sadler’s Wells, returns to York Theatre Royal with Momentum on Friday and Saturday.
This new repertoire showcases artists rarely seen in the UK and is in keeping with the company’s ethos of bringing to the stage rarely performed works.
George Balanchine’s early work Haieff Divertimento was thought to be lost for 40 years after its premiere and to this day had remained unseen outside the USA until this London City Ballet season.
Alexei Ratmansky, New York City Ballet’s artist-in-residence and a leading light on the global dance scene, delivers the UK premiere of his work Pictures At An Exhibition, performed to Modest Mussorgsky’s eponymous score, set against a backdrop depicting Wassily Kandinsky’s best-known masterpieces as the dancers bring the art to life.
Unseen in the UK since its 2009 premiere, Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum is a response to Franz Liszt’s piano score of the same name. Played live, Scarlett’s affecting ballet depicts the life cycle of a relationship, its blossoming and later fracturing love.
Emerging choreographer Florent Melac, premier danseur at the Paris Opera Ballet, has created a new work for the company in fluid musical style that combines inventive transitions with intimate partnering.
Returning to the London City Ballet company for 2025 are Alejandro Virelles, Joseph Taylor, Nicholas Vavrečka, Arthur Wille, Jimin Kim and Cira Robinson.
New dancers for the 2025 season include Samuele Barzaghi (formerly Paris Opera Ballet), Yuria Isaka (former soloist at Staataballett Berlin), Sahel Flora Pascual (formerly School of American Ballet, Ballet Austin), Constance Devernay-Laurence (former principal at Scottish Ballet/TV actress), Josue Gomez (formerly Birmingham Royal Ballet), Pilar Ortega (formerly Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, Indianapolis Ballet), Siméon Sorange-Félicité (formerly Conservatoire de Paris) and Lydia Rose Hough (formerly English National Ballet School).
Last year, on its return after three decades, the company was awarded Best Independent Company at the National Dance Awards, received a UK Theatre Awards nomination for Achievement in Dance and was nominated for Dance Europe’s Critics Choice for Best Company, New Name To Watch, Best Director and Best Revival for Kenneth MacMillan’s Ballade.
London City Ballet artistic director Christopher Marney
HERE artistic director Christopher Marney discusses London City Ballet’s origins, its triumphant return in 2024 and what to expect from its new programme.
LET’S start with the history bit. “London City Ballet was formerly the resident company of Sadler’s Wells,” says Christopher. “They grew a fond and loyal audience around the country by touring to venues in towns and cities where other dance companies dared not!
“Their reach was important because they engaged new audiences with excellent quality dance and built a foundation with a wide public.”
Returning after a 30-year hiatus, London City Ballet re-emerged into a radically altered dance scene. “I noticed that many of our wonderful venues around the UK were under-served by dance,” says Christopher. “Theatres had bustling programmes of plays and musicals but little on offer to dance audiences.”
The revitalised London City Ballet sought to address that scenario: “I was keen to help facilitate this by building the model of a ballet company that was tourable whilst still providing world-class talent and repertoire on stage,” says Christopher.
London City Ballet had inspired his own career in dance, one that had taken in being principal dancer at Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company of Chicago and Central School of Ballet, London. “I would see them often as a child, so had always harboured the desire to rebuild the company and get it back on the road,” he says.
Despite this reverence for the original form, he sensed the need to reflect the world wherein we live now: “This time around, I wanted to make it adept for the times we are living in but still retaining the original ethos of bringing top-drawer choreographers’ work and international dancers to regional theatres,” he says.
The experience of reviving London City Ballet in 2024 was highly meaningful, not only for Christopher but also for the dedicated audience of English ballet: “It was a heart-warming return and we felt so welcome by the audiences around the country,” he says.
“Some were formerly avid London City Ballet followers 30 years ago, remembering what the company stood for, and many were new audience members seeing us for the first time. We opened the performance with projected images telling the story of the company’s beginnings, which set the scene well, and this was always met with great audience response.”
In all, the company toured to 17 venues across three different continents in 2024, including bring the Resurgence tour to York Theatre Royal on September 6 and 7 as part of Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes’s drive to bring more dance to York.
Opening with Kenneth MacMillan’s 1972 one-act ballet Ballade, unseen in Europe for more than 50 years, Resurgence also featured Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz on its 30th anniversary, the premiere of Arielle Smith’s Five Dances and Marney’s full company work Eve, premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2022.
London City Ballet is committed to bringing dance to audiences far and wide, a subject of passion for Christopher. “I am committed to keeping the company active and introducing people to revivals of works they have not seen before,” he says.
“When we arrive in a theatre we try to provide engagement opportunities around the performance, which includes participatory workshops and opportunities for audiences to watch the dancers in their daily warm-up ballet class before the performance.”
As to what audiences should expect from the new Momentum programme, Christopher says: “A mix of classical based work with a new contemporary creation made specially for the company. We will bring a ballet by George Balanchine which has never been seen in the UK and is highly anticipated.
“It has something for all the family and is a perfect introduction to dance with bite-sized pieces that are relatable through the portrayal of the company’s wonderful dancers.”
Christopher is particularly excited to see Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures At an Exhibition being brought to life in the UK for the first time as part of the mixed bill: “It is set against a backdrop of projected masterpieces by Kandinsky and the dancers onstage truly bring the art to life. It’s a spectacular work,” he says.
The company members remain of paramount importance to Christopher, who enthuses over the troupe of dancers he has assembled for this year’s tour: “Our performance is an opportunity to witness thrilling, talented dancers hailing from all over the globe, many who are new to the dance scene in the UK.
“From experienced principal dancers to emerging young UK talent, it’s a real showcase for their technical prowess and unique artistic qualities. It makes for an exciting mix.”
London City Ballet: Momentum, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion; November 15, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: Five upwards.
Christopher Marney: back story
FROM growing up watching London City Ballet in the early 1990s, the company was an early inspiration for his career as a choreographer, teacher and artistic director.
Formerly, as director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company Chicago and Central School of Ballet, London, he had the pleasure of programming tours internationally, curating and commissioning diverse programmes.
These have included the repertoire of such choreographers as George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Liam Scarlett, Frederick Ashton, Jasmin Vardimon, Matthew Bourne and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
As a dancer, Chris worked internationally for the Balletboyz, Gothenburg Ballet, Ballet Biarritz, Bern Ballet, Michael Clark Company and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, where he danced many principal roles around the world.
The Critics Circle National Dance Awards nominated him for Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance two years running as well as including him in Dance Europe’s Outstanding Male Dancer 2013 list.
Chris retired from performing in 2017 with Ivan Putrov’s Men In Motion where he danced the Faun in Nijinsky’s L’Apres Midi d’un Faun.
As a choreographer, he has created works for Ballet Black, English National Ballet’s Emerging dancer, The Four Seasons for the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company, Nutcracker at the British Museum, Eve at Sadlers Wells and Lady Macbeth at the New National Theatre in Tokyo.
His London West End credits include choreography for McQueen The Play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Tell Me On A Sunday at the St James.
Named associate artist of the UK Foundation for Dance and holds a Masters degree in choreography, awarded by the University of Kent.
Remains committed to reviving less familiar but important works, shining a new light on those choreographies and providing access through extensive touring.
Re-formed London City Ballet in 2023 after 30-year hiatus, launching the first tour, Resurgence, in 2024.
