Yoshida Coming Home

Author Scillystuff Licence CC BY 3.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Miyako Yoshida trained at the Royal Ballet School and spent most of her career dancing in the United Kingdom first with Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet and later the Royal Ballet.  She rose quickly to principal and has won all sorts of awards, including the Order of the British Empire.  She is now Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Japan, which she will bring to London between 24 and 27 July 2025.

The company will perform Giselle at Covent Garden.  It will be Yorshida's own production with designs by Dick Bird and lighting by Rick Fisher. Judging by the YouTube video of Yoshida's rehearsal, audiences are in for a treat.  The National Ballet is located in the recently opened New National Theatre in Tokyo, which it shares with the National Opera and National Theatre of Japan.  There are 75 dancers in the company which enables them to perform everything from The Nutcracker to Kaori Ito's Robot, l'amour éternel.

The company has its own ballet school which offers a two-year full-time course to prepare students for a professional career.  The school also offers a two-year preparatory course for younger students.  Details of the curriculum and profiles of some of the students appear on the ballet school webpage.

The National Ballet is not the only company in Japan; The Tokyo Ballet and the K-Ballet are also prominent companies.  According to Wikipedia, ballet was introduced into Japan by the Italian ballet master Giovanni Vittorio Rossi in 1912.  Rossi trained several Japanese pupils, some of whom entertained troops and factory workers during the Sino-Japanese War, much in the way that Vic-Wells, Rambert and other companies did here (see Yukiyo Hoshino Use of Dance to Spread Propaganda during the Sino-Japanese War Athens Joujrnal of History Vol 1 Issue 3 pp 191 - 198).

The Days I went to Bangor - Ballet Cymru's Relaxed Performances

View of Bangor University and the Pontio Centre

Author Andrew Woodvine  Licence CC NY-SA 2.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Ballet Cymru Giselle relaxed performance Pontio Centre 14 Jun 2025

The great David Plumpton knows that there are two ways to revive me when I am flagging in class.  One is to play Khachaturian's adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from Spartacus. The other is to play The Day We Went to Bangor  (see Our Anniversary Company Class 26 May 2029 and Magic 26 May 2024 Powerhouse Ballet),  Bangor occupies a special place in my affections, not least because it reminds me so much of my alma mater, which Andrew Lang celebrated in his Almae Matres.  

Just below the main university buildings lies the Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre. It is important not just for the University and the city but also for Wales. I have tried to explain its importance in Ballet Cymru's Dylan Thomas Programme: The Company's Best Work Ever 12 Dec 2018, Ballet Cymru at the Bangor Pontio Centre, 24 Nov 2019, Ballet Cymru's Outreach Work 8 Jun 2020, Ballet Cymru's DUETS Programme and why it is important, 14 Feb 2022 and Dance for Parkinson's in the Pontio Centre 2 Feb 2023).

Yesterday, the Pontio Centre hosted Ballet Cymru's relaxed performance of their new production of Giselle, which I reviewed in Ballet Cymru's Giselle 3.0.  A relaxed performance is designed for very young children and some adults who, for one reason or another, are inhibited from sitting in a darkened auditorium for 2 hours or more watching a full-length ballet.  The idea of a relaxed performance is best explained by Birmingham Royal Ballet in their Cinderella Relaxed Performance page and their YouTube video.

I have attended two relaxed performances by Ballet Cymru:  yesterday's Giselle and last year's Romeo a Juliet, which I did not get around to reporting. Those shows are a vade mecum to the appreciation of ballet.  Between 1864 and 1976, the Royal Ballet operated a relaxed performance programme called "Ballet for All" which toured village halls, factory canteens and other makeshift auditoriums around the country. It brought ballet into the lives of 70,000 people a year, according to Wikipedia.   I think my love of ballet was ignited by one of those performances.

Yesterday, the Pontio Centre was thronged by children and their parents, though there were more than a few unaccompanied adults like me. They mobbed Louise's exhibition spot to touch the pointe shoes, Myrtha's twigs, Giselle's headdress and other props from the performance. They gathered around a screen showing the storyboard as though it were an ice cream van.  Some were jumping, humming snatches of the score and attempting pirouettes and arabesques. When the artists appeared in costume, I was reminded of the entry of Micky and Minnie in Disneyland.  I met several and congratulated them.  I also firmed up the arrangements for Powerhouse's visit to Mold, Ballet Cymru's workshop in Leeds and Isobel Holland's masterclass.

Bangor could be regarded as the intellectual and cultural capital of Welsh-speaking Wales.  Last year, only a handful of the dancers introduced themselves and their characters in Welsh.  This year they all did so llongyfarchiadau mawr to them.   Ceris Matthews once described Ballet Cymru as "the pride of Newport and the pride of Wales."   I could not agree with her more.

Ballet Cymru's Giselle 3.0

Scene from Act Two of the Original Performance of Fisekke

 

Ballet Cymru Giselle  Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre, Bangor 13 Jun 2025 19:30

Yesterday I saw Ballet Cymru's third production of Giselle.  Their first production was in 2006 when they were known as Independent Ballet Wales (see Ballet at the Bridport Arts Centre, BBC website, Oct 2006).  Their second was livestreamed from Lichfield Cathedral on 5 Jul 2021 (see Giselle Reimagined, 9 Jul 2021).  I later saw it in Leeds and Newport and even danced a bit of Darius James and Amy Doughty's choreography for a workshop that Ballet Cymru held for Powerhouse Ballet when they visited Leeds (see Ballet Cymru's Giselle, 10 Nov 2021).  Their latest version was premiered in Newport on 16 May 2025 and is now touring the United Kingdom (see Ballet Cymru's New Giselle, 8 Jun 2025).  I was not in Bridport to see Giselle 1.0, but I did see and liked Giselle 2.0.  In Giselle 3.0, Darius James and Amy Doughty reverted to Adolphe Adam's original score and much of Petipa's choreography, albeit with a simplified libretto.   I thought it worked very well.

The versions of Giselle that big national companies perform, such as Peter Wright's, Rachel Beaujean's or Mary Skeaping's, require a lot of dancers for such roles as the vignerons and hunters in Act 1 and the wilis in Act 2.  Ballet Cymru is still not a big company so the story has to be tweaked if it is to be told successfully.  That is probably why James and Doughty dropped such characters as Giselle's mother who warns her daughter of the likes of Albrecht and the consequences of too much dancing for a girl with a dicky heart, Bathilde (Albrecht's betroathed) who presents Giselle with a necklace just before Hilarion exposes Albrecht or Moyna and Zulma in Act 2 aptly described by Susan Dalgetty-Ezra as "Myrtha's sidekicks".  But they did keep a lot of the essentials, including the peasant pas de deux and the mesmerizing arabesques from Act 2.  They set Act 1 in a Welsh village and Act 2 in a forest, and they dressed their wilis, including the men, in romantic tutus.

Isobel Holland, who had danced Myrtha powerfully in Giselle 2.0, was equally impressive in the equivalent role in Giselle 3.0.  If I am not mistaken, her makeup and costume in Giselle 3.0 were similar to her costume and makeup in  Giselle 2.0.   I gave her my loudest clap at the reverence.  Also impressive were Mika George Evans in the title role and Jakob Myers as Albrecht.  They are both athletic dancers, and they came into their own in Act 2.  I once saw Carlos Acosta and Natalia Osipova in Giselle, and Evans and Myers reminded me strongly of their performance.  Jacob Hornsey elevated Hilarion's role into a major part of the drama, which cannot have been easy, as he is portrayed as a bit of a churlish chump in most productions.   The same is true of Wilfred, Albrecht's squire. James Knott, who danced the equivalent role as Albrecht's friend, made that a much bigger role.  It is not clear from the cast list whom I should congratulate for the peasant pas de deux bit they delivered one of the highlights of my evening.

Before the show, the audience was treated to a performance by local ballet students called Duets.  It is part of a programme that offers dance training to children in rural or former mining, steel-making or heavy industrial communities who would otherwise be unable to receive it.  Immediately after their performances, the children are led to any vacant seats in the auditorium where they watch the company.  Until Wales gets its own national ballet school with connected associates schemes, it is the best way to identify and promote talent and ambition in that nation.  It is good not only for Ballet Cymru and Wales but also for all the other ballet, contemporary dance and theatre companies in the rest of the UK and beyond.  It is a project that deserves the widest possible support.  

Rachel Hickey and Her Company

The Stage of the Czech National Theatre. Prague

Author Jorge Royan Licence CC BY-SA 3.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

I am delighted to announce that Rachel Hickey of the Czech National Ballet has agreed to give Powerhouse Ballet a masterclass from 14:00 to 16:00 on Sunday, 20 July 2025, at KNT Danceworks.  Many thanks to Emily Joy Smith for introducing us to Rachel and to Karen Lester Sant for hosting us at KNT.  I shall post the registration card on the Powerhouse Ballet website shortly. Tickets will be allocated strictly first come first served.

Readers can see from Rachel's web page on the National Ballet's website that she was born in Manchester, trained at Elmhurst, and danced first for the Olomouc Ballet before joining the Czech National Ballet in 2022.  In Olomouc, she danced Myrthe in Giselle and Gamzatti in La Bayadère.  She has greatly extended her repertoire with the National Ballet.

Rachel's company was founded in 1883, nearly 50 years before the Vic-Wells Ballet which later became the Royal Ballet.  According to Wikipedia, the National Ballet was the first company to perform Swan Lake outside Russia and Tchaikovsky attended the first night (per Pask, Edward H. (1982). Ballet in Australia: the second act, 1940-1980. Oxford University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978019554293). The "About" page states that the company consists of 75 dancers from 19 countries.  Its current artistic director is Filip Barankiewicz.

The National Ballet shares the National Theatre in Prague with the Czech National Opera and the Czech National Theatre Company.   It promises a very diverse and interesting new season with a programme that includes works by Van Manen and MacMillan.  I am not sure whether they have any plans to visit the United Kingdom in the near future but there are plenty of budget airlines that fly to Prague,

Local Hero

Author Tim Green Licence CC BY 2.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

Huddersfield Station

 

The Birmingham Royal Ballet's website and programmes used to state: "Huddersfield is not as famous in the world of classical dance as St Petersburg, Paris or London, but it was the birthplace of David Bintley - one of the most consistent and significant forces in British ballet."  After attending  Deborah Weiss's online interview of Andrew McNicol for the London Ballet Circle on 7 May 2025, I looked up the McNicol Ballet Collective and found that it was based in Huddersfield.   IMHO the Collective counts as another significant contribution from Huddersfield to the world of classical dance.

Andrew McNicol is a freelance British choreographer and Artistic Associate at English National Ballet School.  He has created work for companies and ballet schools around the world, including the Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, the Joffrey Ballet, the Tulsa Ballet, the Royal Ballet School and the English National Ballet School.   He founded the McNicol Ballet Collective in 2021.

The McNicol Ballet Collective describes itself as "a creation-based ensemble of extraordinary artists at the peak of their creative powers, alongside emerging talent primed to showcase their brilliance and artistry."  They create works for the stage and screen and have launched a learning programme called "Compositions and Configurations."

I discovered that the Collective has a mailing list, so I subscribed to it.  Yesterday, I received my first newsletter.  It started with a note of thanks from McNicol to those who had attended the Collective's shows, made donations or engaged with it on social media.  Since its formation, the Collective had presented 4 ballets to critical acclaim, premiered a new ballet called Liquid Life and commissioned a new score from Jeremy Birchall. There is also a link to the Collective's Insight Event with the Royal Academy of Dance.   

For those who want to learn more about McNicol and his project, I recommend Trevor Rothwell's write-up of Deborah Weiss's interview on the London Ballet Circle website and the Insight Event video.  Apart from asking McNicol why he chose Huddersfield as his base during that interview, my only contact with him was at the Tell Tale Steps Choreographic Laboratory  10 years ago.  I remember struggling to get a word in edgeways at the panel discussion.   I welcome McNicol's initiative in setting up the Collective and I will do my best to support it.

Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet at the Playhouse

Standard YouTube Licence

Northern Ballet will perform Christopher Gable's Romeo and Juliet at Leeds Playhouse between 18 and 21 Jun 2025.  In my article on the Royal Ballet's rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet, I wrote that I had never seen a better Romeo than Gable though others have come close (see Attending My First Friends' Rehearsal 31 May 2025).  As I also wrote in A Christmas Carol - A Reflection of a Golden Age on 19 Jan 2025, it was Gable who led me to Northern Ballet Theatre nearly 40 years ago when I saw him in A Simple Man.  When he became the Artistic Director of Northern Ballet, Gable directed and devised a production of Romeo and Juliet for Northern Ballet in 1992.  As Federico Bonelli acknowledged in his interview with Dominique Larose, that production is special to Northern Ballet and its audiences.

I last saw that production in Sheffield in 2024 and I reviewed it in Moriconi and Gable's Romeo and Juliet on 5 Apr 2024.  As regards the title of my review, I should explain that Massimo Moriconi was the choreographer whom Gable appointed to create his Romeo and Juliet.  There is one important difference between the show that I reviewed and next week's performances in Leeds.  The music for next week's shows will be recorded.   According to Northern Ballet's website, the recording was made by the Orchestra of the Slovak National Theatre led by Mario Kosik which is probably the next best thing to live music.  Everything else seems to be the same.

In his interview with Larose, Bonelli referred to the many other versions of Romeo and Juliet that he had danced.   One of the versions with which he may well be familiar is Rudi van Dantzig's for the Dutch National Ballet, as he danced for that company before coming to the Royal Ballet.  I have not yet seen that production, but van Dantzig's choreography with designs by Toer van Schayk and an orchestra conducted by Koen Kessels is likely to be exceptional.  Romeo and Juliet will be performed at the Music Theatre (aka the Stopera) from 14 Oct to 11 Nov 2025.  It is perfectly possible to fly to Amsterdam, watch a matinee and return the same day.

While I am delighted to see Gable and Moriconi's Romeo and Juliet again, Northern Ballet also has a version by Jean-Christophe Maillot which I hope they will continue to perform.   As I said in one of my reviews of that work, it is different but in a good way.

Ballet Cymru's New Giselle

Standard YouTube Licence

Ballet Cymru is touring the United Kingdom with a new production of Giselle.  It opened in Newport on 16 May 2025, and the company will bring it to Bangor on 13 Jun and Mold on 8 Jul 2025.  The opening night was reviewed by Molly Stubbs for The Nation (see Dance Review: Ballet Cymru's Giselle, 20 May 2025).

If I am not mistaken, this is Ballet Cymru's third version of the ballet.  They had one in the early days of the company when they were known as Ballet Gwent.  They created a new version with a score by Catrin Finch in 2021.  It opened in Lichfield and I reviewed it in Giselle Reimagined  9 Jul 2021).  I also saw it in Leeds and Newport.   

In their latest version, they appear to have reverted to Adam's score, banished the zombies and restored to the stage Myrthe and her wilis resplendent in their romantic tutus.   While I liked Darius James and Amy Doughty's reimagining much more than I enjoyed Aktam Khan's, I do not like change for change's sake.   If the live performance is anything like the trailer, we are in for a treat.   I shall be in the Bryn Terfel auditorium on Friday and my write-up will appear soon afterwards.

Tess

Standard YouTube Licence

Ockham's Razor Tess Home, Manchester 7 Jun 2025, 19:30

Last night, I finally got to see Tess.  I was supposed to see it at the Leeds Playhouse on 31 May 2025, but the show was cancelled at the last minute owing to staff illness. I was sorry to learn of that illness and hope that the person(s) affected made a full recovery.  I managed to get a ticket for a performance at the Home, a new arts complex just off Whitworth Street in Manchester.  It was my first opportunity to visit that venue, and I liked that arts complex a lot.

Ockham's Razor, the company that stages Tess, introduced themselves as "a contemporary circus company" on the home page of their website. They describe Tess as weaving "together acrobatics, aerial, physical theatre, spoken word and an inventive, evocative set to conjure Hardy’s world."  I agree with that. The was a lot of dance but it was not a ballet.  There was a spoken narrative, but it was not a play.  There were also a lot of acrobatics, precarious balancing on planks of wood and feats of amazing strength.  At one point, a single performer bore the weight of three others on her shoulders.  The women seemed as strong as the men, lifting the men as easily as the men had lifted them.  The performers shaped their bodies into all sorts of forms, even resembling a horse and cart at one point.

Although contemporary circus has much in common with dance and drama, it is best considered as an art form in its own right. I have seen only one other performance which I can compare with Tess.   That was Citrus Arts' Savage Hart in the grounds of Oakwell Hall in Birstall, which I reviewed in  Citrus Arts' Savage Hart on 23 July 2017.  Although contemporary circus is a separate art form, it tells a story through dance, mime and movement just like ballet. Indeed, one of the performers in Savage Hart was Krystal Lowe who had been a dancer with Ballet Cymru.  In fact, Darius James and Amy  Doughty of Ballet Cymru have collaborated with Citrus Arts and incorporated circus into their productions of Cinderella and The Light Princess. 

Tess followed Hardy's novel pretty faithfully.   For those who have not read it, a digital copy of Tess of the D'Urbervilles can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg's site.  There is also a good summary in Wikipedia.  The phases of Tess's life in the novel - "The Maiden", "Maiden No More", "The Rally" et cetera - were flashed onto the backdrop together with the occasional quotation.  Planks of wood were arranged to create scenes such as the dairy in "The Rally" and Stonehenge and, chillingly, the gallows of Wintoncester gaol in "Fulfilment".  

Telling a story which once appeared in a 3-volume novel with 7 performers must have been a challenge for the directors, Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney and the producers, Alison King and Carina Simões. The role of Tess was divided between the narrator, Lila Naruse, and Anna Critchlow, who danced, mimed and otherwise represented Tess on stage.  There were powerful performances by Joshua Fraser as Alec D'Urberville (Tess's seducer) and Nat Whittingham as Angel (her husband).  Lauren Jamieson, Victoria Skillen and Leah Wallings played several parts in the show.  They raised a laugh from the audience with their plaintive sigh to attract Angel Clare's attention.  One of the strengths of the show was its score, an amalgam of several musical genres by composer and sound designer Holly Khan.  Choreographer Nathan Johnston interpreted that music imaginatively and spectacularly.   Another strength was Tina Bicât's designs combined with Aideen Malone's lighting and Daniel Denton's projections.

The audience rewarded the performers with a standing ovation.   I have noticed recently that Mancunian audiences are increasingly inclined to rise to their feet for just about anything, but on this occasion, I think it was justified.  For many, it would have been their first experience of contemporary circus, and there were plenty of spectacular acrobatics and aerial displays to impress them.

Finally, I should say a word about Ockham or Occam's Razor, from which the company that staged Tess appears to take its name.  It is a logical concept with applications in mathematics, natural science and philosophy.  The way it was taught to me is that the best way to solve a problem is to reduce it to the minimum number of variables.   It is attributed to the 14th-century English friar, William of Ockham. For the sake of completeness, Ockham is a village in Surrey.   There is a good introduction to the concept on The New Scientist's website by Chris Sims.

Acosta Dance Centre Update

Author Ethan Doyle White  Licence CC BY-SA 4.0, Source Wikimedia Commons

 

I visited the Acosta Dance Centre with Melissa Rayne in September 2023 and wrote about my visit in My Visit to the Acosta Dance Centre on 28 Nov 2025.  Since then, I have been keeping in touch with the Centre through its newsletter ADC Express.

The latest issue of that newsletter announces some fascinating workshops, including in particular A Journey into Afro-Brazilian Arts on Sunday, 15 Jun 2025 between 10:00 and 19:00, the “Alafia” 2025 Afro Cuban Dance Festival between 10:00 on Friday, 11 Jul 2025 and 17:00 on Sunday, 13 July 2025 and Tango Puro between 10:00 on Saturday 9 Aug 2025 and 17:00 on Sunday 10 Aug 2025.  The fee for the last course has been reduced from £120 to £90.  There are also lots of classes from floor barre at 11:00 today to pointe work at 13:15 on 28 Jun.

The Acosta Dance Centre differs from other studios in that it is linked to the Acosta Danza company, the Acosta Dance Foundation and the Academy in Cuba.  It seems to have a dual mission to promote dance at all levels in Cuba as well as the UK.

The Centre is very close to Woolwich Elizabeth line station and a short walk from Woolwich railway and Docklands Light  Railway station.

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.

Attending My First Friends' Rehearsal

 

Royal Ballet Romeo and Juliet (Rehearsal) Royal Ballet & Opera, 4 March 2025, 12:30

I have been a Friend of the Royal Ballet & Opera off and on for nearly 60 years, but I had never attended a Friends' rehearsal before 4 Mar 2025.  That is because I have spent most of my life outside London, and Friends' rehearsals tend to take place on weekdays during working hours.  

On 23 Feb 2025, I was invited to give a talk to the students at  King's College at 18:30 on 4 Mar 2025.  As this was an evening event, I felt justified in taking the afternoon off in lieu.  I checked the Friends' page of the Royal Ballet & Opera's website.  There seemed to be a few spare seats scattered about the auditorium, but the website would not let me book any of them.   I called the box office and was told that the rehearsal was sold out, but a few returns might come back on sale.  That proved to be the case and I secured the very last standing room only place at the very top of the auditorium.   

The view of the stage from that eyrie was surprisingly good. I have always enjoyed good eyesight, and I could recognize some of the more distinctive dancers and follow their movements, though obviously not their expressions. Had I been casting the show, I would have selected Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales for the title roles.  It was they whom we got. Of all the principals in the Royal Ballet, they are the ones who most closely look the part.   I remember Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour in those roles when I first took an interest in ballet.  Though I have never seen a better Romeo than Gable or indeed a better Juliet than Seymour, several other dancers have come close.  Hayward and Corrales are among the closest.

The rest of the cast was also impressive.  Christopher Saunders was an imperious Lord Capulet full of gravitas and swagger.   Also full of swagger was  Benet Gartside as Tybalt.   Even though everyone in the audience knew the outcome, Tybalt's sword fights with Mercutio (Daichi Ikarashi) and Romeo were gripping.  Mercutio's death throes as he stumbled around the stage, mistaking his sword for a lute or mandolin, were poignant. The role of the nurse is often overlooked in many productions, but it is important.  It is she who shares Juliet's excitement at her first grown-up ball.  She delivers Juliet's note to Romeo and is mobbed by the Montagues for her pains.  She accompanies Juliet to Friar Lawrence.  She tries to defend Juliet from a bigamous marriage.   Kristen McNally discharged that role perfectly.

It had been some years since I had last seen the Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, and one of the features that I remember from previous times was a gorgeous backcloth by Nicholas Georgiadis that reminded me of the work of Leon Bakst. I was looking out for that backcloth, but couldn't spot it.  That made me wonder whether Georgiadis had redesigned the set or whether I had imagined that backcloth. 

As always, the orchestra was magnificent.   The conductor on this occasion was Koen Kessels.  

I was unable to return to London to see a live performance of Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden, but I did see a recording of the live broadcast on 23 March 2025 at the Leeds Showcase.  That was another polished production with a different cast.  Fumi Kaneko was Juliet, Vadim Muntagirov was Romeo, Benet Gartside was Lord Capulet, Ryoichi Hirano was Tybalt, Francisco Serrano was Mercutio, Thomas Whitehead doubled as Friar Lawrence and Lord Montague and Olivia Cowley was the nurse.  Kessels also conducted the orchestra.

As I said in Swan Lake at the Leeds Showcase on 30 May 2024, a screening is not the same as a live performance (probably because there is no interaction between artists and audience) but there are compensations.  We could follow Juliet's emotions through the expressions on Kaneko's face.  It was clear from her interview that she understands Juliet very well.  It was also good to hear Lady MacMillan.  The Friends' rehearsal combined with the film was the next best thing to seeing the ballet live on stage. 

Swan Lake at the Leeds Showcase

Standard YouTube Licence

Royal Ballet Swan Lake  Leeds Showcase, 2 March 2025, 14:00

On 27 Feb and 2 Mar 2025, cinemas across the United Kingdom screened a recording of Liam Scarlett's Swan Lake that had been made at the Royal Ballet and Opera House on 24 Apr 2024.  With Yasmine Naghdi as Odette-Odile, Matthew Ball as Siegfried and Thomas Whitehead as von Rothbart, it was a very polished production.  I saw it at the Leeds Showcase, a multiscreen complex in a shopping and entertainment centre a short distance from the M62. 

Watching images of dancers on a screen reminds me of the prisoners in Plato's cave, but the screen has a few advantages.  One is an opportunity to hear the artists discuss their work.  That was something that the Bolshoi did exceptionally well because they employed the TV journalist Katerina Novikova to interview dancers and others in three languages.  The quality of the Royal Ballet's interviews has improved significantly since Petroc Trelawny was engaged.  Trelawny also brings out the best in Darcey Bussell, who contributes her memories of her performances.

One illuminating interview was with Naghbi.   She discussed Legnani's 32 fouettés in the seduction scene, which is the most spectacular bit of the ballet.  She likened the movement to that of a plane and herself to a pilot.  Naghdi was a powerful Odile but also a sensitive Odette.  Not every ballerina can carry off the two roles equally well, but Naghdi was one who did.

Naghdi was supported gallantly by Ball, a strong but graceful dancer. The role of Rothbart has been greatly extended by Scarlett in that he is head of the royal household as well as an evil magician.  His appearance reminds me of President Putin, whoever dances the role. This is a great character role, which Whitehead performs well.

Swan Lake has divertissements throughout the show.  I particularly liked the cygnets (Mica Bradbury, Ashley Dean, Sae Maeda and Yu Hang), the older swans (Hannah Grennell and Olivia Cowley), the national dances and especially the Neapolitans (Isabella Gasparini and Leo Dixon).

Sadly, the producer of this version of Swan Lake is no longer with us, but Gary Avis, Laura Morera and Samantha Raine have implemented Scarlett's vision. Often overlooked is the orchestra which is one of the strengths of the Royal Ballet. It was as impressive as ever conducted on this occasion by Martin Georgiev. 

Should this recording ever be screened again or otherwise made available it is well worth watching.

Factory International Hosts Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney

Standard YouTube Licence

Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité  Figures in Extinction  Aviva Studios, Factory International, Manchester 21 Feb 2025, 19:30

I had been looking forward to a show like Nederlands Dans Theater's Figures in Extinction in Manchester's Factory International ever since 7 Dec 2014, when George Osborn announced a £78 million investment in a new arts venue for Manchester as part of the Coalition Government's Northern Powerhouse initiative (see Factory To Go Ahead  13 Jan 2017 and the posts linked to that article).   I had high hopes on 11 Dec 2014 when I wrote  Let's bring the Royal Ballet to The Factory, Manchester.  They were exceeded by the premiere of Requiem, the third part of Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney's collaboration at Factory International's Aviva Studios on 19 Feb 2025.

I attended the evening performance of Figures in Extinction on 21 Feb 2025.   It was my first visit to Factory International. According to Wikipedia, the venue can accommodate up to 7,000 people in its "5,000 flexible 'warehouse' space" and 2,000-seat auditorium.  There is no shortage of bars, merchandise outlets and other attractions to explore during intervals.  The show took place in the Avviva Studios auditorium.  Although I was in the back row, I had an excellent view of the stage, and the acoustics were excellent.   Even though my mobility is limited, I had no trouble accessing my seat.  There were plenty of lifts and escalators as well as helpful and courteous ushers.

Figures in Extinction started with the list or [1.0].  There was a dialogue on a screen between "Simon" and "Crystal", though I did not recognize the voices as those of McBurney and Pite. Dancers represented the animals, plants and glaciers that have disappeared as a result of climate change.  The animal that has stuck in my memory is the Pyrenean ibex with its distinctive curved horns.  The top photograph in  An Introduction to Figures in Extinction shows how the species was represented on stage.  A child asked plaintively whether the animals had gone away and whether any were ever coming back.   According to the online programme, the text was taken from Why Look at Animals? by John Berger.  The score was composed by Owen Belton, who has collaborated with Pite for many years.  There were also excerpts from Perfume Genius's Normal Song and Blick Bassy's Aké.   A flavour of the work can be savoured from NDT's YouTube video Figures in Extinction [1.0] - by Crystal Pite with Simon McBurney (NDT 1 | Dreams 360).

Figures in Extinction [2.0] but then it comes to the humans explored the possibility of the extinction of our species.  Suuited human beings in their offices were scrutinized just like the disappearing species in the list.   The music was by Benjamin Grant with fragments of Claude Debussy's La Mer, Dmitri Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, Johan Sebastian Bach's Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, Nils Frahm's Less, Alfred Schnittke's Cello Sonata No. 1: I Largo, II Presto, Jim Perkins's The North Wind, Owen Belton's Extinction Crescendo and additional music by Josh Sneesby.   The work was inspired by Iain McGilchrist's The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, extracts of which were read during the performance.  Some idea of this part of the show can be obtained from the video Figures in Extinction [2.0] but then you come to the humans - Simon McBurney with Crystal Pite

For me, the most disturbing part of the show was Requiem.   A voice spoke about space and time and the relationship between the living and the dead.  It continued that the dead surround the living.   The dead experience timelessness, though, sometimes, so do the living in extreme circumstances, one of which could be dying.  There was a scene of a patient wired up on monitors.  A staff nurse and trainee changed the patient's bedding, almost manhandling him.  A family entered the patient's hospital room, squabbling with each other.  Somehow lifted the mood of an otherwise depressing theme was lifted by a luminous backdrop, a photograph of which appears in the online programme.   The score was by Owen Belton with fragments of Fauré and Mozart's Requiems as well as other works.   A sample of the piece is contained in Figures in Extinction [3.0] requiem,

This is a profound, multi-layered work which cannot be appreciated properly by watching a single performance  (if, indeed, any worthwhile show can).  Figures in Extinction will be performed at the Internationaal Theater in Amsterdam tonight, tomorrow and Saturday before proceeding to Helsinki in April and Luxembourg in June.  It is well worth seeing.