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There was a time when this event – longed for by many in the dance and higher education sectors – seemed more a pipe dream than a reality. But last week the planning paid off with a flourish: the first graduates of the three-year BA Modern Ballet course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland stepped out in a programme that brought together various departments within RCS and celebrated the Conservatoire's partnership with Scottish Ballet, whose depute artistic director, Paul Tyers, is the visionary force heading up the RCS ballet course.
In fact, six of the eight short works had Scottish Ballet connections. Company member Diana Loosmore's choreography in Quietly Dislocating put the graduates through nuanced episodes of angularity and interacting consequences while artistic director in waiting, Christopher Hampson, challenged three couples with the precise, nippy footwork and courtly gestures of his Capriol Suite, the Warlock music played live by RCS music students.
Live music, too, for an excerpt from the late Peter Darrell's Giselle, in which the ladies of years one and two were a well-focused ensemble of Wilis commanded by the spirited Myrtha of Suzy Halstead. Matthew Topliss showed why he's been snapped up by Northern Ballet in, among other roles, the angsty prowess of Creep (from Stephen Petronio's Ride The Beast). All three years had chances to shine but one piece epitomised the collaborative theme: the final section of Darrell's Five Ruckert Songs. Sophie Ammam was the expressive soloist, Seho Lee the sensitive pianist and Catriona Morison the thrilling singer.
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