Ballet Icons Gala 2025 Review 4*
International ballet stars converged on the London Coliseum for Ballet Icons Gala 2025, this annual event’s latest edition
Old and new, classical and contemporary, the 16 pieces that made up the Ballet Icons Gala 2025 had much to commend them, but predictably the most enthusiastic applause of the night went to that old chestnut without which no gala would be complete, Le Corsaire pas de deux.
Inès McIntosh and Shale Wagman in Le Corsaire. Photo: Jack Devant
It’s the perfect gala piece, its virtuoso choreography open to ever more acrobatic displays from both dancers; here Shale Wagman, currently of Paris Opera Ballet, fairly brought the house down. Not only is his technique spectacular, his presence has a tremendously exciting touch of the wild. Warm applause went also to his partner, POB Première Danseuse Inès Macintosh.
Word count makes it impossible to do full justice to all 16 pieces, which attest to the organisers’ commendable efforts to combine expected gala staples with surprising, interesting new work.
So, what follows necessarily reflects personal preferences out of a three hour plus programme.
Some of the participants were familiar to London audiences: The Royal Ballet’s superb Reece Clarke danced a medley from Giselle Act II with the very promising young American Chloe Misseldine; Marianela Núñez and William Bracewell brought pure class to the wedding pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty; and Mayara Magri did a double turn, performing with Matthew Ball in his own, very accomplished To & Fro, and earlier sparkling with vitality in the rarely seen Laurencia pas de deux.
Mayara Magri in Laurencia. Photo: Jack Devant
Stars in their own right, but less well known this side of the channel, included La Scala’s golden couple, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, whose Grand Pas Classique was pleasant enough, but lacked perhaps a little flair, a pas classique, sure, but perhaps not quite grand.
Two great European technicians graced the stage at this gala: Maia Makhateli, the grand dame of Dutch National Ballet, whose Don Quixote pas with colleague Timothy van Poucke was a breathtaking display of playful ease and control; and Berlin Ballet Principal Iana Salenko, who was joined by the very watchable Brazilian David Motta Soares in Delibes Suite.
Iana Salenko and David Motta Soares in Delibes Suite. Photo: Jack Devant
That particular pas de deux, choreographed by Jose Martínez, was a joyful offering, its choreography full of unexpected turns and changes of direction, with which the dancers delighted in teasing us.
Most of the contemporary choreographies on show were interesting. Mthuthuzeli November of Ballet Black created Thando, an intense, very physical duet on love (thando in Xhosa), its qualities and vagaries, set to his own score and beautifully danced by Anna Tsygankova and Giorgi Potskhishvili, principals of Dutch National Ballet.
Mara Galeazzi, formerly of The Royal Ballet, choreographed Toujours, a dark meditation on the global environment crisis, which she danced with Jason Kittelberger.
Mara Galeazzi and Jason Kittelberger in Toujours. Photo: Jack Devant
And I was fascinated by the former POB Étoile Marie-Agnès Gillot in A Stranding, a busy, often spiky contemporary piece created by, and danced with Travis Clausen-Knight and James Pett, regulars of Ballet Nights, which involved complex and demanding partnering.
Just space to mention a very sexy Osiel Gouneo partnering Maria Kochetkova in the jazzy Rubies from Balanchine’s Jewels.
A bit fell by the wayside here, not for lack of interest (there were only a couple of duds), but rather for lack of space.
So, a final word of praise for the English National Ballet Philharmonic, which provided live music under the brisk direction of Maria Seletskaja.
© Teresa Guerreiro
(Banner image credit: Marianela Núñez and William Bracewell in The Sleeping Beauty. Photo: Jack Devant)
Balla Icons Gala 2025 was at London Coliseum on 9 March.
Full cast: Timofej Andrijashenko, Matthew Ball, William Bracewell. Victor Caixeta, António Casalinho, Reece Clarke, Margarita Fernandes, Mara Galeazzi, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Matthew Golding, Osiel Gouneo, Jason Kittelberger, Sebastian Kloborg, Maria Kochetkova, Lucía Carrara, Mayara Magri, Maia Makhateli, Nicoletta Manni, Inès McIntosh, Chloe Misseldine, Marianela Núñez, James Pett, Travis Clausen-Knight, Giorgi Potskhishvili, Timothy van Poucke, Iana Salenko, David Motta Soares, Anna Tsygankova, Shale Wagman, Madison Young