Let Amsterdam Dance

Amsterdam

Author Benutzer:AlterVista  Licence CC BY-SA 3,0 Source Wikimedia Commons

On 27 Oct 2025, the city of Amsterdam will celebrate the 750th anniversary of its foundation.  Just now, it is in the middle of a year-long festival called "Amsterdam 750" which started on 27 Oct 2024.  As part of the festival, the Dutch National Ballet is presenting a programme of dance called "Heel Amsterdam Danst" which ranges from free performances in the city's districts to a spectacular finale in the Music Theatre.

The performance in the Music Theatre is called "Let Amsterdam Dance".   According to the Dutch National Ballet's website:

"From each of Amsterdam’s eight districts, a group of residents—of all ages and backgrounds, with or without dance experience—will learn a section of In C, a ballet by Sasha Waltz that blends improvisation with choreography. Each group will first present its own unique performance at a festive (and free!) event in their district. Then, on 15 June, all groups will unite for one spectacular final performance on the stage of Dutch National Opera & Ballet."

Sasha Waltz is a German dancer and choreographer, and the founder of the company Sasha Waltz & Guests.

One of the company's works is In C, and it is easier for them than me to explain the piece in their own words in the YouTube video  »In C« by Sasha Waltz & Guests - about the project.  There is more information in The Cosmos of »In C« on the company's website.   The Dutch National Ballet adds:

"Sasha Waltz’s In C consists of 53 choreographic ‘figures’ and gives the dancers both the freedom and the responsibility to experiment with them. All dancers start at figure 1 and end at figure 53, but they may repeat any phrase as often as they like, as long as they don’t drift more than a few phrases apart from each other. Waltz: “As a result, every performance is different, and each dancer is also a choreographer at the same time.”

The Dutch National Ballet also states that In C earned Sasha Waltz the Deutscher Tanzpreis, which is Germany's most prestigious dance award.

The score was composed by the US composer Terry Riley.   Wikipedia describes it as "one of the most successful works by an American composer and a seminal example of minimalism."  When one considers the sheer number of distinguished American composers from Bernstein to Copland, that is saying something.  Designs are by Jasmin Lepore.   Of course, the choreography is by Sasha Waltz.

I have spent many pleasant days in Amsterdam, mostly at the Music Theatre but also at its other auditoriums, museums, historic buildings and restaurants.  I wish all its residents, and in particular the National Ballet a happy 750th anniversary.

The Tempest from Caliban's Perspective

Fyodor Paramonov as Caliban 

 

Shobana Jeyasingh first came to my attention with Bayadère – The Ninth Life, which I saw just over 10 years ago.  In my review, I wrote that Jeyasingh's work "compared and contrasted a modern Indian's perception of one of the classics of Western dance with Théophile Gautier's perception of Indian classical dance." I have recently received a notification from Shobana Jeyasingh Dance about another work by Jeyasingh, which explores the relationship between Europeans and the original inhabitants of the places they enter.

The work is called We Caliban and the company describes it as an "inventive, sideways look at Shakespeare’s The Tempest."  The description continues:

"Shakespeare’s brilliant last play, The Tempest, written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, is a tale about power – exercised weakly, usurped violently, and regained through strategy and showmanship."

It promises to tell the story of The Tempest through the eyes of Caliban, "a minor character in the play whose life is changed forever when the power games of distant lands and unknown peoples are played out in his own remote island, making him a 'monstrous' servant to a new master and his young daughter."

The score is by Thierry Pécou, the designs are by Mayou Trikerioti, the lighting is by Floriaan Ganzevoor and the projections are by Will Duke.  Uzma Hameed is the dramaturge.

The show will open at Snape Maltings on 20 Sep 2025 and then tour Portsmouth, Southampton, York and Warwick.   The performance at York will take place on 17 and 18 Oct 2025 at the Theatre Royal.

Jack White - Composer of Ballet Cymru's "Cinderella" and "Stick in the Mud"

Standard YouTube Licence

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing the Welsh composer Jack White for the Menai Science Park (Bangor University's science park at Gaerwen on Ynys Môn or the Isle of Anglesey). The occasion was World Intellectual Property Day, with the theme IP and Music: Feel the Beat of IP.  My interview with Jack formed part of a webinar which I chaired and reported in Best World IP Day Ever on 8 May 2025 in NIPC Cymru.  The science park very kindly made a YouTube video of my interview entitled Jack White and Jane Lambert.

Jack told me that he was a Newport man.  He was born and went to school in that city.  He read music at Somerville College, Oxford and carried out his doctoral research at Cardiff University.  He first came to my attention when I saw Marc Brew's Stuck in the Mud in Llandudno (see An Explosion of Joy 21 June 2014).  Jack wrote the score for that work, and I have been one of his fans ever since.  My second opportunity to hear Jack's work was in Cinderella, which I reviewed in Ballet Cymru's Cinderella on 15 June 2015.  I loved his score.  Although I admire Prokofiev's score very much, I can understand why Darius James and Amy Doughty commissioned a new score from Jack for their production.  As I said in my review:

"it fitted the ballet like a glove. An arranger or even a musicologist would have had to have taken a meat cleaver to Prokofiev and the result might have been no more satisfactory than the operation on the feet of Cas and Seren."

I wrote a feature on Jack on 6 May 2017. 

Since that feature, Jack has won the Manchester Chorale's contest to find a new work to celebrate its 40th anniversary.  His winning entry, When Voices Rise, was recorded in St Ann's Church, Manchester and appears on the choir's YouTube channel.  This is my favourite work from Jack.   As I said in the interview,  I particularly enjoy the crescendos and cadences in the piece.

Jack is doing a lot of work for choirs now by adapting well-known songs like Love a Lady Tonight for choral use which he mentions in more detail in my interview. 

 

Powerhouse Ballet's Swan Lake Intensive Workshop

Jane Tucker and the Members of Powerhouse Ballet  

Author Gita Mistry  Reproduced with the author's kind permission

 

On Sunday, 25 May 2025, Powerhouse Ballet held an intensive workshop on Swan Lake at Dance Studio Leeds which proved to be one of its most successful events ever.   Many thanks to our guest ballet mistresses, Sara Horner and Jane Tucker of the Academy of Northern Ballet, and to everyone who turned up for making the day so pleasant and memorable.

Sara Horner and the |Dancers at 13:15

Author Sue Pritchard   Reproduced with the author s kind permission

Sara started our workshop at 10:00 with breathing and stretching exercises on pilates mats and towels.  As soon as she judged that we were ready for 3 hours of demanding barre and centre exercises, we brought out the travelling barres.   Sara took us through the usual exercises - pliés, tendus, glissés, ronds de jambe, frappés et cetera.   After cloches and grands battements, we removed the travelling barres and started the centre exercises with tendus and glissés. Sara taught us a beautiful adagio, and we finished with temps levés in anticipation of the grande entrée of the swans in the first lakeside scene of Swan Lake. The last half hour of Sara's slot consisted of pointework exercises for members who had received pointe training and brought their pointe shoes.  The rest of us followed the class on demi-pointe.

Jane took over from Sara at 13:15.  She began by telling us a little bit of the history of Swan Lake. The ballet had not been an immediate success when it was premiered in Moscow.  She told us that critics had complained that Tchaikovsky's music had been too symphonic for ballet.  They had plenty of other niggles before Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov got to work on the ballet for the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg. Since then, it has been a favourite of audiences all over the world.

Jane had selected three of my favourite pieces from the ballet: the grande entrée that I mentioned before, the pas de trois from Prince Siegfried's birthday party and the cygnets' dance.  A few years ago, I had dinner with the distinguished dancer Terry Hyde.  He told me on the good authority of Mrs Hyde, who was also a dancer, that members of the corps de ballet have been known to whisper under their breath as they enter the stage:

"I hate Swan Lake! I hate Swan Lake!  It's a terrible bore,"

And then words to the effect that they can't wait for the season to end.  I hasten to add that that story was news to Jane Tucker and also Yvonne Charlton.   Anyway, we loved the swans' entry and other pieces amd can't wait to perform them.  That could be on 15 Nov 2025 at the Chroma Q theatre in Leeds, or possibly even earlier if KNT invite us back to dance in one of their shows.  However, Lauren Savage has just proposed another lovely piece for members to consider. 

We now have something on which to build. Our plans for a summer school in Bangor or York, our own mixed bill and full-length ballet and, eventually, a salaried artistic director are becoming realizable.  However, if we are going to implement any of those plans, we shall need some additional revenues. Up to now, I have sponsored all the company's activities, and I will continue to do so to the same extent as before.  But we can do so much more if others contribute.   Earlier this year, I circulated a business plan to members that contained details of a subscription and charges for some merchandise and services.  Nobody objected to the proposals, and I shall consult on ways of implementing them.  At this point, I stress that members' contributions will fund new services and not those that were previously free. We shall also set up a friends scheme for those who want to support the company but not necessarily dance with us.  Later, we shall canvass for advertising, business sponsorship and grant funding.

We have much to look forward to, including a 2-hour class with Rachel Hickey of the Czech National Ballet at KNT Danceworks on 20 July starting at 14:00. Rachel is a fellow Mancunian who trained at Elmhurst before starting her career in the Olomouc ballet, which was also Emily Joy Smith's company.  Many thanks to Emily Joy for introducing us to Rachel.  I will post a registration card in the next few days.

Life with the Ribbon

Kimberley Hattersley-Barton and the Cast of Life with the Ribbon

© 2025 Kimberley Hattersley-Barton,  All rights reserved. 

 

Kimberley Hattersley-Barton and Friends Life with the Ribbon Unity Hall, Wakefield, 18:00 10 May 2025

For several years, I attended Jane Tucker's improvers class at Northern Ballet.  Although I had studied ballet for many years, I had never been very good at it even when I was young.  I had become even worse by the time I was taking Jane's classes because of the ravages of old age.  Nobody ever said anything to me, but I felt very much like Danny Kaye's ugly duckling.   But there was one young woman who always made me feel welcome, even though she was one of the better dancers.   Her infectious smile and occasional cheery wave across the studio immediately put me at my ease and emboldened me to persevere.  I shall always be grateful to her for her encouragement.

I learned that the young woman's name was Kimberley Hattersley-Barton and that she had been ill for much of her life.   It was only when she posted a notice on Facebook about a charity gala at the Unity Hall in Wakefield that I discovered the precise nature and full extent of her illness.  In her 27 years, she has already had no less than 5 cancer diagnoses, the first of which was when she was just a few months old. The purpose of the gala was to raise funds for three charities, Willow, Beads of Courage and When You Wish Upon a Star.  Each of those charities improves the lives of young persons who are suffering from serious illnesses.

For those who don't know Wakefield, Unity Hall is a prominent 3 storey building off Westgate.  Wakefield's main thoroughfare.  I have learnt that the building used to be the central stores of the Wakefield Industrial Society, which seems to have been some sort of cooperative society. Possibly because the building had been used as a storehouse, there is a cavernous space on the top floor which has been turned into an auditorium.   It was in that space that the gala took place.

The gala consisted of songs and dance routines arranged in two parts and interspersed with speeches and conversations.   There was rather more song than dance, but the dance contributions were impressive.  A troupe of young women referred to in the programme as the "Gala Dance Team" opened and closed the show. They also danced at several other points during the evening. If I am not mistaken, they are the women dressed in pink kneeling in the front row of the photo.   Kimberley joined in at least one of the Gala Dance Team's routines.  There was a remarkably talented young artist called Meg Finan who danced El Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rouge as a solo.   She also danced to Bring Him Home from Les Misérables sung by Tyler Warren.  Finally, contemporary dance students from the Academy of Northern Ballet performed Revolve. 

Halfway through the first part, a ballet teacher and former dancer called Nic Smart, introduced himself as Kimberley's mentor, who had become a close friend.  Ballet is a tough and demanding discipline.  I once overheard Fiona Noonan (the teacher who led me back to the barre) tell another student that ballet is a tough taskmistress willing you to fail.   The physical and mental skills required to master the art form are valuable life skills.  Dance is obviously important to Kimberley.   It may well be one of the reasons for her resilience

Although this is primarily a dance blog, I must acknowledge the singers, who were also excellent. In the first part of the show, Jemma Alexander sang Let's Hear It for the Boy from Footloose and Take Me or Leave Me from Rent as a duet with Laura Pick.  In the second, she sang As If We Never Said Goodbye from Sunset Boulevard as a solo and For Good from Wicked as a duet with Laura Pick.  Laura Pick also sang No Good Deed and Defying Gravity from the same musical. Michael Markey sang All Coming Back to Me and Oh What A Night.   Aimée Good and Isabel Canning sang That's Life together.   Aimée Good had known Kimberley at secondary school, and she paid a very moving tribute to her former schoolmate. Isabel Canning sang Don't Rain on My Parade from Funny Girl.  Elliott Lee sang Stars from Les Misérables and You'll Be Back from Hamilton.   Tyler Lee sang Power of Love from Back to the Future.  Finally, Matthew Roddis belted our Cry Me A River in part 1 and Sweet Caroline in part 2 so compellingly that he brought many audience members to their feet.

The Life with the Ribbon gala was a resounding success, for which its producer, Kimberley, deserves much of the credit.   Everything had been rehearsed well.  The show ran to time, each item following on slickly from the one before.   The applause that the artists received at the curtain call was thunderous.  A lot of happy people descended onto Westgate that evening,

Here Be Dragons

Standard YouTube Licence

Eun-Me Ahn Dance Company Dragons Alhambra Theatre, Bradford 22 Mar 2025 19:30

The phrase "Hic Sunt Dracones" (Here be Dragons) appeared on an early 16th-century globe to indicate unexplored regions. I mention it because the show is called Dragons.   That early cartographer's term is apt to describe the performance of the Eun-Me Ahn Dance Company at the Bradford Alhambra on 22 Mar 2025 because it defied classification.  It was presented by Dance Consortium as contemporary dance, but it was also a light show with holograms and special effects.

Eun Me Ahn, who was born in Seoul in 1963, is a South Korean dancer and choreographer. Her company consists of 7 Korean dancers.   She describes her company's work in an interview for Dance Consortium on YouTube.  For its tour of the UK, her company has teamed up with 5 young artists from other East Asian countries, all of whom were born at the turn of the millennium.

The show starts quietly with a single figure slowly crossing the stage, manipulating what seems to be a pneumatic tube.   After exiting to the right, a second figure appears and then more.  In the course of the show, still and moving images are projected onto a gauze screen at the front of the stage.  These seem to mingle with the dancers so that it is impossible to distinguish between illusion and reality.

To describe the show as controversial would be an understatement.   A couple from Skegness whom I had met in the bar before the show did not appreciate it at all.  Others found it exhilarating.  Like the unknown regions in the 16th-century globe, it was on the edge of expectations.   

I wish I could say more about Eun-Me Ahn and her company. I could not buy a programme in the theatre and I found very little on the internet.   My most intriguing find is a page of links to Dragons and other works on the Gadja Productions website.   Some of these have very odd names like "Dancing Grandmothers" and "Dancing Middle-Aged Men".  I recommend North Korea Dance, which combines marching with fan and other traditional folk dances.

Cinders in Sunderland

Standard YouTube Licence

Birmingham Royal Ballet Cinderella Sunderland Empire 15 Mar 2025 14:00 

Between 6 Feb and 12 Apr 2025, the Birmingham Royal Ballet took Sir David Bintley's Cinderella on a nationwide tour.  I caught it at the Sunderland Empire on 15 March 2025.  I had already reviewed it in Bintley's Best on 2 Mar 2017.  I wrote in that article that I liked everything that I had seen of Bintley's work, but I thought Cinderella was the best.  That is still my view now. 

The reason I admire the ballet so much is that it tells the Grimm brothers' story (with a few variations) through Bintley's spectacular choreography to Prokofiev's beautiful music with John Macfarlane's sumptuous designs and David Finn's ingenious lighting. The Cinderella Relaxed Performance YouTube video is a good introduction to and overview of the ballet.   In Cinderella: An Interview with Sir David Bintley. Sir David confirms Mark Monahan's programme notes that Sir David agreed to create the ballet if Macfarlane agreed to do the designs. Monahan reports: "Lo and behold, John said yes."  Readers will recall that Macfarlane designed Liam Scarlett's Swan Lake, a recording of which I mentioned in Swan Lake at the Leeds Showcase on 30 May 2025.  The importance of those designs is explained in Cinderella: John Macfarlane's Designs.

In his programme notes, Mark Monahan observed that many choreographers had created versions of Cinderella, but it was Sir Frederick Ashton's for the Royal Ballet that "cast the longest shadow". It was important to Bintley that his company's Cinderella should be distinctive.  One important difference is that Bintley's stepsisters are danced by two young women, whereas Sir Frederick and Sir Robert Helpmann danced the stepsisters in the tradition of the English pantomime dame. As the stepsisters' video shows, those young women were quite beastly to Cinderella and, sometimes, even to each other. Ashton and Helpmann were absurd but far from menacing.  Bintley retained the fairy godmother, tradesmen and seasonal fairies (or at least the seasons) in his ballet, introducing also a frog coachman and lizard attendants.

Beatrice Parma danced the title role with flair and grace.  One of the most satisfying moments in the show is when she momentarily turned on her tormentors with a broom.  Others were, of course, her arrival at the ball, her duet with the prince, her producing the missing slipper and her final dance with the prince. Enrique Bejarano Vidal was an impressive prince with his sweeping lifts and powerful jumps.  Isabella Howard was a dazzling fairy godmother.  Having seen Oscar Kempsey-Fagg at An Evening with Ashton on 24 Jan 2023 in Elmhurst Ballet School, which I discussed in An "Evening with Ashton" and the Launch of an English Junior Company on 30 Jan 2023, it is good to see his progress in the company.

Sunderland has a beautiful Edwardian theatre capable of accommodating an audience of 2,200.  It was opened by Vesta Tilly in 1907.  It has a massive stage and excellent acoustics.  It is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Sid James and Vesta Tilly.  Neither spectre appeared on my visit.   Sunderland has a population of just over 277,000.  It used to be known for shipbuilding.  Nowadays, it is better known for making Nissan cars.   It has a university, a football club and beaches.