Dutch National Ballet Dawson 11 Dec2022 14:00 Music Theatre, Amsterdam
Although David Dawson is one of the United Kingdom's leading choreographers, balletgoers usually have to travel to see his work because he is Associate Artist with the Dutch National Ballet and Resident Choreographer with the Semeroper Ballett in Dresden. His surname is the name of a double bill of two of his works that the Dutch National Ballet is currently performing in Amsterdam. It consists of Legacy Variations, a new piece that the programme describes as "a love letter to the company that has been his home for 27 years" and The Four Seasons which was first performed in 2021.
"I’ve worked with them since the day each of them joined the company, and since then we’ve discovered a way of working together that’s unique. In this new ballet, we reflect on our journey together, on what we’ve learnt and where we’ve arrived.”
He describes them as unique dancers: James as "very elegant and stoic, yet sensitive in his dancing" embodying a purity which is both strong and vulnerable at the same time; Edo as having "the quicksilver qualities of mercury" that "shines so brightly and moves in the most profoundly coordinated and musical way" and Joey as having "an abundant energy that appears endless" whose dancing is "incredibly organic, earthy in tone, with a deeply felt understanding of his own strength." The music for this piece is by Alex Baranowski, the sets were designed by John Otto and the costumes by Yumiko Takeshima.
I enjoyed Legacy Variations very much indeed. It exhibits the two qualities of its creator that I most admire. His adherence to the classical tradition in which he was trained and made his career as a dancer combined with a willingness to innovate. Although I had seen several of his work before I recognized those qualities for the first time when I saw his Sawn Lake for Scottish Ballet in Liverpool (see Empire Blanc: Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016). This is a work that I long to see again and I would have seen its revival in 2020 had it not been for the lockdown. Legacy Variations reminded me why I am a Dawson fan. It is a very short work. For me, it was over almost as soon as it started. I could have watched it all afternoon. Having said that it must have required prodigious strength, stamina and concentration from Stout, Wijnen and Massarelli though they made it look effortless and aetherial.
TheFour Seasons is a longer work based on Max Richter’s arrangement of the well-known work by Vivaldi. This is a work for 16 dancers: Jingjing Mao, Jakob Feyferlik, Yuanyuan Zhang, Martin ten Kortenaar, Jessica Xuan, Sho Yamada, Mila Nicolussi Caviglia, Connie Vowles, Arianna Maldini, Luiza Bertho, Inés Marroquin, Conor Walmsley, Jan Spunda, Daniel Montero Real, Davi Ramos and Rémy Catalan. I have followed the careers of many of those dancers from the day they joined the Junior Company and it gives me enormous pleasure to see them in major roles. I am particularly proud of my compatriot Conor Walmley who comes from the same county as Kevin O'Hare, Xander and Demelza Parish and a less well-known but abundantly talented favourite, Beth Meadway. I was thrilled to learn that one of Powerhouse Ballet's guest ballet mistresses once taught Walmsley (and also me despite the gigantic chasm of age and talent between us).
This is another ballet that displays Dawson's classicism and innovation in abundance. The music, particularly Isabelle van Keulen's violin playing, was enchanting. Equally captivating were Eno Henze's simple geometric shapes representing the seasons - a green triangle for Spring, a red rectangle for Summer and a golden circle at the end and so on - that subtly changed position and lighting throughout the show. These were complemented by Takeshima's costume designs. Again, I could have watched it for hours. The artists were rewarded with thunderous applause and a standing ovation.
This has been an annus mirabilis with such highlights as Like Water for Chocolate and Mayerling from the Royal Ballet, the Van Manen festival from HNB and Mthuthuzeli November's Wailers for Northern, but I wrote on this blog's Facebook page that I had an inkling that Dawson would be special. I was not wrong.
Since Northern Ballet moved its improvers' class from Wednesday to Tuesday in September I have had to make the heartbreaking choice between joining my improvers class in Leeds or my pre-intermediate class in Manchester. Neither of those classes is to be missed. Northern Ballet is not taking any new registrations at the moment. However, you can sign up for KNT's in Manchester by following the instructions in the last paragraph of Dancing Outdoors in Castlefield on 2 June 2021.
Since the London Ballet Circle has started its "In Conversation" interviews on Tuesday evenings my heart has often been broken three-ways. They have had some really interesting guests recently. This Tuesday they will welcome Cira Robinson of Ballet Black, one of my all-time favourite ballerinas. Here she is in conversation with Helen Pickett last September (see YouTube Helen Pickett and Cira Robinson20 Sep 2020). You will probably have to join the Circle to get a link to the interview but you can join online at https://www.tlbc.org.uk/.
And this Thursday my heart risks shattering to smithereens because the Dutch National Ballet plans to live stream Beethoven on 8 June 2021 and David Dawson's Four Seasonson 15 June 2021 at 19:15 our time. Tickets can be obtained from the box office at +31(0) 20 625 54 55 or through the website ay www.operaballet.nl.
My most popular post by far has been Empire Blanc: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016, my review of Scottish Ballet's performance of David Dawson's Swan Lake at the Liverpool Empire on 3 June 2016. I received tens of thousands of hits at the time and I am still getting a lot even now. I loved that show and I think readers must have sensed something of my passion behind my words.
Dawson's ballet was to have been revived for a tour of Scotland this Spring but sadly the pandemic got in the way. Scottish Ballet plans to reschedule it just as soon as Covid 19 is under control. To assuage the audience's disappointment at the postponement of the tour, Eve McConnachie has transposed part of the last act to film. It was premiered over the internet at 19:00 last night and I have already watched it three times. It is a work of art of considerable value in its own right. From the film, I have seen details of the choreography, lighting, costumes that my senses failed to take in the first time around. The camera takes the audience into the performance. It really is the next best thing to performing onstage.
After the film, there were short interviews with Eve McConnachie and Roseanna Leney. Leney was asked about differences between dancing before a lens and dancing on stage. An important difference was the absence of an audience. She described the experience of sensing its presence, The chatter before the lights go down and then the lull. Theatre is a collaborative art and the audience are as much part of the creative process as the artists though their participation is limited to the applause. That is particularly true of dance and maybe especially so in ballet.
Yesterday's performance was for Friends of Scottish Ballet. Scottish Ballet was the first company that I got to know and love. I was a fan even before it was Scottish largely for the sparky choreography of its founder Peter Darrell. I relished such works as Mods and Rockers and Houseparty. The company has grown and prospered over the years and as it has grown so has my affection and admiration.
Standard YouTube Licence
One of the most remarkable performances that I have attended was David Dawson'sSwan Lake at Liverpool Empire on 3 June 2016. My review of that show has turned out to be my most popular post attracting nearly 47,000 hits, over 10 times more than my next most popular article. The reason I love this work so much is that it is innovative and original but still recognizably Swan Lake (see the synopsis).
I am therefore delighted to announce that Scottish Ballet has announced that this beautiful ballet is to be revived (see Swan Lake The Classic retold for new Generationon Scottish Ballet's website). The work will open at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh on 9 April 2020 and stay there until 11 April. It will then visit Aberdeen, Inverness and Glasgow finishing at the Theatre Royal on 2 May 2020 (see the Places, Dates and Times page).
Standard YouTube Licence Dutch National BalletRequirem Music Theatre (Stopera) Amsterdam, 27 Feb 2019, 20:15
David Dawson's Requiem is a double bill of two of that choreographer's recent works: Citizen Nowhere which was first staged in 2017 and Requiem which was premiered on 12 Feb 2019. These are formidable works which were performed to a packed house that gave them a standing ovation.
The first of those works was Citizen Nowhere. I am not sure whether to describe it as a solo or a duet. There was only one artist on stage, namely Joseph Massarellibut an outside image of Sasha Mukhamedov appeared on screen and there was certainly a dialogue between Massarelli and the screen throughout the show. According to the programme notes, one of Dawson's sources of inspiration was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Le Petit Prince. However, in the weeks before my nation is dragged with at least half our population including me kicking and screaming out of the European Union against our will, I could not occlude from my mind the shameful speech of our Prime Minister to the 2016 Tory party conference that a citizen of the world is a citizen of nowhere. The programme hints that that speech may have been in the choreographer's mind:
"For Dawson, an Englishman by birth who has been living and working in Europe for a long time, this famous story has gained extra meaning because of some of the political issues the world faces today due to nationalism, the building of walls, and the displacement of people who find themselves far from home."
It was clear from the guffaw that May's speech was in the mind of my audience when I invited my audience for my talk on developments on English law at C5's Pharma & Biotech Patent Litigationto follow we down to the Stopera to see this double bill by one of the world's greatest dance companies.
Though a very short work Citizen Nowhere was demanding both for artist and audience. Massarelli, stripped to the waist, circled the stage like a colt stallion. Powerful but constrained by the screen much like Winston Smith in Orwell's 1984. On to the screen bounced letters which gathered and were swept away like autumn leaves. Occasionally quotations from Saint-Exupery's book appeared like "One sees clearly only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eye" from Fox. "Why in English?" I asked myself. If people here read Saint-Exupery at all it would be in Dutch or perhaps in the original French which most schoolchildren in the Netherlands master at the same time as they as they study English and German. Be that as it may, it was spectacular and breathtaking as was Szymon Brzóska's score with Matthew Rowe's interpretation. Congratulations to Altin Kaftira who made the film and indeed all who collaborated on this multidimensional and absorbing creation.
Requiem is more than a work of art. It is an act of worship. Surprisingly, perhaps, in this day and age. Living, as I do, close to Huddersfield with its famous Choral, I related immediately to this work. Especially to the Kyrie and Agnus Dei. This is a choral work upon which I felt dance was but a commentary. I loved Gavin Bryars's music and even though one of my very, very, very, very special and very favourite ballerinas, Mukhamedov, was performing ethereally before my eyes I felt them closing as I focused on the sound. "How could I do that?" I kept saying to myself for it was not just Mukhamedov that I was missing but also other favourites such as Floor Eimers, Yuanyuan Zhang, Riho Sakamoto, Nancy Burer, Clara Superfine, Thomas van Damme and Nathan Brhane whose careers I follow closely and whom I greatly admire. There was just so much to see, so much to hear, so much for intellect and spirit to absorb that I felt overwhelmed. This is a work that requires multiple visits to understand and, alas, this is my only opportunity to see it this season.
This double bill is the sort of programme that makes the Dutch National Ballet special. Perhaps Hampson's Scottish Ballet could do it too but I can think of few other companies in the world who would do it justice and even fewer audiences who would value it as much as those in the Stopera who stood and cheered.
Standard YouTube Licence As Ted Brandsen, Ernst Meisner, David Dawson and Cristiano Principato were my choreographers of 2016 and Artur Shesterikov and Daniel Silva my outstanding male dancers it will come as no surprise that the Dutch National Ballet is my company of the year. How could it be otherwise? I have seen three outstanding full-length ballets at the Music Theatre - Mata Hari in February, La Bayaderein November and Coppeliaearlier this month - as well as a dazzling gala and the magnificent Junior Company at the Meervaart in February. I congratulate everyone in the company and wish them all a happy and prosperous New Year.
Although the Dutch National Ballet is regarded as one of the world's top five ballet companies the above video shows that it is also a relatively new company. It was founded in 1961 which was four years after the Royal Ballet received its royal charter, 20 years after the famous wartime tour of the Royal Ballet (then known as Sadler's Wells Ballet) to the Netherlands and 30 years after the formation of the company. It is also younger than English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet which started in Bristol as Western Theatre Ballet and, of course, the Birmingham Royal Ballet which is the Royal Ballet's sister company. Compared to the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, the Dutch National Ballet is a mere stripling. To have achieved so much is so short a time is not far short of miraculous.
The complete list of Terpsichore Titles is as follows:
This has been a tremendous year for Terpsichore, particularly this last month. We have already received 25,369 page hits in December which is almost double the number of page hits we received in November which was itself a record month, and there is still the rest of the day to run. Our growth reflects a growing interest in adult dance (and particularly adult ballet) throughout the UK and indeed the rest of the world, We plan to do more to help those who want to dance to access classes, workshops and performances next year.
As this is my last post for 2016 I wish all my readers a happy New Year.
Standard YouTube Licence
Three awards this year and they all go to choreographers associated with the Dutch National Ballet. The first is for full-length ballets, the second for one act works or less and the third is for the best new full-length ballet in the United Kingdom. My choice for the first category is Ted Brandsen, for the second Ernst Meisner and for the third David Dawson.
Two of the highlights of my year were Mata Hari (see Brandsen's Masterpiece 14 Feb 2016) and Coppelia (see Brandsen's Coppelia12 Dec 2016 and Pictures of Coppelia15 Dec 2016) and they were both created by Ted Brandsen. I also saw two of my favourite young dancers, Cristiano Principato and Emilie Tassinari, in Brandsen's Replay when I went to Italy in June (see From Italy with Love1 July 2016). These were very different works but each and every one was a masterpiece in its own way. As I said in my last post, there has been some brilliant full-length works by Bintlley, Dawson, Maillot and Marston this year and they all have merits but Brandsen wins it on points.
If Brandsen won the full-length contest on points, Meisner won the short works title with a knockout. I fell in love with No Time before Time when I saw the video from Lausanne. I was amazed when I saw it at the Meervvart in Ballet Bubbleson 14 Feb 2016 and carried to my feet with the crowd's acclamation when I saw it at the gala in September. In my review of the gala I wrote:
"The first time I saw the video of Ernst Meisner's No Time Before Time was in the Prix de Lausanne finals. I fell in love with it there and then. When I saw it live for the first time inBallet Bubbles at the Meervaart Theatre on my birthday on Valentine's day it was the best present anyone could possibly receive. I expressed my appreciation in Thank You Ernsta few days later. Ernst Meisner is an extraordinary choreographer. His Saltarello had been the highlight of the Junior Company's Stadsshouwburg show of 24 Nov 2013. The performance of Embers by Nancy Burer and Thomas van Damme to the haunting music of Max Richter was my favourite of the following year. I described it my review as quite simply one of the most beautiful ballets I have ever seen. Well, No Time Before Time is Ernst's best work yet."
In the video above Ernst Meisner talks about his craft. It is well worth a listen.
Dawson's Swan Lake was so good that it has to be acknowledged (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016). It was the best new full-length work for a British company all year though Cathy Marston and David Bintley were not far behind. Dawson produced a work of which Peter Darrell would certainly have been proud and Petipa too perhaps.
Standard YouTube Licence In 2016 I saw no less than five versions of Swan Lake, three of Romeo and Juliet, and two each of Giselle, The Taming of the Shrew, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia as well as Makarova's La Bayadere andRatmansky's Cinderella. I saw new full-length ballets by David Bintley, Ted Brandsen and Cathy Marston. I took another look at Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale andDavid Nixon's Beauty and the Beast and found that I liked them rather better second time round. I attended performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of China and NDT2 as well as shows by Ballet Black, Phoenix Dance Theatre and Rambert. I attended the Dutch National Ballet's gala for the new ballet season in Amsterdam, Ballet Cymru's debut in the Wales Millennium Centre, one of the first performances of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's tour and a brilliant charity gala by some of the world's best young dancers in Italy. I saw Matthew Bourne's transposition of The Red Shoes to the stage. I watchedfine student performances by Ballet West and Northern Ballet School.
The performances of Swan Lake that I liked best were English National Ballet's Swan Lake in the Round at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 June 2016 (see Swan Lake in the Round13 June 2016) and David Dawson's for Scottish Ballet in Liverpool on 3 June 2016 (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016). The one I liked least was Nixon's for Northern Ballet, mainly for its libretto and changes to the score, though there was some excellent dancing by the cast (seeUp the Swannee 17 March 2016). I had not expected much of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake for the Australian Ballet and was pleasantly surprised (see The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake - Murphy won me over17 July 2016). On the other hand, I was less than overwhelmed by the Bolshoi's despite the virtuosity of Anna Nikulina as Odette-Odile and Ruslan Skvortsov as Siegfried, possibly because I had arrived at Covent Garden confidently expecting it to be best in class (see Grigorovich's Swan Lake in Covent Garden31 July 2016). Again, changes to the libretto including the quite unnecessary anonymization of Siegfried as "the prince" and Rothbart as "the evil genius" and the rather dowdy designs disappointed me.
The three productions of Romeo and Juliet that I saw last year were by the Birmingham Royal Ballet (see A Good Outcome from an Unhappy Event - Singleton's Fine Performance6 March 2016), Northern Ballet (see Romeo and Juliet after the Shrew15 Oct 2016) and Ballet Cymru (see A Romeo and Juliet for our Times7 Nov 2016) and I liked them all. I suppose the winner on points was Birmingham Royal Ballet simply because that company is so powerful in every department and at every level but the most memorable was Ballet Cymru's largely for the remarkable performance of Gwenllian Davies. I wrote in my review:
"One of the reasons why I loved the show so much was Gwenllian Davies's remarkable performance as Juliet. Davies is in her first year with the company and this is her first job. Consequently, she is barely older than Shakespeare's Juliet. As I told her after the show, I have seen some of the world's greatest dancers in the role including Lynn Seymour and more recently Alina Cojocaru and Viktoria Tereshkina, but never have I seen a more convincing Juliet. Davies danced with passion and energy and, for a while, I saw in that talented young artist what Shakespeare must have imagined."
Every so often one spots a dancer with what I call the wow factor. Michaela DePrince had it when I first saw her in Amsterdam in 2013 and described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 201325 Nov 2013). Davies has the wow factor too.
As Cranko is my favourite choreographer of all time and The Taming of the Shrew is my favourite of his ballets I had expected the Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of that work to be one of the highlights of the year (see Looking Forward to 201630 Dec 2016). It was indeed one of those highlights but, to my great surprise and delight, I found a version that I like even more. That was Jean-Christophe's for the Bolshoi (see Bolshoi's Triumph - The Taming of the Shrew4 Aug 2016). I was in the Royal Opera House for the premiere of that production in the United Kingdom and wrote:
"The Bolshoi Ballet has always been respected in this country but until last night I don't think it has ever been loved. There are many reasons for that, not least the fact that the company was seen as an instrument of Soviet soft power during the cold war coming to London as it did in the year the tanks rolled into Budapest. That may have changed with the London premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot's The Taming of the Shrew for the audience really warmed to the show. Standing ovations are quite rare in the Royal Opera House but when Maillot appeared to take a bow several members of the audience (including yours truly) felt compelled to rise."
If I was slightly disappointed by the Bolshoi's Swan Lake that company more than made up for my disappointment with Shrew. There were brilliant performances by Ekaterina Krysanova as Kate, Vladislav Lantratov as Petrucchio. Olga Smirnova as Bianca, Artemy Belyakov as Kate and Bianca's father and Georgy Gusev as Grumio.
I think I saw the best Giselle ever in April with Cuthbertson in the title role and Bonelli as her Albrecht (see Cuthbertson's Giselle3 April 2016). I wrote:
"I am not a newbie when it comes to ballet. I have seen Giselle many times by several different companies with some of the world's greatest ballerinas in the title role. The best compliment that I can pay to Cuthbertson is that she unlocked the ballet for me much in the way that Ulanova appears to have done for Sir Peter. Yesterday I saw not a ballerina dancing Giselle but Giselle herself and for the first time I really understood the ballet which has far more substance than I had previously supposed."
I had been expecting something special from English National Ballet when I attended the premiere of Akram Khan's Giselle and although the production was not without its merits it simply did not live up to its hype (see Akram Khan's Giselle28 Sept 2016)
On 11 Dec 2016 I saw Ted Brandsen's Coppelia which in the running for my ballet of the year with two other HNB candidates, Brandsen's Mata Hari and Makarova's La Bayadere. Having seen David Nixon's Swan Lake and Akram Khan's Giselle I approached the Music Theatre somewhat gingerly. I wrote:
"I am usually pretty scathing about updates of well-loved ballets as readers of this blog well know. I don't like bikes on stage in Swan Lake. I bristle at shillelagh-wielding wilis. As I said in Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia10 Dec 2016, Coppelia already addresses contemporary themes like coming to terms with artificial intelligence, low-level youth crime and elder abuse so why update it? With all these thoughts in mind, I was a little apprehensive as I entered the Music Theatre auditorium yesterday afternoon. I need not have been. Brandsen had made some changes to the story and he had set the scene int the present, but those changes were changes for a reason rather than change for change sake."
It turned out to be excellent and I recommended it as the best Christmas show within easy travelling distance of most parts of the British Isles. Immediately before I flew to Amsterdam I was reminded of the traditional version by Manchester City Ballet's performances on the 9 and 10 Dec 2016 (see Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia10 Dec 2016).
Brandsen's Mata Hari was quite different. It was a study of the life of the Dutch adventurer and exotic dancer who was executed for espionage after a travesty of a trial in 1917 (see Brandsen's Masterpiece14 Feb 2016). Brandsen cast Anna Tsygankova as Mata Hari and she danced that role magnificently. I wrote:
"As Anna Tsygankova stood alone on stage for her curtain call after last night's performance of Ted Brandsen'sMata Hari every single person in the Amsterdam Music Theatre or Stopera rose as one. She would have got a similar standing ovation anywhere - even snooty old London - for her portrayal of the life of the tragic adventurer and dancer (Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" MacLeod) was compelling It is not often that one sees theatre like that in any medium and I think the sounds and images of that performance will remain with me for the rest of my life."
There were also strong performances by Artur Shesterikov, Casey Herd, Roman Artyushkin and other members of the cast. Brandsen commissioned Tariq O'Reagan to compose a beautiful and haunting score, Clement & Sanôu to design the sets and Francois-Noël Cherpin to create the costumes.
"There were gasps, sighs and murmurs from members of the audience as the image of Nikiya appeared momentarily before a disconsolate Solor. Nobody tried to shush them. They could not help themselves. The scene was just so beautiful. I've seen a lot of ballet in my time but I can't (for the moment at any rate) think of a more beautiful production than the Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere."
That production was created by Natalia Makarova who had created that work for American Ballet Theatre and staged it for the Royal Ballet. Solor was danced by Josef Varga and Nikiya by Sasha Mukhamedov.
The new full-length ballets that impressed me most were Brandsen's Mata Hari, Maillot's Taming of the Shrew, Dawson's Swan Lake, Bintley's The Tempest and Marston's Jane Eyre. I have already discussed the first three above. The Tempest appeared not long after Akram Khan's Giselle and was somewhat overshadowed by it which is a shame because I found Bintley's a stronger and much more satisfying work (see The Tempest 9 Oct 2016). Immediately after seeing it, I wrote:
"I think it is my favourite work by David Bintley so far. In fact, I can't remember a time when I was as excited as I am now about a new British full length ballet since the days of Sir Frederick Ashton."
I described Bintley's choreography as "sparkling" and there were strong performances by Iain Mackay as Prospero, Jenna Roberts as Miranda, Joseph Caley as Ferdinand. Mathias Dingman as Ariel and Tyrone Singleton as Caliban. It was perhaps no more than was to be expected of a company that I have already described as "powerful in every department and at every level" but it was still impressive.
"With one enormous break between 2004 and 2011 I have been following Northern Ballet ever since I returned to the North in 1985. The company has given us some lovely ballets over the years - Cinderella, A Christmas Carol, A Simple Man and, more recently, Madame Butterfly and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In my humble, rustic and simplistic opinion the company's golden age was 20 years ago. At least I thought so until this evening for tonight I saw them perform Jane Eyreat Richmond. I was reminded of their glory days which I never thought I would see again."
Northern Ballet lost some of its costumes in a flood and two of its "premier" or principal dancers took leave of absence this year. It launched its new season with Wuthering Heights and Maillot's Romeo and Juliet which it had last run in 2015 and has revived Beauty and the Beast which I liked somewhat better second time round (see Much Less Beastly - Indeed Rather Beautiful18 Dec 2016). It may be that Northern Ballet will have a better year next year with three new full-length ballets. I certainly hope so.
With so much excellence it was difficult for us to select a ballet of the year, choreographer of the year, male dancer of the year et cetera but we had to try. I listed by nominations in November (see The Terpsichore Nominations5 Nov 2016). Tomorrow I announce my first set of awards for young male and female dancers, choreographer of the year and so on,
There are still another 11 days to run before the end of the month but December has already turned out to be our best month ever with 13,438 page hits. We have received 216,581 since we started this publication with our review of Ballet West's performance of The Nutcracker at Pitlochry on 25 Feb 2013. The choice of subject matter proved to be prescient because each and every one of our top 5 articles has had a Welsh or Scottish connection.
Our most popular article of all time measured by the number of page hits has been David Murley's review of Ballet Cymru's performance of Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs at Sadler's Wells on 29 Nov 2016 (see David Murley Little Red Riding Hood comes to London2 Dec 2016). It is followed very closely by my review of the same company's Romeo a Juliet in Newport on 5 Nov 2016 (see A Romeo and Juliet for our Times7 Nov 2016). I am delighted by the interest that my readers have shown in Ballet Cymru. On 4 Dec 2016, Ballet Cymru appeared on the stage of the Donald Gordon Theatre with the entire BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the Wales Millennium Centre before a packed house in a performance that may turn out to be as significant for the development of ballet in Wales as Sader's Wells Ballet's performance of The Sleeping Beauty proved to be for the development of ballet in the United Kingdom (see Ballet Cymru's "Sleeping Beauty Moment"5 Dec 2016). I am proud to say that I am a Friend of Ballet Cymru and that I am very fond of that company.
Another company that has a special place in my affection is Scottish Ballet because it was the first company that I got to know and love. I was at St Andrews when the Western Theatre Ballet moved from Bristol to Glasgow and our Professor of Fine Arts, John Steer, who had known the company when it was in the West Country introduced me to its great choreographer, Peter Darrell, and its talented dancers. I am therefore particularly satisfied that our third most popular article is my preview of David Dawson's Swan Lake in Liverpool (see Dawson's Swan Lake comes to Liverpool29 May 2016). The article was prompted by Christopher Hampson's on-stage elevation of two of my favourite ballerinas, Bethany Kingsley-Garner and Constance Devernay, to principals of the company after their performances in Swan Lake. I reviewed Dawson's ballet in which Kingsley-Garner danced Odette in Empire Blanche - Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016. The company has re-staged Hampson's Hansel and Gretel which I reviewed when it first appeared (see Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel23 Dec 2013).
My fourth most popular article is my interview with Gavin McCaig (see Meet Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet3 Sept 2014). Gavin is, of course, a Scotsman. I interviewed him shortly after he had joined the company as an apprentice and before he had started to tour. He seems to be doing very well in the company and has toured the length and breadth of the United Kingdom as well as venues in China. I last saw him in Beauty and the Beast on Saturday where he was a friend of Isabelle and Chantelle and a guest at Beauty and Orian's wedding. In the latter role he and the other guests had to do some thrilling jumps and turns. Like everybody in the cast, he did very well and they earned a special "bravi" from me at the curtain call. Northern Ballet is a company that I have followed ever since its formation and supported ever since I moved back to Manchester in 1985. I am a Friend of both the company and the Academy and for the last 3 years I have been attending at least one and often two ballet classes there a week,
Appropriately, my fifth most popular article of all time is about Ballet West (see Congratulations to Ballet West - here's to the next 25 Years25 Nov 2016). I am looking forward to seeing Ballet West in Swan Lake early in the New Year. They were very impressive when I last saw them in 2014 (see Swan Loch - Ballet West's Swan Lake, Pitlochry 1 March 20143 March 2914). This time I hope to catch them at the Armadillo where they will show what they can do on a big stage. Next year their artistic director, Gillian Barton, has promised that they will dance La Sylphide - just for me. I do hope that is still possible because it is a lovely ballet rarely performed in the UK which is surprising as it is set in Scotland.
I wish all the folks in Ballet Cymru Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda and all the Scots a Merry Christmas and a Good New Year.
Photo Michel Schnater (C) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: All rights reserved Licensed by kind permission of Richard Heideman
Dutch National Ballet, Gala, Stopera, 7 Sept 2016
Nothing gives a better impression of the strength of the Dutch National Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet Academy than the Grand Défilé or big parade that begins the gala that opens the Amsterdam ballet season. As the curtain rises the first year students of the Academy present themselves to the audience. The girls are in light blue leotards and the boys in white t-shirts. They give way to the second year and so on until the Junior Company appear. They in turn give way to the élèves who are succeeded by the corps and each and every other rank in the company until the ballerinas and premiers danseurs nobles. All to the strains of the polonaise from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty.
Compared to the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet and the Mariinsky the Dutch National Ballet is very new. It will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year. But it has achieved much in its 69 years as the timeline on the company's website indicates. In his speech at last year's gala Ted Brandsen remarked that there had been no balletic tradition in the Netherlands before 1947 (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet13 Sept 2015). The Dutch can and do take enormous pride in those achievements.
Of course, like all great companies the Dutch National Ballet is international. Artists of many nationalities have contributed to its success including some from our country. Wayne Eagling was the company's artistic director between 1991 and 2003. David Dawson is one of its associate artists. Matthew Rowe is, its director of music and principal conductor. Judy Maelor Thomas, who assisted Ted Brandsen with the choreography of the Grand Défilé, is the company's ballet mistress. More than a few of the dancers trained at the Royal Ballet School including its great ballerina, Igone de Jongh and the artistic coordinator of the Junior Company, Ernst Meisner.
The links between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom go back a very long way. David Bintley mentions the tour of the Vic-Wells Ballet to the Netherlands on the eve of the German invasion in Dancing in the Blitz: How World War II made British Ballet.The links are not all one way. Meisner, for example, was a very popular dancer at the Royal Ballet. He continues to contribute to British ballet through the New English Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet School summer programme. According to Bintley, the flower throw which I had always regarded as a quintessentially English tradition was invented by the Dutch who showered the Vic-Wells dancers with flowers on their visit in 1940.
The company's press officer, Richard Heideman, has sent me some lovely pictures of the gala of which this is only the first. My next post will be on the extract from La Bayadere.
The Australian Ballet, Swan Lake, Coliseum, 16 July 2016, 14:00
The synopsis in the programme notes were ominous as were some of the reviews in the papers and on BalletcoForum. A lot of parallels had been drawn between the plot of Graeme Murphy'sSwan Lake and Prince Charles and Lady Di though Judith Mackrell thought the story saw closer parallels to Giselle (see Australian Ballet: Swan Lake review – a royal tragedy lifted by its leads14 July 2016 The Guardian). It all sounded very like change for change's sake which I don't like very much at all (see Up the Swannee17 March 2016). To my great surprise and delight I enjoyed Murphy's version despite the liberties that he took with the story and the score.
I think the reason why I liked Murphy's Swan Lake so much more than say David Nixon's is that it was a genuine variation upon a theme with some real innovation and not a completely different story with different characters albeit with some bits of Petipa and Ivannov's choreography such as the cygnets' dance bolted on. That was also true of David Dawson's Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet which I saw in Liverpool last month (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016). I hesitate to use the expression "traditional Swan Lake" because ballets evolve over time and Geraldine Morris reminded us in Tell Tale Steps 2that there wasn't much Petipa or Ivanov in the Swan Lake that she danced in the 1960s but if we take Anthony Dowell's production for the Royal Ballet as the meme Murphy did not stray all that far from it.
The plot of Dowell's Swan Lake and of every similar version is Siegfried's betrayal of Odette. Murphy explored that theme as did Dawson though their Odettes were very different. I have to say that I prefer Dawson's as his Odette is nobody's victim but Murphy's is interesting all the same. She is head over heals in love with her husband but he still hankers after another (hence the parallels with Lady Di). When she realizes that her marriage is somewhat crowded she flirts with just about everything in trousers and creates a terrible scene which ends in her committal to a psychiatric hospital beside a lake staffed by nurses who appear to be members of a religious order with a scary swan like headgear (a bit like the Ursuline sisters though I had always thought they were a teaching order). I think it must be the mad scene that reminded Mackrell of Giselle though Siegfried's philandering reminded me more of James's two timing of Effie and the sylph in La Sylphide. During her stay in the hospital Odette imagines herself swimming on the waters of the lake with its swans and Siegfried coming to look for her.
Odette recovers her sanity. She gatecrashes a party given by Odile where Siegried sees Odette in a new light and falls in love with her. This time it is Odile who loses herself in a frenzy of jealousy. She summonses the psychiatrist and scary nurses but Odette scarpers with Siegfried and the whole court scouring the countryside for her. I should point out that Odile is never referred to as such in the programme. She is called "Baroness von Rothbart" but that is not such a big departure as it sounds for Odile is Rothbart's daughter in the Dowell version. There is no Rothbart as such but his function is served by a lugubrious psychiatrist in charge of the psychiatric hospital.
There are some interesting transpositions. It is Odette and not Odile who dances fouettés in the mad scene. The music that announces Rothbart and Odile's arrival in the black act of Dowell announces Odette's presence at the Baroness's party. Odile prowls outside the hospital looking pointedly at her watch as Siegfried visits his wife just as Odette flutters outside the palace as Siegfried declares his love for Odile in Dowell's version. Both Dowell and Murphy end with Odette jumping in the lake. There is a dramatic epaulement in Murphy when Odette and Siegfried spot each other for one last time before Odette is dragged down into the deep taking the draperies representing the water with her.
Several commentators talked about Murphy's use of contemporary dance. I didn't see all that much contemporary as opposed to classical vocabulary and what I did see seemed to work very well. For instance, I liked some of the more unconventional lifts very much indeed as well as steps that gave the impression of skating. Having nearly killed myself as a 66 year old Rumpole trying to learn the cygnets' and Hungarian dances and swans' entry at the KNT Swan Lake intensive last year I was pleased to find that they were all there and not too different from the versions that Jane Tucker had taught us unlike Dawson's where the cygnets became a pas de quatre.
For all its cleverness Murphy's Swan Lake would have been nothing without some excellent dancers. Robyn Hendricks was a perfect fit for Murphy's Odette. Tall and commanding but also delicate and vulnerable she was as great an actor as she was a dancer. The expression "dance-actors" is often used by critics but except for Ed Watson I could think of very few people who merited the description. Ms. Hendricks is certainly one who does. She was matched by Amy Harris as Baroness Rothbart who was captivating in the jealousy scene. Earlier this year I saw Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari in Amsterdam (see Brandsen's Masterpiece14 Feb 2016). That dance is how I imagine Mata Hari in real life. Partnering both Odette and Odile magnificently. Rudy Hawkes was a great Siegfried. Murphy's Siegfried is a complex character. Not a complete bastard despite the way he treated Odette though someone who needed chastisement. Hawke understood his character well. Every Swan Lake needs what the Bolshoi call an "evil genius" and that lot fell to Tristram Message as the psychiatrist. Not as big a role as Dowell's Rothbart but just as important to the story.
Looking through the dancers' bios I notice that nearly all of them come from Australia and many of them were trained at the Australian Ballet School. Given its relatively small population, the existence of two other fine companies in Brisbane and Perth and the fact that it continues to export fine dancers like Steven McRae and Jenna Roberts to us, Australia's contribution to dance is massive. I shall return to London for Cinderella next week and I am looking forward to it tremendously.
Monica started the review of Gala Les Etoiles which included the Royal Ballet's Thiago Soares and Marianela Nuñez on 10 Jan 2010. She is an excellent photographer and her photos are exquisite. I have included the publication in my blog roll.
Tomorrow I will vote "Remain" and one of the reasons why I shall do so is that I care about the arts and creative industries in general and the performing arts and ballet in particular.
Much of the steam for the Leave campaign has been generated by concern about immigration. There is some outright xenophobia in that sentiment but I believe that it is mainly a worry about shortages of housing, healthcare, education and other public services which could be overcome with proper planning and resourcing.
For the arts, free movement of labour is essential. Let me give just one example. Earlier this month the Scottish Ballet delighted audiences throughout Scotland and the North of England with David Dawson'sSwan Lake (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016). Dawson was born in London and trained at Tring Park and the Royal Ballet School but he has spent much of his career with the Dutch National Ballet where he is now an associate artists. He is not the only Brit there. The company's artistic director is Matthew Rowe who is another Londoner (in fact as there is a reference to him in the latest issue of The Pauline he may even have attended my old school).
"Dutch National Ballet has announced the following promotions for the 2016-17 season: Jared Wright - 2nd soloist; Michaela DePrince - grand sujet; Matthew Pawlicki - grand sujet; Floor Eimers - coryphée; Krista Ettlinger - coryphée; Sem Sjouke - coryphée; Jessica Xuan - coryphée; Martin ten Kortenaar - coryphée; Oscar Valdes - coryphée; Riho Sakamoto, Yuanyuan Zhang and Cristiano Principato to corps de ballet. From the Junior Company to the main Company: Emilie G. Tassinari, Clara Superfine, Thomas Van Damme, Daniel Robert Silva, Joseph Massarelli and Giovanni Princic become élèves."
"I had come to Amsterdam to see Michaela DePrince about whom I have written a lot. She appeared as Diana in Diana & Actaeon a ballet originally choreographed by Agrippina Vaganova for the Kirov in 1935. Soviet ballet was athletic and spectacular requiring enormous virtuosity. I had seen something of DePrince's virtuosity in her YouTube videos but she is even more impressive in real life. She is quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while."
Last year she gave a masterclass at Danceworks and Lesley Osman sent me some lovely photos and a first hand account from Ciara Sturrock who took part (see Michaela's Masterclass8 July 2015). She is coming back to Danceworks on 18 July 2016 (see Another Masterclass2 May 2016). Last year at the opening gala I bumped into DePrince as I was leaving the Stopera. As I said in The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet12 Sept 2015, "I left the Stopera thinking how that exceptionally talented young dancer was as gracious off stage as she is magnificent upon it." The photo above shows DePrince in Dawson's A Million Kisses to my Skin. Instead of a million kisses I send Michaela DePrince a million congratulations.
Last June I returned to Amsterdam to see Cool Britannia which included yet another of Dawson's works, Empire Noire (see Going Dutch29 June 2015). DePrince was dancing in that work but so too was another outstanding young dancer, Floor Elmers. I was most impressed by her performance and have been following her career ever since. A million congratulations to Floor as well.
This year on my birthday I saw Clara Superfine, Thomas Van Damme, Daniel Robert Silva, Joseph Massarelli and Giovanni Princic in Ballet Bubbles16 Feb 2016. It was the best birthday treat ever. I thank them profusely and wish each and every one of them every success in their careers.
Finally, I congratulate all those artists listed above whom I have not mentioned. Each and every one of them deserves an enormous bouquet of flowers.
Standard YouTube Licence
A week after his Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet finished its run in Scotland and the North of England David Dawson's Overture opens in Amsterdam. It is part of a mixed programme of works by Justin Peck, George Williamson, David Dawson and Ernst Meisner called Transatlanticwhich I find off in that only one of those four choreographers is actually American.
Dawson created Overture nearly three years ago to a score by Szymon Brzóska, with sets by Eno Henze and costumes by Yumiko Takeshima who also designed the costumes for Swan Lake. The work is inspired by T S Elliott's The Four Quartetswhich I suppose makes it transatlantic even though those poems were written in and about wartime England.
According to Dawson, "This work is constructed as a dance-umentary about humanity, our place within the universe, connection with everything around us, and our relationships toward to each other." He continues:
"a journey through the different stages of personal relationships, the relationship of an individual to his/her society, and our relationship towards the ever growing technology we live with."
The choreography looks exciting and Dawson has chosen some great dancers including Michaela DePrince who is one of my favourites. It is all very tempting.
In Double Dutch Delights17 Feb 2016 I mentioned the preview of the new opera and ballet season in Amsterdam which I attended as a Friend of the Dutch National Ballet. Tickets for the new season go on sale on 1 June and tickets for the more popular performances sell out like hot cakes that are going out of style.
Probably the most popular event is the opening night gala which takes place on 7 Sept this year. I was there last year and I described it without the slightest exaggeration as The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet13 Sept 2013. It's a performance within a party to which every member of the audience is invited. It is a chance to meet the stars and last year I bumped into the magnificent Michaela DePrince. Tickets for this gala can be purchased through the National Ballet's website. You don't have to be a Friend. You don't even have to be Dutch. Right now there are still a lot of seats but that could change overnight. In case you're wondering I have already bought my ticket and booked my return flight.
I mentioned Michaela DePrince just now. Last year she gave a masterclass at Danceworks which I covered in Michaela's Masterclass8 July 2015. She is coming back to Danceworks to give another masterclass on 18 July 2016 (see Another Masterclass 2 May 2016. Details about the event are on the Summer Ballet Classes page of Danceworks' website. If only I were young and strong and skilful enough to take that class or indeed any of the other master classes that are on offer - but perhaps you are.
Still on the subject of Michaela DePrince there is a great interview of her in English which appears to have been made for RTL in which she discusses a music video she made with Beyoncé. She seems to have been as excited at meeting Beyoncé as I was at meeting her at last year's gala. According to the news item the video portrays a secret society of strong, proud women: The Secret Society Women. It continues:
"Besides Michaela, the storyline also includes tennis star Serena Williams, model Winnie Harlow, actresses Quvenzhané Wallis and Amandla Stenberg, and pop duo Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz, known as Ibeyi. Also featuring in the video are Lezley McSpadden, Gwendolyn Carr and Sybrina Fulton, mothers of children who were killed in acts of police brutality in the United States."
The news item carries a photo of her in David Dawson's A Million Kisses to my Skin but I will mention that when I do my appreciation of Dawson which will appear very soon.
Standard You Tube Licence Scottish Ballet, Swan Lake, Liverpool Empire, 3 June 2016 On my train back from Liverpool a young man asked to borrow my programme. He explained that he had attended Scottish Ballet's Swan Lake but had not bought a programme because he had not noticed any on sale. He added that this had been his first experience of ballet. "How lucky you are," I reflected as I handed him my programme "for I can think of no better introduction to the ballet that this one." The reason I say that is that David Dawson has distilled Swan Lake into a very potent concoction. When that young man sees a traditional Swan Lake, such as English National Ballet's in the round at the Albert Hall which I recommended strongly to him, he will understand and appreciate that work in a way that he would never have done otherwise. However, had he started with such a work he might well have been lost in a sea of tutus, feathery headgear or been diverted by the divertissements. Readers will have noticed that I used the word distilled in relation to Dawson's Swan Lake rather than "stripped down" as did Judith Mackrell in The Guardian (see Swan Lake review – stripped-back version even loses the lake20 April 2016) and Mark Monahan in The Telegraph (see You can strip a Rolls-Royce down only so far before it stops being a Rolls-Royce20 April 2016) for with all due respect to them they miss the point. This was Swan Lake all right in the way that so many other choreographers' versions are not. All the essentials of the story are there and Dawson is faithful to the characters - except perhaps to Rothbart whose role in the equivalent of the black act is performed by four men in masks. Dawson told the story directly and without distractions in a way that is appropriate to our times.
The reason why Rothbart was all but written out of the story is that he is not essential to it and his cape waving gets in the way. Dawson does not need Rothbart because nobody has cast a spell over Odette. She is described in the synopsis as
"a beautiful woman by the lake. Goddess-like and barely human, she is the Swan Queen, Odette, replenishing her powers from the waters of the lake. She morphs between forms both human and swan."
In her excellent programme note, A Swan Lake for a New Generation, the Glasgow Herald'sballet correspondent Mary Brennan explains:
"And the Swan herself. Dawson refuses to show her as a victim. 'In my version she is not a prisoner of any kind of spell. Rather she is a goddess, a divine being in her own right - and free to make her own choices in her relationship with Siegfied.' Rather than take the 19th century Romantic version at face value, Dawson went researching into other source material. He came across a mythic version that sparked his imagination: 'It described those goddess creatures who once every hundred years would come to bathe in the lake so as to replenish their beauty and immortality. The chances of anyone ever seeing them ..... it shouldn't happen, but Siegfried has, yet again, gone off by himself and - like something out of his own inner imaginings - he encounters the exquisitely ethereal Odette.'"
Given that scenario there is no need for a Queen Mother, or a bow, or the contrived show of generosity which seems a bit artificial for an 18 year old even in Petipa's version:
"Gee thanks Ma. A crossbow for decimating the local bird life. Just what I really wanted. I mean everyone has an iPad and what would I do with a Porsche? "
However, there is a need for Benno, Siegfried's good mate in Petipa's version. His role is greatly expanded and he stays with Siegfried throughout the ballet.
As in Petipa's version the focus is on Siegfried who is described in the scenario as "portent and pensive", a lovely phrase for just plain moody. Yesterday that role was danced by Victor Zarallo. Although there are plenty of moments when his considerable strength and stamina requires he is most effective when he is alone on stage, sometimes motionless, other times a barque on a stormy sea of conflicting emotions.
Good hearted, kindly generous Benno who sticks with his friend even after Siegfried threatens him, was danced by Nicholas Shoesmith. Tall, athletic and commanding girls flock to him in total contrast to his maungy mate. He tries so hard to entice Siegfried out of his moodiness. Standing with his arm over his friend's shoulder he presents one delectable maiden after another to distract Siegfried from his dark thoughts. When Odile appears and Siegfried flips he tries in vain to keep him grounded. The equivalent of the fluttering image of Odette through the French window doors in the traditional version is Benno's urging Siegfried to be sure that he has found the right girl.
The star of Swan Lake is of course Odette-Odile. It is a role that not every ballerina can dance convincingly because it requires the projection of two personalities from the same body. I may be wrong but I should imagine the easier part is probably the seductress Odile despite all those fouettés because she is manifestly human. It must be far more difficult to become a swan. Bethany Kingsley-Garner, who has recently been elevated to principal, was perfect in both. She first came to my notice as Cinderella in Edinburgh (see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella20 Dec 2015) and she has already entered my canon of all time greatest ballerinas. The only other Scottish dancer in that rare company is Elaine McDonand (see Elaine McDonald in her own Words11 March 2014).
I should say a few words about John Otto's sets and Yumiko Takeshima.
Judith Mackrell complains that there is no lake. She is wrong, It is there. Indeed it is central to the ballet. It is the boundary between the real world in which Siegfried and Benno live and the ethereal world of Odile. Otto cleverly creates that boundary with his translucent screens and backdrop.
"Where are the tutus and feathery headgear?" one might ask. Takeshima has lost them and rightly so for their only purpose is to represent the body and movement of a swan and Dawson's choreography does that so much better. Her characters are dressed simply and timelessly: white leotards as swans, full skirted Dances at a Gathering style dresses as party guests or in trousers, T-shirts and jackets in the case of the men.
Nevertheless, we did seeswans and that was through Dawson's expressive choreography. The fluid arm movements in open fifth to suggest the expansive flapping of wings. The glissades and low level lifts and turns to suggest gliding and hovering over water. There was so much detail. Miming, Benno's facial expressions even a high fives at one point in the first scene.
Although Dawson created every single step there was still a lot of Petipa in his ballet. The cygnets, for example, was still a pas de quatre albeit free moving, energetic, high jumping, young swans just as one can find on any waterway. In the seduction scene, first Siegfried then Odile did fouettés. I was bolt upright on the edge of my seat with excitement.
While waiting for my train at Lime Street I tweeted congratulations to Christopher Hampson, David Dawson and Scottish Ballet. I am sure the company's founder Peter Darrell would have been proud of this work had he lived to see it. And though some may disagree with me, I think Marius Petipa would have been proud of Dawson too.
Why the Empire Blanc title to this review?The first Dawson work that I had seen on stage was Dawson's Empire Noire in Amsterdam (see Going Dutch29 June 2015). I saw Swan Lake in the Empire Theatre in Liverpool. And "blanc" because most swans outside Australia at any rate are white. Despite a lot of sweeties packet rustling, a constant hum of commentary and all sorts of liberties taken with mobile phones the Empire was a good place to see this ballet. Liverpudlians are warm and passionate folk and they showed those qualities in their cheers and clapping at the end.
