Standard YouTube Ballet West Swan LakeSEC Armadillo, Glasgow, 8 Feb 2020 and Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, 9 Feb 2020, 19:30
According to Wikipedia, the SEC Armadillo has 3,000 seats. When I attended Ballet West's performance of Swan Lake on Saturday evening the place was heaving. That was the wild night that Glasgow was hit with 70 mph winds and horizontal, torrential rain when most sensible Glaswegians would have been safely ensconced at home. Though the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock is somewhat smaller, there was also a pretty large audience there on Sunday. A small ballet school nearly 500 miles from London and even 87 from Glasgow that attracts crowds like that must be doing something right.
And indeed it is. The current production of Swan Lake is the best show that I have seen from Ballet West in the 7 years that I have been following them. It was not just a good student production. It was a good show - one of which any company could be proud.
There are several reasons why this show worked so well.
First, it was a true Swan Lake and not just a dance show about humanoid swans. Swan Lake's appeal lies not just in Petipa and Ivanov's choreography or Tchaikovsky's score but in its simple, powerful message of redemptive love. Consider the opening lines of Milton's Paradise Lost:
"OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat."
The swans have lost their humanity and are held in thrall to von Rothbart for a reason that we know not. They could have been redeemed by Siegfried but he betrays them by pledging his love for von Rothbart's daughter. The only other way is the sacrifice of Odile and Siegfried. Any deviation from that story is just not Swan Lake/ That is why I am exasperated by works called Swan Lake that omit that narrative
The second reason for the success of the show lay in the casting. I was impressed by Norton Fantinel who danced Siegfried and even more by Karina Moreira who danced Odette-Odile but the artist who caught my eye from his serpentine entrance at the beginning of the white act to his destruction at the very end was Rahul Pradeep. He danced von Rothbart and his role is as crucial as Odette-Odile's and Siegfried's in that he is the personification of evil. He manifests it in so many ways from the moment he and his daughter barge onto the scene literally sending the chamberlain flying to his studied rudeness as he slouches next to the queen turning his back on the divertissements. Other dancers who grabbed my attention were Luciano Ghideli, Michaela Fairon and Josephine Mansfield in the pas de trois, Fairon again with Florence Blackwood, Caitlin Jones and either Freya Hatchett or Josie Ridgway in the cygnets and Fairon once again with Gianni Illiaquer in the Neapolitan divertissement. Their agility and joie de vivre reminded me of Wayne Sleep and Rosemary Taylor in my salad days. I could go on to list the artists in the Spanish and Hungarian dances and the Mazurka but then this review would resemble a telephone directory. All who took part in the show including the Glasgow associates merit commendation.
The third reason for the production's success was the investment in sets and costumes. The backcloths displayed computer-generated graphics which included falling leaves, a waterfall and ripples on the surface of the lake which were of cinematographic quality. The author of the graphics software is not mentioned in the programme but I understand him to be Léon ten Hove. Rarely have I seen detail of that kind on stage. There were two moments that literally took my breath away. The sudden appearance of a super life-size vision of Odile as Siegfried is on the point of declaring his love for Odile and the final scene as the swans soared above the clouds illuminated by an outsize moon. The costumes, especially the dresses of the guests to Siegfried's party, were sumptuous. So, too, were von Rothbart's robes. How the artists must have enjoyed wearing them.
I take a close interest in dancers' education. I support other schools such as Central, the Northern Ballet School and, more recently, the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam. But Ballet West has a special place in my esteem which is why I return to Scotland at this time of the year every year. It is partly its idyllic position with views of the banks of Loch Etive but I think there is something special in the quality of its training.Towards the end of the programme, there are pages headed "School Highlights" and "Where are they now?" They make very interesting reading.
Author Vincenzo Canuccini La Scala Theatre Museum, Milan Source Wikimedia Commons
Ballet West Rossini Cocktail Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, 3 Feb 2018, 19:30
I was inspired to start this publication by the students of Ballet West when I saw their performance of The Nutcracker at Pitlochry almost 5 years ago (see Ballet West's "The Nutcracker"25 Feb 2013). I noted that Ballet West is a school as well as a company which reaches out to the public and in that performance it appeared that everyone had been given a go. In The Nutcracker that is easy because there is a full scale battle in Act 1 and lots of divertissements in Act II. In Giselle there are far fewer divertissements and only so many ranks of wilis or villagers can cram on stage.
To show off the considerable talents of the dancers who could not be cast for Giselle, the company's choreographer, Daniel Job, created a delightful work to the music of Giaochino Rossini called Rossini Cocktail. I mentioned it briefly in my review of Giselle but I did not begin to do justice either to the choreographer. designers and costume makers who created it or to the artists who danced it.
The programme explains that when Giselle was first performed it was a common practice to present a short unrelated production and that on that day it was the third act of Rossini's Moses in Egypt (Mosè in Egitto). Although I am not aware of any full length ballet by Rossini he did compose ballet interludes for his other operas of which the soldiers dance in William Tell is perhaps the best known. Rossini was born just before and died several years after Adolphe Adam, the composer of Giselle, and somewhat before that towering genius, Herman Severin Løvenskiold, who composed the music for what ought to be Scotland's if not the UK's national ballet. The pieces that Job had selected for his dancerswere gorgeous. Delightful to hear and perhaps even more delightful to dance.
Rossini Cocktail was performed in two movements. The first was danced by 33 senior members of the Associates Programme in Glasgow. They were all in blue flowing dresses. I counted 33 names in the programme. All were good and some were outstanding. I do not rise to my feet easily but I did so at the end of their performance. I am told by Gillian Barton that those young women would have met only one day in each month. Some travel considerable distances a few from over the border. The Glasgow associates are trained by Jonathan Barton and Natasha Watson and the Edinburgh associates by Sara-Maria Barton.
The second movement was danced by Ballet West's full time first year students who appeared in gold costumes. All were impressive and some were excellent. I don't know the names of the dancers who impressed me most but I shall look forward to seeing them in subsequent shows with Ballet West - no doubt some in solo roles - and I am sure that several of them will have successful careers on stage. I congratulate all the dancers in both groups. They have done well and any friends or relations who saw them on Saturday must be proud of them.
I enjoyed Giselle and Rossini Cocktail so much that I am coming back to Glasgow for more on Saturday. I seldom do that even for a show in Leeds or Manchester but this was the best show that Ballet West has performed to date. I can't wait to see what they can do in a large auditorium in a major city.
I saw Swan Lake last night at Greenock, a small town on the southern bank of the Clyde estuary about 25 miles from Glasgow, in the main auditorium of its magnificent Beacon Arts Centre, which is just over 4 years old. That auditorium has a fair size stage and seats about 500 with an uninterrupted view from every point. The building is near the river and I would expect its location to command spectacular views of the river. Obviously, there was not much to see as I wandered down from Greenock Central station with my phone on Google maps at 18:00 on a cold, dark and drizzly Sunday evening.
I was welcomed to the Beacon by Ballet West's principal and artisic director, Gillian Barton, who staffed a concession stall with programmes and merchandise. She told me that the previous night's performance at the Armadillo (SECC) had been excellent and wondered how her company could possibly match that success. She added that Natasha Watson, whom I had mentioned in so many reviews and featured in A Cause for Double Celebration at the Robin's Nest8 Feb 2016 and who had been cast as Odette-Odile, had fallen ill. Her place was taken by Uyu Hiromoto who is a second year student at the school. An exceptionally talented student it has to be said who had impressed me in last year's performance of The Nutracker and who had been selected to tour Malaysia (see Ballet West in Malaysia18 June 2016) but Odette-Odile is a demanding role even for a principal ballerina of a major company.
If Gillian Barton really did worry about the performance, she need not have done. I did not see the show at the Armadillo so I am in no position to compare the two, but I should be very surprised to learn that last night's performance fell short of Saturday's in any way. Last night's show was a triumph for two many reasons and here are just too. First, Hiromoto rose to the occasion magnificently. The second was casting Rothbart as a woman and the inspired execution of that role by Miranda Hamili.
Hiromoto and Hamili in their different ways are super talented young women. As my wise first ballet teacher (a seasoned performer who had once danced with the Queensland Ballet as well as a wonderful teacher) once warned, "ballet is a jealous mistress and a tough task master out to break you" so I will not tempt fate by forecasting a golden future for either of them. All I will say is that I sensed the same feeling that I had when I first saw Michaela DePrince in Amsterdam in 2013 (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 201325 Jan 2013) or Xander Parish at the York Summer School gala in July 2007 andjust look at both of them both now. I knew I was looking at something special then and I saw something special again last night.
The reason why Swan Lake is so compelling is that it reveals two faces of humanity in the same dancer. The sweet, loving, tragic Odette and the brassy, brazen Odile. I have seen many performances in my time and many of the world's leading ballerinas in the role. Some are the perfect Odette. More are the perfect Odile. Few can dance both roles equally well (Scottish Ballet's Bethany Kingsley-Garner being one who can). Hiromoto, despite her youth, is another, She was a perfect Odette - delicate, lyrical, willowy. Could she transform herself into what Mr Trump would call "a nasty woman" I asked Daniel Job, the company's choreographer and artistic advisor during the interval. "You'd be surprised" he replied with a smile. Job was right. Her head raised and somehow holding her arms and upper body in quite a different way Hiromoto transformed herself. Haughty and heartless, she executed Legnani's 32 fouettés splendidly. I was counting as I always do and ready to break into applause at number 28.
Hamili has a mastery of character. In Acts 2 and 4 she is of course the evil magician and danced the role largely as a man would have done but in Act 3 she came into her own. She dominated that Act as she slouched over the throne one leg slung over the arm of the chair. Yawning first, then filing her nails much to the discomfort of Mary Anderson who danced the Queen. It was hard to take my eyes off her even for the divertissements which were beautifully danced. She assumed centre of stage as Odile began the seduction scene whispering into Odile's shell-like not to accept anything less from Siegfried that betrothal. Ballet West had a brilliant Rothbart in Isaac Peter Bowry who is now dancing lead roles for Ballet Theatre UK. Hamili was every bit as good. Whoever cast her in that role, coached her and dressed her deserves a medal. She added a whole new dimension to the work.
However, they were not the only stars. As in 2014 Siegfried was danced by Jonathan Barton, a graduate of the school who is now its Vice-Principal and yet another Genée medallist. Even though I had seen Anthony Dowell and Rudolf Nureyev in that role I had always regarded Siegfrield as a secondary role because of the focus on Odette-Odile. But I have begun to understand his role better over the years and Barton has helped with that understanding. He is transformed in the ballet every bit as much as Odette. We see him as a callow and not a particularly nice teenager mad for gadgets and unwilling to grow up. "Gee, Ma, that crossbow is really cool." "Don't even mention marriage to me, ma" he gestures extravagantly when his mum suggests he has regal responsibilities. He meets Odette and begins to grow, Reluctantly he becomes a hero. He has to jump in the lake to do it but he liberates all those girls who would have been condemned as swans to scrub about bulrushes for stale bread from humans.
Oscar Ward, who accompanied Hiromoto to Malaysia, danced Benno. Ballet West's Benno is not quite as pivotal as David Dawson's but I could detect a little of Dawson's influence in the way Ward danced that role. He came into his own in the pas de trois supported delightfully by Sarah Nolan and Storm Norris. Later Ward danced the Neapolitan divertissement with Abigail Drew with the exuberance and charm. It was good to see two familar faces, Dylan Waddell whom I had previously seen in MurleyDance and Ballet Cymru and Mark Griffiths who is also from Ballet Cymru. Those chaps danced several roles - guests at the party and Siegfried's mates on the swan shoot. Later Waddell was also in the Spanish dance.
Other highlights included the cygnets (Alice Flinton, Perihan Gulen, Lucy Malin and Rebecca Strain), the divertissements (particularly the kids from Glasgow who were lovely and came close to stealing the show) and of course the swans in Act 2 and 4. I've had a go at learning the cygnets, Hungarian dance, prince's solo and swans' entry and know just how demanding those dances are (see KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 1, Day 2and Day 3).
The current Swan Lake is a new production with new sets and, I think, new costumes. The designs that I saw at Pitlochry in 2014 had been good but last night's were even better. I instinctively drew breath as the curtain rose on the opening scene as the guests arrived for Siegfried's coming of age party. My only criticism of the whole evening was the excessive use of the yellow and blue filters in the lighting design. Swans are supposed to be white, not birds of Paradise, yet for long stretches of the evening they were yellow and blue. There were hitches. The arch of someone's cross-bow fell off, there was the occasional stumble, acts did not follow quite as fast as they might have done and the curtain came down slightly too late at the end of Act 2 and too soon early at the end of Act 4. But this was a tour and I have seen far worse from far more famous companies in far bigger theatres.
So Gillian Barton, Daniel Job and their cast can congratulate themselves on an excellent performance. Next year they will dance Giselle. I had hoped for La Sylphide as Gurn, James and Effie used to haunt Ichrachan House but I guess Madge must have put a spell on them. I would love to see a Scottish company dance La Sylphide on their home turf but the nearest any of them have got is Sir Matthew Bourne's Highland Flingwhich Ballet Central (another ballet school's performance company) are taking on tour this year.
There is one more show before the dancers return to Taynuilt and that is at Edinburgh International Conference Centre on 18 Feb. If you are free that day and can get a ticket you should be there. Since I have been following them, this really is Ballet West's best show yet.
