The Liceu is dressed up for a grand evening of ballet

The Liceu presented the first of two dance galas on Sunday, bringing together leading figures from the international ballet world. In collaboration with the Ballet de Catalunya, the Liceu is thus integrating the successful IBStage Star Galas into its program. These galas, organized for the past ten years by Leo Sorribes (director of the Catalan company), are elevated to a new level with live performances by the Liceu Symphony Orchestra. Among the guest artists, the duo of Yuriko Kajiya and Connor Walsh (Houston Ballet) captivated the audience with a delightful performance. Madama Butterfly Stanton Welch's work floated between delicacy and strength. Sarah Lamb and Ryoichi Hirano (Royal Ballet) thrilled the audience with a Manon joyful and full of lyricism that drew the first bravos; while Hannah O'Neill and Friedemann Vogel (Stuttgart Ballet), totally committed, offered a Onegin John Cranko's intense and passionate.

On the more academic side, Liudmila Konovalova's (Vienna Opera) impeccable technique in the Nutcracker It was marred by an overly stiff interpretation and a fall, alongside a hesitant David García (Ballet de Catalunya). In contrast, Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw (English National Ballet) offered a White Swan delicate and perfectly executed, while Chloe Misseldine and Joo Won Ahn (American Ballet) displayed virtuosity and charisma in the Black Swan, although the excessively fast tempo of director Andrea Quinn tested the dancer in the 32 fouettés.

A refined Olga Smirnova and Jacopo Tissi (Dutch National Ballet) brought elegance and large jetés spacious in Diamonds by Balanchine. And the closing with Don Quixote It was an explosion of energy with a Julian MacKay (Bayerisches Staatsballett) of powerful lifts and a fresh, jovial Maria Khoreva (Mariinski) with confident toes and pirouettes precise.

In a new creation, the Ballet of Catalonia performed the pas de deux Souvenir, by Vincenzo Timpa, in a lyrical choreography of syncopated movements danced by a magnificent Ellen Mäkelä, supple and with endless legs, and a Paolo Calò of organic and light leaps, and Fast Advance, from Sorribes himself, which recalls Forsythe's angular and geometric language in In the middle,with twenty-two dancers displaying energy, precision and the hope of becoming a top-level group.