Next Generation Festival, ABT Studio Company Review 4*
ABT Studio Company opened the Next Generation Festival at the Linbury with a remarkable display of young talent
The Royal Ballet and Opera’s annual Next Generation Festival presents a great opportunity to sample the talent of young dancers from both the UK and further afield; opening this year’s festival American Ballet Theatre Studio Company set the bar very high for the junior troupes that will follow.
The current cohort of 11 dancers aged 17-22 sailed through an intelligently assembled programme, which was varied enough to show their range from pure classicism to contemporary dance, individual performance to ensemble dancing, challenging but entirely befitting their age and experience.
It opened with Balanchine’s Tarantella, where Kayla Mak immediately caught the eye, not only for the ease with which she tackled a fast, demanding choreography, tambourine and all, but for how she engaged the audience, appearing to direct her look and sassy smile at each one of us. It was a complete performance.
Ably partnered here by Max Barker, Mak proved her versatility in the second half with Human, a contemporary solo by Yannick Lebrun. Danced barefoot in a simple practice costume, it demands great flexibility and expression. She nailed it.
Human by Yannick Lebrun featuring Kayla Mak. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor
Equally impressive was Ptolemy Gidney, who attacked the showpiece Gopak with gusto and impressive virtuosity: high elevation, exciting corkscrew jumps, neat batterie, all with a puckish smile of pure enjoyment.
Sooha Park was a fetching Aurora, negotiating the transitions and balances of the difficult Rose Adagio from The Sleeping Beauty with grace and assurance, attentively supported by Maximilian Catazaro, Elijah Geolina, Ptolemy Gidney and Aaron Marquez as the four suitors.
Yeonseo Choi thrilled in the Black Swan pas de deux. The way she whipped off those tricky 32 fouettés, which challenge even seasoned ballerinas, showed technique holds no terrors for her. More impressive, though, was the way in which she inhabited Odile’s character, pitching it just right, a hint of mockery in her smile.
Black Swan Pas de Deux, featuring YeonSeo Choi. Photo: Emma Zordan
Her Siegfried was a princely Maximilian Catazaro.
Two further pas de deux showed different facets of the company: sweeping romanticism in Brady Farrar’s Night Falls, danced by Paloma Livellara and Elijah Geolina to a Chopin ‘Nocturne’, and Gerald Arpino’s pretty Birthday Variations danced to Verdi by Natalie Steele and the hard-working Maximilian Catazaro, who once again proved himself a competent and attentive partner.
Both halves of the programme ended with ensemble numbers: the neo-classical U Don’t Know Me for six dancers forming and reforming in different configurations choreographed by Houston Thomas to music by Arvo Pärt; and the colourful, joyous, very jazzy, very American Interplay, by Jerome Robbins, which brought the programme to an effervescent end.
Interplay by Jerome Robbins, featuring Maximilian Catazaro and company. Photo: Matt Dine
It suited its eight dancers to a T; and the same could be said of the entire programme, which offered an object lesson in how to blend established and especially commissioned pieces in the service of the young talent on show.
Congratulations, then, to ABT Studio Company director Sascha Radetsy. Other junior company directors take note.
© Teresa Guerreiro
(Banner image credit: U Don’t Know Me by Houston Thomas, featuring Daniel Guzmán and Natalie Steele. Photo: Emma Zordan)
American Ballet Theatre Studio Company performs at the Linbury Theatre 10 & 11 June 2025. Returns only. Info here
The Next Generation Festival is at the RBO Linbury Theatre 11 – 29 June 2025. Full info and tickets here