Review: AVE MAYA, London Coliseum, March 6 2016

Watching bite-sized pieces of (mainly) popular setpieces from well known ballets presented with great showmanship and considerable technical skill, I wondered what this Gala evening reminded me of. And then I knew it - the critically maligned but commercially successful productions fronted by Andre Rieu. Whisper it - I rather like his stuff.

Of course, Russian Ballet Icons' productions are not quite as brazenly showbiz as Rieu's extravaganzas - how could they be? For a start, this gala was very much a tribute to perhaps the most iconic Russian ballerina of them all - Maya Plitsetskaya, whose extraordinary grace and beauty was evident in even the most grainy clips from Soviet times shown on the big screen to a transfixed audience. A desire to honour her so soon after her death aged 89 just ten months ago, also played a big part in Andris Liepa's assembling such a starry cast of dancers from so many different countries. The excellent programme revealed some extraordinary biographies.

For someone as inexperienced as me, watching ballet can be a little intimidating - a little of Rieu's folksy introductions and scene setting would have helped me and, deep into a three-and-a-half-hour show, plenty more too! That said, you would have to be shorn of your senses not to appreciate the dancers, whose bodies stretched, twisted and floated over the stage to tell stories of love and, well, pretty much every other emotion too.

The highlights for me included very traditional pieces such as Sarah Lamb Federico Bonelli dance from Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet (hearing Prokofiev played by the English National Ballet Philharmonic Orchestra was quite a thrill too!). There was room for more modern works too, including the sensuality of Aurelie Dupont and Herve Moreau's Together Alone, which simply oozed around this huge auditorium. In contrast, the costume worn by Vladislav Lantratov (a dead ringer, appropriately, for Roma's Francesco Totti) for a dance from Khachaturian's Spartacus, really had to be seen to be believed.

Galas like this must cater for very broad audiences, so changes of pace become critical, as there is no central narrative to hold things together. That's generally achieved in these shows, but this one was so long and so eager to reflect Plisetskaya's extraordinary career, that we could have done with two intervals.

Despite those minor quibbles, I was left again marvelling at what humankind can do with wood, string, brass, arms, legs and torsos, and an enormous amount of talent and practice. The company and everyone involved did Maya Plisetskaya proud - and I was privileged to see it.

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