White Oak Dance Project
Cultural Centre Grand Theatre
Ends tomorrow
If the capacity audience came to see a legend, they got more than they expected. There was nothing of the token appearance in Mikhail Baryshnikov's performance with his 11-year-old company, White Oak Dance Project. Fifty-two and gaunt-looking though he may now be, the world's most famous ballet dancer was on stage for most of the 110-minute Arts Festival highlight.
Baryshnikov loves to play with expectations, not to mention the crowd. In the cheeky Peccadilloes, he blew kisses, saluted, was a clock hammering out time - when time shows no real signs of running out for him. At one moment he stopped, as if daring the audience to laugh at his playful mockery of their idolatry. No one did, mesmerised from the moment he stepped from the wings by a magnetic presence.
Yet one of the most remarkable things about the evening was the fact his company was not outshone by a man whose humility allows him to be part of this secure ensemble, not separate from it.