"A Most Rare Vision ...... A Dream"

Ballet Cymru A Midsummer Night's Dream 7 June 2017  19:30

Yesterday I had to make a tough choice between two ballet's derived from A Midsummer Night's Dream. In my local cinema was The Dream by Sir Frederick Ashton, one of my favourite ballets because I shall always associate it with Dame Antoinette Sibley and Sir Anthony Dowell, streamed live from Covent Garden. At the Preston Guild Hall and Charter Theatre was a live performance by Ballet Cymru of Darius James's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

What made the choice particularly hard was that The Dream was to be performed as part of a triple bill with Symphonic Variations and Marguerite and Armand.  Just as I associate The Dream with Sibley and Dowell I shall always associate Marguerite and Armand with Rudolf Nureyev and Dame Margot Fonteyn and Symphonic Variations. Making the choice even harder was the knowledge that Zenaida Yanowsky was due to make her last appearance yesterday.

Much as I love the Royal Ballet and Yanowsky I chose Ballet Cymru without hesitation. In my book, living breathing human beings on stage will always trump images flashed onto a screen. Also, there is a chance of seeing a recording of last night's transmission though, sadly, there are not many cinemas advertising the encore. I think I made the right call because last night's performance was outstanding.

Darius James first created the ballet for the company in 1997. It was an immediate success. The Sunday Telegraph described the dancers as "impressively able" and commended James for making use of "every gift they have." The Theatre Critics of Wales nominated it for the best dance production of 2013. It is not hard to see why for James is a skilled narrator with an exceptionally keen eye for detail and a superb gift for transposing Shakespeare's words into movement.

James understands Shakespeare better than most.  In A Romeo and Juliet for our Times 7 Nov 2016 I described his Romeo a Juliet as James and Doughty's best work yet which shows how a small company of young dancers with modest resources can stage a full-length ballet brilliantly. Other plays that have inspired James are The Tempest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet which I should very much like to see.

Unlike Ashton, who focuses on the quarrel between Titania and Oberon and their reconciliation, James follows the play faithfully. That could not have been easy because the plot is complex. In addition to the quarrel there is the love affair between Hermia and Lysander and Helena's pursuit of Demetrius, Puck's mischief making, Titania's infatuation with Bottom, the mechanicals' performance of Pyramus and Thisbe and the nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta. James's solution is to divide the ballet into three parts. The first part embraces everything except the merchanicals' play and Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. The second part is that play.  The third is a Petipa style pas de deux with Hippolyta in a classical tutu. It may sound bitty when described in words on a page but, in fact, it works very well indeed.

One day Ballet Cymru may have principals, soloists, coryphées and a corps but at present it has twelve young, very able and very ambitious young dancers. All of them had important roles in the ballet that reflected their personalities as well as their respective technical skills. Each and every one of them performed his or her role brilliantly.

Oberon and Titania were performed by Adreamaria Battagia and Gwenllian Davies who had impressed me so much in Romeo a Juliet.  They do comedy as well as they do tragedy. They also doubled as Theseus and Hippolyta. For me, the pas de deux at the end was the high point of the show. Casting Miguel Fernandes was inspired. He is a talented character dancer as well as a splendid virtuoso. Anna Pujol was a delightful Hermia and Robbie Moorcroft a gallant Lysander but it was as Bottom where Moorcroft's brilliance shone through. The company's latest recruits, Miles Carrott and Beth Meadway, were each given two demanding roles which they performed magnificently. Medway touched our hearts as poor spurned Helena and our funny bones as Snug. Carrott excelled as Demetrius and Quince. Natalie Debono was a spirited Peasebottom. Ann Wall, who doubled as fairy and mechanical, was a hilarious man in the moon complete with lamp and dog.

The music for most of the ballet was Mendelssohn which James tells us in the programme is a delight to dance.  No wonder as the score has so many familiar tunes. For Pyramus and Thisbe, however, the dancers provided their own music on tin whistles and kazoo which virtually spoke the words of the play. I was amused by Pyramus's death throes and the Death March that the motley band managed to conjure from their assorted instruments.

As a small touring company Ballet Cymru has to travel light so it relies on projections to create scenery and atmosphere. Chris Illingworth's designs were inspired.  So, too, were Yvonne Greenleaf's costumes. The simple body hugging costumes for the fairies with their fluffy, white wigs worked well. So, too, did the mechanicals' working clothes and, of course, Bottom's ears.

The company will perform A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale on Saturday. A tip to all my classmates at KNT - if you are free on Saturday afternoon or evening. try to get down there.  After Sale the show moves on to Bangor on the 15 June followed by Tewkesbury, Poole, Taunton, Stvenage, Hereford, Basingstoke, Ayr, Porthcawl, Newbury and Lichfield.

The Light Princess - a Special Ballet for a Special Company

Copyright 2017 Ballet Cymru: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

BalletCymru The Light Princess, Riverfront Theatre, Newport 20 May 2017, 19:30

In 2015 Ballet Cymru's Cinderella was my ballet of the year and its Tir was the runner-up (see Highlights of 2015 29 Dec 2015. Last year Gwenllian Davies was my young female dancer of the year for her magnificent performance as Juliet on 5 Nov 2016 (see The Terpsichore Titles: Outstanding Young Dancers of 2016 28 Dec 2016 and A Romeo and Juliet for our Times  7 Nov 2016). Quite remarkable, I think you will agree, for a small company in a city with a slightly smaller population than Huddersfield some 140 miles from London.

Yesterday I tried to put my finger on what made Ballet Cymru special and this is what I concluded.

First, the company is lucky to have as artistic directors Darius James and Amy Doughty who are two of the finest choreographers on the British stage. Their ballets with expansive upper body movements and sudden spins, whether chaînés, fouettés or pirouettes, are thrilling to watch. James and Doughty create their work in collaboration their dancers with the result that every movement showcases the artist's personality as well as the vision of the choreographers. Each of those artists is young at peak strength and energy, When James unfurls them, as he does at the end of company class, they are a wonder to behold (see Ballet Cymru at Home 5 Oct 2015).

Secondly, this company is unmistakably Welsh. Its dancers may come from all parts of the world and it visits nearly every part of the United Kingdon on tour but its credentials are entirely cymric.  The company's name, after all, is "Ballet Cymru" - never "Ballet Wales", the literal translation. There are Welsh characters even in Romeo a Juliet and Cinderella: Juliet's confidante in Romeo a Juliet is Cerys, Cinderella's half-witted step brother is named Cas and her step sister is called Seren. The backdrops projected onto the screen are created digitally from scenes of Wakes ranging from the subway under the arterial road near the Riverfront Theatre in Romeo a Juliet to Lake Bala in The Light Princess. More importantly, the company commissions scores from outstanding Welsh composers like Jack White who wrote the music for Cinderella and Stuck in the Mud and Catrin Finch who contributed Celtic Concerto as well as The Light Princess to the company's repertoire. I am most grateful to Ballet Cymru for introducing me to those composers.  I am now a fan of both.

Thirdly, James and Doughty make clever use of technology. I have already mentioned the projected backdrops which are designed for the theatres around this island which might struggle with conventional scenery. Yesterday, there were gently floating images as the overture concentrated our thoughts on weightlessness. We saw circus hoops courtesy, no doubt, of Citrus Arts who had previously worked with Ballet Cymru on Cinderella.  For those who had not read the programme or my preview, the synopsis in two languages flashed onto the gauze with occasional directions to the audience such as "hiss". Did you know that the Welsh for "hiss" is "his"?

Like The Sleeping Beauty, George McDonald's story begins with a christening for a princess to which three of her relations had not been invited. Like Carabosse those relations were witches but, instead of sending the royal household to sleep for 100 years (a fate that Exeunt's Anna Winter might regard as lenient (see Exeunt's Ballet Reviews - Mayerling and Casanova 12 May 2017) they made her weightless with the result that she had to be tethered with ropes. The king and queen consulted Kopy-Keck and Hum-Drum, Chinese experts in spells as to what might be done but they offered conflicting and equally useless advice. At a water carnival on Lake Bala, the princess discovered that she could acquire weight under water. She nearly floated away again when a visiting prince dived into the lake to rescue her for which gallantry he received no thanks at all from the princess. Realizing that their spell did not work in water the witches tried to drain the lake. They were foiled when the prince offered his body to plug the drain. The prince's willingness to sacrifice himself for the love of the princess broke the spell. A cartwheeling king and equally ecstatic queen allow the princess to marry her rescuer. All, no doubt, lived happily ever after.

Anna Pujol, who had delighted the Millennium Centre as Little Red Riding Hood before Christmas (see Ballet Cymru's "Sleeping Beauty Moment" 5 Dec 2016), danced the princess. She showed formidable strength and artistic versatility with her floorwork representing her swimming and her adeptness with hoops. Her prince, Andrea Maria Battagia, partnered her gallantly. I loved Robbie Moorcroft's performance as king (particularly his cartwheels) and was impressed by Beth Meadway, a recent recruit to the company, as queen. I was also impressed by another recruit, Miles Carrott, who complemented Miguel Fernnades and Natalie Debono as the vindictive, serpentine witches. Gwenllian Davies was one of the experts and the magnificent Krystal Lowe (anything but humdrum) was the other.  Davies showed that she can dance character roles as convincingly as she can dance Juliet. Daniel Morrison danced the butler and Ann Wall the nurse with their usual flair. Each of those roles offered the dancers a chance to shine and shine they did.

Something that made last night particularly special was the appearance of Catrin Finch in the orchestra pit. This was not the first time that the company had performed with live musicians.  The last time I saw them they shared the stage with the entire National Orchestra of Wales, but it was the first time that I had seen them with their own ensemble and the result was magic. Sadly, the musicians cannot follow the company everywhere so the performances at Bury St Edmunds, Llanelli, Milford Haven, Stevenage and Newcastle under Lyme will make do with recorded music.

Those performances will still be worth seeing.  This is the best ballet that I have seen from this company ever and it is the best new ballet that I have seen so far this year from any company.

Terpsichore Titles: Company of the Year

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As Ted Brandsen, Ernst Meisner, David Dawson and Cristiano Principato were my choreographers of 2016 and Artur Shesterikov and Daniel Silva my outstanding male dancers it will come as no surprise that the Dutch National Ballet is my company of the year. How could it be otherwise?  I have seen three outstanding full-length ballets at the Music Theatre - Mata Hari in February, La Bayadere in November and Coppelia earlier this month - as well as a dazzling gala and the magnificent Junior Company at the Meervaart in February.  I congratulate everyone in the company and wish them all a happy and prosperous New Year.

Although the Dutch National Ballet is regarded as one of the world's top five ballet companies the above video shows that it is also a relatively new company.  It was founded in 1961 which was four years after the Royal Ballet received its royal charter, 20 years after the famous wartime tour of the Royal Ballet (then known as Sadler's Wells Ballet) to the Netherlands and 30 years after the formation of the company. It is also younger than English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet which started in Bristol as Western Theatre Ballet and, of course, the Birmingham Royal Ballet which is the Royal Ballet's sister company. Compared to the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, the Dutch National Ballet is a mere stripling. To have achieved so much is so short a time is not far short of miraculous.

The complete list of Terpsichore Titles is as follows:

Company of the Year      Dutch National Ballet

Contemporary Company of the Year  Phoenix Dance Theatre

Choreographers of the Year   

- Full Length Works  Ted Brandsen
- Short Works Ernst Meisner
- Best New Work in the UK  David Dawson
- Young Choreographer  Cristiano Principato 

Ballet of the Year     Bolshoi's The Taming of the Shrew

Ballerina of the Year   Lauren Cuthbertson, Royal Ballet

Premier Danseur Noble of the Year    Artur Shesterivov, Dutch National Ballet

Outstanding Male Dancer (Smaller companies) Damien Johnson, Ballet Black

Outstanding Young Dancers

- Male   Daniel Silva, Dutch National Ballet

- Female  Gwenllian Davies, Ballet Cymru

This has been a tremendous year for Terpsichore, particularly this last month.  We have already received 25,369 page hits in December which is almost double the number of page hits we received in November which was itself a record month, and there is still the rest of the day to run. Our growth reflects a growing interest in adult dance (and particularly adult ballet) throughout the UK and indeed the rest of the world, We plan to do more to help those who want to dance to access classes, workshops and performances next year.

As this is my last post for 2016 I wish all my readers a happy New Year.

The Terpsichore Titles: Outstanding Young Dancers of 2016

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In The Year of the Swans: My Review of 2016 27 Dec 2016 I wrote:

"Every so often one spots a dancer with what I call the wow factor. Michaela DePrince had it when I first saw her in Amsterdam in 2013 and described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013)."

I have already mentioned Michaela DePrince. Xander Parish stood out in much the same way when I saw him for the first time in York in July 2007.  The outstanding young dancer title is for a young man or woman who impresses me in very much the same way as they did. Such performances do not grow on trees. For many years it may be impossible to make a selection.

Also, such a selection will always be very unfair. As readers can see from the above YouTube clip, all the young dancers in the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company are excellent and they are just one company. Because I live near Manchester most of the performances that I see are in Britain or the near continent. There must be so many great performances that I do not see in Russia and other countries in the former Soviet Union, in the United States the other great powerhouse of dance, not to mention China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cuba and the rest of South America and the entire continent of Africa. Indeed, as I live 200 miles north of London, 250 south of Glasgow and at least 100 from Birmingham there will be many breathtaking performances in my own country that I never get to see.

This year there are two dancers who stand out in the way that Parish did in 2007 and DePrince in 2013 and I want to acknowledge them both.

One is the young Brazilan dancer, Daniel Robert Silva, who began Ernst Meisner's No Time before Time at the Meervaart Theatre on 14 Feb 2016 (see Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2016), in Lausanne where the ballet was premiered and at the opening gala of the Dutch National Ballet's season. I saw Silva again as the bronze idol in La Bayadere and he impressed me again even more (see Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere 14 Nov 2016).

The other is Gwenllian Davies of Ballet Cymru. In the Riverfront Theatre on the banks of the Usk in Newport on Guy Fawkes night, I witnessed something extraordinary (see A Romeo and Juliet for our Times 7 Nov 2016). I have seen many of the world's greatest ballerinas dance Juliet. Technically and indeed artistically their performances were brilliant. But when I saw them dance I knew that I was watching Seymour, Tereshkina and Cojocaru. When Davies danced I saw only Juliet. That is why her performance was spellbinding. Perhaps on another night it would not have been but magic was wrought that night.

I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to all the excellent young dancers whom I have admired but not yet acknowledged in this way and to wish them all the very best in their careers and lives.

A Romeo and Juliet for our Times

Ballet Cymru, Romeo a Juliet, Riverfront Theatre, Newport, 5 Nov 2016, 19:30


Never has the story of Romeo and Juliet been more relevant to our times. Powerful aristocratic families may no longer brawl in Verona but, as Krzysztof Pastor showed in his version of Romeo and Juliet for Scottish Ballet, other forces have taken their place (see Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet 18 May 2014). In Pastor's ballet the protagonists wore red shirts and black shirts and his message was reinforced by documentary footage from recent Italian history which was projected onto the backdrop. We see similar divisions in the bitter election campaign on the other side of the Atlantic  and, indeed, in our own country since the EU referendum. Shakespeare teaches us that hate kills. A lot of people die in his story - not just Romeo and Juliet but also Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris. However, there is also hope in Shakespeare's tale for the feuding families eventually come to their senses.

It is one thing for a theatrical work to be relevant to our times but quite another to transpose it to our times. It is sometimes said that ballet (like the other performing arts) needs to "get with it" (as folk used to say in the 1960s) if it is not to wither on the vine. It was the subject of the discussion between David Nixon and Luke Jennings on Front Row a few weeks ago which I mentioned in Of Bikes and Busses 25 Oct 2016. Pastor's colleague at the Dutch National Ballet, David Dawson, successfully brought  Swan Lake up to date for Scottish Ballet (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016). It seems that Ted Brandsen may have pulled it off with Coppelia (see A Coppelia Makeover  5 Nov 2016). Other choreographers have been less successful. I fear that Akram Khan did not quite manage it with Giselle nor Nixon with Swan Lake I think Darius James and Amy Doughty succeeded in Romeo a Juliet.

Over the last few years, James and Doughty have produced one fine work after another - Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella and Tir to name just three. They have a company of dancers who in my view stand comparison with any similarly sized troupe in the world. They have rightly been nominated for the National Dance Awards for the second time year running, Why they do not get even more critical attention and indeed acclaim beats me. I may be a humble blogger but I have seen a lot of ballets in my time and in my book James and Doughty and their company are among the brightest stars in the balletic firmament just now.

I had seen Ballet Cymru's Romeo a Juliet in the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal in 2013 and loved it (see They're not from Chigwell - they're from a small Welsh Town called Newport 14 May 2013). On Saturday I saw the same ballet in the company's hometown and loved it even more. The show was presented in the Riverfront Arts Centre, a modern complex of galleries, studios and auditoriums on the banks of the Usk. The larger of the auditoriums seats 482 persons and has a big stage for dance. It was there that the show took place.

One of the reasons why I loved the show so much was Gwenllian Davies's remarkable performance as Juliet. Davies is in her first year with the company and this is her first job. Consequently, she is barely older than Shakespeare's Juliet. As I told her after the show, I have seen some of the world's greatest dancers in the role including Lynn Seymour and more recently Alina Cojocaru and Viktoria Tereshkina, but never have I seen a more convincing Juliet. Davies danced with passion and energy and, for a while, I saw in that talented young artist what Shakespeare must have imagined. Of course, Juliet is nothing without her Romeo. Andrea Battagia partnered Davies exquisitely.  Also young he has already achieved much in his career. He brought that experience and authority to the performance. He commands a stage in a way that few other dancers of his age can equal.

Another reason for the success of the ballet was Lydia Arnoux. She danced Cerys or Juliet's best friend. Because I am accused of double standards in not criticizing this innovation as "change for change's sake", I should explain that James and Doughty have set their ballet in modern Britain (indeed Newport) in which teenagers' nurses no longer exist but best friends do. Cerys more than makes up for the absence of the nurse. She introduces a new dynamic into the show. I had seen Arnoux in Kendal but she was even moredelightful on Saturday night.

Anther excellent young dancer whom Ballet Cymru has recruited as an apprentice just over a month ago is Ann Wall. As a member of the London Ballet Circle, I am proud to see that we have supported her. She danced Lady Capulet which is a demanding role for any dancer but particularly a very young one. She has to balance conflicting emotions of love and duty and acquire instantly the weight of years. She succeeded admirably.  In that role she was partnered deftly by Robbie Moorcroft as Lord Capulet. Moorcroft, another of the company's most experienced dancers and well liked by audiences, was impressive. He was magisterial in restraining Tybalt and rebuking Romeo after Romeo had gatecrashed the Capulets' party but tyrannical in his anger when confronted by a defiant daughter.

It was her father's blow that triggered the chain of events that led to the death of the lovers and Paris. Paris, danced by Mark Griffiths, yet another recent recruit by the company. Paris, an apparently decent man with seemingly sincere affection for Juliet, suffers not just her rejection but also death after lingering in the crypt for just a little bit too long. I have always had sympathy for him as I have for Hilarion in Giselle. He has even less cause to die.

The same cannot always be called for the headstrong Tybalt whom I have always regarded as a bit of a thug. Dylan Waddell portrayed him as a loyal brother zealous in defence of his sister's honour. Waddell, whom I had previously seen in MurleyDance, us a strong but sensitive dancer and a fine actor. Miguel Fernandes was a great choice for Mercutio. Another exciting dancer tp watch. So, too, was Anna Pujol, a convincing Benvolio.

One dancer I was particularly glad to see on stage was Krystal Lowe. She first impressed me in Kendal and my admiration for her work has increased with every performance. Her appearance in Tir at Sadler's Wellls last year a few weeks after the loss of Mandev Sokhi  was one of the most moving I have ever seen. She was the Friar on Saturday, a pivotal role but not the extended one created by Jean-Christophe Maillot for his version. Lowe was as magnificent as ever. If I had flowers I would gladly have tossed them on stage for her. On Saturday she performed as a guest artist. I understand that she is now at the University of South Wales and teaching Ballet Cymru's adult ballet class. I am sure all my readers join me in wishing her well in this latest stage of her career.

I said above that this was a Romeo and Juliet for our times. James and Doughty achieved this with only minimal changes to the libretto and only an abridgement of Prokofiev's score. The dancers wore modern dress and images of Newport flashed on stage. For instance, an image of the passage under the bridge across the Usk (which lies just yards away from the Riverfront) appeared in the riot scenes. The flashing light of a police vehicle appeared just at the point where the duke would arrive in other productions. Instead of swords the boys carried shillelaghs and knives. Nothing to suggest Verona.

Romeo a Juliet is James and Doughty's best work yet, It shows how a small company of young dancers with modest resources can stage a full-length ballet brilliantly.  It would not surprise me in the least if Ballet Cymru were nominated for a National Dance Award next year on the strength of this production.