Essex Excellence - The Chelmsford Ballet's Cinderella

(c) 2023 Chelmsford Ballet Company: all rights reserved Licence Courtesy of the company

 

Chelsea Ballet Company Cinderella Chelmsford Theatre 17 March 2023 19:30

Chelmsford is a community about the size of Huddersfield and the same distance from London as Huddersfield is from Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.  Although Chelmsford has been a city for many years in the ecclesiastical sense as it has a cathedral it was elevated to city status in the municipal sense in 2012 to celebrate the late Queen's diamond jubilee.  While Huddersfield is renowned for its choral society Chelmsford has an institution that is at least as precious, namely the Chelmsford Ballet Company.

Chelmsford Ballet Company is a company of artists who live and work or study in and around Chelmsford.  Although some of its members have made a career in dance - including one of my dear teachers at Northern Ballet Cara O'Shea - many do not.  I shall not call those artists "amateurs" because that description has connotations of aspiration rather than achievement.  In the quality of its productions and the enjoyment that its audiences experience the Chelmsford Ballet stands comparison with many companies of full-time dancers.

Every March the company stages a full-length ballet or mixed bill in Chelmsford's Civic Theatre.  This year it presented its own version of Cinderella.  The score was by Glazunov and not Prokofiev and the choreography was by the company's artistic director Annette Potter with the important contribution of a pas de trois for Cinderella, her prince and his footman from one of my longstanding, favourite choreographers Christopher Marney.  One of the company's strengths is the quality of its sets, costumes, lighting and special effects.  Annette Potter designed the sets, Ann Starlings the costumes and Alana Holland the lighting.  This year we were treated to indoor pyrotechnics when the Fairy Godmother cast off her cloak to reveal a dazzling tutu, Cinderella set off for the ball and at the finale.  I do not know who takes credit for those fireworks but they were spectacular.

Another strength of the Chelmsford Ballet is that it finds a role for as many of its members as possible.  These include the children who performed as mice and the adults who danced as fairy godmother's assistants, seamstresses, ladies of the court, court dancers, the hours of the clock and guests at the wedding.  All of those performers danced well and all deserve congratulations but if I gave each and every one of them her due in this review it would resemble a telephone directory.

The lead roles were, of course, the prince danced by Nicola Marchionni and Cinderella danced by Isabelle Fellows.  They performed their roles with fluency and flair.  They impressed me particularly in their first duet with movements that required considerable virtuosity and more than a little daring. They communicated ecstasy to the audience.  Appreciating the difficulty I applauded them specifically for that sequence.  I have no idea whether they could have heard clapping from row "O" but they know about it now.

The other important female characters were the fairy godmother danced elegantly by Samatha Ellis and the step sisters Alycia Potter and Georgia Olley.  The sisters were my favourites and I can assure readers that there is nothing "ugly" about either of them in real life.   I was able to congratulate one of them on the way out of the theatre when I deposited a somewhat larger contribution to the company's charity than I would otherwise have made.   It is very difficult to clown in ballet and they showed their virtuosity in the dancing lesson by collapsing into splits.  I was reminded of Paddington Bear at Her Majesty's platinum jubilee when one of the sisters took the teapot and poured its contents down her throat from the spout.

The three other males were Neil Harget who was Cinders's long-suffering dad, Alexander Evans who was the tailor and pageboy and James Fletcher who also performed several roles including Marney's pas de trois with Marchioni and Fellows.  All were impressive but I have to give special praise to Evans.  He is still very young but I am sure he will go far.  He has stage presence in spades.  I was particularly amused by his chutzpah as he extracted the last wad of banknotes from a father on his way to Carey Street. 

Cinderella continues at the Civic for one more day and if you can make it to Chelmsford either for the matinee or the evening show you will be amply rewarded.

Chelmsford's Dazzling Snow Queen

Lucy Abbott and Scarlett Mann as the Snow Queen's Wolves

Author Andrew Potter
Copyright 2017 Chelmsford Ballet Company - all rights reserved

Reproduction licensed by kind permission of the company

Chelmsford Ballet Company Snow Queen The Civic Theatre, Chelmsford, 24 March 2018, 19:30

I have been coming to Essex to see the Chelmsford Ballet Company's annual show since 2014. All the shows I have seen have been good but every show that I have seen since 2015 has been better than the last.  When I reviewed Alice's Adventures last year in An Adventure Indeed 26 March 2017 I wrote:

"Every show has been excellent but Alice's Adventures which I saw last night was by far the best."

Well, this year the show was even better than ever.

Not only that but it was in a different class. The company presented a production that would have been a credit to any professional company with original choreography, elaborate sets, lavish costumes and beautiful dancing as well as an efficient and welcoming front of house team. Every aspect of the production was impressive right down to the design and content of the programme. Even more remarkably. the members of that company did it at least largely (and probably entirely) by themselves.

I am a non-dancing associate member of Chelmsford Ballet Company and, even though I had no part in it, I am enormously proud of that production and everyone who contributed to it. Most of all, I am proud to be associated with an institution that has contributed much to the cultural and social life of Chelmsford and Essex for nearly 70 years.

The ballet to which I refer was The Snow Queen.  It was created by Annette Potter, the company's artistic director.  The libretto followed Hans Christian Andersen's story closely which meant that there were lots of scenes with plenty of roles for dancers of all ages and all levels of experience.  Her music was selected from Glazunov's 4th and 5th Symphonies and The Seasons.  The choice of those pieces was inspired for they fitted the story beautifully.

The central characters in the ballet are Kai ("Kay" in this production) and Gerda.  Kay was danced by James Parratt who had impressed me in Chris Marney's War Letters when he was still a student (see
Images of War: Ballet Central's "War Letters" and other Works 29 April 2016. He impressed me again last Saturday with his portrayal of a troubled and distracted young man. In the story he is charmed by the wicked snow queen but I saw something more in his performance. It was a study of personality change, a condition that caused him to turn against Gerda and withdraw from his community.

He was led back by the faithful Gerda whose role was danced delightfully by Georgia Olley. This was the first time that I had noticed Olley and I hope that it will not be the last for she is very talented. She does not appear to be a guest artist so she must be a dancing member of the company living in or within commuting distance of Chelmsford. I forgot to ask where she trained and whether she has ambitions to dance professionally but I would be in the least surprised if she does.  She can dance and she can act.  She deserved the loud applause that she received when she took her curtain call.

The other principal character was the snow queen danced splendidly by Samantha Ellis. She seems to get all the regal roles for she was the queen and schoolmistress in Alice's Adventures.  She was attended by two wolves whose costumes were magnificent. Lez Brotherston could not have done better. They looked so lifelike that I would have forgotten that they were human not lupine had it not been for their pointe shoes. Their roles were performed by two of the company's most experienced and able dancers, Lucy Abbott and Scarlett Mann, who had delighted audiences as the lilac fairy and Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty two years ago.

One performer who wins everyone's hears is every production is the company's chairperson, Marion Pettet. If anyone asked me what is meant by stage presence I would send that person to Chelmsford for Pettet has it in spades. She has enchanted me every time I have seen her whether as Mrs Stahlbaum, Britannia, Carabosse or in the prologue in Alice. She was Gerda's grandmother last Saturday, a role that she performed with her usual flair.

There was another grandmother in the ballet who could easily have been eclipsed by Pettet but wasn't. Debbie Snell was Kay's granny and she was impressive too. So, too, was Andrew Potter, another fine dancer who opened the show as the head troll. Potter took the picture of the wolves above. A talented artist in at least two art forms.  Other soloists who delighted me were Olivia Riley as the first river nymph, Stacey Byrne as the woman who knew magic, Holly Scanlan as the crow, Darci Wilsher as the reindeer and James Fletcher (another guest artist) as the Laplander who rescued and revived Gerda.  Everyone in the cast - trolls, ice maidens, villagers, nymphs and gypsies - danced well.

I lost count of the number of scenes - the trolls' workshop, the square in Kay and Gerda's home town, Gerda's grandmother's home. the snow queen's castle, the river where Gerda rested, Lapland - maybe more. Each had elaborate scenery lovingly painted and constructed.  Every detail from the Romanesque arches of the trolls' workshop to the houses in the street and the turrets of the snow queen's castle was a work of art. Perhaps the masterpiece was the snow queen's sleigh. Those who designed, painted and constructed those backcloths and properties deserve special congratulations.

So too, does, Ann Starling, the costume design and wardrobe manager. I have already commended her wolves but all the costumes were great, particularly the snow queen's robes and head dress and the outfits for the crow and reindeer.  Gerda wore the prettiest dirndl. Everybody had fun costumes to wear

Next year marks the company's 70th anniversary and they will celebrate it with a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Annette Potter.  I can barely contain my excitement. But there are plenty of things to do before then including a special workshop for dancing members with our patron Chris Marney and Ballet Central on 22 April 2018 (see What's coming up on the company's website). I urge my readers, particularly those in South East England, to check them out.

An Adventure Indeed

John Teniel's White Rabbit

Chelmsford Ballet Company Alice's Adventures Chelmsford Civic Theatre, 25 March 2017, 19:30

I have been coming to the Chelmsford Civic Theatre for the Chelmsford Ballet Company's annual show since 2014 (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014, A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015 and A Real Beauty: Chelmsford Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty 25 March 2016). Every show has been excellent but Alice's Adventures which I saw last night was by far the best.

Although the company has staged ballets based on Alice in Wonderland twice before (see the list of productions on the company's website), this was an entirely new production with a new plot, new choreography and new designs with some amazing computer generated graphics and inspired dancing. Save for the score which was Carl Davis's arrangement of various works by Tchaikovsky for English National Ballet's 1995 production of Alice in Wonderland everything was created by members of the company. Annette Potter, the company's artistic director, contributed the story and choreography, Ann Starling the designs and Phil Rhodes the special effects.

The ballet began with a prologue where Alice and her sister took a stroll in a park. There they took tea at an open air café called Hatter's run by a rather eccentric proprietor of the same name. There they spotted a hurried and forgetful businessman with a predilection for carrots, a bossy schoolmistress with a party of children, a sleepy urchin, a street vendor selling carrots among other things and a pair of workmen manhandling a tree. Alice was drawn to a hole in which the workmen tried to plant the tree. She stood on the brink. Then a gauze curtain fell onto which images of Alice floating through space were projected. The curtain rose to show her recumbent on the floor of a strange land with food that made her grow and drink that made her shrink. All the individuals that Alice had seen in the park were transposed to this land. The businessman became a giant white rabbit, the café proprietor the Mad Hatter, the schoolmistress the Queen of Hearts, the urchin the dormouse and the vendor the duchess. Alice took tea with the Mad Hatter, met Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, played croquet with flamingos and hedgehogs and encountered all sorts of other characters narrowly escaping decapitation at the command of the Queen only through a rapid return to the real world where she emerged from what had become a rather disturbing dream.

Annette Potter had a cast that ranged in skill and experience from the company's guest artist, Andrei Teodor Iliescu, to some very young ballet students and she had to create dances for them all.  Her choreography was incredibly ingenious. Here are just two examples. The experience of growing after eating the food labelled "East Me" was achieved by Alice's stretches on pointe. The experience of shrinking by splits on the floor. Potter drew out Iliescu's virtuosity while allowing everyone in between from the youngest student to Alice and the other soloists to shine.

There were a lot of dancers in the show and each and every one excelled from the tiniest hedgehog upwards. Sadly I shall omit some names that deserve substantial credit. All I can say is that you were all stars. You must have felt that from the loud and sustained applause at the reverence and at many points throughout the show.

Iliescu was magnificent as the white rabbit and carrot crunching businessman. Tall and slender all eyes were drawn to him, particularly his graceful jumps and turns. I had last seen him in Leeds in Chris Marney's Scenes from a Wedding for Ballet Central (see Dazzled 3 May 2015). According to the programme, Iliescu came to Central after Sara Matthews spotted him in Lausanne (see his performance as Albrecht in the 2013 competition). He was offered a full scholarship and has been here ever since.

Iliescu was partnered delightfully by Darci Wilsher whom I had last seen in Marney's Carnival of the Animals for the 2015 show. She was the perfect Alice, a role that demanded not only a mastery of technique but also of mime and drama.

Andrew Potter was a splendid Hatter. A great character dancer, he had impressed me as Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. I understand that Gary Avis was in the audience on Thursday night. I think he would have been reminded of himself. Samantha Ellis was a fearsome queen and schoolmarm but also occasionally a fetchingly flirtatious young woman whom we couldn't hate. Isabelle Fellows was a fine dormouse, Stacey Byrne an impressive duchess, Scarlett Man a beautiful bluebell, Megan Roberts and Alice Brecknell were a hilarious Dum and Dee and Lucy Abbot an equally amusing half stoned caterpillar.  No show by Chelmsford Ballet would be complete without an appearance by Marion Pettet. She entered in the prologue, a small role but one that she performed with her usual aplomb.

The sets and costumes deserve a special mention. They literally jumped out of Teniel's illustrations. I particularly liked the Cheshire cat which glided above the stage from a gantry. The company has a genius of a special effects designer in Phil Rhodes. I can think of at least one choreographer inspired by film not a million miles from Leeds but who is now in Germany who would have been mightily impressed had he seen those computer generated effects.

This is the company's 70th year and it has achieved a lot. It has launched more than a few careers in dance including that of Cara O'Shea, one of my favourite teachers at Northern Ballet Academy who is also a talented choreographer (see my review of Small Steps and Other Pieces - Leeds CAT End of Term Show 2 July 2016). Chelmsford Ballet will also have inspired three generations of kids to step up to the barre and created a considerable audience for dance in Essex. It is a great example of what dancers, teachers and other artists in a medium size town can do. We have the same building blocks in great profusion in the Northern Powerhouse. Would it not be wonderful to follow Chelmsford Ballet's example there.

At Home with the Chelmsford Ballet

Annette Potter, Artistic Director of the Chelmsford Ballet Company

Author Jane Lambert
(c) 2016 Jane Lambert: all rights reserved

I first learned about the Chelmsford Ballet Company nearly three years ago (see The Chelmsford Ballet 15 Dec 2013). I joined the company as a non-dancing associate shortly afterwards. Since joining I have written a lot about the company and attended all its shows (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014, A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015 and A Real Beauty: Chelmsford Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty 25 March 2016. It was only on Sunday that I got a chance to visit the company at its home in Chelmsford.

The occasion was the company's annual general meeting which took place at the headquarters of Chelmsford Young Generation Amateur Music Society ("CYGAMS"). CYGAMS is located on a recreation ground just outside the city centre which would have taken hours to find before the development of satellite navigation. Google maps guided me the 208 miles from my home without a hitch and I reached the room where the meeting was to take place with time in hand.  I already knew the company's chair, Marion Pettet, its artistic director, Annette Potter, and its publicity officer Jessica Wilson. I had met some of the front of house volunteers at the annual shows and, of course, I recognized some of the dancers, but this was my first opportunity to chat with them.

The AGM was conducted very briskly and efficiently but also quite thoroughly. Minutes were approved. The office holders and committee members were introduced. The chair reported on the year's activities which were impressive. The treasurer and other officers reported on their respective stewardships. Everything seemed to be managed most satisfactorily. The officers and committee were re-elected and received a vote of thanks from the floor.

Chelmsford Ballet Company's Rehearsal Studio

Author Jane Lambert
(c) 2016 Jane Lambert - all rights reserved

After the meeting the artistic director showed me the studio where the company class and rehearsals take place and the properties store which are also located in CYGAMS.  As you can see from the photo, the studio is spacious with a sprung floor, a wooden double rail barre, a carpeted area for an audience and a baby grand in the corner. It stands comparison certainly with the studios at the Northern Ballet School where my evening classes with KNT take place and even the top studio of Northern Ballet and Phoenix Dance Theatre's premises at Quarry Hill in Leeds.

Chelmsford and District Model Railway Club

Author Jane Lambert
(c) 2016 all rights reserved

The props store was next to the rehearsal studio and it was a veritable treasure chest.  There were flags, halberds and items of every conceivable kind of scenery. The company had been particularly adventurous and innovative in its use of projected graphics in  its production of The Sleeping Beauty earlier in the year. Annette Potter told me a little about how those effects were achieved. She was very proud of her technicians' expertise and she commended them as warmly as she did her very talented dancers.

As I was about to set off for the trek home to Yorkshire I heard a whistle blast and the chugging of a locomotive. I turned to investigate and found this tiny engine dragging its driver and passengers around a miniature railway track. A kindly gentleman in a smiley faced t-shirt with a North American accent told me that the track was operated by the Chelmsford and District Model Railway Club. He invited me to take a ride and I would gladly have accepted

Photo Jane Lambert
(c) 2016 Jane Lambert All rights reserved 

had it not been for the prospect of a long drive home. There were also miniature traction engines wheezing in the space between the tracks. It all seemed a lot of fun.

I told the North American gentleman that I had driven down from the North to attend the Ballet Company AGM. He told me that the Model Railway Club often receives visits from curious dancers whom it is delighted to welcome. He wished me a safe journey to my Borealian fastness. Coming from the other side of the Atlantic he may well have regarded 208 miles as no big deal. A Sunday afternoon drive if he hailed from somewhere like Texas or Alberta but it was a long way for me.

I have to say that Chelmsford with its friendly people and many activities is my kind of town. It is good that engineering is pursued as energetically and enthusiastically as dancing and the other performing arts that take place at CYGAMS.

I look forward to returning in March (if not before) for Annette Potter's new ballet, Alice's Adventures, which will run at the Civic Theatre from the 22 to 25 March 2017. Other events that will take place shortly are Lets Make a Ballet for local children on 16 Oct 2016 and the Christmas concert with the local choral society in Brentwood on 17 Dec 2016.

Chelmsford's Next Ballet - How Come The Essex Girls (and Boys) Get All The Fun?

Teniel's White Rabbit

Source Wikipedia

Chelmsford Ballet Company, of which I am proud to be a non-dancing associate, describes itself as an amateur company with professional standards for all its work, involving professionals in its productions, courses, teaching and workshops. It is based in Chelmsford but its dancers come from all over Essex and beyond and its associates such as I and far like Gita come from as far away as Yorkshire.

The company's Artistic Director is Annette Potter of The Classical Ballet & Theatre Dance School. She has staged some wonderful productions since I have been following the company namely The Nutcracker (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014), Pineapple Poll and Carnival of the Animals double bill (see A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015) and The Sleeping Beauty (see A Real Beauty: Chelmsford Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty 25 March 2016).

This year Annette is creating a new ballet for the company to be called Alice's Adventures based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.   This will be quite different from Christopher Wheeldon's Alice in Wonderland.   As Annette has kindly agreed to give me an interview I shall be writing a feature on it shortly. The company has published the following information in its blog:

“Alice” has not been performed in any guise by The Company since 1994. This version, choreographed by our Artistic Director Annette Potter, will bring a fresh look at the characters and story; bringing with it a different slant on an age old favourite. Dancing members will be able to audition for a part in this new production in October. Many have already indicated that they wish to participate and we’re sure that those candidates successful at audition in June will also be keen to audition again for a role in the show."

A workshop will take place on 25 Sept 2016 for any dancing members who wants to take part in the show and it is necessary to audition to become a dancing member.  The show will be performed at the Civic Theatre between 22 and 25 March 2017,

Another important event in Chelmsford's calendar is Let's Make A Ballet for children and young persons aged between 7 and 14. That will take place on 16 Oct 2017 at The Sandon School. How Come The Essex Girls (and Boys) Get All The Fun?

A Real Beauty: Chelmsford Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty

Marion Pettet as Carabosse

(c) 2016 Chelmsford Ballet Company, all rights reserved
Reproduction licensed by the company

Chelmsford Ballet Company, The Sleeping Beauty, Chelmsford Civic Theatre, 19 March 2016


Some would say that I am not the best person to write this review on the ground that I am far from unbiased. It is true that I am more than a Friend or well wisher of the Chelmsford Ballet Company as I am an associate member of the company and if I lived nearer I would audition for dancing membership. My membership of this remarkable company, which will celebrate the 70th anniversary of its origins next year, is a source of enormous pride. Never have I been more proud of my membership of the Chelmsford Ballet Company than I was on Saturday evening when I saw its performance of The Sleeping Beauty.

The Sleeping Ballet is not an easy ballet to stage because it is very long and has an enormous cast.  It is also associated in the minds of us Brits with the re-opening of the Royal Opera House on the 20 Feb 1946 with a cast that included Moira Shearer, Leslie Edwards. Gillian Lynne, Henry Danton, Beryl Gray, Michael Somes, Robert Halpmann, Jean Bedells, Harold Turner, Gerd Larsen, Stanley Holden, Pamela May and, of course, Margot Fonteyn. It is therefore a challenge to any company, particularly one that is composed largely of men and women with full time careers outside dance.

Our company responded to that challenge admirably.

First, our choreographer and artistic director, Annette Potter, pruned Petipa's choreography to manageable lengths adapting the work to the capabilities of her dancers who ranged widely in age and experience without sacrificing any of the important and often difficult bits such as the rose adagio or bluebird pas de deux.

Secondly, she had an excellent cast: Scarlett Mann as Aurora who had danced the title role in Pineapple Poll so enchantingly last year (see A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015), Lucy Abbott as the lilac fairy (quite a challenge as the company's co-patron dances Count Lilac in Sir Matthew Bourne's production of The Sleeping Beauty). guest artists Andrei Iliescu as Prince Florimund, Emily Starling as the fairy in the vision and Matthew Powell as one of the princes in the rose adagio, Morgan Wren who has advanced tremendously since I saw him as Fritz in The Nutcracker two years ago (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014) and of course the magnificent Marion Petter as Carabosse. Everybody in the show performed well and the only reason why I have not mentioned them all individually is that this review is long enough already.

The third ingredient of the show's success was its special effects. There were indoor fireworks as Carabosse made her entrances and exits. A menacing image projected onto the backdrop presaged her arrival at Aurora's christening and birthday party. An ingenious animation represented a century's growth of vegetation around Aurora and her family. The programme credited Phil Rhodes with special effects. Clearly he is a talented young man and I hope to see more of his work in future.

There is in fact a lot of talent in Chelmsford.  For me, Marion Pettett stole the show as she did last year as Mrs Dimple and Britannia in Pineapple Poll and the mother in Carnival of the Animals.  She positively exuded evil with her rodent like acolytes. Gita, the other member of Team Terpsichore, likes to choose a man or woman of the match when she attends the ballet as she is an accomplished sportswoman. Her choice for this show was Morgan Wren and I can quite see why. But there is also talent bubbling up from below. The smallest of Carabosse's acolytes had real stage presence as she took her leave of the audience before scurrying off with her evil mistress. I don't know that child's name but I do hope she carries on with her dance and theatre studies because she has great aptitude for the performing arts.  It is worth adding that that young girl was by no means the only young person to show promise.

It is rare for ballet companies to receive a standing ovation in this country but there were more than a few members of the audience who rose to their feet at the end of Saturday evening's show. The audience in the Chelmsford Civic was not unsophisticated. It knew when to clap - for instance the entrance of the principals and difficult bits of the choreography. I don't think that they would rise for anyone or anything without good reason and the fact that so many did on Saturday night speaks volumes for the show.

I do not know what Annette Potter and Marion Pettett are planning for next year's show but as it was in 1947 that Joan Weston organized a troupe of dancers at Broomfield YMCA which became Chelmsford Ballet I am sure that it will be good. Having achieved a lot over the years the company has a lot to celebrate. Though the March show is the highlight of the year the company holds other events such as Let's Make a Ballet for children in the Autumn and the Hutton and Shenfield Choral Society's Christmas show. Occasionally, they arrange coach trips to West End shows. I know we have the Choral but I wish we had a something like the Chelmsford Ballet in Huddersfield.

The Sleeping Beauty

Leon Bakst's costume design for  Carabossse

Source Wikipedia

In my review of Birmingham Royal Ballet's performance of The Sleeping Beauty in The Lowry on 27 Sept 2013 I wrote:

"Even though The Sleeping Beauty was premièred at St. Petersburg, its score was composed by Tchaikovsky and it was choreographed was by Petipa to Perrault's story, it is also a very English ballet. It was the work that reopened the Royal Opera House on the 20 Feb 1946 after the House had been used as a dance hall and furniture store (see "The History of the Royal Opera House" on the Royal Opera House website).

To understand the importance of The Sleeping Beauty in our social as well as our cultural history you have to know that it entered the repertoire of the Vic-Wells Ballet just before the Second World War. By all accounts the 1946 revival was a glittering occasion. It must have been one of the rare great nights of ballet to which I referred "In Leeds of all Places - Pavlova, Ashton and Magic" 18 Sept 2013. It was produced by Ninette de Valois, designed by Oliver Messel, Princess Aurora was danced by Margot Fonteyn and Petipa's choreography was supplemented by Frederick Ashton. There must have been a whiff of mothballs in the theatre as the audience had dusted off their pre-war dinner jackets, retrieved their best frocks and put on their jewellery for the first time after the Second World War. The analogy of that evening after years of war and rationing with Aurora's wedding after a century of hibernation must have been obvious and compelling."

It is a very special ballet which is why I am delighted to report that the Chelmsford Ballet Company (of which I am a proud non-dancing associate) will perform it at the Chelmsford Civic Theatre between 16 to 19 March 2016.

Although this company is made up largely of dancers who do not make their living from dance there is nothing amateurish about its performances (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014 and A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015). They have a resourceful and imaginative artistic director in Annette Potter, talented dancers several of whom are at first rate ballet schools, accomplished costume and set designers and makers, able technicians and an inspiring Chair in Marion Pettet who showed her flair as a character dancer in Pineapple Poll and Carnival of The Animals. Small wonder that their patrons are Christopher Marney, my favourite living British choreographer, and the great ballerina Doreen Wells.

I don't yet have any details of the performance. In particular, I don't know whether they have begun casting but I know who could dance the lilac role very well indeed. In my review of Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty in Bradford on 28 March 2013 I wrote:

"No Lilac Fairy though there was a Count Lilac powerfully danced by Christopher Marney"

Marney's dancing in that show was spectacular. I also seem to remember that Cara O'Shea, one of Northern Ballet Academy's most adored teachers (see Northern Ballet Open Day 18 Feb 2014 and A Treat For Us Old Ladies 27 Feb 2014), once danced Princess Aurora for the company. When I do get some information about Chelmsford's show I shall pass it in to you.

There's just one other thing about The Sleeping Beauty and that is the following passage from Wikipedia:

"Trademark controversy

The Walt Disney Company has registered a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office, filed March 13, 2007, for the name "Princess Aurora" that covers production and distribution of motion picture films; production of television programs; production of sound and video recordings. Some suggest that this may limit the ability to perform this ballet, from which Disney acquired some of the music for its animated 1959 film Sleeping Beauty."

At first I thought it was a joke but I followed the link and found that the words PRINCESS AURORA have indeed been registered by Disney Enterprises Inc. with the US Patent and Trade Mark Office as a service mark for

"Production and distribution of motion picture films; production of television programs; production of sound and video recordings"

in class 41 on 17 Jan 2012 under registration number 4,088,154.

The scare seems to have originated in an article by Nikki Finke in Deadline Hollywood dayed 1 May 2009 entitled An Attempt To Stop The Disney Machine which began with the alarming words:

"I’m told that the Walt Disney Co is currently attempting to trademark the character name “Princess Aurora” for all media: stage, sound, film, TV, video, Internet, photographs, news. In short, everything except literature."

The article continued:

"The problem is that, if the Disney Company is successful, it will effectively control the legal right to all future performances of the ballet. The move also could sink any movie about the ballet or that uses a scene of the ballet in another movie."

There is, incidentally, a parallel registration for the words PRINCESS AURORA in relation to a wide range of goods and services here.

Disney's trade mark cannot be infringed by performing Petipa's ballet The Sleeping Ballet for all sorts of reasons. The intellectual assets that the Disney Corporation seeks to wish to protect is a range of goods and services about a number of princesses one of whom is called Aurora.  She seems to be a spin-off from the studio's well known 1959 animation. The other princesses, incidentally, include Cinderella, Pocahontas and Rapunzel. A ballet that is based exclusively on any of those characters might perhaps infringe some of Disney's IP rights (though not necessarily the trade mark) but that would be an altogether different matter.

If anybody is, however, troubled by the intellectual property issues relating to The Sleeping Beauty, do give me a shout. I will advise and represent you and keep you on the straight and narrow for free. I know of at least one patent and trade mark agent as well as a specialist solicitor who love ballet as much as I do who would probably do the same.

Post Script

I do have some more information about Chelmsford Ballet's production. The following notice appeared on its Facebook page:

The Company will present
  "The Sleeping Beauty "

March 2016

Do you or someone you know want to dance in this enchanting tale?

Company Auditions 21st June 2015

Only auditioned dancing members can dance in our annual productions.
Company auditions for new members and for upgrades for existing members are scheduled for Sunday 21st June.  Male applicants are especially welcome. Application forms are available to download from the website, or you can contact the membership secretary directly for more information. cbcenquiries@hotmail.com 
The closing date for applications to audition is the 7th June.
(Auditions for The Sleeping Beauty, open only to members, will take place in October 2015)

A Delight Indeed

On Wednesday Leanne Shipp tweeted

@jelterps Jane, you're in for a delight on Saturday in Chelmsford with @Ballet_CBC! Loved both pieces but esp Carnival by @chrismarney!
— Leanne Shipp (@ShippLea) March 18, 2015

She was so right. Any company would have been proud of yesterday's double bill.  As it was performed largely by dancers who do not yet make their living from dance it was all the more remarkable.

Note my terminology. I did not say "amateur" deliberately. There was nothing amateurish about the show. Everything was polished. Not just the dancing (which was perhaps not so surprising since several members of the cast were either at, had been to, or were on their way to, top ballet schools) but the direction, stage management, sets, costumes, lighting - even the glossy programmes. All the more impressive when it is considered that the production was completed in a year on a limited budget and much of the set painting and costume making would have been done by the members themselves.

There were two one act ballets yesterday evening - Annette Potter's Pineapple Poll based on John Cranko's choreography and a new ballet by Christopher Marney called Carnival of the Animals. The works complemented each other perfectly for Marney has much in common with Cranko. Pineapple Poll was created early in Cranko's career and while Marney has created a string of successful ballets for Ballet Black, Ballet Central and others it has to to be remembered that he is still a very young man (see Christopher Marney 16 March 2014). If, as I fervently hope, he lives to a ripe old age and his career maintains its present trajectory Carnival will be regarded as an "early Marney". I can foresee school and university teachers yet unborn setting essay questions like "Pineapple Poll and Carnival - compare and contrast" to the grandchildren of yesterday's corps de ballet.

For those who do not know the Cranko ballet there is a good synopsis in Wikipedia. There are five key roles: Pineapple Poll, Jasper the pot boy, Captain Belaye, Blanche his bride and her aunt, Mrs Dimple. Jasper falls in love with Poll but she has eyes only for the captain. She steals on board his ship with her friends to attract his attention but he has eyes only for Blanche and she is so disappointed when the captain leads Blanche and Mrs Dimple on board HMS Hot Cross Bun. However when Jasper enlists as a midshipman Poll finally takes an interest in him and the ballet ends happily with Mrs Dimple representing Britannia. With music selected and arranged from the works of Sir Arthur Sullivan it was a great patriotic romp.

Captain Belaye was portrayed majestically by Andrew Potter. Readers of last year's review of The Nutcracker will remember that he was Drosselmeyer. Jasper was danced by Stephen Quildan whom Jessica Wilson has interviewed recently in Dance Direct (see Stephen Quildan – Educating Experiences 13 March 2015). He displayed great virtuosity - I couldn't help clapping one particularly difficult jump even though I shouldn't have done - but also he expressed loving, longing, disappointment and despair so eloquently. Scarlett Mann was a delightful Poll - coquettish, determined, devious but still delightful whether selling trinkets on the quayside or marshalling the crew of the Hot Cross Bun. Also attractive was Megan McLatchie as Blanche. However, for me the star of the show was Marion Pettet as Mrs Dimple - and Britannia. Last year she was Frau Stahlbaum. A wonderful actor as well as an accomplished dancer and a great chair of the Chelmsford Ballet Company.

The Carnival of the Animals was written by Saint-Saëns which is best known for The Swan. That piece upon which Fokine created The Dying Swan for Anna Pavlova never fails to move me even when I hear it on a DVD player or over the radio. There are many reasons for that - some personal - to which I alluded in my review of Northern Ballet's Sapphire gala last week (see Sapphire 16 March 2015). Last Saturday Javier Torres presented a new interpretation of Saint-Saëns's music and last night we got another. A pas de deux between Quildan and Jasmine Wallis which was also lovely. Typical Marney.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Marney did not create a new version of The Carnival of the Animals. He made a ballet about a company that was about to dance The Carnival of the Animals. A young stage hand longed to dance - perhaps because of his longing for its principal dancer performed beautifully by Wallis. But when he tried to lift her - dainty though she is - he found that pas de deux work was not quite as easy as it looked. According to Tim Tubbs's programme notes the ballet was set in the 1930s - the heroic early days of the English ballet after Diaghilev had died but before the Second World War when endless touring by the Vic-Wells Ballet won the hearts of the nation to this originally foreign art form. There were a few animals - foxes perhaps - and a yapping lap dog quite invisible to all but the dancers but clearly another dog like Bif which could do ballet (see Woof 12 Oct 2014 to understand the reference) - but the main characters were people. Quildan the stage hand, Wallis his sweetheart and principal dancer and Pettet her mother.

Again, Pettet stole the show for me as the bossy, fussy but affectionate mother but she was not the only star. Quildan with a foot in a bucket one moment and fumbling the ballerina the next - showed that he can amuse an audience as well as amaze it. Wallis was an adorable ballerina. Everybody in that show danced well. Jessica Wilson (the blogger who interviewed Wilson and danced Harlequin last year) and Jenni Stafford as the ballerina's friends, Georgia Otley and Amelia Wallis (Clara in last year's show) as playful school kids, Hannah Cotgrove, McLatchie again and Carly Parry as the domestics and Mann, April Goulding and Darci Willsher as the company's dancers. It must have been such a thrill for them to work with a dancer of the calibre of Marney and one which each and every one of them richly deserved.

I loved The Nutcracker but this double bill was even better. "What are you doing next year?" I asked Marion Pettet when I congratulated her after the show. "Not sure" was the answer. I suggested La Sylphide at first because ir is a ballet in a British setting which should be danced by a British company. But then I remembered their wonderful young women dancers (some of whom I have mentioned above) which is the company's strength. Wouldn't they be splendid in the entry of the shades in La Bayadère?