"Like Water for Chocolate" in the Cinema

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Royal Ballet Like Water for Chocolate Royal Opera House Recorded 9 June 2022, Screened 19 Jan 2023

If you have not already seen Like Water for Chocolate on stage or on screen I strongly advise you to watch the encore tomorrow.  I have done both.  Tomorrow I am going to the Leeds Showcase to watch it for a third time.  It is the best show that I saw last year.  Indeed, it is one of the best that I have seen in a lifetime of theatre-going.

I was in Covent Garden on 8 June 2022 which was the day before the show was recorded for Thursday's and tomorrow's screenings.  I reviewed it in Like Water for Chocolate on 23 July 2022.  The ballet prompted me to hire the film and buy the book which I could, quite literally, not put down until I had reached the very last page (see Further Reflections on "Like Water for Chocolate" 26 July 2022),  In those articles, I  enthused over Wheeldon's libretto and choreography, Talbot's score, Crowley's designs and Katz's lighting. If you want to learn about all that you will find them in those articles. 

Music and designs for the three-dimensional stage do not always transfer well to a two-dimensional screen. In this case, I think the change of medium worked well.  The biggest difference between the live performance and Thursday's screening was the cast.  

Tita was Francesca Hayward who interpreted the role quite differently from Yasmine Naghdi. I sensed the difference early in the ballet.  At her sister's wedding, the guests throw up. For Hayward that was a disaster. A final humiliation after a day of humiliation.  I really suffered with her. For Naghdi I felt: "serve them bloody right." Not quite revenge but certainly kama. 

Marcelino Sambe danced Pedro exactly as I had imagined him in the book,  Not all that bright and rather wet but somehow infuriatingly attractive.  Again, very different from Cesar Corrales's Pedro who became a very convincing Juan Alejandrez on screen.  

Laura Morera was a scary Elena in life and perhaps even more in death.  I softened to her the first time around as I recalled her suffering but my sympathy quickly evaporated as that outside body with its shock of straight orangey-brown hair tormented her daughter. Meaghan Grace Hinkis was Gertrudis, the sister to whom I warmed the most. Mayara Magri danced Rosaura, the one to whom I warmed the least. Matthew Ball danced the decent but injured Dr John.

One of the advantages of the recording was the focus on the Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra. She had also been the musical consultant introducing composers, instruments and music from Mexico.  In an interview before the show, pride in her country and culture were brimming.  On the day I visited Covent Garden, she unfurled a Mexican tricolour at the reverence or curtain call. 

Of course, there would have been no ballet had there been no book. Those who have never read the book nor seen the film can track the story here.  There is a wonderful interview of Esquivel with Wheeldon on YouTube entitled Insights: Like Water For Chocolate — Beginnings and Origins.  I cannot recommend it too highly.

Further Reflections on "Like Water for Chocolate"

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=327749

 

In Like Water for Chocolate, I noted that Christopher Wheeldon had advised his audience to come early and read the programme.  I added that that was good advice but not nearly enough.  Those coming to see  Like Water for Chocolate should watch Judith Mackrell's Insight videos:  Insights: Like Water For Chocolate — Beginnings and Origins,  Insights: Like Water for Chocolate – Music and Design and  Insights: Like Water for Chocolate – Towards Opening Night.  As a counsel of perfection, I advised readers to read the novel and see the film,   At that stage, I had done neither but now I have done both greatly enhancing my appreciation of the ballet.

Although the story spans several generations from the death of Tita's father at the shock of learning of his wife's infidelity to the wedding of her niece Esperanza to the doctor's son, Alex, most of the action takes place during the Mexican civil war between 1910 and 1920 near the city of Piedras Negras on the US border.  The book is divided into 12 chapters, one for each month of the year.  The months do not seem to bear any particular relationship to the narrative.  Each one starts with a list of ingredients some of which are quite gargantuan,   Most are for food but one is for matches.  Some of the chapters contain instructions but the novel is no cookbook.  I should be amazed if the author expects her readers to make dishes out of those ingredients.

The ballet is much kinder to Mama Elena than the book.  The scene where Tita reads her mother's correspondence shows the murder of her African American lover.  In the novel, there is nothing sympathetic about her at all.   Offering Rosaura to Pedro is an act of pure malevolence which wrecked the lives of two daughters, one son-in-law and possibly one grandson. She thrashed Tita for supposedly lacing the wedding cake with an emetic.  She tried to commit Tita to a psychiatric hospital which would necessarily have deprived her of the services of the daughter whose happiness was supposed to be sacrificed for care.  She showed the worst kind of hypocrisy in the second haunting by accusing her daughter of immorality when she had given birth to Gertrudis out of wedlock.  Tita banished the ghost by reminding Mama Elens of her hypocrisy.  Her last words to the ghost were words of hate,

Laura Esquivel's portrayal of Pedro is hardly kinder.  He is reprimanded for his folly in accepting the hand of a woman he did not love in order to be closer to her sister in the first chapter.  He neglected his bride for months after her wedding night on the pretext that Tita's cake had made her ill.  At several times in the story, he had the chance to carry Tita away much as Gertrudis had been carried away by her revolutionary captain but he missed every opportunity.  He was resentful of the doctor for his interest in Tita even though the latter had saved his skin literally after a carousel that dislodged an oil lamp.   He was moody, spoilt and not very bright.  Tita was right to send him packing several times.   

My favourite sister is Gertrudis who escaped her mother's thrall by dashing naked to her revolutionary liberator.  In the revolution she becomes a general bringing her soldiers to the ranch.  In celebrations at the ranch, she displays an ability to dance that neither of her parents possessed.  There is a discussion as to how she inherited such skills.  When she gave birth to a dark-skinned child Tita rescued her reputation by revealing her parenthood.

While reflecting on the story I remembered that many of Tita's contemporaries in this and many other countries missed the opportunity to marry.  That was not because of family tradition but because so many men had perished in the First World War.   Muriel Spark mentioned the generation of unmarried women in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.  That was the fate of one of my aunts who was born at about the same time as Tita. Like Tiita she was an excellent cook and needlewoman.   She stayed at my grandmother's home in Heaton Moor until my grandmother died in 1953.  When the family home was sold she had to work as a housekeeper in Wilmslow until her death some 40 years ago,  I was not aware of a Pedro in her life but how would I have known?

In one of my tweets, I said the book was hilarious.  I was very properly pulled up by mg friend Marion Pettit who pointed out all those ruined lives.   But there were some extremely funny passages in the story.  As I read the book last night I chuckled at the thought of all those guests puking in the stream after eating Tita's wedding cake.  Or the thought of Gertrudis's sergeant trying to make sense of a pudding recipe,  Every tragedian leavens his story with humour.

I read Esquivel's novel in a single sitting.   I could not put it down   It is a long time since I last read a novel so quickly.   I rarely have the time for that. Even more rarely do I invest so much time in researching a ballet.  I did so this time because the work is so good.   The public will get a chance to see the ballet on-screen on 23 Jan2023.  That leaves plenty of time to read the book, see the film and watch Judith Mackrell's Insight vieos.   Their enjoyment will be greatly enhanced if they do.

Like Water for Chocolate

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The Royal Ballet Lije Water for Chocolate The Royal Opera House, 8 June 2022, 19:30

I saw Like Water for Chocolate on 8 June 2022. It was my first trip back to Covent Garden since Onegin on 18 Jan 2020 (see The Royal Ballet's "Onegin" 8 March 2022).  I set out my first impressions on BalletcoForum immediately after I had seen it and in slightly more detail on Facebook a few hours later. It can be seen from those remarks that I thoroughly enjoyed the show.

The ballet was inspired by Laura Esquivel's novel Como agua para chocolate which has also been made into a film.  The title is curious to English ears probably because few of us make chocolate from scratch.  It refers to emotions that are about to boil over like a pan on the stove.  The reason why emotions run high is that Tita, a young woman, is prevented from marrying her lover, Pedro, by a custom that requires the youngest daughter to care for her mother for so long as she lives.   Her misery increases when her mother persuades Pedro to marry Tita's elder sister and Pedro agrees to do simply to be nearer Tita.   For those who have not yet seen the ballet, read the book or watched the film, the story is here,

In the YouTube video Insights: Lije Water for Chocolate - Beginnings and Origins, the choreographer Christopher Wheeldon explained how he came to create the ballet.  The film was one of the videos that he watched at his lodgings in New York shortly after he had landed before he had time to make friends.  To him, it was a lovely film.   Later he read the novel which he also enjoyed.  The notion of creating a ballet based on the novel took root in his mind at that time.

In the video, Judith Mackrell says that every chapter begins with one of Tita's recipes.  Gastronomy is important to Esquivel who recounted how she prepared meals for Wheeldon at her home.   It is through making delicious meals that Tita expresses her feelings.   That is difficult to replicate on stage which is why the ballet is inspired by the book and not a literal transposition.  In the video, Esquivel compares the art of the chef to that of the choreographer.  The chef has to select and arrange ingredients just as the choreographer has to select and arrange the elements of the ballet.  That analogy is appealing.   One way of appreciating the ballet is to treat it as an analogue to the perfect meal

One of the most important ingredients of that ballet is music.  The composer was Joby Talbot who wrote the score for The Winter's Tale, Alice'sAdventures in Wonderland and Chroma.  The conductor who interpreted Talbot's music is Alondra de la Parra.  She is Mexican and on the day that I saw the ballet she unfurled a massive Mexican flag at the reverence.  She was musical consultant to the company as well as conductor.  She discussed her contribution to the ballet in an interview with Kevin O'Hare.  Mexico is a large and diverse country which de la Parra compared to a planet.  Each region had its own musical traditions and even its own instruments some of which were demonstrated in Insights: Like Water for Chocolate - Music and Design.

Other important ingredients are the sets and costumes.   Wheeldon's designer was Bob Crowley who had worked with Wheeldon on The Winter's Tale and Alice'sAdventures in Wonderland.  The set and costume designers who assisted Crowley appear in the Music and Design video. Esquivel was closely involved in the designs.  Apparently, she is a collector of textiles and there is a charming recollection by Lynette Mauro, the costume designer, of Edquivel's delight as Mauro draped one of her favourite materials around a dancer.  I could see occasional similarities with The Winter's Tale in the designs for Like Water for Chocolate such as a tree as the central feature of one of the scenes.

There are some ballets that I forget the next morning and others that I can remember in every detail from 50 or 60 years ago.   The performance on 8 June 2022 is one of the latter.   It was memorable in every respect.   Yasmine Naghdi was Tita and Cesar Corrales was her Pedro.   Their final dance as their surroundings were consumed by fire was the high point of the ballet and I will remember it for the rest of my life.   The other great female role was Mama Elena danced by Fumi Kaneko,  Hers is perhaps the most difficult role in the work because she is Tita's oppressor but she was also oppressed.  One of the most poignant moments of the show which is rehearsed in the video is the murder of her lover.  There were splendid performances by Claire Calvert as Rosaura, Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Gertrudis and Williams Bracewell as Dr John Brown.   I could continue.   All who took part in the show excelled.  All are to be congratulated/

In the Beginnings and Origins, Wheeldon advised the audience to arrive a little bit earlier than usual to read the programme advice.   That is good advice but it is not enough.  It is not even possible for the thousands around the world who will only see it in the cinema.   The best advice I can give for those who want to appreciate the ballet fully is to watch the three Insight videos which will take three hours to run.  Also, if possible, to read the book and watch the film which I plan to do next.   In a small way, I hope this article will help.

A Coppelia for our Times

Author Jean Raoux  Pygmalion in Love with his Statue

A show to which I am particularly looking forward is Jess and Morgs's Coppelia for Scottish Ballet.  It will be premiered at next year's Edinburgh International Festival and then go on tour. It is described as a "deliciously dark comedy of mischief and mistaken identity, reinvented for the digital age." It addresses the question: "What happens when you fall in love with a machine? How can we compete with the perfection of the unreal?"

The idea of a human being falling in love with an artefact is not a new one.  I remember translating the story of Pygmalion from Ovid's Metamorphoses as an unseen when I was at secondary school. The reason why that story is relevant now is that it is possible to create a robot with some human and animnal characteristics.  In Japan, robots that respond to touch, sound and light are already being used in nursing homes (see Don Lee Desperate for workers, aging Japan turns to robots for healthcare 25 July 2019 LA Times). 

In Saint-Léon's ballet, Franz's infatuation for a doll that sits on a balcony all day holding a book upside down is secondary.  The love story is between Franz and Swanhilda although one wonders just how long that marriage will last if Franz is already eyeing other women, breaking into Coppelius's workshop and accepting a drink from the old boy he has just burgled and whom he had previously roughed up on his way to the pub. What will he be like when he is in his forties and Swanhikda's left at home to look after the kids?

Jess and Morgs's production should be different.  It promises to "test the boundaries of dance, theatre and film in this distinctive new adaptation of the classic ballet, blending location and real-time filming with projection and live performance." Jess and Morgs have already produced The Secret Theatre which I reviewed in Scottish Ballet's Secret Theatre on 22 Dec 2020. They have also created Cinderella Games for English National Ballet based on the ballet that Christopher Wheeldon created for the Dutch National Ballet and English National Ballet.  They discuss their work for ENB on Chat with the Creatives: Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple | English National Ballet 14 July 2020.

It is interesting that Jess and Morgs describe themselves as film makers and choreographers.  The pandemic has brought a lot of suffering but there have been a few compensations. One of those is the development of dance film as an art form in its own right.  It is to be hoped that that development continues when the emergency is over.

Wheeldon's Cinderella in Manchester

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English National Ballet Cinderella Palace Theatre 19 Oct 2019 14:00

I have now seen Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella no less than four times: twice with the Dutch National Ballet once in London and the other time in Amsterdam; and twice with the English National Ballet once at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year and most recently at the Palace Theatre in my home town.  It is a sumptuous ballet with gorgeous costumes and elaborate sets. It is also very witty with glowering portraits and hilarious faux-pas from Hortensia as she downs the bubbly at the prince's ball.

The Palance has the smallest stage upon which I have seen this show and it struck me as I looked at the somewhat blurry cloud scene that it would not di justice to the animations that are built into the sets. I need not have worried because the dancing attracted and held my attention.  Erina Takahashi danced the title role and she fitted it perfectly.  Joseph Caley was her prince and I can't think of a better partner for her. He delighted me in the first duet in the palace where they fell in love and then in the last scene when she produced the missing slipper.  But there is a lot more to this ballet than a love story which is why the supporting characters are so important.

At the Albert Hall, it was Sarah Kundi who nade the ballet for me,   She danced Cinderella's stepmother, Hortensia, who made an exhibition of herself even before the wine was served. As the second act continued she became tighter and tighter and behaved increasingly outrageously.  She turns up at the breakfast table with a head the size of a balloon, a vile temper and eventually throws up in the porridge bowl. At the Saturday matinee, that role was danced by Tiffany Hedman, Now she is good - particularly technically - but I think you have to be brought up in the country that invented pantomime to carry it off s well as Kundi.

The other theme of Wheeldon's ballet is the romance between the prince's childhood companion, Benjamin, and Cinderella's stepsister, Clementine.  He was danced by the American guest artist Brooklyn Mack and she by Katja Khaniukova.  I also enjoyed watching Alison McWhiney who danced Edwina amusingly. 

There are scenes from other productions of the ballet that Wheeldon leaves out such as the dancing lesson and substituted wood spirits and seasons in their place.  I am still not sure how that works but I suppose it gives an excuse for woodland sprits and other strange creations to take their place in the queue for the shoe filling with the knight in armour brandishing a halberd.  I enjoyed the second where an alarmed Benjamin jumped straight into the prince's arms.

After Manchester, this show went on to Southampton where it seems to have run its course for the time being.  That is a pity because I think it is English National's best show in the repertoire and I am sure that other audiences would like to have seen it.  Most classical companies feel compelled to do The Nutcracker at this time of the year which is fair enough but they could have rested Le Corsaire and Akram Khan's Giselle for just a little longer.  Especially since audiences will have Dada Masilo's excellent production in their recent recollection.

Cinders in the Round

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English National Ballet Cinderella  Royal Albert Hall 9 June 2019, 14:30

I have seen three of English National Ballet's productions in the Royal Albert Hall: Romeo and Juliet in 2014, Swan Lake in 2016 and now Cinderella.  The last of those is by far the best.  I would go so far as to say that it was one of the best shows by that company I have ever seen in a lifetime of pretty regular ballet going.

This was not an entirely new show for me, or indeed for London, as it is an adaptation of Christopher Wheeldon's production for the Dutch National Ballet. That company performed it at the Coliseum in 2015 (see Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015).  I saw it again in Amsterdam just before Christmas (see Cinderella in the Stopera 24 Dec 2018). Wheeldon has used the same creatives: Craig Luca for the libretto, Julian Crouch for sets and costumes, Basil Twist for the tree and carriage, Daniel Brodie for the video and Natasha Katz for the lighting design.

There are several big differences between the Albert Hall and the Stopera or Coliseum.  The first is that the audience surrounds the stage and dancers make their entrances and exits down the gangways. A wonderful opportunity, incidentally, to admire the dancers' costumes, hairstyles and makeup. The second is scale. The projectionist did some wonderful things with a massive screen that stretched from floor to ceiling. One scene showed the royal palace with portraits of the royal family looking down sternly on the antics of the coming generation. One developed horns, another blushes and yet another a withering frown of indignation. The third big difference was that the orchestra performed on a platform high above the stage where they had enough space to swing a leopard. So much better than being cooped up in an orchestra pit under the stage.

The story progressed very much as it had in Holland.  Little Cinders is playing with her parents when her mum suddenly coughs up blood.  The scene changes to the graveyard where her father introduces a new lady in his life.  At first, she does not seem to be such a bad old stick because she presents (or rather gets one of her daughters to present) a bouquet to Cinderella.  Cinders lets the flowers fall to the floor. Perhaps not surprisingly, the new step mum just does not like her new stepdaughter.

The two stepsisters are actually girls, unlike Ashton's version in which he and Robert Helpmann put on drag. One of them is a little kinder to Cinders than the other.  Wheeldon cuts out the dancing lesson and visits from the cobbler, dressmaker and milliner and substitutes spirits of lightness,  generosity, mystery and fluidity representing the seasons. These take the form of tree trunks, unicorns and conkers instead.  He even does away with the fairy godmother but gives her four fates, Skyler Martin (formerly of HNB), Daniel McCormick, Erik Woolhouse and Aitor Arrieta instead. They arrange for Cinders to be conveyed to the ball ib one of the most ingenious carriages I have ever seen.

The second act is the prince's ball where the step mum and her daughters turn up with Cinders's dad but no Cinders wearing quite the wrong outfits and generally making fools of themselves.   Things got worse when the drink was served because the stepmother drank just a teeny weeny bit too much and had to be lifted off the floor and carried to a couch. That role was performed by Sarah Kundi who is one of my favourite dancers. I have followed her ever since she was with Northern Ballet in Leeds. She used to remind me of a famous dancer of my youth whom she still resembles in many ways. Since she joined ENB I have begun to appreciate her for her own qualities.  Kundi stole the second act if not the show and she raised more than a few laughs in the third act when she showed up at the breakfast table with one almighty hangover.

Back to the story. Cinders arrives in a lovely golden dress. She is spotted by the prince who falls for her. Everything goes swimmingly until midnight when the clock chimes, the fates arrive and her stepmother cottons on as to who she must be. Cinders scarpers leaving one of her shoes behind. The third act begins with Cinders serving her dad, Her step mum arrives nursing her head and pukes into the porridge bowl.  The prince then tours his kingdom slipper in hand auditioning for brides.  Some improbable candidates show up. A knight in armour. One of the trees. A unicorn.  Something with very smelly feet.  The step mum and her two daughters one of whom is molested by her mother with a mallet.

And, finally. Cinderella who fits the slipper perfectly.  The stepmother peevishly tosses it onto the fire but, happily, Cinders kept the other one. There is a royal wedding and everyone is happy.  Cinderella even has a kiss for her former tormenter.  And the kinder of the two step-sisters finds love with the prince's best friend.  I have been rather spoilt watching  Anna Tsygankova and Matthew Golding in the leading roles in London and Remi Wörtmeyer and Anna Ol in Amsterdam but Erina Takahashi was a lovely Cinders and Joseph Caley was a great prince. Good to see Gavin Sutherland from Huddersfield conducting the orchestra, But the star for me on Sunday was definitely Kundi.

Cinderella in the Stopera

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Dutch National Ballet Cinderella 22 Dec 2018 , 20:00, Stopera, Amsterdam

In July 2015 the Dutch National Ballet performed Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella at the Coliseum. It played to full houses and audiences seemed to like it but though not all critics did.  In my review, Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015, I wrote:

"I enjoyed the show. I liked Wheeldon's treatment of the story, the dancing, Julian Crouch's designs and Natasha Katz's lighting. I prefer it to The Winter's Tale to which I was indifferent when I first saw it on stage but warmed to it when I saw it in the cinema and on television. It may be that Wheeldon is an acquired taste and that his critics will come round. I look forward to seeing the show again and I think it will look even better on the stage of the Stopera."

Well, I saw it in the Stopera on Saturday 22 Dec 2018 and was bowled over by it.  At the end of the second act, I wrote on my Facebook page: "Christmas has been made for me by  DutchNatBallet's Cinderella even if I never get a single present, a Christmas card, a slice of Turkey, a smidgeon of plum pudding, a mince pie or a whiff of mulled wine."

Why the difference?  The answer came when I joined a tour of the Stopera for new Friends on my birthday in 2016 (see Double Dutch Delights 17 Feb 2016).  One of the senior technical staff welcomed us to the stage and showed us some of the computer equipment at his command.  I mentioned that I had attended a performance of Cinderella in London the previous summer and asked him how the company found the Coliseum.  He replied that the company enjoyed their visit to London very much through the Coliseum lacked the state-of-the-art equipment and facilities that they enjoy at the Stopera. That equipment enabled the tree over the grave of Cinderella's mother to grow and change colour with the seasons. It showed birds in flight and falling rain at the funeral of Cinderella's mother.

I noted the similarities between Cinderella and The Winter's Tale in my previous review.  In both, the lead characters were introduced as children and both features a massive tree.  In a strange sort of way, Cinderella was actually more Shakespearean than the ballet that was based on a Shakespeare play.  Excitement was ratcheted up as in a Shakespearean play.  When Cinderella's appeared in a golden gown the lights on stage were cut and the house lights switched to full brightness.  That moment was matched at the end of the next act when Cinderella ran off stage right into the stalls and through the audience to the exit.

There was also plenty of humour that provided dramatic relief.  Cinderella's stepmother, Hortensia, became tight at the ball as the evening wore on much to the embarrassment of her husband.  Benjamin, the prince's friend, fell head over heels in love with the plainer of Hortensia's daughters.  The most unpromising candidates queued to try Cinderella's abandoned slipper including a Balinese princess with long nails and a spiked headdress, a forest spirit with an outsized head and a knight in full armour brandishing a battle axe.  Levity is not easy to induce in ballet.  Ashton managed it his Cinderella in his pairing with Robert Helpmann as Cinderella's ugly sisters and Wheeldon succeeded in his version of the ballet.

In London, I had seen Remi Wörtmeyer as Benjamin, the prince's friend.  On Saturday he was promoted to prince, a role that suited him well.  Benjamin was danced by Sho Yamada who has impressed me twice this year.  Cinderella was Anna Ol. She commanded the audience's respect from the start and not our pity.  She showed her spirit from the moment her father (Anatole Babenko)  introduced her to Hortensia.   Hortensia had offered her a bunch of flowers that she tossed to the floor.  I sensed fear on the part of the stepmother and her sisters rather than simple malice. Hortensia, a difficult role, was danced impressively by Vera Tsyganova. Luiza Bertho danced Cinderella's stepsister Edwina and Riho Sakamoto, her other stepsister Clementine. Finally, it was great to see Jane Lord on stage again as a dance teacher.

As I had benefited from attending Rachael Beaujean's talk on Giselle last month, I attended the introductory talk on Cinderella.  That took the form of a Powerpoint presentation in a lecture room `below the auditorium between 19:15 and 19:45.  Although it was given in Dutch which is a language I have never studied I think I got the gist of it as Dutch is closely related to Engish and German. I learned that this ballet is a co-production with the San Francisco Ballet, about Ashton's influence over Wheeldon, the significance of the tree and all sorts of other useful facts.

The ballet will run to 1 Jan 2019 and is playing to full houses.  Readers who miss it this month in Amsterdam will have a chance to see English National Ballet perform a version in the round in the Albert Hall between 6 and 16 June 2019.

Bernstein Centenary

Leonard Bernstein 1918-1990

Photo Jack Mitchell

Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 international

Source Wikipedia

Royal Ballet Bernstein Centenary (Yugen, The Age of Anxiety and Corybantic Games 17 March 2018, 19:30 Royal Opera House Covent Garden

This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, one of the most popular classical composers ever. One of the reasons for his popularity is that he did not work entirely in the classical idiom.  Consequently, many of his tunes appeal to an audience who have never entered a concert hall.  They are simple and memorable - easy to sing, hum or whistle. To celebrate the anniversary the Royal Ballet revived Liam Scarlett's The Age of Anxiety and commissioned new works form Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon, namely Yugen and the Corybantic Games.

I liked all the ballets in the programme. Yugen and The Age of Anxiety appealed immediately.  Corybantic Games was different. I admired the choreography, the geometric sets and, of course, Bernstein's music and I am an enormous fan of Lauren Cuthbertson but I think I will have to see it again and probably more than once to appreciate it properly.  Happily I will get that opportunity when the programme is streamed to cinemas on 28 March 2018.

Recently Gary Avis, the work's ballet master, tweeted that Yugen was breathtakingly beautiful. On seeing the tweet my first reaction was that he would say that - but he was right. I literally gasped for breath from the moment the stage revealed the geometric set with the dancers clad in red at first glance almost exactly alike. McGregoor had interpreted Bernstein's Chichester Psalms (extracts from the psalms including the 23rd sung in the original Hebrew) in movement and the result can only be described as sublime. I was enchanted by the whole performance.

The Age of Anxiety could not have been more of a contrast.  According to the programme notes it is based on W H Auden's poem which I have yet to read.  Wikipedia states:

"The poem deals, in eclogue form, with man's quest to find substance and identity in a shifting and increasingly industrialized world. Set in a wartime bar in New York City, Auden uses four characters – Quant, Malin, Rosetta, and Emble – to explore and develop his themes."

Well everybody must have got the New York bar bit but the coming to terms with industrialized world bit bypassed me. The ballet seemed to be about 4 people getting progressively drunk until the barman throws them out. They repair to Rosetta's flat with a magnificent view of the New York skyline. One of them passes out.  The last scene reveals Manhattan at dawn and the dancer's wonder at the sight.

Well Rosetta was  obviously Sarah Lamb and she was splendid in that role as she always is.  Luca Acri was Emble, Yorkshireman Thomas Whitehead was Qant and James Hay was Malin. I always give Whitehead an extra loud clap or cheer whenever I see him on stage because ........ well, we Northerners have to stick together, don't we.

For some reason or other the Corybantic Games reminded me of Ashton's Symphonic Variations even though Bernstein's music is so different from Cesar Franck's as is Wheeldon's choreography from Ashton's. I think it may have been because of the classical allusions. I seem to remember my old classics master telling me that the Olympic games were only one of a number of games in which the Greek city states competed. I surmised that the Corybantic Games must have been another. The dancers were clad simply as athletes and their movements were pretty extraordinary too. The work was divided into five movements with Matthew Ball, William Bracewell, Yasmine Naghdi accompanying Cuthbertson in the first. Beatrix Stix-Brunnell on her own in the second, Navarra Magri and Marcelino Sambé in the third, Cuthbertson, Naghdi, Ball, Ryoichi Hirano, Stix-Brunnell and Bracewell in the fourth and Tierney Heap leading the ensemble in the fifth.

The crowd applauded politely at the end of Corybantic Games - especially when the leading ladies received bouquets - but the applause ended before the lights came on again. Nothing like the sustained clapping and cheering for the other two works.  I think the Wheeldom will become a well loved staple of the repertoire in time but audiences need to get to know it better.  Perhaps a different title would have helped.

The Winter's Tale - Close to Perfection though perhaps not quite there yet

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The Royal Ballet  The Winter's Tale 15 Feb 2018, 19:30 Royal Opera House

I have now seen Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale three times on stage and at least twice on screen and it has definitely grown on me.  The first time I saw it I was less than overwhelmed.  I wrote in Royal Ballet The Winter's Tale 14 April 2014:

"I expected so much of The Winter's Tale. I had been looking forward to it for months. A new work by Christopher Wheeldon based on Shakespeare by a fine choreographer for our national company with a stellar cast. It should have blown me off my feet. Well I quite liked the show but blown off my feet? I wasn't."

I liked it a lot better when I saw it in the cinema a few weeks later (see The Winter's Tale - A Time to eat my Hat 29 April 2014) and even more when I saw it again in 2016 (see The Winter's Tale Revisited - Some Ballets are better Second Time Round 20 April 2016).

Thursday's performance was for me the best ever.  I tweeted:

Thoroughly enjoyed @TheRoyalBallet's Winter's Tale last night. Never seen Nunez, Soares, Stix-Brunnell and Bracewell dance better. My review will appear in https://t.co/1UvITcDv6f very soon. I have really grown to love that ballet over the last few years.

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) February 16, 2018

Yes, it is a lovely work - an uplifting story to a gorgeous score performed by some of the world's finest dancers in the grandest auditorium in England.  Pretty close to perfection.

Close to perfection but perhaps still not quite there.  I saw the ballet on Thursday with my friend Gita. She has seen a lot of ballet as well as other kinds of dance and attended a lot of adult ballet classes and even a few intensives. She watched the ballet with me on telly when it was broadcast one Christmas but this was the first time she had seen it on stage. Interestingly, her comments were very much the same as those that I had made in my first review. Fine choreography, great dancing, lovely music but the first act dragged a bit, the sets and especially the animations were distracting, she did not really get the bear and the ballet as a whole was far too long. Thinking about it again I couldn't say she is wrong but that does not mean that it is not a great work. On the contrary, I think it will keep its place in the repertoires of both the Royal Ballet and National Ballet of Canada and over the years it will evolve into something even better.  Especially if future producers do a bit of judicious pruning here and there,

Because it had been my birthday on Wednesday, Gita and I pushed the boat out a little.  We booked seats in the centre stalls close enough to see the expressions of the dancers but far enough back to take in the stage as a whole.  We dined in the Paul Hamlyn which meant that we could keep our table relax and reflect in the intervals. I have been to Covent Garden many times and it never fails to impress but to get the full the majesty of the place you have to sit in the stalls. Surrounded by red and gold, enveloped by light with the buzz of the audience I involuntarily squeaked with delight.

The lights dimmed and Kevin O'Hare entered the stage with the news that Alondra de la Parra was indisposed but Tom Seligman had stepped in to take her place.  Now Maestro Seligman is very good and he conducted confidently. So confidently in fact that he was already half way across the stage when the ballerina was about to invite him to take a bow and he was also the last performer to take a curtain call.  However, I had been looking forward to see Ms de la Parra. There are not many women conductors.  All those I have seen, such as Jane Glover and Marin Alsop, were extremely good. I have never seen a woman before an orchestra at Covent Garden and I would have been proud to see Ms de la Parra there. No doubt there will be other opportunities to see her and I wish her well.

I have seen Marianela Nuñez quite a few times over the years but I don't think I have ever seen dance better than her performance as Hermione on Thursday night. The same goes for Thiago Soares who danced Leontes, Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Perdita, William Bracewell as Polixenes,  Vadim Muntagirov as Florizel, Itziar Mendizabal as Paulina and Bradford lad, Thomas Whitehead, as the shepherd. Coming from Yorkshire, Gita and I applauded him particularly vigorously (as I always do) when he took his bow. Did he notice, I wonder?  Gita likes to choose a man or woman of the match. I can't remember whom she chose but the dancer who impressed me most on Thursday was Mendizabal. Paulina speaks truth to power but remains faithful to her awful boss and leads him back to his senses. She holds the show together. The role requires very careful casting and Mendizabal was the  right choice.

I loved the music, the choreography, the designs and special effects (except the bear) and the costumes (which, Gita said, showed Indian Sub-Continent influences). Once again I was close to tears at the final reunion of Perdita and her parents. Indeed the whole last act is a tear jerker. Yet again I loved the dancing round the tree.  Act 1 needs to be in the work to set the scene but I wish it were not quite so long.  Perhaps the last bit of act 1 could be added to the second act.  But these are minor niggles. Taken as a whole Thursday's performance was really good. If I did not have a ticket for the Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote that evening I would see it again at the pictures when it is screened across the  world on the 28 Feb. If you can get to see it at least in the cinema but preferably on stage I strongly recommend it.

The Royal Ballet's Quadruple Bill - well balanced in Content, Style and Mood

Natalia Osipova in Strapless

Photo Bill Cooper
© 2017 The Royal Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company 

The Royal Ballet The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Tarantella, Strapless, Royal Opera House, 27 May 12:30 

Because of the terrible events of last Monday ballet did not seem all that important to me last week. I missed the launch in Doncaster of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by Daniel de Andrade for Northern Ballet altogether. It appears to have been well received so I will try to catch it at some other venue - probably Leeds between the 5 and 9 Sept. I attended class on Thursday but found it hard to put my heart into it. I very nearly let the Royal Ballet’s mixed programme go too until I realized that that was exactly the sort of despondency that terrorists try to induce. We owe it to their victims, if not ourselves, not to let them win by cowing or depressing us.

Thus I woke up early yesterday to catch the 07:51 train from Wakefield to London. That was the last train that would get me there an hour before the curtain was due to rise. The programme consisted of works by William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon and Liam Scarlett. Scarlett’s Symphonic Dances was a new commission. I had seen Balanchine’s Tarantella before but Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and Wheeldon’s Strapless were also new to me. I am very glad that I made that trip because I saw the Royal Ballet at its best. I get the impression that dancers like mixed programmes because of their variety and also because there offer lots of opportunities for them to shine.

The afternoon began with The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. A strange name I thought. I am not sure where the vertigo came in but it was certainly thrilling not to say also exuberant and joyful. It must have been very hard work for the dancers, particularly the women as this YouTube video of the San Francisco Ballet’s performance of that work shows. The work begins with two men in mauve costumes standing in 5th. Yesterday they were Trystan Dyer and Valentino Zuchetti. They introduce themselves with slightly different solos. They are joined by three women in lime green tutus. Each of their roles is exacting as this video by Dorothée Gilbert demonstrates. Forsythe set his ballet to the final movement of Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, as stirring a work as have ever heard. Mauve and green may not be an obvious colour match but it worked for this piece.

The momentum was maintained a few minutes later by the Tarantella Last year I saw Michaela DePrince and Remi Wortmeyer dance it at the Dutch National Ballet’s opening night gala in Amsterdam (see "Quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" 29 Oct 2017 and the YouTube video of Wortmeyer with Maia Mahateli). The Dutch National Ballet’s performance had thrilled me then and yesterday’s performance by Alexander Campbell and Meaghen Grace Hinkis thrilled me again. The crowd loved the show too and Hinkis was presented at the curtain call with the biggest bouquet of the afternoon.

The work that I had come to see was Christopher Wheeldon’s Strapless because I had missed it first time round. It is a narrative ballet based on Deborah Davis’s John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X (see The real Madame X: the true story that inspired Christopher Wheeldon’s ballet Strapless 18 May 2017). The ballet is about the ostracism of the Parisian socialite, Amelia Gautreau, after a painting of her by John Singer Sargent showing a strap of her dress dislodged from her shoulder was exhibited at an important art show. Not a single portion of her body had been exposed but those who went to art galleries in Paris at that time knew that Madame Gautreau was conducting an illicit affair with a fashionable gynaecologist called Pozzi. They gossipped mercilessly as to how and why that strap had been dislodged.

It is not easy to base a ballet on an episode in history but Wheeldon carried it off well. A sex scene between Pozzi (Federico Bonelli) and Madame Gautreau (Natalia Osipova) was represented by a pas de deux in which the dancers removed their outer garments. It was not in the least bit smutty as the dancers remained well covered but it was still very sexy. The man who destroyed Madame Gautreau’s reputation was, of course, Sargent danced by Edward Watson. From one brief conversation with him, I formed the view that Watson was a really good bloke (see Ed Watson: more than just an outstanding dancer - a really good bloke 13 Feb 2015) but in Strapless as in A Winter’s Tale, he dances a really beastly character. Madame Gautreau implores him to withdraw the painting from the show but he ignores in the quest to advance his career. Watson portrayed Sargent’s arrogance and stubbornness superbly. This ballet has introduced me to the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage of which I shall try to hear more. I also admired Bob Crowley’s sets and costumes.

Most of the Royal Ballet’s regulars will have seen Strapless before. For them, Symphonic Dances would have been the main draw. Based on three movements of Rachmaninoff’s music the ballet is built around the leading lady who was Laura Morera yesterday. Morera, who danced the leads in Viscera and Frankenstein, is another of my very favourite dancers (see Laura Morera 25 Aug 2015). In the programme notes, there is an interview with Scarlett in which he says:

“I’ve worked consistently with Laura over the years and created so much work on her that I wouldn’t be choreographing without her.”

The ballet began with the Non Allegro. Morera appeared in a swirl of red material. She was joined by Giacomo Rovero and the ensemble. Morera was in each of the subsequent movements - alone with the ensemble in the second movement and with Matthew Ball in the third. Towards the middle of the second movement, the back of the stage began to glow red. It became a screen which for a time projected images of the dancers much in the way Darshan Singh Bhuller does in Mapping (see Rehearsals: Revealed - Darshan Singh Bhuller Mapping). Different images appear on the screen which seems to become an electrode. The ballet ends with Morera alone on stage with the descending device hovering above her and seemingly zapping her. Two colours predominated in the ballet - black and red - which, as Christopher Bruce showed in Rooster, can be a striking combination.

The quadruple bill was balanced well in mood, style and content. Judging by the snatches of conversation that I caught as I descended the stairs and the messages that have appeared on social media, the audience that spilt onto Bow Street were more than satisfied.

An American in Paris

Dominion Theatre

(c) 2917 David Murley: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the author

David Murley

Dominion Theatre, London

During previews, I had the fortunate opportunity to see this new spectacle (thanks to a brilliant and super talented colleague who is in the cast) currently about to grace our beloved West End. The show opens officially on the 21st March 2017. So, I will keep this short and sweet, and leave the serious review writing to press night. However, it is imperative for me, as a professional dancer, artist and creative to voice my personal opinion and let you know how truly magical and truly beautiful this show is. Being artistic is certainly not a prerequisite to appreciating the show either.

The theme for the show is movement, flow and elegance. The show does not stop. It is continually moving, never creasing. This constant passage of action was present in the dialogue, the dancing, scene changes and overall motion of the story – sure to keep the spectator engaged. The opening scene commences with Adam Hochberg (David Seadon-Young) at the piano delivering a dialogue about the soon-to-be-unfolding story in his convincing American accent. Suddenly, the scene changes complete with dancers, striking of said piano, projection and a dramatic sweeping display of le drapeau français, or le tricolore, which is then seamlessly whisked away into the fly tower. It is this opening sequence which sets the pacey, yet clear, tone for the evening.

Complimenting Wheeldon’s timeless choreography, a mention must go to the scenic, lighting and projection designers – Bob Crowley, Natasha Katz and 59 Productions LTD – if I left anyone out, apologies! The bar, the cabinets in Les Galleries Lafayette, the scene by La Seine, Stairway to Paradise, etc. I could keep going were captivating. The use of projection was poignant and was effortlessly intertwined into the fabric of la mise en scène. Thank you.

The chemistry between the characters is totally believable. I am not just referring to the classic pairing of former Royal Ballet Leanne Cope and former New York City Ballet Robert Fairchild (Lise Dassin and Jerry Mulligan). The relationships between Mulligan (Fairchild) and Milo Davenport (Zoë Rainey) had depth and exhibited a definite journey – far from one dimensional, a trap Rainey’s character could have easily fallen into. Aside from her interactions with Mulligan (Fairchild), Rainey put a whole spectrum of light and shade into her character as Davenport. Personally, I was rooting for her by the end. Rainey as Davenport was my personal favourite. To add, the relationships between Jerry Mulligan (Robert Fairchild), Adam Hochberg (David Seadon-Young) and Henri Baurel (Haydn Oakley) are a definite compliment to the casting team. However, it is their energies as individuals that breath the real-life rapport between these freshly post-war comrades. They laugh, they sing (obviously), they dance (with Wheeldon as choreographer, you better believe it), they bicker and bare cold hard truths to one another with authentic sensitivities and layers. A real sense of friendship exudes from the trio.

With such a talented cast, it is difficult to pick one individual who stood out as so many gave strong and solid performances. However, I would like to select Jerry Mulligan (Robert Fairchild). Filling such an iconic role played by Hollywood legend, Gene Kelly, Fairchild will no doubt be compared to Gene Kelly. However, I concur. Do let me finish, please. Fairchild is a tour de force when he dances, and he can sing, act and has comic timing. Indeed, this is all crying out Gene Kelly. However, Fairchild is his own entity in is his own right. Fairchild moves in his own way, and seeing Fairchild live compared to the celluloid I would stare at in awe when watching Gene Kelly – yes, make the complimentary comparison, but Fairchild makes Mulligan his own. This is something you will need to deduce for yourself. Not sure if this is because Fairchild is American, but he certainly embodies his own bit of Hollywood as the charming, eloquently roguish and that side of the Atlantic dashing when he is on that stage as Jerry Mulligan. To add, Fairchild can rock a large floppy pink hat with American G.I. cool.

What was refreshing to see, was the dancing – everything from the juicy and oozy scene changes, Stairway to Paradise and the Act II ballet. As enthralling and hands-in-the-air as conventional musical theatre (MT) T and A can be (if you have seen Chorus Line, then you will know what I am referring to here, if not, then ask someone), the style, class and elegance of Wheeldon’s choreography was the glue sealing the American and French styles of this tale.

Slick, technical and watchable, the dancers are the brick work of this production – probably some of the most beautiful brickwork I have seen in a MT production in a long time too.

Gorgeous.

An American in Paris opens officially on the 21st March 2017 at the Dominion Theatre in London. The closest tube is Tottenham Court Road. The show is true delight, the champagne of Theatreland. Book your tickets soon, and sit back and enjoy the spectacle, design and wonderment, and maybe have some champagne too!

Attending the Ballet in Florida: Miami City Ballet's Program Three

Simone Messmer and Miami City Ballet dancers in Alexei Ratmansky's The Fairy's Kiss

© 2017 Gene Schiavone: all rights reserved, reproduced with kind permission of the company 

Gita Mistry

Miami City Ballet, Program Three: Walpurgisnacht Ballet, Polyphonia and The Fairy's Kiss Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 25 Feb 2017, 20:00

I have just returned from Florida where I attended the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, gave a cookery demonstration and looked up some old friends who have moved to the United States. While there, I checked out the local theatres.  I found that Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was to perform at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami between the 23 and 26 Feb 2017 and that Miami City Ballet was to dance a triple bill that included a new work by Alexei Ratmansky at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. Having seen Alvin Ailey at the Bradford Alhambra and the Lowry when they visited us a few months ago I opted for the Miami City Ballet even though the Adrienne Arsht Center was much closer to where I was staying. The appeal of a new ballet by Ratmansky was hard to resist.

This was the first time that I had seen a dance performance in the United States and, indeed, the first time that I had seen a live performance by an American classical company anywhere.  I had heard a lot about national styles in ballet and that Americans are trained and perform quite differently from dancers in England, Russia and France. I was curious to know whether I would recognize a distinctly American style. I had, of course, seen Americans who dance with European companies such as Damien Johnson, Martha Leebolt and Michaela DePrince but I had never detected a particularly American feel to their performances.

I invited one of the friends I was visiting to watch the ballet with me. I do not know whether this was the first ballet that she had seen on stage but I got the impression that she does not go to the ballet very often. For instance, she had expected to see women in classical tutus and wondered where they were.

West Palm Beach is about 70 miles north of Miami and my friend kindly drove us there.  It was a pleasant drive along the coast but it took us 90 minutes to reach our destination as there was fairly heavy traffic on the motorway. The Kravis Center was huge.  It is quite a modern building - all steel, concrete and glass which reminded me a little of the Music Theatre or Stopera in Amsterdam.  It is called a "Center" because it has several auditoriums the largest of which seats nearly 2,200. You can get some idea of its scale from the Kravis Center of the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach.  

Visiting the Kravis Center was different from attending a theatre at home.  For a start, there was plenty of parking at the venue and patrons were offered a service called "valet parking" where staff offer to take patrons' keys and find parking spaces for them thereby enabling motorists and their passengers to make their way immediately to the auditorium. A very convenient service for those who travel some distance and are pressed for time as parking near the theatre can be something of a bind in Britain, particularly in London. On the other hand, picking up the tickets that I had purchased over the internet was somewhat more complicated. I was asked to show photographic identification before they could be released to me. Programmes are included in the ticket price at the Kravis Center and I am told that is generally the case in Amerca.  However, mine was delivered through a tiny slot which was so narrow that it had to be folded. The ushers were somewhat more bossy than those at home, directing patrons to their seats in a tone of voice that primary school teachers might use with young schoolchildren. In several places, there were notices asking patrons to stay in their seats until after the artists had taken their bow. I discovered why such signs are necessary later.

Our seats were on the second tier of the auditorium. I should add that seating areas are known by different names in America.  "Stalls" for instance are called "the orchestra" and there is a tier of seating called "loges" which I guess must derive from the French word "loge" which means "box". Our seats were expensive by British standards and were by no means the best.  However, they commanded a clear view of the stage which was larger than most stages that I had seen at home.  The audience seemed quite well-heeled and many appeared to have dressed up for the occasion.  Though there were some children and young people I would say that most of the audience were middle-aged to elderly.

Program Three was a triple bill consisting of three one act ballets:

• Walpurgisnacht Ballet by George Balanchine;
• Polyphonia by Christopher Wheeldon; and
• The Fairy's Kiss by Ratmansky.

You can get a flavour of the performance from this trailer on YouTube.  All of those ballets were new to me although I had seen others by Balanchine and Wheeldon.

I have to say that I am not a big fan of Balanchine. I know that he is one of the greats of modern ballet and that Americans hold him in the same sort of awe that we hold Sir Frederick Ashton. the Russians Marius Petipa and the Dutch Rudi van Dantzig. I acknowledge his genius and the purity of his style but I still find it hard to appreciate him. Too stark and minimalist for me and relying entirely on the technique of the dancers, particularly the virtuosity of the principals. 

The curtain rose on a stage that was bare except for the backdrop and wings. Walpurgisnacht is said to be the night that witches roam and Balanchine adapted the music for the ballet from Gounod's Faust. The programme notes mentioned: "Twenty four girls stampeding across the stage - most of them purple, their hair flowing - and a single man."  From where I was sitting the lighting made the women look as though they were in pink and I found their loose hair to be distracting and an interruption to their line. I would have preferred their hair to have been tied back in a classical bun and I have found at least one version on YouTube where that is how the female dancers appeared (see Charles Gounod: "Walpurgisnacht Ballet"). "The man" in this case was the Brazilian soloist  Jovani Furlan and he partnered Lauren Fadeley and Nathalia Arja. Other dancers with solo roles included Emily Bromberg, Ashley Knox, Jordan-Elizabeth Long, Callie Manning, Adriana Pierce and Nicole Stalker.  The solos and duets were performed in an enclosure bounded by the corps. Each of the soloists danced well but I think one needs a taste for Balanchine to enjoy a work like this fully. Hopefully, that is a taste that I may one day acquire.

Wheeldon's Polyphonia was very much more to my liking and I hope that was not just because of the nationality of the choreographer. Looking through the notes that I made in the interval I used adjectives like "brilliant," "refreshing" and "exciting."  The choreography followed various movements of piano works by György Sándor Ligeti. I loved the music.  "Edgy", "modern" and "compelling" were words that I used to describe the score. Wheeldon had interpreted the music ingeniously with pairs or larger groups dancing particular movements.  I found them fascinating. Some were like watching a Rubik’s cube turn by itself. Others were more like the intricate workings of a timepiece.  "Just as I like it!" I wrote and "welcome to 2017."  I think I wrote those words because Wheeldon had blended contemporary with balletic movements and I relish the freedom of contemporary dance. Knox, Bromberg and Furlan made a second appearance in this ballet and were joined by Tricia Albertson, Jennifer Lauren, Reyneris Reyes, Renato Penteado and Kleber Rebello. They were all good but I was particularly impressed by Bromberg. Being a sportswoman, I often like to choose a man or woman of the match and, for me, Bromberg was the woman of the match in Polyphonia.  I should also like to commend Holly Hynes for her simple dark costumes and Mark Stanley for his lighting design. The silhouetting of the dancers towards the end was spectacular. The ballet has a silky, upbeat feel which I loved. I think Polyphonia was my favourite work of the evening.

I also enjoyed The Fairy's Kiss which was billed as the highlight of the evening.  In contrast to the earlier works, this was a narrative ballet based on the Ice Maiden by Hans Christian Andersen. Briefly, a little boy, who loses his mother in a snowstorm, is kissed by a fairy who chooses him as her own. The boy is rescued by the villagers who bring him up as a strong young man. He falls in love with a village girl and they decide to marry but the fairy intervenes just before the wedding and takes him away with her forever. The music is by Stravinsky which I described at the time as "delectable."  I am aware that Sir Kenneth MacMillan made a version of this ballet for the Royal Ballet but I have never seen it. 

I loved the opening, particularly the clever simulation of the snow scene and the dramatic way that depicted the young man's transformation from child to adulthood. A little boy appeared momentarily on stage and was replaced by the adult danced by Renan Cerdeiro, a technique, incidentally, which Wheeldon had used in the prologue of The Winter's Tale. I enjoyed Cerdeiro's dancing with Jeanette Delgado, his fiancée, and also with Simone Messmer who was the fairy. The other leading role was the boy's mother which was danced by Long.  I was most impressed by Cerdeiro and he was definitely my man of the match for The Fairy's Kiss. Indeed, he was my dancer of the match for the whole evening. I have to congratulate Jérôme Kaplan on his clever sets and costume designs. He conjured a period feel with a sense of place for buildings through a clean, modern but entirely functional set that achieved slick scene changes. It reminded me of a very expensive but understated handbag or item of jewellery. I particularly liked the green costumes of the spirits which contrasted with the golds and reds of the other costumes. Congratulations are also due to James Ingalls for his ingenious lighting and Wendall K Harrington for his projection design.

Having seen an American company in action I think I now understand what is meant by the American style. The dancers are very athletic, very polished, very precise and seem to project a measure of pride and showmanship that I have only seen in dancers from Russia. When the corps moves it moves in sync with military precision. When the dancers turn they are ramrod straight. The English style is softer more lyrical. It is difficult to say which is better. They are each pleasing in their own way, but different. I had been asked to compare them with the Royal Ballet and the other leading companies of the United Kingdom. Because the American and English styles are so different it is impossible to make a fair comparison but in technique I would say that the Miami dancers stand comparison with any of ours, including those in the Royal Ballet. I would certainly see them if they ever came to London and I would try to see them again should I ever make another trip to Florida.

Now something that I found rather shocking was that the auditorium emptied as the dancers took their curtain call. I now understand the reasons for the signs asking the audience to stay in their seats until after the it was over. I can think of nothing more demoralizing for an artist who has danced his or her heart out than to face rows of empty seats or the backsides of retreating patrons. These are some of the best dancers in the world. They have spent years at ballet school giving up many of the pleasures that other children and teenagers enjoy in order to perfect their art. They have competed against the best in the world and somehow found their way into a very tough and very competitive profession. They deserve respect and in most other theatres of the world I am sure that they would get it.

I expressed my dismay to the ushers and one of the managers who agreed with me completely. I asked whether this was an isolated lapse or whether it happened all the time. They told me the latter which is why the management had erected the signs. There was no particular reason for the exodus except perhaps to be first in the queue to pick up their cars from the valet parking service. The ushers asked me not to judge the audience too harshly because most of them support the Center generously and regularly attend its shows. 

That may be so, but it is very sad for the patrons as well as the artists are missing out on the most precious part of the evening. Ballet, like all the performing arts, is a two-way communication and the reverence is there for a reason. The artists thank us, the audience, for our attention and we congratulate them for their performance. Anyone who buzzes off to his car as soon as the curtain falls is treating the stage as though it were cinema or, worse, a vending machine. 

One last memory from West Palm Beach. I spotted one of the dancers - I think it must have been Nieser Zambrana - in the car park on the way to his motor car.  I waved at him and mouthed my greeting and appreciation, a signal that he acknowledged with grace. I was glad to see that he stepped into quite a smart motor, more expensive perhaps than those members of the corps de ballet in many of our companies could afford.  I am pleased that he and his fellow artists are appropriately rewarded.

Now that we have made contact with Miami City Ballet I hope that they will stay in touch with us. It would be good to see them to the United Kingdom one day. It would be better still if they could work with some of the choreographers and dancers here and if some of our companies could work with some of their choreographers and dancers.