Noja-Nebyla Stage & Education: Gala, Theatre Akzent, Vienna May 6th, 2022

A delightful, carefully constructed Programme for an admirable project that deserved all our support: A Gala with their students to raise funds for the Ukraine with the customary good taste, Know-how and integrity that are so natural to Simona Noja and Bory Nebyla.

Lovely surprises on stage especially the precise pirouettes and good jumps (involved on the cellophane of “Stage presence”) by Riku Kawanishi, a name from which I would like to hear more in the future.

Guest appearances by Mihail Sosnovschi (Former Soloist from The Vienna State Ballet) on Swan Lakes’s second act, Keisuke Nejime (Vienna State Ballet) on Boris Nebyla’s “Lascia Ch’io Pianga”, Händel’s “ode” to Freedom and Happiness and lovely Emily Bromberg (Slovakian National Theatre) and Rainer Krenstetter (Former Principal of The Miami City Ballet) in Renato Zanella’s sensitive, delicate “Adagietto”.I have to honestly admit that I had forgotten this piece - all the more I have enjoyed watching it again because of the “unspoken” side of it, its subtlety: Both dancers are “going” but they are going “somewhere else”, somehow “not together” - as if in a good-bye which is underlined by the fact that he is all around her while she never, not even once, looks into his eyes. Beautifully sad. A beautiful choreography, finely performed by both Dancers. Presence & Depth.

Ricardo Leitner

May 7th, 2022