Update: Royal Ballet: The McRae/Vassilev Project review – an encounter between two masterful ROH performers

The Guardian — Culture has covered a development concerning “Update: Royal Ballet: The McRae/Vassilev Project review – an encounter between two masterful ROH performers,” with the available account limited to the facts included in the supplied text.

The available account reports that linbury theatre, London Directed by Natalie Abrahami and choreographed by Loughlan Prior, this is an evening of many parts that sometimes feels bolted together It’s an evening of two halves and many, many parts, some that dovetail snugly, others more clunkily bolted together. The report also notes that And perhaps that’s because The McRae/Vassilev Project is just that: a project more than a piece. Directed by Natalie Abrahami and choreographed by Loughlan Prior, it is essentially an encounter between two masterful performers with long careers at the Royal Opera House, dancer Steven McRae and violinist Vasko Vassilev, entwined with the near mythical figure of another virtuoso artist, Niccolò Paganini. The first half opens with Vassilev centre stage playing Bach (for some reason); he backs off to cede space for a luxurious pas de deux by McRae and partner Sarah Lamb, all exquisite lines, spins and lifts. From this “front stage” scene, the set switches to a backstage studio, artists McRae, Vassilev, Lamb and pianist Pamela Tan Nicholson entering as if for rehearsal. The rest of this section is a light-touch show-and-tell of McRae and Vassilev’s backstories – one a homespun Australian who happened upon dance as a child, the other a Bulgarian prodigy hothoused within a musical family – illustrated with old photos and videos, supplemented by comments from Lamb and Nicholson, and interspersed with consummate yet seemingly off-the-cuff demonstrations of their skills in music and dance. The scene is at once charming – personalising the figure of th

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