Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Frederick Ashton\u2019s genius is being celebrated at Covent Garden this month with fine revivals of old favourites and rarities danced by the Royal Ballet and the Sarasota Ballet, which made its UK debut at the Linbury Theatre.The Florida company was founded in 1987, but it was only in 2007, under the direction of former Royal Ballet dancer Iain Webb, that the emphasis shifted to Ashton. The repertoire now includes 30 pieces, 11 of which have been brought to London. These seldom-seen works and extracts are a reminder of Ashton\u2019s stylistic range \u2014 everything from the barefoot expressionism of Dante Sonata to the revue-like gaiety of Fa\u00e7ade.Tuesday\u2019s strongly danced triple bill began with Ashton\u2019s swoony, wistful take on Ravel\u2019s Valses nobles et sentimentales, which premiered in 1947. Sarasota\u2019s well-drilled couples inhabit Sophie Fedorovich\u2019s debs-and-dancecards setting with smiling conviction, led by Jessica Assef swivelling undecidedly between two romantic possibilities (a cheeky nod to Sleeping Beauty).Dante Sonata, an expression of the futility of war created in 1940 to Liszt\u2019s Fantaisie, quasi Sonate: d\u2019apr\u00e8s une lecture de Dante, slipped from the schedules in 1950 but was exhumed half a century later for Birmingham Royal Ballet by Jean Beddells. The solos have an almost Duncanesque abandon while the sculptural ensembles echo engravings of The Divine Comedy. Fedorovich\u2019s timeless backdrop distils a John Flaxman image to its essence: a curl of gun smoke; a stairway to heaven.The programme closed with 1967\u2019s Sinfonietta set to a Malcolm Williamson score and not seen in the UK since 1981. In the central Elegy Jennifer Hackbarth, dressed in a silvery unitard, is smoothly posed and manhandled by a male quintet \u2014 a trick eerily similar to the brothel scene in Kenneth MacMillan\u2019s Manon created seven years later.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606Meanwhile, up in the main house, the Royal Ballet unveiled a triple bill of masterpieces spanning six decades. 1964\u2019s The Dream, an ingenious 55-minute pr\u00e9cis of Shakespeare\u2019s five-act comedy, was led by Marcelino Samb\u00e9 and Francesca Hayward coached by Ashton muses Anthony Dowell and Antoinette Sibley (bouquets and ovations for both).\u00a01980\u2019s Rhapsody riffs dazzlingly on the classical tropes \u2014 variations, vision scenes \u2014 just as Rachmaninov plays with Paganini\u2019s theme. It made a natural finale, but the programme\u2019s highlight was unquestionably Les Rendezvous, written in 1933 to a score by Daniel Auber. The flirtatious afternoon in the park is a summertime companion piece to Ashton\u2019s snowy Les Patineurs, packed with witty vignettes and fiendish choreography. Back in 2000 the ballet was almost killed off by Anthony Ward\u2019s cartoonish redesign \u2014 brash polka-dot frocks, a Teletubby landscape \u2014 but has now been set and dressed by Jasper Conran in an elegant palette of Payne\u2019s grey and Indian yellow plus creamy white for the star couple.\u00a0Reece Clarke made impressively light work of the fast-forward bravura steps, soaring high and landing softly. Marianela Nu\u00f1ez, fresh from her triumph at the Paris Opera, took delight in revealing the wonders of the choreography, her head, neck and torso curling impossibly as she smiled through Ashton\u2019s variations, the simplest pirouette becoming a display of his (and her) total mastery of time and space.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605Royal Ballet programme to June 19, roh.org.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Frederick Ashton\u2019s genius is being celebrated at Covent Garden this month with fine revivals of old favourites and rarities danced by the Royal Ballet and the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-115300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115301,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115300\/revisions\/115301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}