Scottish Ballet to revive Dawson's Swan Lake

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One of the most remarkable performances that I have attended was David Dawson's Swan 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 Generation on 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).

The dancers expected to take part in the show include Aisling Brangan, Barnaby Rook Bishop, Claire Souet, Evan Loudon and Thomas Edwards.

This is one of the best productions of Swan Lake that I have ever seen and in Scottish Ballet's brilliant repertoire this work shines brightest.

Ballet West's Winter Tour ................... and a bit of McGonegall

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Not long now before Ballet West's tour of Scotland.  Once again they are dancing The Nutcracker.  They danced that ballet at Pitlochry the first time I ever saw them.  My review of their performance is my very first post.  I am very grateful to Ballet West for allowing me to attend class with their undergraduates earlier this year (see Visiting Taynuilt 4 May 2018).

As usual they will begin their tour in Oban on 26 Jan 2019.  They will proceed to Stirling on 2 Feb, Dundee on 5 Feb, Livingston on 7 Feb, Glasgow on 9 Feb, Greenock on 15 Feb and Edinburgh on 22 Feb.   Dundee is a new venue.   They will perform at the Gardyne Theatre which is a new auditorium on the campus of  Dundee and Angus College along the way to Broughty Ferry.  I know it well.

I think that is where I shall see the show because it is not far from my alma mater  (see Thoughts on St Andrew's Day  1 Dec 2016).   The performance in Dundee takes place on a Tuesday.  With any luck I can resume my old place at the barre in the beginners' class at the St Andrews Dance Club some 50 years after I learned my first plié.   According to the Club's Facebook page, that class meets in the town hall at 14:00 on Wednesdays.

In Thoughts on St Andrew's Day, I quoted Andrew Laing's atmospheric first verse of his Almae Matres.   That poem never fails to cheer me up when I miss Scotland.    Dundee also has a bard in William Topaz McGonogall.  You may be amused by one of his poems:

"Oh, Bonnie Dundee! I will sing in thy praise
A few but true simple lays,
Regarding some of your beauties of the present day
And virtually speaking, there’s none can them gainsay;
There’s no other town I know of with you can compare
For spinning mills and lasses fair,
And for stately buildings there’s none can excel
The beautiful Albert Institute or the Queen’s Hotel."

Both of those buildings remain though the Albert Institute is now known as "The McManus".

I digress.  Wherever you see the show it will delight you.  Especially the Mother Ginger divertissement. 

"A Many Sided Genius" - Tindall on Casanova

Kenneth Tindall

(c) 2015 Northern Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced wth kind permission of  Northern Ballet

Next Saturday will be the first night of Casanova which Northern Ballet will launch at Leeds Grand Theatre. Between the 11 March and 13 May 2017, the company will dance the ballet at Leeds, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Cardiff, The Lowry and Sadler's Wells. Last Monday, the choreographer of the ballet, Kenneth Tindall, gave me an exclusive interview in which we discussed the ballet, his interests and hopes for the future. 

What impressed me most in my conversation with Kenneth Tindall was not so much what he said but the way he said it. Though he spoke softly he did so confidently, with a clear vision, and a determined focus. Tindall is still a young man and Casanova is his first full-length commission. It is obvious from the costumes on display at the Casanova Unmasked preview and from the number of venues in which this ballet is to be performed that a lot rides on this production. Tindall readily acknowledged the risks when I put it to him that this project could make or break Northern Ballet. Yet where others might see risk he sees opportunity. He emphasized the strengths of his dancers and of his creative team. He spoke enthusiastically of their capacity to deliver a quality of performance and production to be surpassed by none.

That enthusiasm was infectious. I must admit to some private concern when I first wrote about Casanova on 24 May 2016. Tindall had created one act ballets like The Architect and Luminous Junc*ture that had appealed to audiences and critics (including Mel, Joanna and me) but, again as he agreed when I put it to him, the jump from one-act to full-length is an exponential and qualitative leap - not merely doubling or tripling of effort.  However, after 45 minutes with Tindall my concerns evaporated. I am as confident as I can be of anything in ballet that this production will succeed spectacularly.

Tindall is used to overcoming odds. He was one of 8 children to be selected from 250 candidates at his audition for the Central School of Ballet. The nation’s ballet schools are full of talented students but only a handful find employment in a top regional ballet company. Of that handful only a few become principals (or, as Northern calls them, “premier dancers”). As a premier dancer, he had a considerable following. He was especially admired for his roles as Wadjet in Cleopatra and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. When his retirement was announced in the Friends of Northern Ballet newsletter. I wrote in Kenneth Tindall on 28 Feb 2015 that it:

“contained a headline that made me root for a tissue - just for a second - before I also raised a smile. The headline was "Kenneth Tindall is retiring" and that was the bit that made me sad for he is one of my favourite dancers but my sadness was tempered with the words ‘award-winning Kenneth is moving on to a career as a Freelance Choreographer after gaining recognition for his work with Northern Ballet and other artists.’"

I amplified the reason for my smile in the last paragraph:

“He has an international following which was brought home to me when I visited Amsterdam earlier this month (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015). His name came up whenever I mentioned Northern Ballet or Leeds at the party after the show. Perhaps not so surprising for a choreographer who has already won a fistful of awards and nominations. He is still a young man and his career - though meteoric - has only just begun. I look forward to great things.”

I believe that Casanova will be the first of those great things.

At Casanova Unmasked on 15 Feb 2017 Tindall had told us that a ballet on the life of Giacomo Casanova had been one of three ideas that he had pitched to Northern Ballet’s artistic director, David Nixon. Nixon liked the idea and invited Tindall to refine his proposal. Tindall did some reading and came across Ian Kelly’s biography. He approached Kelly for a licence but he and Kelly got on so well that he invited Kelly to help him develop the story. Though Kelly is an actor and dramatist this is the first time he will have worked on a ballet. I asked Tindall how he came to hear of the historical Casanova. He replied that he had seen some film or TV footage and an article in the New York Times.

I had asked Tindall about his collaboration with his composer Kerry Muzzey at Casanova Unmasked recalling historical accounts of Petipa’s collaboration with his composers. Tindall had replied that unlike Petipa’s relationship with his composers his relationship with Muzzey had been a two-way process. In the interview I asked him to elaborate on his answer as he was in Leeds and Muzzey was in Los Angeles. In the early days, Tindall said, there had been Skype calls at least three time times a week. These had tapered off to two a week and were continuing at that rate right up to the present. I asked whether these conversations ever involved Kelly. Tindall replied that they did. He might play some music to Kelly who might reply with an observation such as “I can really feel Venice.” That was important as he and Kelly aimed to create a ballet about the times of Casanova as well as on his life.

Tindall emphasised more than once the importance of the story. 

“You need to have a libretto,” he said, “that is everything.” 

The plot is based on Kelly’s book but, he explained, yet it is not the book. 

That prompted me to ask about one of the main characters in the ballet, Father Balbi. According to the synopsis, the ballet opens with:

“A mass in honour of the new French Ambassador Cardinal de Bernis. Among the church clerics is aspiring priest Giacomo Casanova who has arrived late with his pupils the Savorgnan sisters. In the congregation is Father Balbi who has with him a book forbidden by the church. Balbi gives the book to a curious Casanova. After the mass the Three Inquisitors accost Balbi believing him to be still in possession of the forbidden book”

From what I could remember from my own reading, Casanova first met Balbi in gaol. Balbi had facilitated Casanova’s escape from the Piombi (or “the Leads”) prison that adjoins the Doge’s palace. Casanova’s life was surely colourful enough without inventing incidents, I suggested. What about his relationship with his mother? Kelly had told us at Casanova Unmasked that Casanova had been born while his mother was in a play. Immediately after he had been delivered she returned on stage for the next act.

Tindall replied that Balbi had been introduced early in the ballet to illustrate the repression of ideas by the Inquisition, the thought police of 18th century Venice. The book that Balbi handed to Casanova in the ballet was the Kabbalah, the Jewish theological work that had been proscribed by the Venetian authorities. Both Balbi and Casanova had read the Kabbalah, Tindall added. It was quite possible for Casanova to have known Balbi and even for Balbi to have given Casanova a copy of the Kabbalah before they met in prison.

Tindall and Kelly had thought about including Casanova’s relationship with his mother in the context of his treatment of women but had rejected it because this ballet is not just about sex. Sex is important, Tindall continued, because Casanova had written so much about it and so explicitly in his life story, but he was a many-sided genius. The imperative was to show different sides to that life. Tindall noted that Casanova’s conquests averaged 4 a year which was not much for a libertine. Thinking of Leporello’s catalogue of his master’s conquests in Don Giovanni, I could not help but agree:

“In Italia seicento e quaranta; In Alemagna duecento e trentuna; Cento in Francia, in Turchia novantuna; Ma in Ispagna son già mille e tre.”

“In Italy 640; In Germany 231; 100 in France, 91 in Turkey; But in Spain, 1003 and counting.”

Casanova’s philanderings had been on quite a different scale. I reminded Tindall of my speculation on whether Casanova might even be regarded as a proto-feminist. Quite possibly, he replied. Casanova said that he had never conquered a woman’s heart. He had always submitted.

That led us to the first of the extracts that we had seen at the preview on the 15 Feb 2017 where Casanova (danced by Giuliano Contadini) had met Bellino (Dreda Blow) and the way Tindall had represented by mime and dance the dropping of the mask and the developing of trust. I remarked that that had reminded me very much of Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour in the balcony scene from MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet (see Rachel Thomas Romeo and Juliet Dance Highlight: The Balcony pas de deux 3 Sept 2015 Royal Opera House website). Tindall willingly accepted that possibility. He had after all been trained in Central which had been founded by Gable and Gable had directed Northern Ballet. Gable had been an important influence on his work. “But” he added with emphasis, “so was David Nixon”. 

At Casanova Unmasked Nixon had said that “he had been allowed to play with Kenny toys” in that he was acting as Tindall’s ballet master. “Quite a role reversal having been directed by Nixon for 14 years” I suggested. Tindall agreed adding that Nixon was performing the role of ballet master to perfection.

We talked about the role of choreographer which Tindall compared to that of a film director. The roles were similar and maybe even converging as techniques and technology that had been developed for the cinema were increasingly used in ballet. I recalled the filming of The Architect to which project I had contributed (see Tindall's Architect - How to Get a Piece of the Action - Literally! 7 June 2014). I asked whether another film might result from Casanova. Tindall’s eyes sparkled. No concrete plans as yet, he said, but would it not be splendid to film Act I in Venice and Act II in Paris.
“How do choreographers learn their trade?” I asked.
“They ask as they go along” was the reply. “For instance, they ask the lighting designer why he places a spot there? and ‘what would happen if he changed a filter here?”
I was reminded of my conversation with Cristiano Principato in Trecate (my Outstanding Young Choreographer of 2016 28 Dec 2016). He told me that he even had to operate the lighting himself.
“He is quite right,” added Tindall. His message to Principato and any other aspiring choreographer was:

“a choreographer has to know everybody’s job. For instance, I asked Christopher Oram our designer ‘How do you start with scenery or a character’s clothes.”

I have never been a dancer but I have done several intensive workshops where we started with floor exercises at 10:00, then 90 minutes class followed by wall to wall rehearsals until cool down at 17:00. That was exhausting enough for me but dancers have to pack in a performance on top and maybe even a matinee as well. 

“How do you fit all that in?” I asked.
“When you take on a project like this you put your life on hold” Tindall replied.  “You are always thinking about it, running scenes through your mind, even in your sleep.”
“But you need to turn it off occasionally” he quickly added, “otherwise you would go insane”
I asked Tindall how he switched off. “Meditation” was the reply, “and the cinema.” Tindall added that he is a great film buff. He even refers to the cinema as “church.”

We talked about the promotion of the ballet. “You see posters for the ballet everywhere in Leeds” I noted. He replied that it had been marketed very cleverly and that advanced ticket sales at all venues had been encouraging.

“This ballet will compare with anything that could have emerged from the Royal Opera’s workshops” but at a fraction of the cost.”

I reflected that the sets and costumes have to be robust to be brought out time and time again then packed away in a lorry for another destination, possibly on the other side of the country. I noted that Oram had never designed for the ballet before. Tindall saw that as an advantage. Oram will bring a fresh approach to his task as Kelly has done with the libretto.

“So what’s your next project?” I asked, “if you can tell me without risking commercial confidentiality.”
The answer was a triple bill in Germany 8 days later.

As for the longer term, Tindall would love his work to be performed in America.

“You never know” I replied, “only this weekend we have made contact with a company in Miami that seems to have a lot in common with Northern Ballet (see Miami City Ballet 26 Feb 2017. “I would cross the Atlantic to see your work in the USA” I added.

I asked him whether he aspired to be a resident choreographer somewhere. He replied that he had thought of it.

“How about forming his company or directing an existing one?”
That, too, was a possibility but for now he was content with freelancing.

“And how about film?” I suggested. “You would not be the first choreographer to cross over to that medium? Look at Helpmann, Shearer........”

“And Gable” he added.
Yet again his eyes lit up.
We discussed the convergence of film and ballet, experiments in 360 and other technologies. I mentioned Peter Leung’s Night Fall and the Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker (see Virtual Reality in Ballet 13 Sep 2016 We could have explored that topic alone for at least another 45 minutes and maybe longer but Tindall had to prepare for a rehearsal.

Kenneth Tindall is much more than a choreographer. At the risk of embarrassing him, I would say that he, like the subject of his ballet, is a many-sided genius.

I shall be at the premiere next week and my review will appear next Sunday.  I wish the casts of this production "chookas", "toi-toi-toi" or whatever greeting theatrical and balletic tradition permits.

Danza Contemporánea de Cuba

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In Double Latin  7 Jan 2017 I mentioned the forthcoming tour of the UK by Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. While writing Beautiful Ballet Black 14 Jan 2017 I remembered that Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, who choreographed A Streetcar Named Desire for Scottish Ballet and Little Red Riding Hood for Ballet Black, will also contribute Reversible to the Cuban tour.

The above trailer gives us a taste of what to expect from in the programme. There is a bit more detail including comments from each of the choreographers and two of the dancers in The Spirit of the Cubans | Danza Contemporánea de Cuba UK Tour 2017.

The tour starts at Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on 14 and 15 Feb and moves on to the Lowry 17 and 18 Feb, Theatre Royal Newcastle 21 and 22 Feb, Barbican 23 Feb, Millennium Stadium 28 Feb and 1 March, Theatre Royal Plymouth 3 and 4 March, Brighton Dome 7 and 8 March, Eden Court, Inverness 10 March, Festival Theatre Edinburgh 14 and 15 March and Marlowe Theatre Canterbury 17 and 18 March.

Never attend a Ballet Class the Morning after the Night Before

While I was in Edinburgh I bought these very special cards for my very special ballet friends.  They show Bethany Kingsley-Garnet who danced Cinderella on Saturday and that is the costume she wore in the ballet. It was a lovely production as you can see from my review (see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella 20 Dec 2015). You may remember that Cinders had been warned to leave the ball before the end of the drivers' shift at Murine Motors otherwise they would take their Pumpkin stretched limo back to the garage and she would have to find her way home on the night bus. Cinders could have walked home when her mum was alive because the family lived in the New Town. She and her dad had to move to Craigmillar after he had taken to the bottle to relieve the stress that he suffered in a disastrous second marriage.

Cinders managed to change out of her party dress and even had time for a brief lift by the prince just before the Pumpkin drove off. That was more than I was able to do when I attended our chambers party on Wednesday. It was a seriously good party which was still going strong as I left for King's Cross to catch my train back to Leeds at 06:30. The reason I had to be on that train was that I had a ballet class at 11:00, cocktails at The Alchemist after class and an invitation to see one of Phoenix Dance Theatre's  new pieces at 17:00.

Leeds is 200 miles from London and the journey takes just over 2 hours. For the whole of that journey I felt I was doing pirouettes if not more fouettés than Legnani had ever accomplished in her life. As I say, it had been a very, very good party. I regained my composure on the walk to Quarry Hill and changed out of my party dress into my leotard.

The first exercise was pliés which are usually a doddle but when I tried to relevé in 5th at the end of the exercise my feet and ankles wobbled like a jelly. It was even worse when we tried tendus because we had to remember to stretch our inside leg after the exercise on our outside leg and then attempt to stretch outside leg and insider leg alternately en croix. Glissés were even worse because they required a pas de cheval st various stages. To say I was hopelessly confused is putting it mildly. After the usual ronds de jambe. grands battements and so forth and then it was time for centre work when my troubles really began. Even though my brain had been doing pirouettes all the way from King's Cross to Leeds could my body pull one off when it needed to do so. No way don Jose. It was hard enough to remember the preparation. We had a lovely port de bras which I just managed to struggle through. Then jumps which is the bit I usually like best. Finally, chassés, balancés, a complex exercise consisting of curtsey, arabesque,  pas de bourrés and balancé turns which is hard enough when I have had a good night's sleep and have been stone cold sober the night before. For once in my life cool down and reverence could not come soon enough.

Mel had been following  my tweets from Budapest. "How was class?" she asked solicitously. "I didn't injure myself or anyone else or even fall over" I replied "but that was about all the credit I could claim." We met for cocktails as arranged. Michelle Richer, one of the most prolific contributors to BalletcoForum, managed to join us from Lincolnshire.  She was accompanied by Adrian whom she had mentioned in the forum from time to time. In fact we met  on the train to Leeds. Although I stuck to mineral water my classmaters' cocktails were amazing. One of them ordered something that erupted with the violence of Vesuvius. Another produced dry ice like the wilis emerging from their tombs.

My over 55 ballet class was almost as gregarious as my chambers. We found a table on the terrace outside the cocktail lounge where we could observe le tout Leeds and there my fellows consumed the barman's concoctions until dusk. I stayed in Leeds for the new work for Phoenix by Kate Flatt called Undivided Loves which will be premièred at West Yorkshire Playhouse on 17 Feb 2016. We had a talk from the choreographer and another from Adriano Adewale, the composer, and finally a run through by Prentice Whitlow, Marie-Astrid Mence and Jack Thomson. As the work is still in progress I have promised to say nothing about it except that it is enchanting and I would urge my readers to see it.

I had forgotten to mention what I did between cocktails and the performance. I spent an interesting time at the British Art Show at Leeds Art Gallery. It is not everybody's cup of tea. Maybe not even Marcel Duchamp's but it is good to know what artists in other mediums are creating. I was attracted to Charlotte Prodger's "Northern Dancer"  but found out that it was all about a horse.

Scottish Ballet's Cinderella

@jelterps @scottishballet Enjoy the performance!

— Christopher Hampson (@HampsonChris) December 19, 2015

You bet I will. Merry Christmas to all at @scottishballet especially to Matthew Broadbent who is greatly missed. https://t.co/VCvjNVJYH0

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) December 19, 2015

Scottish Ballet, Cinderella,  Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 19 Dec 2015

While just about every other company in the United Kingdom is staging The Nutcracker this Christmas (see All those Nutcrackers 11 Dec 2015) Scottish Ballet presents Cinderella not as "a rags-to-riches story that offers a girl a way out of the ordinary" but as a study of grief and loneliness. But it is not only Cinderella who is lonely, as the choreographer, Christopnher Hampson, explains in his interview with Alan Morrison in the programme notes. So, too, is the prince and they each find a way out of their loneliness by finding each other.

Such a prince has to be very sensitive and Hampson chose Christopher Harrison to dance that role. Having previously seen Harrison as Romeo and Stanley in A Streetcar named Desire (Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet 18 May 2014 and Scottish Ballet's Streetcar 2 April 2015) which are strong male roles. It was something of a revelation that he does sensitive but he can and he did it very well. His bride, Bethany Kingsley-Garner whom I had previously seen as Gretel and the the Sugar Plum (see Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel 23 Dec 2013 and Like meeting an old friend after so many years 4 Jan 2015), was a more obvious fit. She was a delightful Cinderella -not too good to be true - she appreciated the attention from the dressmakers when they came to prepare her stepsisters and stepmother for the ball.

The other stars in Hampson's Cinderella are those step sisters and for those roles he chose the company's female principals, Eve Mutso and Sophie Martin. These are magnificent dancers.  I saw them both in Marc Brew's Exalt earlier this year (see No Mean City - Accessible Dance and Ballet 26 April 2015). Mutso has been nominated for the National  Dance Awards for her performance as Blanche in Streetcar. It must be difficult for such graceful creatures to clown on stage but how we laughed as they struggled through their dance lesson and dress and show fittings, their gauche encounters with the prince and his courtiers and their attempts to make the slipper fit.

Hampson structured the ballet very cleverly, Each Act was preceded with a prologue with the house lights up. The mourners at the funeral of Cinderella's mother started the ballet. Two flunkies dusted a chandelier before Act II. Matthew Broadbent, one of Leeds's favourites when he was at Northern Ballet, laboured at his last as the bossy royal shoemaker. For me it was such a delight to see him again. The transposition of the grasshopper (Jamiel Lawrence) for the scornful dancing master and moths and spiders for the shoe and dressmakers is another example of Hampson's ingenuity. They mirrored the real world with fantasy.

There was some novel choreography. The grasshopper's dives which startled Cinderella first time and then amused her at the next delighted me. So too were the back to back lifts in the final pas de deux between Cinderella and her prince which were surprisingly graceful. There was Martin's can-can as she tried to interest the prince and Mutso's duet with the courtier struggling to retain his dignity with this she monster.

The sets and costumes for this performance were stunning. They were designed by Tracy Grant Lord who had originally created them for the Royal New Zealand Ballet's production of Hampson's Cinderella in 2007. The were among the best that we have seen since the days of Diaghilev. The designs are almost an integral part of the libretto. For instance, the rose tree that Cinderella plants by her mother's grave with its leaves that become a face and are almost a continuing presence of her mother.

There is so much to like about this production. Even the programmes are to be treasured for their fine paper, rich colours, striking designs and high quality printing. The Festival Theatre is a delightful venue with a restaurant that serves some of the best meals and snacks that I have ever savoured in Edinburgh. Despite the Forth Bridge closures the Edinburgh season is pretty close to fully booked but the show will shortly tour Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness though, sadly, not the rest of the country.  It was well worth a trek from Yorkshire. Knowing what I now know, I would travel from the Lizard or cross seas or even oceans to see it again.

I began this year with a review of Darrell's Nutcracker and it is fitting that the last ballet that I will see this year is Hampson's Cinderella. Scottish Ballet connects me with my days at St Andrews which were the happiest of my life. I try not to have favourite companies. I love English National Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet, Rambert, the Royal and Birmingham Royal Ballets, Ballet Black, Ballet Cymru, Northern Ballet, Phoenix and many others with a passion. But Scottish Ballet was my first love and you know what they say about the first love being the love that is never to be forgotten.

Hampson's Cinderella

The Forth Road Bridge

Author Euchiasmus

Source Wikipedia

Copyright released by the author

I had planned to see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella with a good friend from university who lives in Perth but I received an email from her yesterday calling off our outing because of the horrendous congestion on the roads and railways as a result of the temporary closure of the Forth Road Bridge. She and all the other motorists who have been inconvenienced by those emergency maintenance works may be amused by The Scottish Cinderella though I doubt that she would want her granddaughter to watch it just yet. Some of the language would make even the ratings at the Rosyth naval base blush.

Parents and grandparents in Scotland and indeed the rest of the United Kingdom may prefer to let their little ones watch this trailer or better still take them to see the show which opens at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh tonight. It remains at that venue for the rest of this month and then goes on tour to Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness where I hope my friend will be able to catch it.

This is the ballet that Christopher Hampson created for the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2007 to considerable critical acclaim. Hampson mentioned this ballet when he spoke at the State of the Art Panel Discussion: Narrative Dance in Ballet on 20 June 2015 (see My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015). He described it as a study of grief which is certainly consistent with the synopsis.

This has been a bumper year for Cinderella with productions from Ballet Cymru (Ballet Cymru's Conderella 15 June 2015) and the Dutch National Ballet (Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015) following on from David Nixon's last year (see Cinderella - even better 30 Nov 2014 and Northern Ballet's Cinderella - a Triumph 27 Dec 2013). I liked all those shows but I think my favourite up to now has been Ballet Cymru's. However, Scottish Ballet (or STB as it was called when I first knew it) was the first ballet company that I got to know and love and you know what they say about first love.

In my review of Northern Ballet's Cinderella in Sheffield I commended Matthew Broadbent who amused us all with his antics as a performing bear. Broadbent has now joined Scottish Ballet and it will be very good to see him again.

Returning to the Forth Road Bridge there used to be a permanent tailback across the Forth Road Bridge when they charged a toll - especially after decimalization when motorists had to fish around their pockets or handbags for a half penny as the half crown had ceased to be legal tender. I remember some medical students picked up a skeleton in Edinburgh and plonked it in the front passenger seat of a left hand drive car. They inserted the toll money in the skeleton's fingers and waited for the cashier to collect it. Feeling the bones she looked up and got the shock of her life. Her temper was not improved on being told by one of the students that the motorist had died waiting for his turn in the queue.

Giselle in Moscow, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, High Wycombe and Manchester

Dutch National Ballet's Giselle


This afternoon at 16:00 the Bolshoi Ballet's Giselle will be transmitted to cinemas across the United Kingdom and many other countries (see Live Performances streamed from the Bolshoi and Covent Garden 20 Sept 2015). I shall watch it at the National Media Museum in Bradford but I believe it will be shown by the Odeon, Cineworld and most of the other nationwide chains. It should be a very good performance. Svetlana Zakharova dances Giselle, Sergei Polunin Alnrecht, Denis Savin Hans (aka Hilarion) and Yekaterina Shipulina as the queen of the wilis. I shall review the show tomorrow.

Much closer to home the Dutch National Ballet is staging Giselle in Amsterdan between 13 Oct and 15 Nov. Tsygankova, Makhateli, de Jongh, Wotmeyer and Shesterikovare in the cast together with many other of my favourite dancers. That will be good too.

Another Giselle will come to us from New Zealand.  Adult Beginner wrote a great review of that ballet when the Royal New Zealand Ballet visited Los Angeles last year (see Giselle 8 Feb 2015 Adult Beginner). The company will dance that ballet in Edinburgh between 27 and 31 Oct and High Wycombe between 6 and 7 Nov where I shall see it.

Finally, our very own Manchester City Ballet (the performing company of Northern Ballet School) will dance Giselle at the Dancehouse between 10 and 12 Dec 2015. Tickets are on sale on Ticketline.

Caledonian Cousins

Yesterday my monthly newsletter from Scottish Ballet featured Scottish Ballet Elders Company whose members look a lot like the members of my Over 55 class at Northern Ballet. They are described as "Scottish Ballet's first performance company of elder community dancers".  We are not a company but we do put on shows, glimpses of which appear in the YouTube clip. I performed in one last year and had the time of my life (see The Time of My Life 28 June 2014) and we are rehearsing for another on 4 July 2015 (see Not just Americans who will celebrate the 4th July this year 23 April 2015).

According to Scottish Ballet's website the Elders Company will now begin to work with choreographer Winifred Jamieson towards the creation of a new piece to be performed at Dance Base, the national centre for dance at Edinburgh, during the Festival as part of the Fringe. The Company will then tour alongside Prime, the elder dance company from Dance Base to 4 venues in Scotland in October.

I am sure I speak for everyone in my Over 55 class (indeed on behalf of all my readers) in wishing both companies well and a cheery chookas for their forthcoming shows. Since the Yorkshire Post featured us in their colour supp (see "We're in the Paper" 15 April 2015) we have been joined by several new dancers and Northern Ballet is laying on extra classes to cope with demand.

On 30 May 2015 I reported on Danceworks's Over 50s class in London which offers a taster class on 14 July 2015. One of my colleagues from Northern Ballet has already put her name down for that class and I shall try to make it when I am in Town.  I have also heard of Rambert's Mercury Movers for the Over 60s who seem to have a very select audience at one of their classes.

Of course there is nothing to stop dancers of my age or even older from attending mixed aged groups. I have been made very welcome by Team Hud in Huddersfield, Hype in Sheffield and KNT Danceworks in Manchester and Pineapple in London, Yesterday Gita and I attended a one off class by Chris Hinton-Lewis at Northern Ballet and enjoyed it tremendously. But it is fun to dance with one's own age group and then natter for an hour or so at a nearby cafe. If anyone knows of any other dance class or company for the over 50s in any other British town or city (or indeed abroad) do let me know and I'll publicize it as widely as possible.

Like meeting an old friend after so many years

Scottish Ballet's The Nutcracker Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 3 Jan 2015


I'd been looking forward to seeing Peter Darrell's version of The Nutcracker all year. It's dangerous to set your heart on something that much because high expectations are rarely satisfied. But from the moment Richard Horner raised his hands it was pure delight. Like meeting an old university friend half a century on.

And in a sense that was just what it was. I was introduced to Scottish Ballet by John Steer in 1969 (see Scottish Ballet 20 Dec 2013). Darrell died in 1987 (Peter Darrell 9 March 2014) and I cannot recall when I last saw one of his ballets. Tonight I was reminded of Darrell's brilliance.  It was one of the reasons I fell in love with Scottish Ballet and why the company continues to occupy a special place in my affections.

Darrell's Nutcracker is of the traditional kind. Clara remains a child unlike the Eagling and Grigorovich versions (see The Nutcracker reference page and my reviews of Cracking! 14 Dec 2013 and Clara grows up- Grigorovitch's Nutcracker transmitted directly from Moscow 21 Dec 2014), She does not morph into the sugar plum. There are no gimmicky balloons, flying boats or expanding Christmas trees. Above all there has been no attempt to shift the location of the ballet from Hoffmann's original location to the banks of the Thames or even The Neva.

But there are some interesting features. In the prologue Drosselmeyer transformed an urchin into a handsome youth. Clara's troublesome little brother Fritz was given a toy rat for Christmas with which he tormented the women folk foretelling the battle between rodents and toy soldiers. The mice are children - girls as well as boys. The struggle was short and sweet and the nutcracker despatched the rat king without any help from Clara. One of the divertissements is a hornpipe reminiscent of Pineapple Poll danced to music that I cannot recall hearing before. Best of all were two great monkeys who parked themselves either side of Clara. They amused the crowd with antics that would not be encouraged in the drawing rooms of Morningside or Bearsden.

My seat was in the centre of the first row with a full view of the orchestra pit. I had never been so close to an orchestra before. I could see every movement of every player which was almost as fascinating as the ballet. I watched them in the "la la" vocals snow flake scene to see whether they had a choir as Festival once did. I thought I saw the woodwind players mouth the tune but I think Horner must have used a previous recording.

As advertised Erik Cavallari danced the nutcracker, Bethany Kingsley-Garner the sugar plum, Owen Thorne Drosselmeyer, Amy Pollock Clara and Remi Anderson as King Rat but Eve Mutso was the snow queen. All danced well but in many ways the biggest stars were the children from Scottish Ballet Associates and the Dance School of Scotland who showed considerable stage presence as well as good technique. Amy Pollok was a great Clara. The other big star was the designer Lez Brotherston who created a gorgeous kingdom of the sweets out of Christmas tree baubles and barricades for the mice out of outsize apple cores, boiled sweets and assorted cheeses.

The day I danced in public David Nixon stood next to me on the landing overlooking the foyer of Northern Ballet. The audience, which consisted largely of proud parents, siblings and friends of the dancers so was less than impartial, erupted in generous applause and emptied out of the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre chirping and chattering. "It's the best sound in the world" said Nixon. "They really enjoyed it". It was the same last night. The auditorium, which was packed to the gunwales, exploded with clapping and we stepped into Nicholson Street on a high. I've reviewed six productions of The Nutcracker since I started this blog and have enjoyed them all but this is the one I like best.

Scottish Ballet Costume Appeal

Between 13 Dec 2014 and 14 Feb 2015 Scottish Ballet are touring Scotland and the North of England with Peter Darrell's The Nutcracker. This was a sumptuous production when first performed as  can be seen from the photos on the 1970s web page of the website of the Peter Darrell Trust. Recreating this magnificent ballet does not come cheap and Scottish Ballet are appealing for contributions to the cost of the costumes.

You can pay £35 for a party dress

£70 for a rodent

£150 for a snow flake

£300 for Clara

£500 for the Sugar Plum

£1,000 for the Nutcracker

Whatever you want to

pay for anything else

The contributions received so far have been acknowledged on the costume appeal website and will be recorded in the programme. You can contribute to the appeal by clicking this link and filling out the form.

If you want to see the ballet in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen or Inverness you can click this link here for details. If you want to see it in Newcastle you can click here. I do hope Scottish Ballet will take The Nutcracker to the rest of the UK. It has a lot of fans throughout the country, particularly London where there is a massive audience for dance and Bristol where the company began.

If you want to learn more about this production there are pre-show talks and post show discussions in the theatres where the ballet is performed (see "Get Closer"). There are also films, photos of the costumes and rehearsals and details of workshops for kids and adults in Edinburgh and Glasgow which one little boy in London would just love if he could only get to Scotland.

I learnt to love ballet in Scotland which is why Scottish Ballet occupies a special place in my affections (see Scottish Ballet and Ballet West 3 Oct 2014). I do hope folk will support the costume appeal generously.

Bruce Again

Less than 24 hours after seeing Rambert's Rooster in Manchester, I saw Christopher Bruce's face in another programme. This time it was for Ten Poems which was part of the double bill The Crucible with Ten Poems which Scottish Ballet danced at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.

Shortly before the show, I tweeted:

Two Christopher Bruce works in consecutive days. I wonder whether I shall enjoy @scottishballet's 10 Poems as much as @Rambertdance Rooster.
— Jane Lambert (@nipclaw) October 4, 2014

I did.

I found "Do not go gentle into that good night" particularly moving. @scottishballet did Wales proud with its tribute to its great poet.
— Jane Lambert (@nipclaw) October 4, 2014

The two works had quite a lot in common. Rooster was choreographed to familiar songs.  Ten Poems to equally familiar poems. There was similar precision and control in the choreography in both works. Marian Bruce who designed the sets and costumes of Rooster also designed the costumes and sets for Ten Poems. But there were differences. There is much less light and joy in Thomas's verse than in the music of The Rolling Stones. Do not go gentle into that good night danced by Andrew Peasgood and Chris Harrison had me close to tears. On the other hand, having seen men push women around in Rooster I derived some satisfaction at masculine comeuppance in Lament. There weren't too many laughs in Ten Poems unlike Rooster but the plucking gesture in the general neighbourhood "of the old ram rod, dying of women" by one of those women generated one of them. Indeed a guffaw of (mainly) female laughter.

The other work in the double bill was Helen Pickett's The Crucible.  This followed closely Arthur Miller's play which I first saw performed by the National Theatre at The Old Vic at about the same time as I was introduced to Dylan Thomas's poetry. It is about the Salem witch trials which resulted in the execution of some 20 people in 1692 for the crime of witchcraft. Each of those condemned was convicted on the evidence of a scheming teenager who manipulated her friends and through them the whole colony of Massachusetts into a hysterical frenzy. Miller wrote The Crucible as a study of mass hysteria and the irrationality of group think as Senator McCarthy was ending the careers of some of America's leading figures in the arts with groundless or exaggerated allegations of Communist sympathy.

There were very strong performances by Sophie Martin as Abigail Wlliams, Chris Harrison as John Procter and Eve Mutso as his wife, Elizabeth Procter.  Indeed, the whole cast were great. Tense and dramatic it was in many ways more powerful than the play. Charles Heightchew's designs and George Thomson's lighting were striking, particularly the last scene with a silhouette of the gallows and a prisoner ascending to his doom.

The double bill is moving on to Aberdeen having started in Glasgow and having also visited Inverness as well as Edinburgh but sadly it will not be seen outside Scotland, at least not for the moment. That is a pity because we don't see enough of Scottish Ballet south of the border. It does a season at the Wells, of course, and makes it down to Newcastle occasionally but not to Bristol where it was born or Leeds where its first cousin if not sister company through Laverne Meyer now resides. Its family resemblance to Northern Ballet is remarkable. We in Leeds and I am sure the folk in Bristol and indeed the rest of the nation would welcome it with open arms if it could be persuaded to pay us all a visit.

Scottish Ballet and Ballet West

Glasgow Armadillo

Photo Wikipedia

Tomorrow I am going to Edinburgh to see The Crucible with Ten Poems by Scottish Ballet. I am always excited when I go to Scotland because Scottish Ballet was the first company that I got to know and love and therefore occupies a very special place in my affections (see Scottish Ballet 20 Dec 2013). It was in Scotland that I took my first classes and indeed it was there that I first learned to appreciate ballet. Although I was brought up in suburban Surrey less than 20 miles from Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden I never saw any ballet on stage because my father thought it was rather frivolous and even mildly subversive owing to its associations with the USSR. It was only when I had my own income in the form of a local authority grant and jobs that I could pick up driving vans and minibuses around London that I was able to see ballet regularly.

There is another Scottish company that I love to watch and that is Ballet West from a small village a few miles outside Oban.  Ballet West is a school  in an idyllic location which seems to attract talented students from around the world and train them to a very high standard.  To give the students stage experience they produce a show which they take to theatres and other venues in small towns and city suburbs around Scotland. My very first post to this blog was on Ballet West's Nutcracker which I saw in Pitlochry. This year I saw their Swan Lake of which you can see a video of their performance in Inverness. I once explored their village and its surroundings while waiting for the Craignure ferry and I whooped with delight when their pupil Natasha Watson won a medal in the Genée. As you can see, I am very, very, very, very impressed with Ballet West.

Ballet West's next ballet will be Romeo and Juliet which is the show they took to China in 2011.  They will be taking it to the Clyde Auditorium on Valentine's day which is known locally as the Armadillo, their most ambitious venue yet. My birthday coincides with that day and my favourite way of celebrating that day is watching ballet. There are some great pictures of the boys in rehearsal on their Facebook page.  Other news from that page is they will be holding a fund raising lunch by Loch Lomond on 2 Nov for which there were still a few vacancies last time I checked. If you can't make that there are many other ways you can support that Centre of Excellence.

Post Script

I have just received an invitation through Facebook to meet some of Ballet West's dancers and creatives when they perform in Glasgow which I have gratefully accepted.