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Back to the Studio with KNT

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Manchester Quay Street
AuthorMikey Licence CC BY 2.0 Source Wikimedia Commons



















Throughout this pandemic, Karen Sant of KNT Danceworks has kept north country dancers moving and motivated. Frst by transferring her regular classes online. More recently by holding some of those classes in the open air in Castlefield near the Roman fort where Manchester began.  While nothing beats alfresco dancing on a warm summer evening our city is better known for precipitation than sunshine.   On a particularly inclement evening, Karen announced a new venue in the ABC Buildings on Quay Street.  I rolled up there for my regular pre-intermediate ballet class with Karen yesterday.

 As Quay Street was my old stamping ground when I practised in Manchester I had no difficulty in finding the building.  It is located near Cobden House which housed the Manchester District Registry and County Court offices for many years and is now occupied by a set of barristers into which my former chambers merged.  It is a few hundred yards from Spingingfields car park and there is usually some metered street parking nearby if you care to look for it.  It is very close to Deansgate which is the main shopping street of Manchester.  Also, a moderate walk from the nearest tram stop by the Town Hall or Victoria and Piccadilly mainline railway stations.    

One hazard for dancers coming by car is the roadworks in Quay Street and approaches.   The congestion caused by those excavations was horrendous.   The journey from the intersection of the Oldham Road and Swan Street to Spiningfields - which can't be much more than a mile - took almost as long as the 25 miles from Holmfirth to that intersection.  Next time I shall park on the outskirts of the city centre and finish my journey on foot.

The class took place at the top of what I believe to be the B Building of the ABC complex. It was not easy to find because there is no signage. The reception desk was unoccupied and the staff in the cinema bar hadn't a clue though they did their best to point me in the right direction.  Happily, I ran into two other wandering souls.  After eliminating between us just about every landing and staircase in the building we caught a peel of tinkly music that eventually led us to Karen.   Newcomers to the class should enter the building by the first set of doors if coming from Deansgate or the last if coming from Spiningfields, walk down a long corridor to the lifts, take a lift to the top floor and climb the stairs to what appears to have been the penthouse.

Although probably not intended to be a dance studio, that space is an improvement on Studio 2 of the Dancehouse in several respects.  For a start, it has windows along both main walls.  Two doors open onto a balcony with views of central Manchester. The doors also provide good ventilation.  On the other hand, the floor is unfinished, there is no sound system and we have to use the window structures as a barre.  However, the amenity of the space more than made up for its limitations.

Because I was badly delayed by traffic and could not immediately find the class I arrived in the middle of pliés.  Karen took us through all the usual barre exercises except grands battements which she combined with tendus and pirouette practice in the centre.  She also taught us a delightful adagio which we performed in two groups.  We had warm-up jumps and joyful temps leves at the end.

It was a delightful class.   It was good to see so many familiar faces and of course Karen.  Everyone I could see had grins from ear to ear.   At £6.50 this class was a bargain.   To sign up or future ones, register or log on to the KNT Class Manager site and follow the simple directions.  There are also other classes at different levels of several genres on most days of the week,


Dancing in the Penthouse

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In Back to the Studio with KNT  I described KNT Danceworks new venue in the ABC Buildings on Quay Street in Manchester and gave practical directions on how to get there, where the park and how to find the studio once inside the premises.   Though not designed as a studio the space is in many important respects superior to the rehearsal studios in the Dancehouse.

If there is sufficient demand the ABC Buildings will host the first studio Day of Dance for nearly two years on 14 Aug 2021.  It is a day on which Karen Sant hires some of the best dance professionals on stage or in the schools to train us.   Those whom she had assembled in the past include Alex Hallas, dancer and choreographer with Ballet Cymru, Harriet Mills, principal ballerina with the Karlsruhe Ballet and Joey Taylor of Birmingham Royal Ballet from the stage as well as great teachers such as Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy and Martin Dutton of the Hammond School.

Next week's programme looks very inviting:

  • Beginner and Pre-Intermediate Ballet Class between 10:00 and 11:30
  • Beginner and Pre-Intermediate Choreograph between 11:30 and 13:00
  • Intermediate and Advanced Balled Repertoire between 13:30 and 15:00
  • Intermediate and Advanced Ballet Class between 15:00 and 16:30

If you want to attend this event (and why wouldn't you) you must register through the Class Manager app as soon as possible.   It will only go ahead if there are at least 15 takers for each event.   If you have not already signed up for the event do so soon.   Karen will need to make a decision at least a week ahead.  I have put my name down for the Pre-Intermediate Class and Choreography sessions.   I look forward to seeing some of you there,

Toer

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7th Symphony
Author Hans Gerritsen © 2021 Dutch National Ballet, All rights reserved










Dutch National Ballet  Toer  Streamed from the Music Theatre, Amsterdam, 25 Sept 2021, 19:15  and repeated 6 Oct 2021, 19:00

Toer is a double bill in honour of the celebrated choreographer, artist, designer and former dancer, Toer van Schayk.  It consists of two of his ballets: Lucifer Studies and 7th Symphony    Lucifer Studies is a new work which was premiered on 14 Sept 2021.  7th Symphony is described by the programme as one of van Schayk's most successful ballets.  He created it in 1986 and he was awarded the choreography prize of the Dutch Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors for the work within a year.   The programme was streamed over the internet from the Amsterdam Music Theatre on 25 Sept and repeated last night,   I watched both transmissions.

Both works were new to me.   They are very different.  The first contains studies that were intended to form part of a full-length ballet based on Vondel's Lucifer.   Work on the ballet has been interrupted by the pandemic but Van Schayk rightly considered that the studies were worth showing. The second piece is based on Beethoven's 7th symphony.   That symphony is one of Beethoven's most famous compositions.  Contrary to the opinion of an eminent ballet critic who really ought to know better that Beethoven is undanceable, the 7th symphony was crying out to be danced and van Schayk has choreographed it beautifully.  While I had to work hard to digest Joep Frannsens's Echoes for Lucifer Studies I could barely sit still and keep silent as the orchestra romped through Beethoven's exuberant work.

I like to think that I am reasonably well-read but I have to confess that until I saw Lucifer Studies I had never heard of Vondel or his play and I fear that few of my fellow Anglophones could claim otherwise.  There is a beautiful open space in the centre of Amsterdam known as Vondel Park and I wonder whether it was named after him.  Joost van den Vondel lived from 1587 to 1689 which encompassed the life of our great poet, John Milton, who lived from 1608 to 1674. I have now had a chance to acquaint myself with Lucifer. Even in translation, Lucifer is impressive and its subject matter is the same as Paradise Lost.  I know that poem well perhaps because I attended the same secondary school as Milton.  I am told by one of his former classmates that Matthew Rowe attended that school too.  Fragments of Milton's verse flashed through my mind as I watched the ballet. From the way the orchestra played, I sensed that Rowe was also inspired by Milton too and that he had communicated that inspiration to each and every musician.

Lucifer Studies
Author Hans Gerritsen © 2021 Dutch National Ballet, All rights reserved












Lucifer Studies had an all-male cast. As I suspect that each of the studies was intended to be danced by a principal or soloist in the full-length work, van Shayk selected some of the company's ablest young dancers.   They included Timothy van Poucke who has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the company winning the Radius prize within a very short time of graduating from the Junior Company.   Also in the piece was Martin ten Kortenaar whom I featured in 2014.   Others I recognized were Daniel Robert Silva, Nathan Brhane and Giovanni Princic.  That is not a complete list because I cannot recover the cast list for 25 Sept from the company's website.   Each and every one of those excellent young men impressed me greatly. 

Van Shayk designed the sets and costumes for Lucifer Studies.   The most striking feature of the costumes was that each of the dancers wore a differently coloured right sleeve.   Sometimes the colours of those sleeves were projected onto the backdrop focusing the audience's attention on the solo or duet in question.

Though Lucifer Studies lasts no more than 27 minutes it is a very absorbing work.   I had to watch it twice and discuss it with a dancer friend to get the measure of it.   After the world emerges from the pandemic I fervently hope that resources will be found to enable van Schayk to finish the full-length work.

Young Gyu Choi and Nancy Burer
Author Hans Gerritsen
© 2021 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved






















It is not hard to see why 7th Symphony was an immediate success.  Van Schayk caught the exuberance of the score and amplified it.   The cast was split into two groups lettered "A" and "B".   I regret that I did not record the names of all the dancers on 25 Sept because I thought that the cast list would be available with the repeat   I remember that I admired the performances of Artur Shesterikov and Floor Eimers but there were many others some of whom I did not recognize.   Everyone danced well in that show and I congratulate each and every one of them.   Van Schayk designed the sets and costumes. The women's dresses must have been a joy to wear. 

Of all the online shows that I have seen since the start of the pandemic, this double bill was one of my favourites.  It was a fitting tribute to an extraordinary talent who celebrated his 85th birthday last month.

Ballet Cymru's Giselle

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Author Sian Trenberth Photography   © 2021 Ballet Cymru - all rights reserved

 




































Ballet CymruGiselleRiverfront Theatre, Newport 6 Nov 2021 19:30

On its home page Ballet Cymru proclaims:
"We are a ballet company who like to do things a bit differently. We enjoy finding new ways to make what we do exciting, innovative and relevant."

Nothing exemplifies that better than their new Giselle which was premiered at Lichfield cathedral and online on 8 July 2021 (see Giselle Reimagined9  July 2021).  They are a small but important company which spends much of its time on the road.  Many of their venues are small auditoriums with limited ranges of stage equipment.  Ballet Cymru's artistic directors, Darius James and Amy Doughty, have taken the essentials of some of the world's great ballets and refashioned them for a small cast that is constantly travelling before audiences that may not see a lot of ballet.  They succeeded spectacularly with their Cinderella and Romeo a Juliet.  Their Giselle is a similar success.

Making such adaptations often requires adjustments to the libretto, characters and score.  For example, the mesmeric effect of rank upon rank of artists in white romantic tutus approaching each other in arabesque as the music reaches a crescendo is difficult to achieve with a small cast on a tiny stage playing recorded music.  Moreover, most modern audiences are unfamiliar with Rhineland folk tales about forest maidens who die before their wedding day.   Most of us have seen or at least heard of horror movies about the undead who crawl out of their tombs at night.  That is why there were zombies crawling about the stage instead of wilis en pointe in Act II.

If you replace wilis with zombies you probably need a new score.  James and Doughty commissioned Catrin Finch to adapt Adam's music. Finch had previously contributed the music for Celtic Concerto and The Light Princess and it was through those works that I first learned about her.  I have started to explore her other work. I was lucky enough to meet her at a reception at the Riverfront Theatre after the show.  I hope to write more about her work in this publication later.  Finch kept important parts of Adam's score such as the overture to Acts I and II and passages from the made scene but the greater part of the work was her own.  Some of it was very dramatic such as the percussion to indicate a heartbeat.

Apart from substituting zombies for wilis, James and Doughty kept the story more or less intact.   It unfolds with great clarity.  In keeping with their mission to make everything they do exciting, innovative and relevant James and Doughty set the ballet in contemporary Wales rather than the medieval Rhineland.  As there are not too many lords of the manor in Brexit Britain, Albrecht is no longer a noble, Merely a married man playing the field away from home.  He does not carry a sword but he does keep something in his wallet that enables Hilarion to denounce him.  The main character changes are the introduction of male as well as female zombies and Cerys, a besty for Giselle instead of an over solicitous mum,

I have now seen the ballet three times - once on-screen on 8 July, once live at the Stanley and Audrey Burton in Leeds on 4 Nov and again live in Newport on 6 Nov.   Each performance was a different experience. The company danced well in Lichfield and Leeds and must have made a lot of friends in both places but their performance in Newport before their home turf was of a different order of magnitude.  After a performance of TIR some years ago, their patron Cerys Matthews described them as "the pride of Newport and the pride of Wales".   She won a peel of polite applause for that remark.  On Saturday, it was palpable.  The crowd in the Riverfront have learnt to appreciate ballet and taken their home company to their hearts.  Just like the crowd in the Grand has adopted Nothern and the Hippodrome BRB.  Ballet Cymru has put down roots that may one day blossom into a mighty national company with its own school.

The cast was the same in all three shows.   Beth Meadway danced Giselle with grace and poise.  It was as if she was born for that role. Tall with an expressive countenance, there were instances when she was on pointe in Act II that reminded me of the lithographs of Grisi.  Andrea Battagia is a powerful athletic dancer but he is also a fine dance actor capable of expressing the subtleties of Albrecht's personality and his many emotions.  Isobel Holland, one of the most pleasant individuals one could ever hope to meet in real life, was a convincing personification of decay and evil as the lead female zombie.  So, too, was Robbie Moorcroft - again congeniality itself in real life - who created the new role of lead male zombie.  Two newcomers to the company impressed me particularly: Yasset Roldan as Hilarion and Hanna Lyn Hughes as Cerys.  I shall follow their careers with great interest. All the members of the company danced well in all three performances and I offer all of them my congratulations. 

James designed the sets and video projections.   These were ingenious and set each of the scenes effectively.   I particularly admired the churchyard scene just before dawn.  Ballet Cymru relies heavily on such projections but these were particularly good.   The opening scene of an ECG flashed onto the gauze together with the percussion and the cast's jumping like cardiac muscles warned the audience at the start that Giselle had a weak heart. James's designs were accompanied by skilful lighting design by Chris Illingworth and the imaginative costumes of Deryn Tudor.

Wales has a strong dance tradition as you can see from this grasshopper dance but it does not yet have a national ballet school or comprehensive nationwide facilities for developing balletic talent.  There are good ballet teachers in the main towns and cities but most of Wales is rural.   Ballet Cymru's Duets Programme goes some way to filling that lacuna.   Before Saturday's show, several young local schoolchildren on that programme presented a short demonstration of what they had learnt in a very short time.  They drew rapturous applause after which most of them watched Giselle in the row in front of me.  Ballet Cymru's investment in its nation's youth will create, at the very least, an eager and informed audience for dance and possibly even some of the next generation of the world's principals.

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Made in Wales

Ballet Cymru's triple bill at Sadlers Wells 

 Joanna Goodman

The Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadlers Wells in London is quite a small theatre and on Saturday night it was full. There was a buzz of excitement and anticipation for Ballet Cymru’s Made in Wales triple bill – and there were a lot of dancers in the audience, so expectations were high. And we were not disappointed. 


The opening piece, Poems and Tiger Eggs, by Amy Doughty and Ballet Cymru’s founder Darius James OBE, was an interpretation of some of Dylan Thomas’ best known poems. These were read live on stage by Cerys Matthews (who some might remember as the energetic lead singer of Catatonia) accompanied by music written by Matthews and performed by jazz musician Arun Ghosh. Matthews has a relaxed yet compelling stage presence and her beautiful melodious voice brought familiar poems to life in new ways. The choreography was complex and energetic and engaged the audience straight away. The 12 dancers shifted smoothly from combination to combination and from an amusing depiction of suburban life in ‘That sanity be kept’ through the poignant drama of ‘The hunchback in the park’ to darker works, ‘Do not go gentle’, ‘And death shall have no dominion’. The dancers’ simple costumes and acrobatic contemporary style accentuated their strength and flexibility which combined with power of Thomas’ poetry and Matthews’ emotive performance was a hard act to follow. 


This was achieved by Liam Riddick’s Murmurations, set to music by Welsh singer Charlotte Church. Riddick was an award-winning dancer, performing with BalletBoyz and the Richard Alston Dance Company, whose influence can be seen in his choreography. This is Riddick’s first work for Ballet Cymru and its lyrical freshness is a great addition to the repertoire.


Ballet Cymru’s choreographers and dancers come from all over the world, and they all look different – unlike the typical corps de ballet – yet they move together in a fluid and harmonious way, blending classical ballet and flowing contemporary moves. This was particularly noticeable in Murmurations, which was inspired by the way starlings fly in ballet-like formations.  The dancers move together in flowing and leaping combinations, lifting and supporting each other in different ways. Again, the choreography was demanding and acrobatic, but it is also abstract, balancing out the dramatically figurative Poems and Tiger Eggs where the choreography often directly reflected Dylan Thomas’ words as well as its rhythm. Notwithstanding its abstract nature, it was a moving interpretation, enhanced by Joe Powell-Main’s beautiful expressive shoulders and arms which also spun his wheelchair with incredible speed and strength.


While the first two pieces felt like the essence of Wales, the final work, Isolated Pulses, was more broadly resonant. Created during lockdown by the company’s resident choreographer Marcus Jarrell Willis, and set to a medley of tracks ranging from Olafur Arnalds to George Frideric Handel, to the LSU Tiger Marching Band, the choreography was designed to convey the significance of individual existence and how each individual contributes to and shapes the world, through a series of  synchronised configurations around simple props of chairs and mirrors – each person was locked down in their own space, until they shifted and mingled with each other.  Here the costumes were more individualistic, and each role had a personality that interpreted the choreography in different ways, even though the coordinated sequences were designed to make moving shapes and patterns on the stage. 


While the first two pieces tended to move from cameo to cameo, Isolated Pulses belied its name with a broader range of music and bigger scenes, with all the dancers on the stage together throughout the piece. This perhaps echoed Willis’ background at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Rambert Dance. Again, despite its theme and title, Isolated Pulses reached out beyond Wales, expressing the way all of us have reacted collectively and individually to a situation that has affected the whole world. It was a great finale to an evening that showcased Wales’ cultural heritage and diverse contemporary talent in an original and enjoyable way. If you get the chance to see this, definitely go! This is my first experience of Ballet Cymru and I am looking forward to more of their interesting and unique work.






Thank you, Ballet Cymru and Terpsichore.

Joanna Goodman, November 2021

The Nutcracker and The Mouse King

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The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
Author Hans Gerritsen  (c) 2021 Dutch National Ballet (all rights reserved 

 










The Music Theatre The Nutcracker and the Mouse King 18 Dec 2021 and 24 Dev 2021 13:00

Between 1991 and 2003 Wayne Eagling was the Artistic Director of the Dutch National Ballet. In that role, he collaborated with Toer van Schayk to create The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.   On 18 and  24 Dec 2021 the work was live-streamed over the internet to audiences around the world. I watched both performances.

This ballet includes the Mouse King in the title for a reason. In other productions, the role of the mouse king is quite limited.  He leads his mice into battle against the toy soldiers and begins to gain the upper hand until Clara clobbers him.  In Eagling's version, he appears first at the Stahlbaums' party, later as a nightmare as Clara tries to sleep, next as the leader of the mice and finally in a duel with the prince.  The battle between mice and soldiers seems to symbolize a struggle between chaos and order which echoes in the boys' mithering their sisters or the Arabs dragging their captives.

Eagling's collaboration with van Schayk has led to all sorts of fantastic creations.   A giant pink-eyed monster rodent, an autonomous walking robot of a nutcracker and the fantastic machine with its circular centre-piece that at one point turns itself into a massive feline compete with a moving paw in the final confrontation with the mouse king and a ruined temple for the mirliton scene.   So much more compelling than a kingdom of the sweets with the Spanish, Arabs and Chinese dances representing chocolate, coffee and tea.

The two shows had different casts and each is to be congratulated.  Clara was danced by Maia Makhateli on 18 Dec and Riho Sakamoto on 24. Sakamoto has recently been promoted to principal which pleases me considerably as I have been following her progress ever since she joined the Junior Company in 2014 (see Riho Sakamoto promoted to principal).  Makhateli was magnificent as she always is and was partnered gallantly by Jakob Feyferlik,   Also impressive were Edo Wijnen who danced the nutcracker, Vito  Mazzeo who was Drosselmeyer and James Stout who was the mouse king.   Sadly I do not yet have a cast list for the Christmas eve matinee and I can't be sure who performed the leading roles other than Sakamoto.

Live screening is better than nothing but it is not the same as attending the theatre.   Theatre - particularly ballet - is two-way communication.  A good audience lifts the artists to new heights.   I am sure the dancers were aware that viewers like me around the world were cheering ourselves hoarse and clapping till our palms were sore but that's not the same as hearing us.  The Netherlands like the UK has had to cope with the "o" strain at the worse possible time and the season may have to be curtailed for public health reasons.  But one day the pandemic will be over in both countries.  When it is, my priority will be to watch this ballet live.

Northern Ballet's New Director

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Copyright 2020 Royal Opera House  Licence YouTube Standard Licence


"Bravo bloody oh!" That was the reaction of one of my friends when I told her the news of Federico Bonelli's appointment as the next Artistic Director of Northern Ballet.  Other reactions have been a little less colourful but no less enthusiastic. I have been a fan of Bonelli for years and could not have wished for a better choice.  If you ever see him on stage or just watch this video you will understand why. 

Nevertheless, it was a very unexpected appointment.  Graham Watts tweeted:
"I definitely didn’t see this one coming - Northern Ballet has announced Federico Bonelli as the Company’s new Artistic Director."

Watts was not the only one.   Even though I am a fan of Bonelli he had not been on my radar.  Had anyone kept a book my money would have been on a brilliant young choreographer whose style reminds me of Cranko whose appointment would have recemented a link with Central or, possibly, on one of our leading female choreographers who has already contributed two much-loved ballets to the company.

Bonelli's appointment coincides with the publication of the government's "levelling up strategy".  It has promised to ensure that great cultural institutions play their part in spreading access to excellence:

"100% of the Arts Council England funding uplift announced at SR21 will be directed outside London, with support for theatre, museums and galleries, libraries and dance in towns which have been deprived of investment in the past. We will explore how more flagship national cultural institutions can support the strength of our historic cultural heritage in great cities such as Stoke and Manchester."

Not a bad time to make a move outside London. 

The Dutch National Ballet's "Raymonda"

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Copyright 2021 Dutch National Ballet Standard YouTube Licence

As I said in my review of the live-streaming of the Bolshoi's performance on 27 Oct 2019, Raymonda is not performed in this country very often.  Indeed, as English National Ballet noted on its website, no local company had performed the work in its entirety until its production opened at the Coliseum last month.  As ENB's version is set in the 19th-century Crimean war rather than the medieval crusades, it could be argued that we still have to wait for a British company to dance the whole work.

But if we want to see a full-length performance of the traditional ballet, we do not have to go very far or wait very long to see one.  That is because the Dutch National Ballet will premiere a new production of Raymondaat the company's auditorium in Amsterdam on 3 April 2022.   It has been created by the company's assistant artistic director, Rachel Beaujean, in collaboration with the artistic director, Ted Brandsen, and Grigori Tchitcherine of the National Academy.  Beaujean produced Giselle which impressed me greatly when I saw it at Heerlen on 9 Nov 2018 (see Mooie! 10 Nov 2018). Tchitcherine gained a thorough knowledge of Raymonda first as a student at the Vaganova, later as a dancer with the Mariinsky and most recently from his research into the original and subsequent productions of the ballet.   As the sets have been created by Jérôme Kaplan who also designed the sets for David Nixon's The Great Gatsby and as the orchestra will be conducted by Boris Gruzin I have very high hopes for this production.  

Although Beaujean will depart from Countess Pashkova's libretto in one regard in order to "devise a crown and setting that are relevant to today" HNB's website emphasizes that the "choreographic splendours" will be retained. Further reassurance in that regard is provided in an interview with Beaujean and Tchitcherine. They describe how they delved into the history of the ballet over the last two years. They examined the records of the original choreography that had been made by Vladimir Stepanov. He devised one of the earliest systems of ballet notation which he explained in Alphabet des mouvements du corps human, essai d'enregistrement des mouvements du corps humain au moyen des signes musicaux published in Paris in 1892.  They also examined Konstantin Sergeyev's choreography for the Kirov's revival in 1948 and concluded that it was probably closest to Petipa's. A member of HNB's cast who also knows the Mariinsky's version well tells me that it follows tradition.    

Beaujean's modification to the story is to characterize Raymonda as "a young woman who makes her own choices on the path of love" rather than tamely accepting her marriage to Jean de Brienne as inevitable.  She justifies the change on the ground that Petipa and Glazunov were not happy with the original libretto and made changes to it.  That is altogether different from writing a story about a different war, in a different country in a different century.

In making these observations I do not disparage Tamara Rojo's version in the least.   I missed the season at the Coliseum only because of pressing professional commitments and soaring omicron infections in London.   I am a Friend of English National Ballet and have attended its performances regularly ever since I was enchanted by one of its performances of The Nutcracker in the Festival Hall.  New versions of familiar ballets can work as David Dawson has shown with his Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet.  I look forward to watching Rojo's version when English National Ballet brings its Raymonda to Manchester or Liverpool.

I will see ENB's Raymonda after HNB's.  I have my ticket for the centre of the stalls 6 rows from the stage, a return rail ticket to Amsterdam via St Pancras and a reservation at my favourite hotel in Amsterdam.   I shall publish my review in early April.

Last Monday's Romeo and Juliet - a Cinematic as well as a Balletic Triumph

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Author Russ London Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Source Wikimedia Commons























Royal BalletRomeo and Juliet Cinema 14 Feb 2022 19:30

Last Monday's screening of the Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet was quite different from previous ones and all the better for it.  Gone were the gushing tweets from cinema audiences around the world and the presenters' platitudes.  In its place were interviews with Edward Watson and Leanne Benjamin with Dame Darcey passing on her wisdom and experience to Anna Rose O’Sullivan. Exactly how I want to see one of the greatest ballerinas of my lifetime.

Not only that but there was very clever camera work that caught O'Sullivan's ecstasy in the balcony scene or James Hay's pain after his stabbing by Tybalt. I noticed details in the screening that I had missed before. Consequently, I learned a lot about the ballet on Monday even though I had been watching MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet on screen as well as on stage since the 1960s. 

Although I must have seen them many times I had never really noted Anna Rose O'Sullivan or Marcelino Sambé until now,  but I am a fan of both of them now.  There is something about O'Sullivan that reminded me of Antoinette Sibley.  Sambé is very different from Dowell but I think we may have seen on Monday the start of a partnership between him and O'Sullivan which will be remembered like that of Sibley and Dowell.

There were two other dancers who particularly caught my eye who happen to be my all-time favourite Drosselmeyers.  One was Thomas Whitehead who danced Tybalt with menace earning what appeared to be isolated pantomime villain boos at the reverence as well as cinema vibrating roars. The other was Gary Avis who danced Juliet's well-meaning dad, puzzled and exasperated by his teenage daughter's apparent inability to grasp in Paris a dishy, decent husband and a comfortable future. 

All in the cast danced brilliantly, James Hay as Mercutio, Nicol Edmonds as Paris, Kristen McNally as Lady Capulet, Philip Mosley as Friar Lawrence, Romany Pajdak as the nurse.    There were also Prince Escalus, harlots, mandolin dancers, knights and their ladies and the street folk of renaissance Verona.  All deserve commendation but if I mentioned more names this would look less like a review and more like a telephone directory.

Nevertheless, my review must acknowledge three of the creatives: Laura Morera who staged the show, the conductor Jonathan Lo who first came to my notice at Northern Ballet, and the late Nicholas Georgiadis whose designs remind me of the work of Leon Bakst.  If there was a weakness in the screening it was that the richness of Georgiadis's sets did not always come through. That always seems to be a problem with ballet on film.

Last Monday happened to be my birthday.  It was a delightful day with calls and cards and presents.  But the screening was definitely a high point.  So many thanks for that, Royal Ballet.  

Readers who missed the performance have a second chance on Sunday.   

Powerhouse Ballet's Reawakening

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The last two years have been tough for everyone in the arts but they have been particularly hard for adult ballet students who long to perform in public.  For Powerhouse Ballet which was founded just under 4 years ago, the lockdown was almost fatal.  We had been riding high with our very successful workshop with Yorkshire choreographer Alex Hallas and were looking forward to learning the snowflakes scene from The Nutcracker when everything was put on hold.

I feared that it would be the end of Powerhouse Ballet and probably all the other amateur companies in the United Kingdom because we could no longer meet for class.  But help came quite unexpectedly from Amsterdam when Maria Chugai of the Dutch National Ballet offered us an online class.  That class was very successful and showed that it was possible to train over Zoom.  I engaged all our regular teachers as well as Shannon Lilly, Beth Meadway and Krystal Lowe to give online classes.  When restrictions were relaxed in 2020 we held classes in studios in Birmingham and Leeds.   Though it was expensive and hard we never missed a monthly company class and, most importantly, we stayed together.

Now that the country is emerging from lockdown Powerhouse Ballet can rebuild.  My immediate aim is to stage a mixed bill which will include Terence Etheridge's Aria, Yvonne Charlton's Morning, Waltz of the Flowers and Snowflakes from The Nutcracker and part of the wilis' choreography from Act II of Giselle. Much of the preparation for this will be at a summer school in North Wales.  In the longer term, we plan to set up an associates class and I have engaged the assistance of someone with considerable experience in that area to advise me.

That leaves the tricky matters of funding and governance.  Over the last two years, it was easier for me to sponsor the company's activities and I will continue to do so but our plans will require more than I can afford.  In the medium term, we will need to reintroduce a subscription, seek grants and sponsorship.  Publications like this blog, the Stage Door and classes outside the North of England could generate revenue for Powerhouse Ballet.   Eventually, we shall seek charitable status for which we shall need trustees, a business manager and a full-time artistic director.

Returning to the present, if you want to meet us with a view to joining us, register for our company class at Dance Studio Leeds on 26 Feb 2022 from 15:30 until 17:00.   

Ballet Cymru's DUETS Programme and why it is important.

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The dancers in this film are students at Moorland Primary School in Cardiff and Ysgol Ty Ffynnon on Deeside. They participated in Ballet Cymru's DUETS programme. DUETS stands for "Delivering Unique and Exciting Training Strands".  It is a collaboration between Ballet Cymru, theatres, schools and community dance groups across Wales to bring ballet to children who would not otherwise have an opportunity to learn it.

I mentioned the programme in my review of Ballet Cymru's Giselle on 10 Nov 2021:
"Wales has a strong dance tradition as you can see from this grasshopper dance but it does not yet have a national ballet school or comprehensive nationwide facilities for developing balletic talen. There are good ballet teachers in the main towns and cities but most of Wales is rural. Ballet Cymru's Duets Programme goes some way to filling that lacuna."   
Before Giselle, children on the DUETS programme demonstrated what they had learnt in a very short time which earned them considerable applause from the Riverview Theatre audience.

I wrote about Ballet Cymru's work with local schools in Gwynedd in Ballet Cymru - Even Better than Last Year on 6 Dec 2019 and in How the Pontio Centre and M-SParc complement each other in the Social and Economic Development of Northwest Wales on 5 June 2020 in NIPC Wales.  My Welsh teacher from Nant Gwrtheyrn emailed me to say that her husband who is the headmaster of Llanllyfni School had appeared in that video, adding "Byd bach!!!" which means "small world."  

The dance authority that covers Llanllyfni and the Pontio Centre is Dawns i Bawb which means "Dance for Everyone".  It is one of Ballet Cymru's partners in DUETS.  Look up its YouTube channel for films like 'The Jungle' on refugees or "Dawnsio'r Degawdau("Dance the Decades") which addresses dementia as the companion film explains.  There are also some fun films like "Dosbarth Dawns i Bawb("Dance Class for All"), "Migldi Magldi Dolig" ("Christmas Migldi Magldi") and Dydd Mwsig Cymraeg 2021 (Welsh Music Day).

Some of the children from Llanllyfni, Cardiff or Deeside may be inspired to become performers or teachers but most will not.  However, their lives will be enriched by dance which is why DUETS is important.

Acosta Danza "100% Cuban"

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Acosta Danza 100% Cuban  New Theatre, Hull, 25 Feb 2022, 19:30

Cuba may be a small Caribbean island with a population of 11.2 million but it has world-class national ballet and contemporary dance companies.  Joanna Goodman reviewed one of the Cuban National Ballet's performances of Swan Lake in its own theatre in 2014 (see "We are the dancers, we create the dreams: Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s El Lago de los Cisnes in Havana8 July 2014). I reviewed the national contemporary dance company when it visited the Lowry (see Danza Contemporanea de Cuba at the Lowry 19 Feb 2017).

Artists from Cuba have contributed not only to their own national companies but also to leading companies of other nations.  Probably the best known of those is Carlos Acosta. He is now the artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.  Previously he was a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet.  A glimpse at his website shows that Acosta is more than a dancer and choreographer. He is an entrepreneur, novelist and indeed impresario.

In 2016 Acosta established Acosta Danza which he has described as "Some of the finest Cuban dancers I have ever had the pleasure of working with."  The company is touring the United Kingdom and my friend and I caught up with it at the Hull New Theatre on Friday.  We were treated to the following:
These were very different works that showed off the versatility of the company.

Liberto was a duet created by Raúl Reinoso to the music of Pepe Gavilondo.  The programme contains the following note:
"The story of a cimarron, invites us to reflect on the faces of slavery, from ancient times to the present day. The meeting of the fugitive with the woman, beyond the beginning of a love story, is a moment of reflection and retelling, the possible discovery of the path to the utopian kingdom of total freedom."

I think cimarron must be the Spanish word for "Maroon" who were fugitive slaves.  They formed colonies in the Caribbean and some found their way to Freetown in Sierra Leone where I first learnt their story.  The ballet featured a couple. I am not sure of the identity of the man because the company did not publish a cast list. I asked for one in a Q & A that followed the show but the company's interpreter did not seem to know what I was talking about or why I needed one.   I think Reinoso danced the male role and believe the woman was Zeleidy Crespo but I cannot be sure. I remember a giant net from which the man struggled to escape.  The designs were by Alisa Peláez. The lighting was by Yaron Abulafia.

Like a football match, Hybrid was a combination of two halves. Quite literally because there was a point when the cast lined up for a curtain call, accepted the applause and then slowly started dancing again.  The inspiration for the work appears to have been the legend of Sisyphus:

“O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.
(The Myth of Sisyphus).  According to the programme, the piece was about a "universe where the real and the unreal blur their limits to reach our chimaeras." It continued:

"An approach to sensitive realities and imaginaries of a nation and its people, told from the strength of its culture and dance.
An island that unveils its mysteries on a path that goes from darkness to light"
The whole company or at least a large part of it seemed to be in the work. The music was by Jenny Peña and Randy Araujo, the choreography by Norge Cedeño and Thais Suárez, the designs by Celia Ledón and the lighting by Yaron Abulafia.

This was not to everyone's taste because the audience thinned out a little after the interval.

As the music was entitled Cuban landscape with rumba by Leo Brouwer and Cuban Landscape by Stefan Levin and the ballet was danced against a backdrop of growing crops, I understood Paysage, Soudain, La Nuit to be an appreciation of the Cuban countryside and those who worked in it.  This was another work in which the whole company participated.  The choreographer was Pontus Lidberg. Costumes were by Karen Young.  The lighting was by Patrik Bogårdh.

The most spectacular work was Impronta.  It was a solo by Crespo which she performed to the music of José V. Gavilondo. The show started with a mass of blue.  It was not clear whether that was a prop or a group of dancers.  It turned out to be a long flowing dress worn by the dancer. A tall, elegant and exceptionally supple woman, Crespo had bent her body almost to the floor so that her face appeared through the dress.  In the Q&A, Crespo explained that the dress represented the sea.  In answer to a  question from my friend, she said that the dance had been influenced largely by African rhythms.  The programme added:
"Catalan choreographer María Rovira created this solo in wich contemporary dance merges with Afro-Cuban folk dances."

Several audience members stood to applaud Crespo's performance at the end.  Others whooped with delight.  The reaction was well merited because it was impressive.

My favourite ballet was De Punto a Cabo.  I surmise that the title must refer to a seaside walk that is opposite Havana.  The backdrop was of a busy city separated by a stretch of water and a sea wall. Alexis Fernández's choreography to José White and Omar Sosa's music reminded me of the view of Manhattan in the last scene of Liam Scarlett's Age of Anxiety (see Bernstein Centenary  18 March 2018). The piece generated much the same energy and awe.   The website states in Spanish that the choreographer sought to transpose into dance his impressions of contemporary Cuba, a land of diversity and contrasts. He made that point by combining ballet with contemporary dance.  There were some spectacular fouettés from Penélope Morejón as well as contemporary expressions to African and Cuban rhythms.

In the Q&A we learnt that the morning company class alternates between ballet and contemporary. Each of the dancers was asked which style they preferred.  None expressed a preference except Morejón who seemed to glow as she talked about ballet.  There were the usual easily anticipated questions from the floor about the creative process, influences and how they liked the British weather. The best intervention came from a lady from Bridlington who had to dash for a train. She probably spoke for all of us in expressing gratitude for the pleasure the company had brought after a 2-year pandemic.

This was the first time I had attended the Hull New Theatre and my first impressions are good.  It is located on Kingston Square where there was plenty of free street parking.  There is a restaurant and bar which offered inter alia burgers and scampi and chips. It was not exactly gourmet food and slightly over-priced for what it was but it was very convenient.  The auditorium seemed well ventilated.  The seats were comfortable with enough legroom at least for me.

Acosta Danza is nearing the end of its UK tour.  They are at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury tonight and at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth at the end of the week. 

Birmingham Royal Ballet's Don Quixote at the Lowry

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Birmingham Royal Ballet Don Quixote The Lowry 4 March 2022 19:30

I have seen a lot of shows in Greater Manchester in my time from pantomimes to grand opera. I cannot recall one with greater flair than last night's Don Quixote at the Lowry. Never have I been part of a more appreciative audience.  Standing ovations are rare in this country, particularly outside London. Yesterday, a large part of the audience (including yours truly) rose to our feet at the end of the show.

I have followed the Birmingham Royal Ballet for many years.  Indeed long before it moved to Birmingham. Never have I seen it dance as well as it did last night.  Yesterday was the first time that I had seen the company since Carlos Acosta became its director.  He seems to have galvanized it.

When I saw the Royal Ballet's Don Quixote at Covent Garden I wrote:
"Seldom have I enjoyed a performance at the Royal Opera House more than last Saturday's matinee of Don Quixote" (see Campbell and Magri in Royal Ballet's Don Quixote 2 April 2019).

I think I enjoyed last night's show even more.

For those who do not know the ballet, there is a brief synopsis in Wikipedia. The work is known for its spectacular jumps and fouettés requiring considerable virtuosity not only of those who dance Basilio and Kitri but also Espada, the matador, Mercedes, the street dancer, the Queen of the Dryads and the gipsy and fandango dancers. There are also great character roles for Sancho Panza, Gamache and, of course, Don Quixote himself.

I had been looking forward to seeing Lachlan Monaghan as Don Basilio as advertised on the company's website.   He had been my guest at The Stage Door. As I said in my interview, I admire his choreography and photography as well as his dancing.  Yesterday he was cast as Espada which he danced with panache.  Basilio was danced by Mathias Dingman another of my favourite artists.  He impressed us with his virtuosity and amused us with his touches of humour.  Miki Mizutani was a perfect Kitri. Coquettish when interacting with Gamache and her father.  Spectacular in her solos and pas de deux.  I was impressed by Eilis Small as Mercedes and Lucy Waine as Queen of the Dryads.  It is always a delight to see Tzu-Chao Chou who danced Amour.  Casting Laura Day as Don Quixote's hapless squire was inspirational. I have never seen or even imagined the role being performed by a woman. She carried it off brilliantly. I must also commend Rory Mackay for his performance of Gamache and Jonathan Payn for the title role.   Everyone in the cast delighted and impressed us and I congratulate them all.

One of the strengths of yesterday's performance was the designs and special effects.  I was particularly impressed with the sails of the windmills which morphed into limbs and claws before our eyes. I am not sure whether credit for that scene belongs to Tim Hatley who designed the sets and costumes or Nina Dunn the video designer.  It was spectacular.

The Symphonia conducted by Peter Murphy excelled themselves as much as the dancers.  Before the performance, they played the Ukrainian national anthem.  There has always been a large Ukrainian community in the North as is evidenced by the many Ukrainian clubs and churches to be seen.  Playing that anthem was an apposite reminder of those links.

The first two performances of this short season had to be cancelled because of injuries and illness.  There will be more performances at the Lowry this afternoon and evening.  The tour continues to Sunderland, Plymouth and at Sadler's Wells. If you can reach any of those theatres you should see this show.

Casanova Revived

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Northern Ballet Casanova  Leeds Grand Theatre 11 March 2022 19:30

I saw Northern Ballet on stage for the first time since its 50th anniversary gala on 4 Jan 2020.  It was very good to see them again.   Although I try not to be partisan and support the other classical and contemporary companies of the United Kingdom, the Dutch National Ballet and great companies around the world as well as I can, Northern Ballet is my home company.  I live 25 miles from Leeds. I have attended whenever possible Northern Ballet's over 55 and evening classes since 2013. I have seen most of its shows since I was captivated by Dame Gillian Lynne's A Simple Man. Through those connections, I have got to know and like many members of the company.

Several of those artists were in last night's performance of Casanova.  It was a particular pleasure to see Hannah Bateman as Madame de Pompadour.  I had taken part in a virtual flower throw for her early in the lockdown because it had not been possible to attend the Grand for a real flower throw in what I had understood to be her final performance for Northern Ballet. Bateman has long been my favourite female artist in that company.  She founded The Ballet Retreat which I have always promoted but never attended largely because I fear I would not be good enough for her.  She is in the very restricted sense that I use the term a true ballerina.

Other dancers in the show whom I know well and like a lot included Abigail Prudames as Bellino, Ashley Dixon as Senator Bragadin and Gavin McCaig as an inquisitor and other roles. The title role, however, was danced by Lorenzo Trosello. Yesterday was the first time I had noticed him in a major role and I was impressed.  I particularly admired his interaction with Prudames who danced Bellino.  That appears to me to be the most demanding female role.  She was also impressive.  They certainly excited the crowd most of whom rose to their feet at the reverence.

Casanova is not a particularly easy story to follow.  I had seen it several times and written quite a lot about it in Casanova Second Time Round in the articles linked to that post, but even I had to refer to the synopsis in the programme at times.  Tindall is a dramatic choreographer - perhaps most remarkable for his work with groups and the corps than for his solos and duets.  He makes his dancers create shapes that are almost sculptural.  His narrative is cinematic. Christopher Oram's designs are breathtaking as is Muzzey's score.  The success of this ballet is down to the choreographer's eye for talent and ability to bring it all together.

The house was less than full last night but the folk who did attend were vociferous and enthusiastic. Perhaps more used to Elland Road, I thought, than the theatre. When the Ukrainian national anthem was announced my friend and I stood up. Though we were joined by one or two others as the playing continued most seemed content to sit it out.  It was quite a contrast to the audience at The Lowry last week.  They did however stand and even ululate at the curtain call.  It was certainly a good show though not good enough for me to lose my sense of proportion.

The show will remain at the Grand until 19 March.  It opens at the Lyceum in Sheffield on 22 March and then moves on to Sadlers Wells and The Lowry in May.  It is one of the best works in Northern Ballet's repertoire and if you can get to any of those theatres you should see it.

Chelmsford Ballet's First Show Since the Pandemic

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The Chelmsford Ballet Company is older than Northern Ballet, Scottish Ballet and even English National Ballet. This little news clip records its formation. Clearly, the founders were resourceful and enterprising. Not surprising given that many of the City's movers and shakers hail from Essex.  I am proud to say that I am a non-dancing member of the Chelmsford Ballet.  I am tempted to attend an audition in June to see whether I could qualify as a dancing member.  

In the middle of March of every year, Chelmsford Ballet stages a full-length ballet or mixed bill in the city's Civic Theatre.  I watched and reviewed every one of those annual shows between 2014 and 2019. I missed the 2020 show because of covid.  There was no show last year for the same reason.  I am glad to see that the company will return to the Civic between 16 and 19 March 2022 to perform Beatrix Potter™ Tales in association with Frederick Warne & Co. 

According to the Civic's website:
"Many of the delightful Beatrix Potter characters enjoyed by generations are brought to life in this imaginative balletic interpretation.

We see Beatrix engrossed in her work & watch as some of her characters come to life such as Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher, Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, adding to the excitement a flying Jemima Puddle-Duck trying to escape from Mr. Toad."

Save foe an occasional young professional at the start of his or her career who may be engaged to perform a principal role most of the artists are child or adult dance students. There is however nothing amateurish about their performances.  Particularly impressive are their computer generated special effects.  A projection of the growth of a forest around Aurora's castle in The Sleeping Beautywas breathtaking.  Equally remarkable is their wardrobe department (see the headpieces of the snow wolves in the 2017 production of The Snow Queen).

I plan to watch the opening night. My review will appear a few days later.


Powerhouse Ballet's Nutcracker Intensive

Beatrix Potter comes to Life

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Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit*


 


























* Photo credits Rod Tinsley/Tony Cockrell Copyright 2022 Chelmsford Ballet Company, Reproduced with kind permission of the company

Chelmsford Ballet Company Beatrix Potter™ Tales in association with Frederick Warne & Co. Chelmsford Civic Theatre, 16 March 2022, 19:30

I have watched every annual show by the Chelmsford Ballet Company since 2013. I have enjoyed them all but none has delighted me more than Beatrix Potter™ Tales in association with Frederick Warne & Co. It was a show in which everyone shone from the tiniest hedgehog to guest artist Xholindi Muçi.  It was not just the cast that excelled.  I don't think I have seen so many scene changes. There was a different backcloth for each scene.  Those backcloths seemed to depict not the Cumbrian lakes and fells but the rolling hills, brooks and woods of rural Essex. Never have I seen more lavish costumes.  Each animal head painstakingly created.  There was entertainment even in the interval as the artists dashed through the bar and foyer in full costume. 

The ballet opened with Olivia Riley as Beatrix Potter at her desk.  She rose to her feet.  Gentle soutenus and développés represented her musings.  Characters from her Tales came to life one by one.  They included:
  • Mrs Tittlemouse (Sophie Odell)
  • Johnny Town Mouse (Orla Swann) 
  • Mice led by Anastasia Marks and Tessa Raita, 
  • Peter Rabbit (Alycia Potter)
  • Mrs Tiggy-Winkle (Anna Gellett)
  • Hedgehogs led by Isabella Stagg
  • Alexander Pig (Grace Emerson)
  • Pigling Bland (Xholindi Muçi)
  • Pig Wig (Darci Willsher)
  • Jemima Puddle-Duck (Samantha Ellis)
  • Mr Tod (Anna Gellett)
  • Jeremy Fisher (Kiera Cook)
  • Hunca Munca (Isabelle Fellows)
  • Tom Thumb (Abigail Wiltshire)
  • Squirrel Nutkin (Rachel Young)
  • Tabitha Twitchit (Echo Murrill)
  • Mrs Tiggy-Winkle in Act 2 (Grace Emerson) and 
  • Squirrel (Karisma Patel).
There were many artists - some very young - who danced in the ensemble.  Each and every one of them performed well. The only reason I have not listed them above or singled them out for special praise below is that this review would resemble a telephone directory had I mentioned everyone who impressed me.

Each of the scenes represented a different Tale. Some were solos and others were duets.  I particularly admired Muçi's dance with Willsher.  There was some difficult choreography in their duet including a fish dive. I enjoyed all the solos especially Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck who flew across the stage and Jeremy Fisher who read "Pond Life" while waiting for his catch.

This was the first time I had seen this ballet but I was told by Elizabeth Baker (the company's President) that it had been in the repertoire for some time.  She had danced in an earlier production.  She said that the ballet had been inspired by the filmFrederick Warne & Co. had licensed Chelmsford's version.  The score had been composed by John Lanchberry and Nigel Westlake.  The magnificent costumes were designed by Ann Starling. The sets were created by Annette Potter who also choreographed and produced the show. 

The Tales of Beatrix Potter shows what can be achieved by non-professional dancers.  Chelmsford Ballet was formed 73 years ago and has survived lockdown, austerity, inflation and umpteen recessions.  It inspired us at Powerhouse Ballet to set up a similar company in the North of England.  lt would be wonderful if we could stage something like the Tales of Beatrix Potter one day. 

There will be performances tonight and tomorrow.   If you can reach the Chelmsford Civic Theatre you can expect a treat.

Amser Da - Dutch National Ballet New Season

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National Opera and Ballet
Author Jane Lambert © 2022 Powerhouse Ballet All rights reserved

 














The Dutch are good at puns.  It may be because every schoolchild in the Netherlands is expected to learn enough English, French or German to hold a simple conversation in any of those languages.  One of the best puns came from Remco van Revenstein after the 2020 US presidential election.  It went like this: "Question: "Why does Mr Trunp have to leave the White House?" Answer "Because it's for Biden."

Here is one pun that not even the Dutch will have dreamt up. The Welsh for "Good time" is "Amser da" and of course almost the name of their leading city. If I ran a travel agency, airline or the Dutch tourist board in Cardiff, Swansea or Newport I would be flogging that pun for all that it is worth and then some.

That is because the Dutch National Ballet has just announced its new season in a press release dated 29 March 2022.  It will attract theatre-goers in droves from around the world including, no doubt, many from Wales and the rest of the UK. Highlights will include:

  • Celebrate between 13 to 28 Sept 2022: A mixed bill consisting of Yugen by Wayne McGregor to the music of Leonard Bernstein, Christopher Wheeldon's The Two of Us, Ted Brandsen's The Chairman Dances  to the music of John Adams and Milena Siderova's  Regnum to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart;
  • The Sleeping Beauty between 12 Oct 2022 to 2 Jan 2023;
  • Balanchine, Van Manen and Arques: 9 - 19 Nov 2022  a national tour with Balanchine's Four Temperaments, various works by Hans van Manen and Arques's Manoeuvre;
  • Dawson 8 to 18 Dec 2022 a double bill consisting of a new work by David Dawson and Dawson's The Four Seasons to the music of Max Richter;
  • The Junior Company Ballet Bubbles 26 Jan to 15 Feb 2023;
  • Verdi Requiem in collaboration with the National Opera 9 Feb - 25 Feb 2023;
  • Swan Lake 11 May - 16 June 2023;
  • Dorian by  Ernst Meisner and Marco Gerris of IDH Dance Collective to the music of  Joey Rouken; and 
  • Forsythe Festival between 10 and 27 June 2023.
The company will also take part in the Fall for Dance Festuva in New York this autumn.

Ballet Futures: The Pipeline Project

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I am very grateful to Sarah Kundi for bringing the Pipeline Project to my attention.  This is an initiative of English National Ballet to encourage and incentivize more dancers from African, Caribbean, South Asian or South-East Asian communities to participate in professional ballet training as soon as possible. 

Applicants must be aged 8 or over and attend an audition. Those who are successful will receive the following benefits:
  • free weekly training at their local dance school
  • support towards shoes and school uniform
  • the chance to work with English National Ballet dancers, artists and teachers throughout the year
  • backstage access to English National Ballet’s home in London, the Mulryan Centre for Dance, with additional support for travel to and from East London.
Representatives of the English National Ballet will also visit participating schools at least once a year to answer students' questions and address their concerns.

The project started at Dupont Dance Stage School in Leicester and West London School of Dance.in January and has recently been extended to Nina Monteiro Ballet School in east London and Spotlight Stage School in Birmingham.

Sarah Kundi says on the project's website:
“It is imperative that we enable and support the underrepresented youth of today by providing training and opportunities, combined with being holistically nurtured, enabling them to flourish and fly”

This is a project that is dear to my heart for all sorts of reasons. I will follow it closely and support it in any way I can. Anyone requiring further information should contact the programme lead.Kerry Nicholls, on balletfutures@ballet.org.uk.

20 years of Ballet Black - double bill at the Barbican and currently on tour

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(Photo Credit: Choreographed by Cassa Pancho and The Ballet Black Company Artists. (L-R) Ebony Thomas, Isabela Coracy, Cira Robinson and Alexander Fadayrio photographed by Bill Cooper. Lighting design by David Plater. Costume design by Jessica Cabassa)


This year is the 20th anniversary of Ballet Black – the ballet company which celebrates dancers of Black and Asian descent. While diversity in dance has improved massively over the past two decades, Ballet Black is still unique in respect of its dancers and repertoire. Ballet Black dancers are genuinely different, and they add new (well, not so new anymore!) creativity and a special energy to ballet performance. I watched the performance at the Barbican and their pre-show class, which shone an interesting light on their work. 

 

I have never been a professional dancer, but I go to general/intermediate ballet classes most weeks, and two of my teachers, Raymond Chai and Adam Pudney, have taught Ballet Black company classes. The class had all the familiar elements of a classical ballet class, and it showcased the dancers’ solid training and great technique. 

 

Ballet Black dancers do not have traditional ballet physiques; they are visibly strong, and finely muscled. Cira Robinson’s slender, elongated frame and long limbs give her a sculptural quality, even when she is working on not particularly challenging barre exercises. The male dancers leaping beautifully across the stage, and landing silently, practising for a performance to loud and vibrant music, demonstrated an innate energy – a kind of powerful bounce that was just about in control. Watching the warm-up, we caught their excitement for the show ahead.

 

The dancers’ energy and enthusiasm give Ballet Black their special quality which is always enhanced by the choreography the company chooses to perform. I have seen them before and I recall a brilliant and witty interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood a couple of years ago. But this year, its 20thanniversary, Ballet Black has found its voice in a double bill of specially commissioned work.

 

The first half of the show Say It Loud, is a choreographic history of Ballet Black itself, created by founder and artistic director Cassa Pancho. It is structured in seven chapters, with the classical combinations previewed in the warm-up class set to a varied soundtrack of music of Black origin put together by Michael ‘Mikey’ J’ Asante, including African rhythm, calypso, grime, and classic soul, interspersed with a voiceover compiled from social media, audience feedback and comments from company artists between 2001 and 2021 – “the background noise to everything we do,” wrote Pancho in the programme. Some of this was encouraging, “I love Ballet Black,” but it also highlighted the prejudices and preconceptions about Black music and dance that have challenged the company and its dancers over the years, “Why don’t you do ballets about slavery?”

 

All the pieces were a pleasure to watch and there were pieces designed for each dancer. I especially liked Mthuthuzeli November’s edgy solo to Flowdan’s Welcome to London, “Cold when it′s critical. Cool but cynical. Maxed out never minimal. That's how we function,” and the lyrical interpretations of jazz standards: Isabela Coracy leading a trio to What a Wonderful World, and José Alves and Cira Robinson’s pas de deux to Etta James’ beautiful rendition of At Last.



(Photo Credit: Choreographed by Cassa Pancho and The Ballet Black Company Artists. José Alves and Cira Robinson photographed by Bill Cooper. Lighting design by David Plater. Costume design by Jessica Cabassa)

 

The second half of the show was Gregory Maqoma’s Black Sun, a long-ish contemporary piece which “draws energy from the sun and the moon, giving rise to descendants of ancestors,” as Maquoma writes in the programme. Basically, the theme is ritual as a preparation for afterlife, blending nature and supernatural, and great use is made of lighting, costume, and sound. The choreography mixes classical and contemporary technique with African tribal rhythms.  There was a nice contrast between the pointe work in Robinson's solo and the beautiful lift in her pas de deux with November, and the tribal section where all the dancers play the drums. 

 


(Photo credit: Choreographed by Gregory Maqoma. (L-R) Rosanna Lindsey, Isabela Coracy, Ebony Thomas, Sayaka Ichikawa, Alexander Fadayiro and José Alves photographed by Bill Cooper. Lighting design by David Plater. Costume design by Natalie Pryce)

Black Sun builds up into a celebratory crescendo and pulled the audience in to the extent that by the end, everyone was on their feet. But I have to admit that if I hadn’t read the programme, I would not have been able to follow the narrative just from watching the performance. The costumes, by Jessica Cabassa for Say It Loud and Natalie Pryce for Black Sun deserve a mention. David Plater’s lighting is an important element of both pieces. 

Ballet Black has an energy and exuberance that spills out into the audience. Just eight dancers – Alexander Fadayiro, Cira Robinson, José Alves, Isabela Coracy, Rosanna Lindsey, Mthuthuzeli November, Sayaka Ichikawa, and Ebony Thomas – create the feeling of a big show and there was a fantastic atmosphere in the Barbican Theatre. 

 

And Ballet Black brings real variety to dance. In 20 years, you could say it has added a new dimension to ballet, a lot more than the brown ballet shoes mentioned in the initial voiceover, bringing genuinely different and exciting works to the stage every year – Ballet Black now has a repertoire of over 50 ballets created by 37 choreographers. Importantly, Ballet Black provides opportunity and inspiration for young dancers of colour, many of whom were in the audience. The company– is on tour until 22nd June https://balletblack.co.uk/performances/  Catch them if you can! 

 

Joanna Goodman, 2022

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