Ballet Revolución

What do you get if you cross pointe with pop? If you cross classically trained Cuban dancers (bursting with youth) and global pop hits from J.Lo, Prince and Pharrell Williams? You get a Cuban revolution. Blood may not be spilled at the West End’s Peacock Theatre but there’s enough energy and power in this two-hour-long show to start a revolution in the audience. By the end you just want to give up your day job and live, live, live!

Ballet Revolución uses outstanding dancers and music from Cuba but this show is part of an international touring operation from Australian and German producers, Mark Brady and Ralf Kokemüller. This is its third season at the Peacock Theatre and choreographers Aaron Cash (Australia) and Roclan Gonzalez Chavez (Cuba) have created a fusion of ballet, contemporary dance, hip hop and body popping to create more of a sensory dance ‘experience’ than a mere show.

It starts casually enough with the auditorium’s lights on as the dancers warm up, ostensibly before their ballet class. Three men and a girl in black pointe shoes perform a classical number. They are technically strong with young, lithe bodies but it’s not long before the constraints of ballet are swept away and the rhythms of Cuba and body-thumping pop beats surge through.

Joined on stage by their own band, Ballet Revolución performs a mix of large group numbers and intimate (but never quiet) duets based technically on ballet, but which never forget their Cuban heritage. Like flocks of birds, one group sweeps in, lands on stage, then takes flight to the wings only to be replaced by another group of thrilled-tobe- there performers – one young man, Yanier Gómez Noda, from the Cuban National Ballet Company, stands out.

The costumes are a variation on simple black dance outfits with pops of colour and bodyclinging sequins. Pulsating lighting and purple and green backcloths add to the mix and the live band forms the backdrop as the spotlight is directed on drummer Rayhner Lasserie Echegoy, whose increasingly rapid drum solo whips the audience into a frenzy.

A large ensemble piece with dancers in white outfits forms a kind of white dance army. The upbeat military rhythm has lyrics proclaiming that ‘girls run the world!’. While we ladies might not run the world just yet, there’s no doubt that Ballet Revolución is running and leaping over cross-cultural dance barriers.

Until 25 October at Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street, London WC2: 0844-412 4322, www.sadlerswells.com