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# Ballet review: Passion and Ecstacy @ Birmingham Hippodrome
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/ballet-review-passion-and-ecstacy-birmingham-hippodrome/
- Published: 2011-06-24T06:45:12.000Z
- Updated: 2011-06-24T20:15:49.000Z
- Author: Phil Preece
- Tags: Reviews, What's On, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 19:32

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s latest double bill features works by the company’s director David Bintley.

Their first offering, Allegri Diversi, took some pretty music by Rossini for this Balanchine-like piece in which four couples perform a distillation of classical steps. This sort of plotless take on the steps associated with the great nineteenth century narrative ballets relies entirely on the precision of the dancers and the perfection of their physical phrasing. With no plot or storyline to allow characterisation for the dancers there is simply nowhere to hide, and in the wrong hands this can seem arid.

Here the eight young dancers headed by the highly-experienced Nao Sakuma and Joseph Caley presented very prettily, although with little real interaction between the characters we were left simply with beautiful patterns as the dancers wove in and out and intertwined. In the event, at 22 minutes this turned out to be a champagne sorbet of simplicity before the full-on roast beef of the night’s second offering, Carmina Burana.

Bintley’s take on Carl Orff’s famous score, enhanced here by the voices of Ex Cathedra under Lichfield’s own Jeffrey Skidmore takes the form of a modern day morality play in which three trainee priests are confronted by the consequences of their departure from faith, allowing the catholic Bintley to illustrate plenty of sin along the way. It’s all a bit like those Jacobean plays where every vice could be portrayed provided it gets punished.

Particularly memorable were the Monty Pythonesque padded gluttons carrying a roast swan (Nao Sakuma) and the final Court of Love section which became a sort of superior tarts and vicars party. The final pas de deux between the slinky prossies and Iain Mackay (who obviously spends every spare minute at the gym) in a pair of well-upholstered Calvins verged on the pornographic redeemed only by some essential modesty. Audiences love getting plenty of bang for their buck and here they cheered for more.

Passion and Ecstasy runs until tomorrow (June 25). For tickets phone 0844 338 5000 or go online at [www.birminghamhippodrome.com](http://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/?ref=lichfieldlive.co.uk).