IT is hard to imagine a more perfect setting for an evening of beautiful dance and fine food than the ancient walled garden at Hatch House at Tisbury.

Covent Garden Dance Company this year celebrated the 15th anniversary of Ballet Under The Stars – sometimes known as the Glyndebourne of dance – with a programme that featured several new works and, for the first time, an on-stage musician.

This festival of classical ballet and contemporary dance has become an unmissable date in the calendar for dance-lovers. The 2024 anniversary event included, for the first time, a classic work by the great choreographer Balanchine, a new work created by Hatch favourite, Ksenia Ovsyanick, principal ballerina of Staatsballet Berlin, and Masterpiece, a multi-media work choreographed by Somerset’s rising star James Bamford, performed by two of his Project Dance company dancers, Grace Noelle and Andrew Parfitt.

While most of the Hatch performers were familiar to the audience, either from their dance company or as Hatch regulars, James Bamford was new to many – but he’s one to watch. James is still in his early 20s, but he is already making waves, from his passionate support for the arts in Somerset to his exciting, athletic choreography, from his imaginative use of film and graphic media alongside his dancers’ powerful performances to his own appearance as a dancer in the box office hit film Barbie.

Ksenia Ovsyanick has become one of the Hatch audience’s favourite dancers – witty, playful, vividly committed to the interpretative and emotional demands of the medium, she is one of those performers you cannot take your eyes off. Her appearances at Hatch this year were accompanied by cellist Arne Christian Pelz, principal cello with the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

The first piece was the enchanting Limelight, in which the dancer seemed to hover above the ground – she almost makes you believe that standing en pointe on one leg is an easy, everyday thing to do! She was joined by Xander Parish for the duet Closure, choreographed by Juliano Nunes and her final piece, was again a solo, her own creation, Folia, with music composed by AC Pelz.

New to Hatch were the romantic duo of Birmingham Royal Ballet principals Beatrice Parma and Max Maslen, dancing the delightful Wedding pas de deux from La Fille Mal Gardee and Sir Frederick Ashton’s Rhapsody pas de deux – the extraordinary chemistry of the dancers was underpinned by the recent announcement of their engagement!

There was an exotic, erotic charge to the Scheherazade duet of Zobeide and The Golden Slave, danced by the captivating Kateryna Chebykina with Xander Parish. The pair returned later in the evening for the finale performance of Balanchine’s Diamonds, part of his famous Jewels, a work of intricate classicism.

The exciting line-up of star dancers was completed by Royal Ballet artists Marco Masciari and Viola Pantuso, who lit up the stage in the dramatic contemporary work, The Lighthouse, choreographed by Calvin Richardson, and Paris Opera Ballet rising stars Andrea Sarri and Nine Seropian who delighted the audience with a pas de deux from Le Corsair and the enigmatic Blue Sunday, choreographed by Yvon Demol.

We can only conclude, echoing the standing ovation on the final night, with congratulations to Covent Garden Dance director Matt Brady and all the dancers (and the expert catering team) for another memorable Ballet Under The Stars. FC

Pictured: Ksenia Ovysenick, Kateryna Chebykina and Xander Parish, Grace Noelle and Andrew Parfitt, and Beatrice Parma and Max Maslen. Photographs by Alice Pennefather