National Ballet of Canada

Celia Franca. 1921 - 2007, Founder of the National Ballet of
Canada , Source  Wikipedia

This post was inspired by Susan Dalgetty Ezra, Chair of the London Ballet Circle, my fellow blogger Katherine Barber, David Nixon, artistic director of Northern Ballet and, most importantly, Yoko Ichino, ballet mistress of Northern Ballet and associate director of the Northern Ballet Academy whom I admired so much when I saw her teach at the company's open day.

Susan, who has just returned from Toronto, told me about the National Ballet of Canada's production of Cranko's Onegin that she saw on Wednesday night. In my reply I mentioned that company's connections with Northern Ballet through Nixon and Ichino. Susan responded by reminding me that Celia Franca, the founder of the National Ballet came from the UK "not only to start the company but to show Dame Ninette de Valois that she could do it. And she did!" Katherine Barber, whose blog and travel service Tours en l'Air I featured in "Tours en l'air - a Really Useful Resource" 23 Feb 2013 lives in Toronto and her blog contains lots of news about performances and ballet related events in that city . Nixon and Ichino, of course, made their names at the National Ballet before they came to us. I might add for completeness that Nixon was not Northern Ballet's first Canadian connection because its founder, Laverne Meyer, was born in that country.

Having danced at Sadler's Wells last year (see Judith Mackrell "National Ballet of Canada: Romeo and Juliet – review" 18 April 2013 The Guardian) London audiences are familiar with the National Ballet and like them. It is the overseas company that resembles most closely the Royal Ballet with its excellent school and in in its repertoire which has many works by Ashton. Its artistic director Karen Kain danced with the Festival Ballet which is now the English National Ballet.  The National Ballet of Canada was not the first ballet company in Canada. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet was founded over a decade earlier. But it was the first company to recruit from and perform in all parts of that vast country.

In addition to the official links through Nixon and Ichino there seem to be informal links between Leeds and Toronto. In recent visits to Quarry Hill for my over 55 ballet class I have noticed young people with North American accents wearing National Ballet sportswear. It is very good to see them here.

Related Articles

Northern Ballet Open Day 18 Feb 2014
Ballet Education 1 March 2014
Tours en l'air - a Really Useful Resource

Teacher who watched her step with Nureyev 9 March 2014 Yorkshire Post

Homage

The Yoko Ichino Appreciation Society Facebook

Peter Darrell

Peter Darrell        Source Wikipedia

Readers in the UK will be aware that the BBC is broadcasting a ballet season on channels BBC 2 and BBC 4. It has already shown Darcey's Ballet Heroines (a history of ballet through the great ballerinas) and David Bintley's Dancing in the Blitz: How World War II made British Ballet. The latest offering is on Peter Darrell (ArtWorks Scotland: Peter Darrell Scotland's Dance Pioneer).

For me this last show has been the most poignant because Scottish Ballet was the first company that I got to know and love (see "Scottish Ballet" 20 Dec 2013) and Darrell was the first choreographer I admired. Although I lived in Surrey I studied at St Andrews. Except for Christmas, Easter and the first month of the long vacations when I used up all my Young Friend's vouchers at the Royal Opera House, the only ballet that I could see when my local authority grant and vacation earnings provided the means to see shows and take lessons was Scottish Ballet.

In that show I saw some of the dancers who had delighted me in the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly Elaine McDonald who was Darrell's ballerina. It was lovely to see her smile as she recalled some of her work with Darrell. Also lovely were the clips of some of Darrell's ballets such as Mods and Rockers, House Party, The Nutcracker and Cheri and the shots of a reunion of Darrell's dancers who had been assembled for the programme.

When I wrote my previous article in December I came across the website of the Peter Darrell Trust which was formed in 1994, to safeguard Darrell's heritage and to promote his work and his ideals. This is a wonderful resource full of materials on Darrell's life, his work and the recollections of his contemporaries. One of the most moving contributions comes from the critic Clement Crisp. Another from Laverne Meyer, founder of Northern Ballet, who danced for Darrell in Bristol and continued to work with him after Darrell moved to Glasgow. Through Meyer Northern Ballet can also trace its origins to Bristol.

One of the things that I learned from the ArtWorks programme was Darrell's influence on Matthew Bourne. Bourne explained that he had seen Darrell's Swan Lake on one of Scottish Ballet's London seasons and had been entranced with it. Having seen  Bourne's Swan Lake last Tuesday ("Swan Lads - Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, Bradford Alhambra 4 March 2014" 5 March 2014) it was fresh in my memory and I could see the connections.

The programme lamented that we don't see much of Darrell's work nowadays which is true but then how much do we see of his contemporary Cranko in England? And we only see a fraction of the works of Ashton and MacMillan. Every company has to strike a balance between its heritage and the present. It has to encourage its current choreographers and provide new works for its audience as well as preserve the best of the old. Scottish Ballet's present artistic director, Christopher Hampson, acknowledged the company's debt to Darrell on the ArtWorks programme. He has pledged to stage Darrell's work from time to time.  I am delighted to see that the company will present Darrell's The Nutcracker later this year