Scottish Ballet

This company came to LA recently for the first time in over two decades. They brought an program that included a new work by Jorma Elo and a piece by Kenneth MacMillan, Songs of the earth. The Elo piece started the night and was a lot of fun! The choreography is set to Steve Reich and Mozart (an interesting combination). Elo mixes technical ballet movements along with more modern steps in a fast moving piece with a dash of humour. The audience loved it. The dancers were strong and wonderfully varied in their body types. The Macmillan piece was beautiful. We don't get to see a lot of work by this choreographer, he is more popular in Europe. His most well-known piece is Romeo and Juliet. This piece is set to Mahler's work of the same name, which used German translations of Tang dynasty poetry (talk about multi-culti!) and there is a sense of foreboding and doom throughout. However among the various songs that make up the piece, there are instances of silliness and humour to break up the melancholy mood. The dancers were superb in this piece, with the primary female and two males being in just about every song. The final duet is classic beautiful Macmillan. It was a pleasure to be introduced to this wonderful company, and I loved that they brought such a unique and meaningful program.