BA Modern Ballet

Dance and Piano, RSAMD

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by Mary Brennan

In the autumn of 2009 when the BA Modern Ballet course first came on-stream at the RSAMD, the vision behind it encompassed working connections with Scottish Ballet and collaborations with other academy departments. Last year, as part of the RSAMD Piano Festival, there was a brief and hugely encouraging showing by the dance students – this year their performances, whether to taped music or live piano accompaniment (ably provided by talents from the music school), were the dominant feature. And if the first half of the programme tended towards a demonstration of skills – in-house choreography among them – the second part, where Year Two students rose to the challenge of works made by members of Scottish Ballet, was a tremendous insight into what’s being achieved.

Maite Delafin’s piece could almost be symbolic of the creative crossover, with dancers emerging in low rippling waves from underneath the sheltering frame of two pianos. As Anne Macgregor and Silviya Mihaylova plucked the instruments’ strings, it was as if invisible cords connected the movement to the sounds and rhythms, drawing everyone back under their keyboards. Diana Loosemore’s rich jigsaw of groupings played cleverly with textures of pace and placement – low floorwork was counterpointed by upright trajectories to create a shifting landscape of movement and stillness. Nicolas Blanc also offered contrasts, initial reverie giving way to exuberant fireworks that saw the girls tritt-trotting a la Balanchine while Thomas Bayliss and Matthew Topliss proved that the prowess displayed in their earlier classic solos by Ashley Page has versatility, stamina and personality.

Plaudits, too, for the pianists, especially Kerem Hasan and Petrica Ciobanu whose bravura four-handed Hungarian Dances made our own pulses race with delight.