Ballet Nights review – smorgasbord of styles and stars in one thrilling sitting

You have to be impressed by what Jamiel Devernay-Laurence is up to with his Ballet Nights brand. The former Scottish Ballet soloist turned impresario is on a mission, to commission new dance, support young artists, bring big name ballet stars to small stages and all styles of dance to new audiences – and he’s planning to take the whole thing global. The last show was at Ministry of Sound, this one’s at Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square, two very different venues. Can he succeed in being all things to all people, and put on a good bash at the same time?

For Ballet Nights’ first anniversary we get 10 acts, with Devernay-Laurence as compere; like a meze platter plus a very lively waiter, and the amuse bouche of pianist Viktor Erik Emanuel beautifully playing Chopin and Ravel. Some things really work in this format, dances that entertain or command the stage or suck you quickly into their world. Best is an intense and explosive duet by James Wilton and Sarah Jane Taylor, set to Summer from Max Richter’s Four Seasons; there’s a witty Latin-tinged pas de deux, Cha Cha and Tiara, by English National Ballet’s Rentaro Nakaaki; and an impressive piece from Rambert school student Grace O’Brien that has shades of Hofesh Shechter but O’Brien’s own voice too.

Two of the more anticipated London debuts disappoint. Bolshoi-trained American Joy Womack doesn’t get the chance to show all that she can do in a gentle solo of walks and waltzes by Constant Vigier. Similarly, a pas de deux from Nashville Ballet, a late addition to the bill, is simple, pleasant, smiling, but not enough to cut through or really show us who this company is. Still, you have to applaud the initiative of getting them here.

Elsewhere we get a bit of Swan Lake, a live version of a music video with singer Madil Hardis, and Kipling’s poem If performed by hip-hop theatre don Jonzi D, while Alexander Fadayiro dances. Then the showman who shows them how it’s done, the Royal Ballet’s Steven McRae, dancing a tap solo that’s less headline act, more party piece encore, with the audience in the palm of his hand. This is the kind of variety show you won’t see anywhere else.