Linbury theatre, Royal Opera House, London; Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage
The ROH’s Next Generation festival launched with a Finnish flourish, while two uplifting collaborations show the possibilities of dance on film
Youth is in the air. Ballet schools around the country are staging end-of-year performances; the bright young things of the National Youth Dance Theatre and of Ballet Central are on tour; and Royal Opera House launched its 2023 Next Generation festival last week with a performance by the Finnish National Ballet Youth Company.
They are strong dancers, and the work they perform feels distinctive too. In A Collection of Connections by the British-Finnish choreographer Kristian Lever, you can taste the tang of his influences – Crystal Pite and Hofesh Shechter among them – but there’s enough idiosyncrasy to give the work its own flavour.
