Review: three short BRB ballets

I recently saw three short ballets, performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Hippodrome, Birmingham. As always, all the performances were highly impressive, but my favourite was 'still life at the penguin cafe'.

That ballet, like each of the three, was performed in a single act. It involved a series of dancers taking on the roles of endangered animals, including penguins, a flea, and a zebra. The ballet alternated in tone between the natural humour engendered by dance styles loosely appropriating the movements of animals, and dramatic, somber moments, when the animals suddenly drop down dead, highlighting the danger of them becoming extinct. Although I didn't understand some of the sequences, the ballet was original and affecting.

The other performances were firstly, 'interlinked', which seemed to highlight co-operation between different people, apparently inspired by the commonwealth games. Several of the sequences involved the dancers supporting each other, presumably meant allegorically.

The final performance was 'Apollo', in which the god of the title was visited by three muses, who demonstrated their knowledge and skills to him, before being rejected then finally embraced. I didn't fully understand the allusions made, but the simplicity of the ballet made it very elegant and enjoyable.

All in all, another fine performance by the BRB.