Phoenix's Rite of Spring and Left Unseen

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Phoenix Dance Theatre The Rite of Spring and Left Unseen 9 April 2019, 19:30 CAST in Doncaster

On 8 March 2019, I saw Phoenix Dance Theatre perform  Jeanguy Saintus's Rite of Spring with a live orchestra on the main stage of the Lowry Theatre.  It was a magnificent performance that I described as Phoenix's coming of age.  It had been part of an evening of dance and song - a very successful collaboration with Opera North that I should like to see repeated.   

On 9 April 2019,  I saw the Rite of Spring again at the Cast in Doncaster as part of a double bill with Left Unseen by Amaury Lebrun.  The company had already performed those works in Poole and will take them to Malvery, Keswick, Dundee, Cheltenham and the Peacock. 

The evening opened with Left Unseen which is the first of Lebrun's works that I have seen.  However, we shall shortly see another because he told me that he has been commissioned to create a work for Northern Ballet. Lebrun was born in France and trained at the School of the Ballet du Nord in Roubaix and the School of American Ballet in New York.  He danced with several companies before joining the Compania Nacional de Danza in Spain as a principal.

Left Unseen opens with a spotlit single dancer.  According to the programme notes, the work explores inclusion and isolation.  I was particularly impressed by an interaction between Prentice Whitlow and Vanessa Vince-Pang. She reaches out to him but he recoils from her.  She tries again to similar effect. He approaches her but she steps aside.  He tries again but she pushes him out of the way. Finally, she leaps onto his back as an act of aggression - not of affection.  The score was contributed by Alva Noto, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hildur  Guðnadóttir.  It was integrated into a single piece so seamlessly that I thought it had been a single work.

The main difference between the performances of the Rite of Spring at the Lowry and the Cast is that the company had to rely on recorded music in Doncaster.  They have chosen a very good recording by the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Pierre Boulez. The work that the Ballets Russes had performed in Paris in 2013 had been set in Pre-Christian Russia.  Using the same score by Stravinsky, Saintus set his work in contemporary Haiti drawing heavily on voudou rituals that invoke Ogou (the spirit of fire, iron, war and blacksmiths), the Marasa (divine twins) and Damballa (the serpent spirit and creator of life). In Saintus's version as in the Ballets Russes', there is a chosen one but she is chosen not for sacrifice but to host the spirit of Damballa.

I was much closer to the stage in Doncaster than I had been in Salford and I could see and admire the intricate robes worn by both male and female dancers with their tassels and drapery. For one of the movements, two of the dancers' hands were coloured green,  For another, the hands of all the dancers were coloured red.   At one point a red cushion which I had assumed to be a heart was passed on stage but, on reflection, I think it may have been the spirit of  Damballa. 

Saintus's production is an original work anchored in the traditions of the Caribbean and probably also  Africa.   However, I also think it is a very faithful one.   As I said in my previous review, Nijinsky's shade would not have been troubled by Saintus's reimagining. There is something unsettling about the idea of human sacrifice even though it is only on the stage.  That was largely absent in Saintus's work.  It felt like a celebration rather than an oblation.

Wasteland

Grimethorp

Author Steve F
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Wikipedia

Gary Clarke Company Wasteland 29 June 2018 14:00 CAST in Doncaster

Following the success of Coal which explored the "darker underbelly of the mining industry unearthing the true nature and body wrecking demands of a working class industry now almost forgotten", the Gary Clarke Company is producing a sequel to that work called Wasteland which considers what happened to the coal mining areas of Yorkshire and their communities after the  miners strike of 1984 to 1985. They presented a preview of the show to the CAST in Doncaster yesterday.

The preview consisted of an 80 minute sharing of the work that had been done so far plus a 30 minute question and answer session with Gary Clarke.  The audience who stayed for the Q & A included a row of local schoolchildren, former miners, dancers, musicians, journalists, theatre directors and ordinary members of the public such as me.  Clarke told the audience that the work was very much a work in progress.  Members of the audience were given a feedback form and Clarke took note of the audience's suggestions for improving the show.

Because I was a bit lethargic after my 300 mile trek to Birmingham and back the night before as a result of which I set off for the theatre later than I had attended and congestion on the M62 and A1 I regret to say that I missed the very start of the show.  Gita who arrived a few minutes before me told me that the show opened with a male voice choir and a brass band.  I would love to have heard that for many member of the audience remarked that it was lovely.  I did in fact catch a bit of the music because a trombonist and one or two other musicians were playing in the sitting room of a former miner's home.  The characters in the room were the former miner, his wife and their boy.  The piece focused on what had happened to them and other miners' families in the 30 or so years since the miners' strike of 1984 and 1985.

It was not a very happy story.  There seemed to be a fight between the former miner (Alistair Goldsmith) and his son (Tom Davis Dunn) and at one point another between the miner and his wife (TC Howard). To underscore the point that there was not much else for miners and their offspring to do after the mining industry closed down, much of the action centred on a rave which was eventually broken up by the police.  There was a point when the dancers appeared carrying riot shields painted with smiley faces. There was a lot of very loud metallic sounding music of the kind I can vaguely remember from the era.

The dancers who portrayed the ravers were very impressive. Gary Clarke told Gita that they had been professionally trained in ballet and contemporary dance and some had actually been ravers.  The male dancers were Robert Anderson and Jake Evans and the women were Elena Thomas Voilquin and Emily Thompson Smith.  Some of the dances they perform were very energetic and lasted for quite a time.  An impressive display of stamina and discipline.

There were tragic scenes where the boy lost his money on a horse. There was a poignant scene of his clutching the television.  Somehow we got Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture  and an eclectic collection of other music.  It nevertheless seemed to fit together and whether intended or not the last scene gave an impression of optimism.

Clarke choreographed the show and his dramaturg was Lou Cope. Steven Roberts was the music director. Ryan Dawson Laight designed sets and costumes.  Lighting and projection was by Charles Webber.

Gary Clarke told Gita that the work should be ready to tour next year or the year after and that it was still in embryo.  The audience seemed to like it,  It is supported by the Arts Council and the programme featured the logos of some important venues and companies.  I will report back when I show opens formally.  

Bring on the Bollywood

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Gita Mistry

Phizzical Bring on the Bollywood, CAST in Doncaster, 2 June 2017, 19:30

"On 2 and 3 June 2017, I attended the Southbank Centre's Alchemy Doncaster South Asian Arts Festival at the CAST in Doncaster Theatre. A splendid venue only 4 years old.  I was there primarily for the musical, Bring on the Bollywood, but there were two other events associated with the show:

• A "Bring on the Bollywood" dance workshop in one of the CAST's dance studios; and
• A "Bring on the Bollywood" Sari Tying Workshop;

which took place on Friday afternoon. I opted for the dance workshop.

At the workshop, I introduced Jane to Bollywood. She said she enjoyed the experience even more than ballet and found everyone extremely friendly. I have to say I was pleasantly impressed with what we accomplished in the short time especially as we had missed the start owing to of an accident on the motorway. Happily, we had not missed much of the session itself. This was very engaging with good instruction and explanation- coaching with a clear definition of movement and meaning of mudras (hand gestures which are used to depict narrative in Indian storytelling influenced by the Kathak style of dance). We learnt rhythm and timing to moves and beats so that by the end of the 90 mins learnt a full routine. Hats off to the lead's facilitation skills and those of the other cast members as we were exposed to many moves to follow and copy. There was a range of age groups from 5 through to 70 with various abilities and backgrounds - some who had never done Bollywood dance and others who were returning after years of doing Indian dance. It was rather fun.

The play that we saw in the evening was directed by Sâmir Bhamra in association with Belgrade Theatre Coventry.  Bhamra was the creative director of the London Asian Film Festival and has been a mentor to emerging artists. He was the executive producer of an international dance festival and delivered three large-scale events during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games including a carnival procession across the East Midlands alongside the Olympic Torch Relay. He developed his skills at the National Theatre and was seconded to Royal Shakespeare Company where he worked on the World Shakespeare Festival under Deborah Shaw. 

Set in India but with plenty of references to London, the show had all the mix of a good Bollywood spectacular -  great dance and music, superb costumes with plenty of changes and good comedy too.  Fun, lively, colourful, family drama, romance, comedy - the cast engaged superbly well and were very in tune with each other.  Quite a feat to hold the audience's attention for some 90 minutes in the first act and another 60 in the second.

Turning to the dancing, there was a lot of traditional Indian styles including Kathak and Bharatanatyam as well as folk dances like Bhangra. We were reminded at the workshop that Bollywood is a fusion of many styles including Western ones."

Jane Lambert adds:

"The Hindi cinema, popularly known as “Bollywood”, is the biggest film industry in the world in terms of ticket sales and one of the biggest on every other measure. It is extraordinarily popular - not just in India and other countries where there is a big Hindi speaking population - but even in countries where Hindi is not spoken.

Sadly, even though there is a big audience for Hindi films in this country, very few folk of non-South Asian heritage take the trouble to see them. That is probably unfortunate because I suspect that we are missing out on a lot of fun. Phizzical Productions Ltd, which is touring the United Kingdom with a stage musical called Bring on the Bollywood, aspires to give those of us who do not speak Hindi a taste of that fun. Speaking as a complete ingenue in this genre I can certainly say that it was fun. However, I leave it to Gita, who knows a lot about South Asian art, to opine whether it was at all authentic.

The plot was a little convoluted. An “overworked, underpaid NHS doctor” flew home to India for her brother’s wedding. Her father is a retired army officer and her mother a lady of leisure. Neither her brother nor his intended bride is looking forward to their wedding. They were promised to each other by their parents but they really can’t stand to each other.

On the plane, the doctor sits opposite a handsome but rather mournful young man carrying an urn. The reason for his unhappiness was that he was jilted at the alter. The contents of the urn are ashes of photos and love letters but for the time being were led to believe that they are the ashes of his dead wife. The young man is on the way to meet his friend who is love with the woman who is engaged to the doctor’s brother.

The young man and his friend find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. The brother offers to put them up at his parents’ home but only at an inflated price. On arrival, the young man meets the doctor with whom he had travelled on the plane. “Of the billion people in India how come I meet you?” He says. But they are attracted to each other and the attraction grows when the brother and sister, his intended bride, her lover and the young man take a hike in the idyllic Valley of the Flowers.
In the valley the last character turns up, namely the woman who had left the young man standing at the altar. She tries to win him back but he wants none of it. He sends her on her on her way. After a lot of parental resistance the young man married the doctor, his friend marries his love and the doctor’s brother joins the army much to his father’s delight.

This was quite a long play. The first act was 80 minutes long and the second 60. But for me, it passed very quickly largely because of some lusty singing and vivacious dancing. Most of the songs where in Hindi but the signature tune “Bring on the Bollywood” was in English. In the workshop which I described in Bollywood Beginner 3 June 2017, we tried the routine of one of the songs. According to Wikipedia

“the dancing in Bollywood films, especially older ones, is primarily modelled on Indian dance: classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans (tawaif), or folk dances. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend with Western dance styles (as seen on MTV or in Broadway musicals), though it is usual to see Western pop and pure classical dance numbers side by side in the same film.”

In our workshop, we were taught the importance of hand movements and the symbolism of some of the gestures such as the drawing of a bow. At various points of the show Gita whispered some of the cultural allusions which would otherwise have been lost on me.

There were many strong character roles in the play and the actors performed them well. I particularly liked Rohit Gokani who played the retired colonel, Anthony Sahota his spoilt and somewhat wastrel son, Nisha Aaliya, the doctor and Sophie Kangola the intended fiancée who showed enormous patience to me in the workshop, but perhaps it is unfair to single any of them our for special praise because they were all good.

The show is in Hornchurch until the 17 and then Poole, London, York, Oldham, Truro, Oxford and Peterborough. If you live anywhere near those towns I unhesitatingly recommend it."

A Phial of the Antidote

Photo Mattia Giannuzz
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Source Wikipedia

I had intended to write about the brilliant Southbank Centre's Alchemy Doncaster festival of South Asian arts that Gita and I attended at CAST in Doncaster yesterday and Friday but after last night's outrage in our capital, I am not in the mood for celebrating and I  doubt that my readers are in a celebratory mood either. However, I do intend to report on the festival soon because the arts are the antidote to the toxins of hate that have led to terrorism and all sorts of other distressing events recently.

This weekend's festival of comedy, dance, drama, gastronomy, music, photography and poetry from British artists of South Asian heritage and artists of the South Asian diaspora living here contains a phial of the antidote.  Cakes, a brilliant monologue by Bilal Zafar, in which he gently took the mickey out of folks who have a problem with Muslims with his tweets about a fictitious Muslim only cake shop in Bristol is just one example. Whether intended or not, Cakes reminds me of Sir Toby's riposte to Malvolio:

"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"

Bilal has posted a video of his monologue to YouTube which I think you will enjoy.

Gita and I will review Bring on the Bollywood with its brilliant dancing as well as many of the other performances this week but today our thoughts are with the victims of last night's appalling violence and their friends and relations.

Bollywood Beginner

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Yesterday I had my first lesson in Bollywood dance. As part of the Southbank Alchemy, the largest UK festival of South Asian culture, members of the cast of Bring on the Bollywood offered a dance workshop to those with tickets for their show at the CAST in Doncaster.  That is the company featured in the video above.

Now I have to confess that I do not know a lot about Indian dance or popular culture. I don't speak any Indian languages beyond a few words of Urdu that my mother had taught me. She picked them up from her father who had lived in Lahore. He was the last of several generations of my mother's family who had spent their lives in the Sub-Continent some in the armed forces and others in the civil service.

Everyone in my mother's family, whether they had spent any time in the Sub-Continent or not, had an enormous affection for the region and a very high regard for its people. My mother and her sisters always wanted to return and, in particular, to see my grandfather's house in Lahore which was next to the Roman Catholic cathedral. Something I managed to accomplish in 1992, a few months after my mother's death while my aunts were still alive, on my one and only trip to Pakistan.  I have inherited that affection and regard and while my knowledge of the culture of the Sub-Continent remains superficial, I take every opportunity I get to learn a little bit more.

Before attending the workshop I had seen one Bollywood film in an Indian cinema in Southall and a couple more on video at the Washington home of my best friend from St Andrews who was then working for the World Bank. I had attended the Bollywood Icons: 100 Years of Indian Cinema (8 March – 16 June 2013) at the National Media Museum (as it was then) in Bradford.  I had also read Irna Qureshi's Bollywood in Britain blog. That was just about it.

I attended the workshop with  a friend of Indian heritage who knows a lot about Indian dance in general and Bollywood, in particular, having danced in a Bollywood musical at the West Yorkshire Playhouse a few years ago. The workshop was due to start at 14:00. It was to take place in a dance studio on the first floor of the theatre.  I collected my friend from her home in Bradford just after 12. Normally that have been would be more than enough time to reach Donny but there was an incident on the A1 which delayed us by over half an hour. As a result, we arrived at the CAST theatre after the workshop had started.

We, therefore, missed the warm-up and introductions but not a lot of the choreography. Nisha Aaliya showed us the steps and arm movements that the rest of the class had been taught and we were able to catch up quite well. The routine that we learned was the second number in the show.  It started with the dancers in the wings. After a few bars, we danced on stage using the steps that Nisha had taught us. We then faced the audience with our hands in what I believe to be the namaste position. We raised our hands above our heads. More dancing to the left and right, then a clockwise turn and an anticlockwise turn, we exchanged something like a high five with the person next to us with different hands several times, we danced around each other, we drew an imaginary bow and arrow several times, assembled ourselves into a line in height order with our arms at different angles and then broke from the line assuming a pose of our choice.

Not knowing how to dress for a workshop I turned up as I would for ballet in a leotard, tights and ballet shoes.

"You're showing me up" hissed my friend, "this is Bollywood, not La Bayadere" 

Well, it is true that I was the only one dressed like that but nobody had told me about a dress code. Moreover, the plot of the show that we saw in the evening had several things in common with Petipa's ballet including a compulsory marriage, a scene in the mountains and a snake of a woman who nearly destroyed the heroine.

The workshop passed very quickly and I had a whale of a time. It was a friendly class that included children who seemed to know quite a lot about this style of dance as well as adults. I was the most overweight, woefully unfit and least coordinated member of the class but even I was able to keep up. If I had more time, I would certainly look out for a regular Bollywood class. Alas, I struggle to find time even for ballet.

The class was an opportunity to see a bit of the theatre than few members of the public ever see.  The studio had a wall mirror and barre and a beautifully sprung floor. The dancers at Northern Ballet, Ballet Black and the National Dance Company of Malta must know that studio. I can see why so many fine dance companies include Doncaster in their itineraries.

Zfintastic

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ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble, Double Bill CAST in Doncaster, 1 Feb 2017, 19:30

In response to a question from me about how ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble ("the ZMDE") came to be formed in the Q & A that followed the show, ZMDE's artistic director, Mavin Khoo, said that there were a number of reasons some of which were public and others personal.  One of those reasons was to find work for graduates of the University of Malta's dance courses. He reflected that the Arts Council Malta was already funding the excellent Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.  He offered it the chance of supporting a world-class contemporary dance company.

The ensemble launched in September 2014 and has already achieved much. Khoo stressed in the Q & A that he preferred to refer to his dancers as an "ensemble" rather than as a "company" because "ensIemble" acknowledged their status as "artists" adding that there was a significant difference between an "artist" and a "dancer".  The ensemble has toured Germany, India, Isreal, Malaysia, Palestine, Serbia, Slovenia and Thailand and presented works by Jose Aguido, Iván Pérez Avilés, Athanasia Kanellopoulou and Francesca Tranter as well as Khoo.  I set out some of the background to the ensemble as well as details of its current British tour in ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble's UK Tour on 12 Jan 2017.  As I said in that article, the aim is to reflect Malta's Mediterranean and European heritage.

The show that ZMDE presented in Doncaster on Wednesday was enthralling.  It consisted of two works performed back to back without an interval.  The first was a duet by Khoo and I think Gabin Corredor. I say "I think" because there was no cast list and the programme did not indicate exactly what or whom we had seen.  The second I believe to be Khoo's Home danced by everyone in the ensemble except Khoo and Corredor. 

If the theatre's press release is correct the first work must have been Iván Pérez's Kick the Bucket. Khoo explained in the Q & A that it was originally created for a man and a woman and that he had adapted the female role for himself.  The scene opened with Khoo on stage dressed in loosely fitting shirt and trousers. He started a monologue. Corredor, a much taller man dressed in similar garments, placed his hand over Khoo's mouth and stopped the flow of words. There then followed several minutes of the most intense interactions which looked at times like embraces and at other times like combat. It was danced to a percussive ever-changing score. Some of the music sounded Indian to me. The lighting was impressive, particularly towards the end when the dancers' figures were amplified as silhouettes on the backdrop.  In the Q & A, one of the audience members described the work as "unsettling". It was certainly challenging.

There was a short break for a scene change during which we were asked not to leave our seats. Then the curtain rose to a washing line around the stage.  Dancers appeared in the background.  In the foreground a man lay on the stage dressed only in his underpants. He was drawn up by the other dancers all of whom appeared to wear black nose attachments on elastic bands rather like the red noses that some of us wear on "Red Nose Day." The man in his pants uttered a cry which was answered by a sustained yell from one of the females. I guess she must have represented his mother. They helped him into a suit of clothes.  Then they made him put on a black nose.  At one point, the dancer tried to remove the attachment but was compelled to put it on again by the other dancers. There followed various scenes in life which I think must have represented education, adolescence, maturity, old age and, finally, death.  Technically the dancers were very accomplished.  Their turns and jumps were as polished as those of the corps of the Bolshoi.

At the curtain call, Khoo emerged with Corredor. Khoo acknowledged the applause with a namaskar.  In the Q & A, Gita remarked that he was trained in Bharatanatyam as well as contemporary and ballet and asked which style he preferred for telling a story.  She added that she had also studied a little of each of those three dance disciplines and had found the hand movements in Indian classical dance to be particularly expressive. Khoo acknowledged that it had been a good question. He answered that he had regarded them as different ways of expressing the same thing.

The company has two more engagements, Liverpool tonight and Sadler's Wells on the 9 and 10.  If readers can get to see these remarkable talents.  I may be wrong but I think Malta may become Europe's Cuba. By that, I mean a small island with an enormous reputation for dance.  There's something about small islands and dance. Come to think of it, Great Britain is a small island too. Bigger by far than Malta or even Cuba, of course, but not when compared to Australia, Greenland or Madagascar.  We also have quite a lot of dance.

Post Script

I am grateful to Rodolfo Barrades for sending me the cast list for Friday's performance.

ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble

Double Bill - Kick the Bucket & HOME

Malta’s national contemporary dance company, ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble, present a double bill of works by critically acclaimed choreographers Iván Pérez – Kick the Bucket and Artistic Director Mavin Khoo – HOME.

Presenting to UK audiences for the first time this double bill will present distinctive works that demonstrate the versatility and diversity of the company within its Euro-Mediterranean context and sensibility.

Credits:

Kick the Bucket

Choreography: Iván Pérez Avilés

Composer: Aaron Martin

Costume Design: Carlijn Petermeijer

Costume Making: Lula Alvarez/Andrew Coombs

Lighting Design: Peter Lemmens

Décor: Iván Pérez Avilés

Text: Eckhart Tolle

Dancers: Mavin Khoo, Gabin Corredor

HOME

Choreography: Mavin Khoo and dancers of the ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble

Protagonist Voice: Felix Brunger

Sound Design, Composition & Arrangement: Niels Plotard

Rehearsal Directors: Celia Amade, Athanasia Kanellopoulou, Nico Monaco, Paolo Mangiola

Dramaturgy: Celia Amade, Denise Mulholland

Lighting Design: Moritz Zavan Stoeckle

Costume Design and Making: Deborah Rossetto NO.ME

Text: Mavin Khoo

Additional Music: Lament Il-Kappillan Ta' Malta - Mario Sammut; I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling - Annette Hanshaw

Dancers: Emma Walker, Florinda Camilleri, Martina Zammit, Danae Dimitriadi, Keith Micallef, Jure Gostinčar, João Castro, Nico Monaco.

Supported by the 2017 Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Malta, and Arts Council Malta.

Sponsors: Intercontinental Malta, Korzo Theatre.

ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble's UK Tour

ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble

(c) 2017 ŻfinMalta Dance EnsembleL all rights reserved
Reproduced wth kind permission of CAST on behalf of the company

We are likely to hear quite a lot from Malta over the next 6 months as it holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. It will be to the Maltese government that our ministers will deliver notice of this country's intention to leave the EU under art 50 (2) of the Treaty on European Union. Malta is one of our best and oldest friends having resisted gallantly ferocious attacks by Axis forces during the second world war for which the whole population was awarded the George Cross. An emblem that continues to appear on its national flag. That small island republic is an important partner in the Commonwealth as well as the EU - at least for the time being.

Even though it has a population of only 450,000 Malta has a rich culture. Its national language is Semitic though English is another official language and Italian is widely spoken. It is 50 miles south of Sicily and about 200 miles north of Libya and Tunisia. It has been influenced by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors, Normans, Sicilians, Spanish, Knights of St. John, French and British, all of whom have occupied the country at one time or another.

That rich heritage which is both Mediterranean and European is alluded to by ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble, Mata's national contemporary dance company, on the "Company" page of its website:

"ŻMDE is the repertory national company of Malta that aims to thrive in the sharing and employment of a wide range of repertoire ranging from new works created in Malta by both local and international choreographers (upcoming and established) as well as the re-staging of renowned works from all over the world, thus creating a company of versatility, whilst maintaining a clear identity with its Euro-Mediterranean roots,"

The company is directed by Mavin Khoo who studied Bharata Natyam, the Cunningham technique in New York and classical ballet with various distinguished teachers around the world and has worked with Wayne McGregor, Akram Khan and Shobana Jeyasingh among others.  Its dancers come from Malta and many other countries.

ŻMDE is about to tour the UK with "five works designed to take the audience on a journey of discovery, passion and intricate choreography."  The tour starts in Swansea on 26 Jan 2017 and will move on to Birmingham on the 27, Doncaster on the 1 Feb, Derby on 2, Liverpool on the 3 and Sadler's Wells on the 9 and 10.

The performance in Doncaster will take place at CAST which I visited on 21 May 2015 to see Northern Ballet's Madame Butterfly (see Nixon's Masterpiece 22 May 2015) and Ballet Black last year (see Ballet Black in Doncaster 3 Nov 2016). The company will perform Home by Mavin Khoo and Kick the Bucket by the Spanish choreographer, Iván Pérez. Home is inspired by Spanish cinema and the films of Pedro Almodóvar. The dancers weave a cinematic narrative as the life of one man unravels on stage. Kick the Bucket is an emotional dance duet about life and death. Tickets for the performance in Doncaster will cost £16.50 (£14.50 concessions) each and may be ordered from the box office on 01302 303 959 or online at castindoncaster.com.

Rodolfo Barradas, Marketing and Communications Officer of CAST, has kindly brought this tour to my attention and supplied me with the photo that appears above. He has also sent me the text of an interview with Mavin Khoo which I plan to publish shortly before ŻMDE visits Doncaster. I also hope to find out more about dance in Malta generally. I have already discovered that there is a Russian ballet school in the republic and a dance department at the national university. I have also seen some impressive videos of some of the country's ballet students. For a place with a population not much bigger than the metropolitan borough of Doncaster occupying a very much smaller land area there appears to be a lot going on.

Ballet Black in Doncaster

Ballet Black, Triple Bill, CAST, Doncaster, 2 Nov 2016

Yesterday Ballet Black made its debut at the CAST Theatre in Doncaster with its triple bill of Cristaux, To Begin, Begin and Storyville. Considering that the performance was in direct competition with the live streaming of the Royal Ballet's Anastasia and that the centre of Doncaster resembled a ghost town last night as I tramped around pedestrian streets and plazas looking for the theatre, the company did very well to attract a fair sized crowd.

The programme was the same as the one I had seen in Leeds on the 15 Oct 2016 (see Never Better: Ballet Black in Leeds 16 Oct 2016) and at the Lowry on the 19 June 2016 (see Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016). Two of my friends wondered why I wanted to see the show a third time rather than the Royal Ballet screening. The answer is that there are some ballets that one can see time after time and still find something new while there are others for which one performance is quite enough even if that performance did take place in 1971 and the cast included Lynn Seymour, Antoinette Sibley and Svetlana Berisosva. Once I have made up my mind about a ballet, no amount of peer pressure on Facebook or BalletcoForum, marketing hype or rave reviews by journalists who are likely to have seen far fewer ballets than I have and who probably think a frappé is a type of coffee will change my mind.

So did I see anything new in Doncaster? Why, yes I did. On the previous occasions I had seen Arthur Pita's Cristaux my eyes had been on Cira Robinson rather than on Mthuthuzeli November. This time I concentrated on him and realized how much I had been missing. He begins the dance and it ends with him. My eyes have gravitated towards Robinson on the previous occasions because its title means Crystals and her tutu and headdress seem to sparkle with crystals. But November is splendid too in his costume of shiny blue which also has an odd sparkling stone or two. And it is he who leads the ballerina round the stage with his glissades and piqués.

Having seen To Begin, Begin in rehearsal at the Friends' event in July (see Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney 14 July 2016) where the audience discussed it at length with the choreographer I think I learned to love it more. This is a ballet that Sayaka Ichikawa makes her own. It is she who is hoisted into the air seemingly by the stream of silk and later enveloped by it as though she were the madonna. But Ichikawa was not the only dancer to shine. So too did her partner, Jacob Wye, as well as Damien Johnson, Jose Alves, Isabela Coracy and Marie-Astrid Mence who were the other couples in the piece.

There were some interesting cast changes in Christopher Hampson's Storyville which helped me to understand it better. Johnson, who had previously danced Nola's lover, was Mack in last night's show while Jacob Wye became her lover. Coracy danced Lulu which had previously been danced by Ichikawa. Those changes introduced a new dynamic into the ballet. Johnson dances with considerable authority which is why he is ideally suited for such roles as Oberon in Arthur Pita's Dream or the dad in Marney's Dogs Don't Do Ballet. Because he carries such authority it is a shock to see him playing a villain. He used that authority to spice that role with menace. By contrast, Wye seemed fresh-faced, sensitive, almost as vulnerable as Nola. How he must have suffered as that beautiful creature sank into alcoholic despair. Coracy was a great Lulu. She can play mean in a way that other dancers can't. My heart missed a beat as Lulu plunged a hat pin into the heart of Nola's rag doll. And Nola? Robinson was as beautiful as ever.

Yesterday was a bittersweet moment. It was the last time I would see beautiful Ballet Black this year and, in many ways, this tour was the company's best ever. When I booked my seat at the front of the stalls I had thought of throwing flowers London style at those wonderful dancers. My plan was defeated as no shops were open in the Frenchgate Centre yesterday evening. Probably just as well because the CAST is a fine theatre for dance and I would hate to be banned from it. As was said by a kind Doncastrian (is that right for a denizen of Doncaster?) who had tried to direct me to Sheffield in the belief that there were no theatres nearby when I asked for directions to the CAST: "We're in Donny, love". So the dancers will have to content themselves with verbal flowers - but they and their director and choreographers each deserved the biggest bouquet I could carry for their performances last night.

Last Chance to see Ballet Black in the North

South Yorkshire

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Ballet Black are coming towards the end of their national tour with the triple bill that David Murley saw at the Barbican (see Ballet Black at the Barbican 22 March 2016) and I saw at the Lowry and Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre (see Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016 and Never Better: Ballet Black in Leeds 18 Oct 2016). The company usually makes an appearance in Leeds but this year they have spoilt their fans in the North with performances of Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale (see As Fresh as Ever: Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale 7 May 2016 and I never tire of Dogs Don't Do Ballet 8 May 2016) as well as those I have already mentioned and their forthcoming visit to the CAST theatre in Doncaster on 2 Nov 2016.

As I mentioned in my review of Northern Ballet's Madame Butterfly (Nixon's Masterpiece) on 22 May 2015 CAST is  "a £22 million municipal theatre that opened in 2013 (Ian Youngs £22m Cast theatre opens in Doncaster 6 Sept 2013 BBC website)" and is one of the plushest performing spaces I know. It has attracted not just Northern Ballet but also Wayne McGregor and other dance companies. This will be Ballet Black's debut in Doncaster and tickets seem to be selling well (see the "Book Tickets" page on the theatre's website).

In my humble opinion, this year's programme is the company's best ever with works by three of my favourite choreographers including Christopher Marney (artistic director of Ballet Central) whose work reminds me so much of John Cranko and Christopher Hampson of Scottish Ballet who was my joint choreographer of the year for 2015 (see Highlights of 2015  29 Dec 2015). All the works in this year's programme are sombre. Storyville which charts the destruction of a beautiful young woman is particularly sad. But they are also very beautiful.  Ballet Black is a company that delivers the sort of works that Luke Jennings seemed to be calling for on Front Row  on Monday which I discussed in Of Bikes and Buses 25 Oct 2016. I can't imagine why nobody on the programme mentioned that.

Ballet Black's remaining performances of the triple bill will be in Exeter, Watford, Harlow and Lichfield. Soon they will begin work on a new programme which will open at the Barbican on 2 March 2017. I gleaned the following details from the Barbican's website:

"A four-hander characterised by intricate detail and propulsive energy, Captured ebbs and flows to the fiery emotion of Martin Lawrance’s edgy choreography, set to a Shostakovich string quartet.
Celebrated British choreographer Michael Corder, whose glittering versions of Cinderellaand The Snow Queen have been seen across Europe, creates the evening’s second abstract piece for four dancers.
South Bank Sky Arts Award-winner Annabelle Lopez Ochoa turns a popular fairy tale on its head, as she gives her short narrative ballet a surprising twist. This time, the Wolf will regret ever meeting Red Riding Hood."

Those who like Ballet Black may wish to consider the company's Friends scheme. Membership does not cost much and it provides opportunities to get to know the company better.  Friends receive an occasional newsletter and invitations to attend events like the rehearsal of Marney's To Begin, Begin at the Barbican (see Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney 14 July 2016).

Damien Johnson

Damien Johnson in the Linbury, bar after the show 14 Feb 2015

Author Jane Lambert
(c) 2015 Jane Lambert: all rights reserved

One of the most exciting dancers on the British stage right now is Damien Johnson of Ballet Black. Just now he is at home in the United States having spent a short spell in Bermuda but he will be back in London at the end of September to perform in Ballet Black's Triple Bill at the Millfield Arts Centre in Edmonton. He will also dance with the company in Newcastle, Leeds, Glasgow, Doncaster, Exeter, Watford, Harlow and Lichfield.

David Murley reviewed the production in Ballet Black in the Barbican on 22 March 2016 and I reviewed it when it came to The Lowry on 19 June 2016 in Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016. In my humble opinion it is the best show that I have ever seen the company do but with works by Christopher Hampson, Christopher Marney and Arthur Pita how could it be otherwise. At Ballet Black's First Friends' Event  I was lucky enough to watch Marney work with Johnson and Isabela Coracy as well as Jacob Wye and Sayaka Ichikawa. To watch a genius (not my word but Sir Matthew Bourne's when tweeting about Marney but an opinion that I heartily share) at work with four of the most talented dancers I know was a rare delight.

I am prompted to write about Johnson again because he has just posted the following message on Facebook

"Hey everyone, check out my website... Someone special made it for me 💚😘"

I did his bidding. I visited his website at  http://damienjohnsonballet.com/ and I am very impressed. The website summarizes his history. I had no idea that he had worked with Dance Theatre of Harlem.  I loved that company when they visited London in the early 1970s and I wish they would return. There are some great photos of him as well as a video of a rehearsal at The Barbican. Johnson teachers and there is a contact form for those who wish to engage him.

I am sure my readers will join me in wishing him a very pleasant holiday in the United States and a safe journey back to the UK. I shall be in the audience at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds and the Cast in Doncaster.

Northern Ballet's Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte

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On 17 Sept 2015 Northern Ballet announced that it had commissioned Cathy Marston to create a new ballet called Jane Eyre based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë to a score by Philip Feeney. The ballet is to be premièred on 19 May 2016 at CAST in Doncaster where I saw Madame Butterfly earlier this year (see Nixon's Masterpiece 22 May 2015). It will also be performed in Richmond upon Thames, Aylesbury, Wolverhampton, Stoke on Trent and Leicester over subsequent days.

Marston was the artistic director of the Bern Ballet between 2007 and 2013 where she created a large number of new works.  One of them is Wuthering Heights which is rather different from David Nixon's version (see Wuthering Heights 19 March 2015).  Marston, like Brontë, was born in the North but she was brought up in Cambridge and London and spent most of her adult life in Switzerland.  She speaks about her life and her work in this video.

For Wuthering Heights Marston commissioned a score from Dave Maric. For her other work by a Brontë sister she will collaborate with a composer who has already written many scores for Northern Ballet (see Cinderella, Dracula and Christopher Gable's Cinderella).  I have had the pleasure of watching him play for Ballet Central when they have visited The Lowry and Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatres (see Central Forward 25 March 2013 and Dazzled 3 May 2015). The set designer is Patrick Kinmonth and the lighting engineer is Al West.  They will have a field day staging the fire.

No casting has been announced yet. I guess Tobias Batley and Martha Leebolt must be favourites for Jane and Mr Rochester. Blow and Bateman are also obvious alternates for Jane and maybe Takahashi for Rochester. I can only speculate who will be unfortunate enough to dance poor, mad Mrs Rochester. I can see a nice role for one of the younger dancers in  Helen and two horrible ones in Aunt Reed and the Rev Brocklehurst.  If you have not yet read Jane Eyre you can download it for free in several versions from Project Gutenberg.

Although I think Northern Ballet has quite enough ballets based on GCSE set texts as it is I am looking forward to this work, At the symposium on narrative dance earlier this year David Nixon said that the company was best known for that type of ballet.  Marston describes herself as

"a choreographer, who joins the artistic dots and creates form for stories, emotions and ideas. She gives new perspectives to old narratives; opens original ideas to new audiences and crafts unexpected matches between classical and contemporary art forms."

Elsewhere she adds:

"During her six year tenure in Switzerland directing the Bern Ballett, her British ‘respect for the playwright’ became influenced by the ideas of German theatre and ‘Director’s Theatre’, resulting in her unique, hybrid signature. Lending new perspectives to old narratives in her version of Chekov’s Three Sisters, or in her historically-inspired Witch-hunt: both are danced-stories stripped back to their essence and displaying high quality technique and unflinching expressive integrity."

Let's hope she remembers that the audiences the company is likely to find in Doncaster and the other mid-size venues will not be like those she found in Bern and that most of them will have very fixed ideas about Jane Eyre.

Junior Company's Stay in London

Dutch National Ballet Junior Company - Visions Fugitives

Photo: Michael Scluter
(c) 2015 Dutch National Ballet, All Rights Reserved

Reproduced with kind permission of the company

In my review of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's performance at The Linbury on Saturday I mentioned Ernst Meisner's announcement that the company would be staying on for few days to work with the Royal Ballet's choreographers. I have just noticed an article by Lottie Butler on the Royal Opera House's website which provides some details (see Butler  The Royal Ballet Studio Programme – sparking choreographic talent and keeping ballet fresh (5 June 2015),

After describing the Royal Ballet Studio Programme in general terms, Butler writes:

"Visiting companies form an important part of The Royal Ballet Studio Programme – which programmes the dance in the Linbury and produces choreographic projects. This week alone has seen Springboard companies Ballet Central (Central School of Ballet),Verve (Northern School of Contemporary Dance), Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and Dutch National Ballet Junior Company take to the stage in the Linbury. Following their performances, the Junior Company will remain at the Royal Opera House for a four-day, choreographic workshop."

She adds:

"The company will spend each of the four days with a different choreographer – Charlotte Edmonds (the first participant of The Royal Ballet Young Choreographer programme), James Cousins, Fukiko Takase and Catarina Carvalho (both from Wayne McGregor | Random Dance) – and show their work in an informal setting at the end of each session."

After quoting Emma Southworth, Butler describes the workshop as "a  key part of the programme’s drive to find and nurture new choreographic talent."

The article then goes on to consider the Royal Ballet's collaboration with other companies including Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. In this regard it is worth mentioning Northern Ballet's Choreographic Lab on 20 June 2015 and Wayne McGregor's Random Dance's visit to Doncaster tomorrow,

Nixon's Masterpiece

Northern Ballet, Madame Butterfly with Perpetuum Mobile, CAST Doncaster, 21 May 2015


Yesterday Northern Ballet began a nationwide tour of venues that it has not visited before or not visited for some time. In the programme David Nixon, the company's artistic director, wrote:

"I am excited that you are joining us for a new tour, an initiative inspired to make quality dance available to more people an to expand the creativity and diversity of Northern Ballet's programming,"

The tour opened at CAST in Doncaster, a £22 million municipal theatre that opened in 2013 (Ian Youngs £22m Cast theatre opens in Doncaster 6 Sept 2013 BBC website). It will go on to Blackpool, Liverpool Playhouse, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Richmond, Bromley, Stoke, Aylesbury and Hull.

The choice of Doncaster as the starting point for the tour is interesting. Planning for the tour must have begun well before the general election. It may or may not be relevant that the town is represented in Parliament by Mesdames Rosie Winterton and Caroline Flint and by Mr Ed Miliband. Had the election gone the way that the opinion polls and many Labour Party strategists predicted Northern Ballet would have been performing in the town of the Prime Minister and two Cabinet Ministers. Some very influential people would have been in the audience. Some kind of event appears to have taken place yesterday because I met Lauren Godfrey, the company's communications manager, in the foyer clutching a bunch of programmes that were not for sale and I spotted Mark Skipper, the company's chief executive, near her.

Spending £20 million on a theatre at a time of austerity when local authorities have been cutting back on all sorts of services might seem extravagant to some. I have to say that my heart sank when I first saw the theatre from the street leading from the Civic Quarter car park. It looked as though it belonged in a different era and perhaps even a different country. I don't like the architecture one little bit. Its style is monumental and bombastic. It would not have looked out of place in 1960s Harlow or indeed the German Democratic Republic. However, I do like the theatre. The seats in the main auditorium are comfortable with plenty of leg room. Everyone has a good view of the stage. Provision is made for late comers. I paid £16 for my ticket in row I of the stalls not counting my donation to the theatre and a 50p booking fee. I was served a soft drink in the interval without queuing at the price I would expect to pay in a pub or café by a very pleasant barman and found a choice of unoccupied tables. It is a few hundred yards from the car park where I paid £2 for an evening's parking. I could have come by train from more or less anywhere on the British mainland as the mainline railway station is nearby. I could even have arrived by air because Doncaster has an international airport.

The Council justifies its £20 million expenditure as part of a regeneration package for the town that has lost much of its heavy industry.  I am no fan of public funding for the arts but the performing arts are one of the things that make life worth living. If such expenditure retains the brightest and best of Doncaster's inhabitants and perhaps even attracts wealth creators from elsewhere to the town I am all for it. Certainly there were signs that that might be happening for the theatre was packed. Even allowing for the possibility that some of the seats were occupied by those attending a shindig that was impressive. It was an appreciative crowd that knew when and where to clap. They clearly liked the show for several rose to their feet at the curtain call.

The company deserved a standing ovation because I don't think I have ever seen it dance better and I have seen some pretty good shows in the past (for example, see Realizing Another Dream 15 Sept 2013, Angelic - Northern Ballet's Mixed Bill 9 June 2013 and Sapphire 15 March 2015). The evening began with Christopher Hampson's Perpetuum Mobile which would have been enough for me had there been nothing else to see. I am a great admirer of Hampson's work and can't see enough of it. That ballet had delighted me when I saw it as part of the Mixed Programme on the 9 May 2015 and it was, if anything, even better this time round. I loved the leaps and elegant turns but most of all I enjoyed Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley's pas de deux. However, the main offering of the evening was David Nixon's Madame Butterfly. I had not seen it before and it took my breath away. I have seen a fair selection of Nixon's work and in my humble opinion Madame Butterfly is his masterpiece.

The ballet follows the story of Puccini's opera fairly closely. Like the opera it addresses some big issues like racism, clash of cultures, the oppression of women etc. When you think about it, Madame Butterfly has quite a lot in common with Giselle though unlike that ballet there is no happy ending in Madame Butterfly even beyond the grave. It is a powerful, brutal story in which no punches are pulled. The final scene of Cio-Cio alone on stage, desolate, plunging the sword into her body is one of the most affecting I have ever seen in the theatre not just in ballet but in any of the performing arts. 

Cio-Cio San was performed by Pippa Moore, a beautiful dancer whom I already admired greatly. Yesterday she soared even higher in my esteem and affection. How she delighted us with her ecstatic jumps as she anticipated the return of her husband. How she mimicked his salutes and handshakes much to the amusement of Suzuki danced by Luisa Rocco. How she punished Goro (Matthew Koon) with nicks from her fan for his temerity in presenting another suitor. How we suffered with her at her final betrayal when she was forced to confront Kate Pinkerton (Lucia Solari) after the cowardly Lieutenant had disappeared unable to face her.

Pinkerton was danced by Kelley McKinlay, a guest artist from Canada. He performed that role well. Dashing and swaggering in the opening scenes as he wooed Cio-Cio but faltering and weak in the last as he left it to his wife to snatch their son from her. Kevin Poeung and Isaac Lee-Baker were Pinkerton's brother officers, lads on the town in a foreign port having the time of their lives. Ashley Dixon danced Sharpless, the consul with a conscience. Hironeo Takahashi danced the menacing Shinto priest Bonze and the hapless suitor Yamadori.

John Logstaff's orchestration  of Puccini's music was very successful. All the well known and well loved tunes were there. The score was opened and closed with what I assume to be traditional Japanese music. The voice that accompanied Cio-Cio's preparation for her ritual suicide was haunting and chilling but also strangely beautiful. The set designs - particularly the massive orb and the icons - were impressive as was Alistair West's lighting.

Other Reviews

Vera Liber   Madame Butterfly with Perpetuum Mobile British Theatre Guide