(c) 2017 Chantry Dance Company Reproduced with kind permission of the company
Move It, which takes place at the Excel Centre between the 10 and 12 March 2017, is billed as the UK's biggest dance event with "over 24,500 dancers – three days – performances, classes, career advice, celebrities, interviews and shopping!!"
I was there last year and described the day in MOVE IT 2016. My verdict on the day was:
"There are worse ways of spending a Sunday afternoon and I did pick up a free copy of The Stage and Dancing Times with a great article by Gavin McCaig in Talking Point which I read over an overpriced burrito but it was not a cheap afternoon out."
This may sound like damnation by faint praise but it is not really. There was a lot to see and do. The trouble was that almost everything I had most wanted to see had already happened by the time I arrived. Also, the open ballet class which was the only one that I felt able to do was fully booked.
Clearly, Friday and Saturday are the best days to come to MOVE IT. Friday is out for me because it is a working day and even balletomanes have to eat. I could not make Saturday last year because I was on my way to see the Chelmsford Ballet Company's The Sleeping Beauty. I regret that I won't be there on 11 March this year because that is the day Kenny Tindall's Casanova opens in Leeds.
One of the performances that I missed last year was a piece by Chantry Dance Company and Chantry Dance School. I am a friend of the company and I like its work. A video of its performance appears in A Good Month for Chantry Dance26 March 2016. The company and school will be there again this year. Rae Piper will conduct a contemporary ballet workshop at 15:45 and members of the school and company will also be on the main stage at some time during that day. We wish them chookas, toi, toi, toi and anything else that does not offend theatrical superstition.
One person that I did get to meet at Move IT last year was Christopher Moore who directs Ballet Theatre UK. I am a big fan of his company for two reasons. First, I take my hat off to them for producing two or three full-length ballets every year and taking them to small town and suburban venues the length and breadth of the kingdom. They provide a first taste of ballet for many people, including a lot of children. I like to think that at least a few of those kids will find their way onto the stage one day. The company has just finished Romeo and Juliet which I reviewed in Ballet Theatre UK's Romei and Juliet15 Jan 2017 and it has already started another tour with a new production of Giselle. Alice in Wonderland follows Giselle and The Nutcracker will follow Alice. The second reason I like Mr Moore is that he has given work to several graduates of Ballet West and any friend of Ballet West is a friend of mine.
Ballet Theatre UK now has a school and its students were also on stage at MOVE IT last year. You will find a video of their performance on thefamousbelgian's YouTube channel. Wishing them all the best too.
There were three reasons for my choice: its massive contribution to the culture of Leeds over the last 36 years, its creative genius which generates ever more impressive new work and its outreach work for young people everywhere but especially in Leeds and the North East.
Those three strands came together on the opening night of Phoenix's new tour which begins its 2017 season with performances in Leeds, Durham, Oldham and Edinburgh (see "What's On" on the company's website). The evening began with Calyx. a new work by Sandrine Monin demonstrating Phoenix's creative genius and propensity to create ever more impressive new work, Douglas Thorpe's Beast, a work from Phoenix's recent past and NightLife at the Flamingo, one of its earliest works, celebrating the company's past, present and future.
"Calyx" is a botanical term meaning "the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud." The calyces, in this case, were a number of boxes each containing a dancer representing a flower. And the flowers? Well, they allude to Baudelaire's anthology, Fleurs du malwhich inspired both choreographer and composer, Roberto Busconi. I had seen a preview of Calyx in the studio before Christmas (see Calyx8 Dec 2016). In the last paragraph of that article I wrote:
"Even in a rehearsal studio Calyx was quite enthralling. In a theatre it will be breathtaking."
And so it was. Emma James's costumes instantly put me in mind of the illustration of the front cover of the first edition of the book which I reproduced in my write-up of the preview. Luke Haywood's lighting enhanced the sense of foreboding. The dancers were the same as in the preview: Sam Vaherlehto. Carmen Vazquez-Marfil, Prentice Whitlow and Natalie Alleston. Not an easy work to digest but compelling to watch and hauntingly beautiful.
Thorpe's Beast was first staged in 2009, not long after Sharon Warson became the company's artistic director. In a contemporaneous video, Sharon described it as her first challenge. She acknowledged the work's robustness, its rawness, its quality yet still struggled with it wondering how, if at all, it fitted into Phoenix's repertoire. But the company did accept the work and it has strengthened them. The work is about the rage that bubbles below each of us. Very topical with Trump and Brexit. A disturbing work. Uncontrolled hysterical laughter from Vasquez-Marfil. Wild explosions of movement from other dancers, Alleston, Monin, Vaherlehto, Prentice and Carlos J Martinez, the artist I had introduced as "Carlos" in my preview of Calyx. The score, a medley of work by Ben Frost, Matt Davignon, Aes Dana, Jaydev Mistry and Tam Tam, was skilfully selected and arranged. Once again, Haywood's lighting was in the old sense (that is to say not in the Hackneyed sense that it is used nowadays) awesome.
Th human spirit can only take so much beast and mal in one evening and NightLife at the Flamingo came as a blessed relief. This was first staged in 1983 and shows the company at its very best. It opens with a single dancer to Gershwin's Summertime. Dressed as a waiter he opens the bar. Other dancers follow. The women in floral dresses or full-multicoloured skirts which must have been such fun to wear, Each of them performs a solo or party piece - one of the men pretending to be drunk helped to his feet by a waiter - cartwheeling and somersaulting girls. A party on stage, at one point, quite literally as the cast fanned into the stalls inviting audience members to join them on stage. The performers were drawn from three generations of Phoenix. Every member of the present company. Its veterans: Hughie Davies, Seline Derrick, Donald Edwards, David Hughes and Edward Lynch. And last but not least, kids from the Phoenix Youth Academy, stars of the future. A euphoric piece finishing in flowers for Sharon and ecstatic applause. One of my best evenings in the theatre. Ever.
I left the theatre floating 4 feet in the air. Mainly because it was such a good show. But partly because it is from the region in which I live. Phoenix started in Leeds. It is anchored in Leeds. Its dancers come from across the world. It is receptive to influences from everywhere. But it has never forgotten its origins. That's a source of pride.
First, the Prix de Lausanne which is open to young dancers aged 15 to 18 which took place all last week at the Palais de Beaulieu which you can just make out in the bottom right of the picture (see Prix de Lausanne29 Jan 2017).
The finals took place on Saturday afternoon and were compèred by Deborah Bull of King's College. For at least the time being can see a recording of the event on the Arte channel. The winners were Michele Esposito from Italy, Marina Fernandes da Costa Duarte and Denilson Almeida from Brazil, Taisuke Nakao and Koyo Yamamoto from Japan, Lauren Hunter from the USA, Stanislaw Wegrzyn from Poland, Diana Georgia Ionescu from Romania, Sunu Lim from Korea.
My congratulations to all the finalists - indeed to everyone who took part in the competition whether they made the week in Lausanne or not - and I should like to wish each and every one of them well in the remainder of their studies and their career in dance,
Secondly, the winners of the National Dance Awards have been announced. You can find the list of winners in 2016 National Dance Awards – Winners Announced6 Feb 2016. Again, I should like to congratulate the winners of those awards.
However, there are two awards that particularly delighted me. One was the One Dance UK Industry Award to Brenda Last. I remember in the Royal Ballet but I have just learned from Dance Tabs that she was a founder of what is now Scottish Ballet and that she later became director of the Norwegian Ballet who impressed me so much on World Ballet Day. The other was the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement to Dame Beryl Gray. She was one of the greats of my youth and she did much to attract me to ballet. I had the good fortune to talk to her briefly at the London Ballet Circle's 70th anniversary celebrations last year.
"So many of our readers love to dance, and love the teachers who have led, informed and inspired them. When magazine Dance Today, now incorporated into Dancing Times, launched the Teacher of the Year competition for social dance teachers, we were amazed and touched by our readers’ votes. You didn’t just vote for your teachers, you told us why they were wonderful – how they drew out skills people didn’t think they had, built up communities of dancers and opened doors to new levels of health, skill and fun."
I have excellent teachers in Leeds and Manchester and have attended some great classes in other parts of the world such as Huddersfield, Sheffield, London and even Budapest. I admire, love and respect them all. I have mentioned several of them more than once in this blog.
But there is one teacher for whom I have a particular regard. So I nominated her. I won't mention her name but I think that one or two of my readers in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester may take an educated guess as to whom I have in mind:
"Everyone who had taken that intensive was transformed by it so her presence back stage lifted our morale to new heights. Mine particularly for I had taken her class ....... the previous [week] and by some fluke I had actually managed to pull off a pirouette more or less correctly. [She] had witnessed it and the expression on her face was a joy to behold. I think she was even more delighted than I had been."
Now I am sure I am not the only one to have a very special teacher. Some of you may even have the same one as I do. All I would ask is that you lodge your nominations before the deadline today.
According to Dancing Times
"All you have to do to nominate your teacher is to get in touch by January 6, 2017, by post, email, or via Twitter or our Facebook page. Tell us about your teacher and why you’d love to see them win the Dance Today Teacher of the Year 2016. One of our favourite things has been hearing about the work of the teachers – heartfelt thanks and delightful descriptions, from praise of teacher’s sensitivity to happiness in new skills. So when you vote, tell us why your teacher should win, what makes them special and inspiring."
"As Anna Tsygankova stood alone on stage for her curtain call after last night's performance of Ted Brandsen'sMata Harievery single person in the Amsterdam Music Theatre or Stopera rose as one. She would have got a similar standing ovation anywhere - even snooty old London - for her portrayal of the life of the tragic adventurer and dancer (Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" MacLeod) was compelling It is not often that one sees theatre like that in any medium and I think the sounds and images of that performance will remain with me for the rest of my life."
It is not often that one sees a performance like that.
But on the 2 April 2016 I saw Lauren Cuthbertson in Giselle. That ballet had always been a problem for me as I explained in Cuthbertson's Giselle3 April 2016:
"In an interview with the journalist Mark Moynihan which is transcribed in the Royal Ballet's programme notes for this season's Giselle, Sir Peter Wright said:
'When I first saw Giselle way back in the early 1940s I used to think: 'That's silly. That doesn't make sense. So when John [Cranko] asked me to do Giselle my first reaction was, 'Oh no, I couldn't do that - that poor young girl going mad'. The ballet always seemed rather inconsistent to me and sometimes downright stupid.'
Until last night that had been my reaction too. I had always been troubled by the libretto (possibly for the same reason as Wright for he had been brought up as a Quaker and I have become one) as the second act is very dark, superstitious, even a little satanic, or so it had appeared to me for many years. My coping mechanism until last night had been to put the story out of my mind and concentrate on the dancing as though it were an abstract work like Jewels or Les Sylphides."
However, Sir Peter changed his mind on Giselle. He saw Galina Ulanova dance Giselle when the Bolshoi first came to London and realized what an extraordinary work it could be. I explained that that is because the libretto is coded or perhaps or rather subsists on more than level. I added: "Sir Peter needed Ulanova to unlock the work for him and it was Lauren Cuthbertson last night who did the same for me."
"The star of Swan Lake is, of course, Odette-Odile. It is a role that not every ballerina can dance convincingly because it requires the projection of two personalities from the same body. I may be wrong but I should imagine the easier part is probably the seductress Odile despite all those fouettés because she is manifestly human. It must be far more difficult to become a swan. Bethany Kingsley-Garner, who has recently been elevated to principal, was perfect in both. She first came to my notice as Cinderella in Edinburgh (see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella 20 Dec 2015) and she has already entered my canon of all time greatest ballerinas. The only other Scottish dancer in that rare company is Elaine McDonand (see Elaine McDonald in her own Words 11 March 2014)."
So how do I choose between those three? In my review of Giselle, I asked myself what was so special about Cuthbertson's performance. I could not put my finger on it but, as I noted at the time, "I saw not a ballerina dancing Giselle but Giselle herself and for the first time I really understood the ballet." Eight months on, I would qualify that remark by saying that I am beginning to understand and appreciate that ballet but I owe my understanding and appreciation to Lauren Cuthbertson.
For that reason, Cuthbertson has to be my ballerina of 2016.
Standard YouTube Licence In 2016 I saw no less than five versions of Swan Lake, three of Romeo and Juliet, and two each of Giselle, The Taming of the Shrew, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia as well as Makarova's La Bayadere andRatmansky's Cinderella. I saw new full-length ballets by David Bintley, Ted Brandsen and Cathy Marston. I took another look at Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale andDavid Nixon's Beauty and the Beast and found that I liked them rather better second time round. I attended performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of China and NDT2 as well as shows by Ballet Black, Phoenix Dance Theatre and Rambert. I attended the Dutch National Ballet's gala for the new ballet season in Amsterdam, Ballet Cymru's debut in the Wales Millennium Centre, one of the first performances of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's tour and a brilliant charity gala by some of the world's best young dancers in Italy. I saw Matthew Bourne's transposition of The Red Shoes to the stage. I watchedfine student performances by Ballet West and Northern Ballet School.
The performances of Swan Lake that I liked best were English National Ballet's Swan Lake in the Round at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 June 2016 (see Swan Lake in the Round13 June 2016) and David Dawson's for Scottish Ballet in Liverpool on 3 June 2016 (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016). The one I liked least was Nixon's for Northern Ballet, mainly for its libretto and changes to the score, though there was some excellent dancing by the cast (seeUp the Swannee 17 March 2016). I had not expected much of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake for the Australian Ballet and was pleasantly surprised (see The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake - Murphy won me over17 July 2016). On the other hand, I was less than overwhelmed by the Bolshoi's despite the virtuosity of Anna Nikulina as Odette-Odile and Ruslan Skvortsov as Siegfried, possibly because I had arrived at Covent Garden confidently expecting it to be best in class (see Grigorovich's Swan Lake in Covent Garden31 July 2016). Again, changes to the libretto including the quite unnecessary anonymization of Siegfried as "the prince" and Rothbart as "the evil genius" and the rather dowdy designs disappointed me.
The three productions of Romeo and Juliet that I saw last year were by the Birmingham Royal Ballet (see A Good Outcome from an Unhappy Event - Singleton's Fine Performance6 March 2016), Northern Ballet (see Romeo and Juliet after the Shrew15 Oct 2016) and Ballet Cymru (see A Romeo and Juliet for our Times7 Nov 2016) and I liked them all. I suppose the winner on points was Birmingham Royal Ballet simply because that company is so powerful in every department and at every level but the most memorable was Ballet Cymru's largely for the remarkable performance of Gwenllian Davies. I wrote in my review:
"One of the reasons why I loved the show so much was Gwenllian Davies's remarkable performance as Juliet. Davies is in her first year with the company and this is her first job. Consequently, she is barely older than Shakespeare's Juliet. As I told her after the show, I have seen some of the world's greatest dancers in the role including Lynn Seymour and more recently Alina Cojocaru and Viktoria Tereshkina, but never have I seen a more convincing Juliet. Davies danced with passion and energy and, for a while, I saw in that talented young artist what Shakespeare must have imagined."
Every so often one spots a dancer with what I call the wow factor. Michaela DePrince had it when I first saw her in Amsterdam in 2013 and described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 201325 Nov 2013). Davies has the wow factor too.
As Cranko is my favourite choreographer of all time and The Taming of the Shrew is my favourite of his ballets I had expected the Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of that work to be one of the highlights of the year (see Looking Forward to 201630 Dec 2016). It was indeed one of those highlights but, to my great surprise and delight, I found a version that I like even more. That was Jean-Christophe's for the Bolshoi (see Bolshoi's Triumph - The Taming of the Shrew4 Aug 2016). I was in the Royal Opera House for the premiere of that production in the United Kingdom and wrote:
"The Bolshoi Ballet has always been respected in this country but until last night I don't think it has ever been loved. There are many reasons for that, not least the fact that the company was seen as an instrument of Soviet soft power during the cold war coming to London as it did in the year the tanks rolled into Budapest. That may have changed with the London premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot's The Taming of the Shrew for the audience really warmed to the show. Standing ovations are quite rare in the Royal Opera House but when Maillot appeared to take a bow several members of the audience (including yours truly) felt compelled to rise."
If I was slightly disappointed by the Bolshoi's Swan Lake that company more than made up for my disappointment with Shrew. There were brilliant performances by Ekaterina Krysanova as Kate, Vladislav Lantratov as Petrucchio. Olga Smirnova as Bianca, Artemy Belyakov as Kate and Bianca's father and Georgy Gusev as Grumio.
I think I saw the best Giselle ever in April with Cuthbertson in the title role and Bonelli as her Albrecht (see Cuthbertson's Giselle3 April 2016). I wrote:
"I am not a newbie when it comes to ballet. I have seen Giselle many times by several different companies with some of the world's greatest ballerinas in the title role. The best compliment that I can pay to Cuthbertson is that she unlocked the ballet for me much in the way that Ulanova appears to have done for Sir Peter. Yesterday I saw not a ballerina dancing Giselle but Giselle herself and for the first time I really understood the ballet which has far more substance than I had previously supposed."
I had been expecting something special from English National Ballet when I attended the premiere of Akram Khan's Giselle and although the production was not without its merits it simply did not live up to its hype (see Akram Khan's Giselle28 Sept 2016)
On 11 Dec 2016 I saw Ted Brandsen's Coppelia which in the running for my ballet of the year with two other HNB candidates, Brandsen's Mata Hari and Makarova's La Bayadere. Having seen David Nixon's Swan Lake and Akram Khan's Giselle I approached the Music Theatre somewhat gingerly. I wrote:
"I am usually pretty scathing about updates of well-loved ballets as readers of this blog well know. I don't like bikes on stage in Swan Lake. I bristle at shillelagh-wielding wilis. As I said in Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia10 Dec 2016, Coppelia already addresses contemporary themes like coming to terms with artificial intelligence, low-level youth crime and elder abuse so why update it? With all these thoughts in mind, I was a little apprehensive as I entered the Music Theatre auditorium yesterday afternoon. I need not have been. Brandsen had made some changes to the story and he had set the scene int the present, but those changes were changes for a reason rather than change for change sake."
It turned out to be excellent and I recommended it as the best Christmas show within easy travelling distance of most parts of the British Isles. Immediately before I flew to Amsterdam I was reminded of the traditional version by Manchester City Ballet's performances on the 9 and 10 Dec 2016 (see Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia10 Dec 2016).
Brandsen's Mata Hari was quite different. It was a study of the life of the Dutch adventurer and exotic dancer who was executed for espionage after a travesty of a trial in 1917 (see Brandsen's Masterpiece14 Feb 2016). Brandsen cast Anna Tsygankova as Mata Hari and she danced that role magnificently. I wrote:
"As Anna Tsygankova stood alone on stage for her curtain call after last night's performance of Ted Brandsen'sMata Hari every single person in the Amsterdam Music Theatre or Stopera rose as one. She would have got a similar standing ovation anywhere - even snooty old London - for her portrayal of the life of the tragic adventurer and dancer (Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" MacLeod) was compelling It is not often that one sees theatre like that in any medium and I think the sounds and images of that performance will remain with me for the rest of my life."
There were also strong performances by Artur Shesterikov, Casey Herd, Roman Artyushkin and other members of the cast. Brandsen commissioned Tariq O'Reagan to compose a beautiful and haunting score, Clement & Sanôu to design the sets and Francois-Noël Cherpin to create the costumes.
"There were gasps, sighs and murmurs from members of the audience as the image of Nikiya appeared momentarily before a disconsolate Solor. Nobody tried to shush them. They could not help themselves. The scene was just so beautiful. I've seen a lot of ballet in my time but I can't (for the moment at any rate) think of a more beautiful production than the Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere."
That production was created by Natalia Makarova who had created that work for American Ballet Theatre and staged it for the Royal Ballet. Solor was danced by Josef Varga and Nikiya by Sasha Mukhamedov.
The new full-length ballets that impressed me most were Brandsen's Mata Hari, Maillot's Taming of the Shrew, Dawson's Swan Lake, Bintley's The Tempest and Marston's Jane Eyre. I have already discussed the first three above. The Tempest appeared not long after Akram Khan's Giselle and was somewhat overshadowed by it which is a shame because I found Bintley's a stronger and much more satisfying work (see The Tempest 9 Oct 2016). Immediately after seeing it, I wrote:
"I think it is my favourite work by David Bintley so far. In fact, I can't remember a time when I was as excited as I am now about a new British full length ballet since the days of Sir Frederick Ashton."
I described Bintley's choreography as "sparkling" and there were strong performances by Iain Mackay as Prospero, Jenna Roberts as Miranda, Joseph Caley as Ferdinand. Mathias Dingman as Ariel and Tyrone Singleton as Caliban. It was perhaps no more than was to be expected of a company that I have already described as "powerful in every department and at every level" but it was still impressive.
"With one enormous break between 2004 and 2011 I have been following Northern Ballet ever since I returned to the North in 1985. The company has given us some lovely ballets over the years - Cinderella, A Christmas Carol, A Simple Man and, more recently, Madame Butterfly and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In my humble, rustic and simplistic opinion the company's golden age was 20 years ago. At least I thought so until this evening for tonight I saw them perform Jane Eyreat Richmond. I was reminded of their glory days which I never thought I would see again."
Northern Ballet lost some of its costumes in a flood and two of its "premier" or principal dancers took leave of absence this year. It launched its new season with Wuthering Heights and Maillot's Romeo and Juliet which it had last run in 2015 and has revived Beauty and the Beast which I liked somewhat better second time round (see Much Less Beastly - Indeed Rather Beautiful18 Dec 2016). It may be that Northern Ballet will have a better year next year with three new full-length ballets. I certainly hope so.
With so much excellence it was difficult for us to select a ballet of the year, choreographer of the year, male dancer of the year et cetera but we had to try. I listed by nominations in November (see The Terpsichore Nominations5 Nov 2016). Tomorrow I announce my first set of awards for young male and female dancers, choreographer of the year and so on,
Just a bit of fun inspired by the National Dance Awards and not to be taken at all seriously but at the end of every year I do a review of the best work that I have seen in the previous 12 months (see Highlights of 201529 Dec 2015). At the end of the post I set out my favourites which were:
Ballet of the Year Ballet Cymru's Cinderella, runner up Ballet Cymru's Tir
Company of the Year Scottish Ballet, runners up Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Ballet
Small Companies of the Year Ballet Black and Ballet Cymru
Contemporary Company of the Year Phoenix Dance Theatre
Male Dancer of the Year Denis Rodkin in La Bayadere, runner up Matthew Golding in the Royal Ballet's Onegin and the Dutch National Ballet's Cinderella
Female Dancer of the Year Laura Morera as Lise runners up Anna Tsygankova and Bethany Kingsley-Garner as Cinderella
Choreographers of the Year Christopher Hampson for Perpetuum Mobile for Northern Ballet and Ernst Meisner for Embers for the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company
Dancers to watch Floor Elmers of Dutch National Ballet, Krystal Lowe of Ballet Cymru, Marie-Astrid-Mence of Phoenix Dance Theatre and Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet
Promising Newcomers Bart Engelen, Norwegian Ballet, Cristiano Principato and Emilie Tassinari, Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Tim Hill of Ballet Cymru and Prentice Whitlow of Phoenix Dance Theatre
This year we shall do it a little differently. I invite everyone who has contributed to Terpsichore in the last year or so (that is to say Alison Winward, David Murley, Gita Mistry, Janet McNulty, Joanne Goodman and Mel Wong (happy birthday Mel by the way) to nominate for each category. Then I shall hold a ballot for the readers.
I have not quite made up my mind yet but provisionally Jean-Christophe Maillot is leading the way in the best full-length ballet stakes with his Taming of the Shrewfor the Bolshoi pursued hotly by Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari, David Dawson's Swan Lakeand Cathy Marston's Jane Eyrein that order.
In the one-act ballets category, it is a dead heat between Ernst Meisner's No Time before Time and Christopher Hampson's Storyville.
My classical company of the year is the Durch National Ballet though I was impressed by the Australians and the Bolshoi when they came to London and the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet are always near the top of my lists.
My nominations for best small company are Ballet Black and the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company,
Having seen a lot of contemporary dance, this year I can't make my mind up between Netherlands Dance Theatre and Rambert though Phoenix and the National Dance Company of Wales are also on my list. I am not sure how to classify Alvin Ailey but they definitely deserve an award.
Best male dancer this year has to be Federico Benelli for his Albrecht in Giselleand Lauren Cuthbertson as best female in the same production, However, I would make special personal awards to Bethany Kingsley-Garner for her Odette-Odile in Liverpool and Anna Tsyganlova for her Mata Hari.
Dancers to watch? There are so many but I think we shall be seeing a lot of Cristiano Principato of the Dutch National Ballet who proved his worth as a choreographer, artistic director and chief cook and bottlewasher as well as dancer in Trecate earlier this year, Daniele Gould in Hungary who was an enchanting Puss in Boots and Mthuthuzeli November here.
I would also like to add a special adult ballet education award to Karen Sant of KNT Danceworks for organizing wonderful intensive workshops for adult ballet beginners in Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadere and The Nutcracker and Jane Tucker for teaching them.
Alison, David, Gita, Janet, Joanne and Mel are invited to let me have their nominations (if any by 17:00 on 30 Nov) and then we shall offer it to the readers for a vote.
Standard YouTube Licence
Manchester City Ballet is the performing company of the Northern Ballet School. Two of my favourite teachers, Cara O'Shea and Jane Tucker, danced with that company. It is for the time being our metropolis's only resident ballet company and thus an institution to be treasured.
Just before Christmas, the company performs a full-length classical ballet. Last year it was Giselle which I reviewed in Manchester City Ballet's Giselle12 Dec 2015. The year before it was The Nutcracker which I reviewed in Alchemy13 Dec 2014. This year it will be Coppéliawhich the company will perform at The Dancehouse on Oxford Road between the 8 and 10 Dec 2016. Manchester City Ballet last performed that ballet in 2012, when they were reviewed very favourably by Ian Palmer of Dancing Times and Mike Dixon of Dance Europe (see Coppelia 2012 Reviews).
Tickets are now on sale from the Dancehouse's box office on 0161 237 9753 or 0161 237 1413 or on-line at £12 (£10 concessions).
The Northern Ballet School has recently announced a series of auditions between 7 Nov 2016 and 13 Feb 2017. Further information on admissions is available on the Application Details page. Best wishes to anyone thinking of applying.
Jordan Matter is a US photographer who studies dancers around the world rather as Edgar Degas did in Paris over a century ago. One of my favourite works is his photo of Michaela DePrince in the woods. He has published a number of books of his work which sell very well.
Matter's latest work is Dancers after Darkwhichis described as "a stunning photography collection of nude dancers at night." Over 300 dancers took part in 400 locations in 7 countries including the UK "with no clothes, no arrests and no regrets." The above video shows how Matter took those photos. The book will be launched in the UK at a party at Danceworks in London between 18:30 and 21:00 on 11 Nov 2016. Admission to the party costs £5 which will be refunded to anyone who buys a copy of the book.
The next day Matter will return to Danceworks to present two photography workshops. The first is entitled Dancers Among Uswhich takes place between 13:00 and 16:00. The second is based on Dancers after Dark and takes place between 17:00 and 20:00. There was a similar workshop last year after which Matter tweeted:
“What happens when 25 photographers and 4 dancers come together for a workshop @Danceworks London? Pure magic. I’m already looking forward to next year’s workshop!”
Each workshop costs £90 to attend or £150 for two.
Readers will find Danceworks's address together with a map and comprehensive travel information on the "Contact Us" page on its website.
Every time I hear Prokofiev's Dance of the Knightsfrom Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet my spine tingles and I come out in goose bumps. Whenever I ask a young male dancer what would be his favourite rule it is almost always Romeo and a fair number of young women want to dance Juliet or at least one of the other strong female roles such as Lady Capulet danced so memorably by the magnificent Sarah Kundi in Manchester last year (see Manchester's Favourite Ballet Company29 Nov 2015).
Well now we can all have our chance since KNT Danceworks are running beginners and advanced intensives on Romeo and Juliet at the Dancehouse at 10 Oxford Road in Manchester on 8 and 9 April 2016. Those intensives will be taken by Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet who taught us Swan Lake in April (KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 118 Aug 2015).
Jane Tucker is a wonderful teacher and, as I have said before, I think the world of her but don't expect this programme to be easy. For Swan Lake we did a warm up on pilates mats, then a 90 minute class, then wall to wall rehearsals for the rest of the day until cool down at the end. It nearly killed me. Nearly, but not quite. If I can survive this intensive, folks, then so can you.
I am really glad I did Swan Lake for lots of reasons. It was good fun and I got a great sense of achievement at the end. Everyone on the course got to know each other a little better and we developed a great camaraderie. I got to know and appreciate the choreography so much more. Whenever I watch cygnets, the swans' entry, the Hungarian dance or Siegfried's solo I smile and say to myself I had a go at that.
If you want to do this intensive call Karen Sant on 07783 103 037, email her at info@kntdanceworks.co.uk or contact her through Facebook you had better get your skates on. Tickets are selling like hot cakes.
Having been billed as "The UK's Biggest Dance Event ...... with 22,000 dancers - three days - performances, classes, career advice, celebrities, interviews and shopping!" Team Terpsichore decided to find out what all the fuss was about. As it was taking place at the ExCel Centre at the base of the M11 and as we were in Essex on Saturday night for Chelmsford Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty anyway Move It 2016 was not too far out of our way.
We were not sure what to expect because the event website was not too easy to navigate and not particularly informative. We wondered whether we would see anything at all as two of the companies we know well, Phoenix Dance Theatre and Chantry Dance, had already visited the show. However, we rang the event marketing manager to find out whether there would be anything left by Sunday and were assured that it would be as busy as Friday or Saturday.
The first thing we found when we arrived at the ExCel Centre car park was that it would be expensive. "£15 flat rate pay and display" said a sign. As you would expect for a car containing two Yorkshire residents it rumbled and virtually levitated.
"By 'eck" said I "I'm not paying that."
"They're having a laugh" said my companion.
"I could get 3 ballet lessons for that from Karen or Ailsa at KNT or Fiona at Team Hud" I fumed.
"Aye or two from Jane Tucker at Northern Ballet with a pound to spare for the meter" added my friend.
We cruised around Plaistow looking for a quite residential street with no yellow lines or resident parking restrictions and eventually found one in Britannia Village on the other side of the Royal Victoria Dock. The ExCel is connected to the village by a footbridge with several flights of stairs and no lift at each end.
Having crossed that bridge we found ourselves walking almost as far in the giant ExCel Centre which resembles an airport terminal or railway station with tables and fast food outlets on each side. At the far end of the building we found a booth with a massive but orderly queue on one side and masses of people milling around on the other. We eventually attracted someone's attention who told us we had to pay £19 simply to get in
........*@^~@*! .......
and anything from £4 to £8.50 for a class.
"Are people happy to pay all that", I wondered, and clearly the answer was "yes" for the place was heaving. "More brass than sense" thought I.
We studied the event catalogue and found we had missed Catalyst Dance's Entrance of the Swans by a few minutes. That was an open class and the only one I really wanted to do having taken Jane Tucker's Swan Lake workshop last summer. I scoured the catalogue for a light blue diamond indicating "Beginner" but other than Flamenco and belly dancing there were none.
There was a big stage at the far end of the exhibition hall and curtained off areas where the classes took place. Someone had managed to drive a double decker bus into the exhibition hall. There was also a VIP area next to the stage. The rest of the room was occupied by exhibitors which included the RAD and ISTD, a few companies, rather more schools and suppliers of clothing, footwear and sundry equipment such as travelling barres and flooring.
The only ballet company we could find among the exhibitors was Ballet Theatre UK. Its stand was staffed by Christopher Moore. He gave us flyers for Pinocchiowhich is about to start a gruelling nationwide tour from Coventry tomorrow.
"Will you give out cast lists?" I asked timidly as that had been something of a bug bear for me.
"Yes we will" assured Moore.
He then gave us leaflets for the School of Ballet Theatre UK and its Wizard of Oz Build a Ballet project for young people. I have been a bit of a fan of BTUK for some time and I wish its Pinnochio tour and School all the best.
Middlesex University, Trinity Laban, The Urdang Academy, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland were all there and we stopped to chat with all of them. We also picked up literature from most if not all of the other schools that were exhibiting at the show but did not have time to speak to all. Some of the schools had students on the stands and it was good to talk to them about their courses, why they had chosen them and their aspirations for the future.
We also chatted to the RAD and ISTD and watched some talented young students demonstrating tendus. classical and jazz pirouettes and other exercises. There was dance wear and footwear galore on display a well as Jon Applegate Photography which has uploaded some great photos of the show to its website. Of all the products on display two that caught my eye were Ballet Is Fun's Turnboard(maybe I could use one of those as I still struggle to pirouette) and Hoop Hop's hula hoops.
There are worse ways of spending a Sunday afternoon and I did pick up a free copy of The Stage and Dancing Timeswith a great article by Gavin McCaig in Talking Point which I read over an overpriced burrito but it was not a cheap afternoon out.
To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth in 1964 Sir Frederick Ashton created The Dream. Antoinette Sibley was Titania and Anthony Dowell her Oberon, The Dream was one of the most beautiful ballets that Ashton ever created. Here is a snippet of the original production and another to a more recent performance by American Ballet Theatre with Alessandra Ferri and Ethan Stiefel. The ballet was part of a triple bill of works inspired by Shakespeare. The others were Kenneth MacMillan's Images of Loveand Sir Robert Helpmann's Hamlet. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death the Birmingham Royal Ballet will revive this iconic work at the Hippodrome between the 17 and 20 Feb 2016. If you see only one ballet this year this is the one you should not miss.
This is not the only contribution of the Birmingham Royal Ballet to the anniversary commemorations. The company will dance its Romeo and Julietthe following week in Birmingham before taking it on tour to the Lowry, Sunderland, Nottingham and Plymouth. The Northern touring section of the company will take pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet, The Dream and The Taming of the Shrew together with Wink, a new work by Jessica Lang and the Moor's Pavane to Durham, York and Shrewsbury on its Shakespeare Midscale Tour.
The Birmingham Royal Ballet's final contribution to the anniversary commemorations will be The Shakespeare Triple Billconsisting of Wink, The Moor's Pavane and David Bintley's The Shakespeare Suite at the Hippodrome between the 22 and 25 June 2016.
As Birmingham is just over 30 miles from Stratford on Avon and in the same historic country it is perhaps fitting that the Birmingham Royal Ballet should lead those commemorations but it is by no means the only company to dance works inspired by Shakespeare. The Royal Ballet will revive The Winter's Talein Spring. The Bolshoi will bring their version of The Taming of the Shrewby Jean-Cristophe Maillot to music by Shostakovich to London in the Summer (see Bolshoi Ballet to return to the Royal Opera House in summer 201611 Nov 2015 on the Royal Opera House website:
Bolshoi Ballet's Taming of the Shrew, Standard YouTube Licence
Yesterday I chose Scottish Ballet as my company of the year (see Highlights of 201529 Dec 2015) and they will certainly be in contention for the 2016 title if David Dawson'sSwan Lakeis as good as I expect it to be. Dawson is Associate Artist to the Dutch National Ballet and was its resident choreographer between 2004 and 2012. I saw his Empire Noir in the Dutch National Ballet's Cool Britannia triple bill and was most impressed (see Going Dutch29 June 2015 and David Dawson's Empire Noir18 June 2015). Swan Lake will open in Glasgow on 19 April 2016 and will visit Newcastle between 11 and 14 May 2016 and Liverpool between 1 and 4 June 2016 as well as Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh.
Another new work to which I look forward immensely is Akram Khan's Giselle for English National Ballet. This work will be premièred at the Palace on 27 Sept 2016 and will be the centre piece of the Manchester International Festival. Having seen Kaash at the Lowry (see Akram Khan's Kaash - contemporary meets Indian classical7 Oct 2015) and Dust at the Palace (see Lest We Forget25 Oct 2015) I am intrigued. After Manchester the company will take the work to Bristol, Southampton and London.
Looking across the North Sea I tip Ted Brandsen'sMata Harifor the Dutch National Ballet(see Mata Hari30 Nov 2015) and Ballet Bubblesthe new season for the Durch National Ballet's Junior Company. The programme will include new works by Ernst Meisner and Charlotte Edmonds as well as pieces by Krzysztof Pastor, David Dawson and my favourite living choreographer Hans van Manen. Sadly the company will be unable to perform at the Linbury this year because it is closed for renovation. I have tried to persuade the company to consider other theatres in the UK but I am not confident that I have been successful. Other shows I should really like to see include Hans van Manen's Goldwhich will tour the Netherlands and Sasha Watts's Romeo and Julietto Berlioz;s score. Incidentally, if like me you are a van Manen fan but can't make it to the Netherlands you can see Birmingham Royal Ballet dance his Five Tangostogether with Solitaire, Four Scottish Dances and Monotones II in Cheltenham, Poole or Truro. I saw Scottish Ballet's performance of Five Tangos last April and enjoyed it very much (see No Mean City - Accessible Dance and Ballet 26 April 2016),
While it may not be possible to welcome the Junior Company to England this year we can at least look forward to visits by the Australian Ballet and the Bolshoi. The Australians are bringing Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake and Alexei Ratmansky's Cinderellato the Coliseum in July. The Bolshoi are bringing Maria Alexandrova, Ekaterina Krysanova, Olga Smirnova, Svetlana Zakharova, Semyon Chudin, David Hallberg, Denis Rodkin and others to delight us and will performDon Quixote, Swan Lake, The Flames of Paris and Le Corsaire as well as Maillot's Taming of the Shrew which I mentioned earlier.
I am aware that I have barely scratched the surface and I apologize for any omissions. On the eve of what promises to be an outstanding year for dance I wish all my readers a happy and prosperous new year.
Ballet West is about to dance The Nutcracker again and has just announced its 2016 tour:
22-23 Jan Corran Halls, Oban
29 Jan Paisley Town Hall
30 Jan Tower Digital Arts Centre, Helensburgh
4 Feb Howden Park Centre, Livingstone
5 - 6 Feb Marcrobert, Stirling
11 Feb Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
13 Feb Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow
14 Feb Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock
20 Feb Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
They have also uploaded some lovely videos of Clara's photo shoot and the Rat King's. If the coming production is as good as 2013 we can look forward to a treat.
This is the latest list of live ballet transmissions by the Royal Ballet and Bolshoi from Covent Garden and Moscow that I have been able to compile. There will be two Giselles to compareand two Nutcrackers. There will be new work from Carlos Acosta (Carmen) and Liam Scarlett (Frankenstein) and new productions of The Lady of the Camelias, The Taming of the Shrew and Don Quixote from Russia.
