World Ballet Day: Les Ballets de Monte Carlo

Standard YouTube Licence


Yet another highlight of World Ballet Day was the appearance of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo as guests of the Bolshoi. The reason it was one of my highlights is that I am a big fan of the company's artistic director Jean-Christophe Maillot (see Jean-Christophe Maillot 5 Aug 2016). His production of The Taming of the Shrew for the Bolshoi nearly brought the House down when that company performed it on 3 Aug 2016 (see Bolshoi's Triumph - The Taming of the Shrew 4 Aug 2016). There is a great video of the the premiere on the Bolshoi's website.

On World Ballet Day the video showed rehearsals for a new ballet called Le Songe which was premiered yesterday at the China National Centre for the Performing Arts. The company will move on to Tianjin and Shanghai. The first performances in Europe will take place at the Théâtre National de Nice on 21 and 22 Jan 2017. This ballet is based on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and uses Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream as Ashton.

There is an opportunity to see another of Maillot's works at the Alhambra in Bradford between tomorrow and Saturday when Northern Ballet dance his Romeo and Juliet. I saw it twice in Leeds last year and reviewed it in Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good way 8 March 2015 and Leebolt's Juliet 13 March 2015. You can see a rehearsal for that ballet by Abigail Prudames and Sean Bates in Northern Ballet's slot on the Royal Ballet's YouTube video of World Ballet Day. You will find them 2 hours 17:28 minutes into the film.

One of the ways in which maillot's Romeo and Juliet differed from other productions is the enhanced role he gave to Friar Lawrence and, as you can see from the first of those reviews, that role was danced very impressively by Isaac Lee Baker,  Isaac has now joined Les Ballets de Monte Carlo (see his profile on the company's website) and I think I glimpsed him in the rehearsals for Le Songe, He is certainly on the Royal Ballet's video (1 hour 52 minutes) in its Chance to Dance slot. Sadly, we won't get to see Isaac as Friar Lawrence. Northern has not yet announced its cast list for Bradford but we should get someone good judging by the chaps who danced it in Sheffield, Belfast, Woking and Canterbury.

Jean-Christophe Maillot

Probably completely illogically I felt a surge of regional pride when Jean-Christophe Maillot strode on stage to acknowledge the applause of a London audience for the British premiere of his version of The Taming of the Shrew (see Bolshoi's Triumph - The Taming of the Shrew 4 Aug 2016). Maillot is not of course a Northerner. He is not even English. But he has created what in my very humble, provincial and totally untutored opinion is the best existing work in the 2016 and 2017 season for Northern Ballet. When he came on stage I recognized him from his photo on his web page on the Northern Ballet website.

But even though Maillot is not English he will know all about regions because France has the same cultural, economic, political and social divide between capital and country as we do and he like me is definitely from the country. I suspect a little bit of metropolitan snootiness in some of the comments on his The Taming of the Shrew that were less than ecstatic. Maillot trained in Tours not Paris and he made his name in Hamburg in a country whose capital for many years was Bonn (a city with a population that is not much larger than that of Barnsley). The company of which he is artistic director is in Monte Carlo which is a stiff 9 hour drive from Paris.

Those who want to learn more about Maillot the man can glean some useful info from the Northern Ballet web page that I mentioned above, his web page on Les Ballets de Monte Carlo website and in articles by Judith Mackrell (The Monte-Carlo method: a ballet company's fairytale story 7 April 2014 The Guardian) and Mark Monahan (Jean-Christophe Maillot: 'What about people who don't know about dance?' 19 Apr 2015 Daily Telegraph). There is also the above YouTube interview that I have dug up for those who can still remember their GCSE (or in my case O Level) French.

Those of my readers who missed the Bolshoi's performances or the cinema transmission of The Taming of the Shrew earlier this year (see Competition for Cranko: The Bolshoi's Taming of the Shrew streamed from Moscow 25 Jan 2016) missed a treat. You'll have to fly to Moscow if you want to see it and I am not sure when it will next be performed there. However, you can see his Romeo and Juliet in Canterbury, Woking or Belfast as well as Sheffield and Bradford this autumn (see Northern Ballet's website). And it is worth seeing.  Here's what I wrote about it in Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good way 8 March 2015 and Leebolt's Juliet 13 March 2015.

Finally, in case you hadn't guessed, Maillot's Shrew  is currently leading the field by a length in my ballet of the year stakes despite strong entries from Ted Brandsen, David Dawson and Cathy Marston this year.

Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet

It is always a thrill to see Northern Ballet close at hand. I saw them today as my classmates and I filed out of a rehearsal studio that they were about to occupy. Their next production will be Romeo and Juliet which they will dance in Edinburgh between the 26 and 28 Feb 2015 and Leeds between the 4th and 12th March 2015.

This work has been choreographed by Jean-Christophe Maillot for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. You can get an impression of the work from the YouTube clip above. The synopsis promises a major role for Friar Lawrence who is described as "the vital thread that links the drama from one part to another" in the scenario. According to the website:

"He represents a figure in a trinity, caught between good and evil, tossed between chance and necessity, will and power. A manipulator who is manipulated, he is the story’s primary architect, through whom the tragedy is caused, even as he believes he has given over the key to happiness. Thus he appears from the beginning of Act One to show how much the story of Romeo and Juliet, their deaths as much as their meeting and even their love, owes to chance. He is the agent of the drama which begins in a street in Verona."

I wonder who will dance that role.

Scotland is also being treated to another Romeo and Juliet.   Ballet West are touring Scotland with their version (see Ballet West on the Road 14 Jan 2015). I shall see them at Stirling this Saturday and will review the performance at the weekend. Scottish Ballet performed Pastor's version at Sadler's Wells in May which I  enjoyed very much (Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet 18 May 2014). Now that I am a Friend of the Dutch National Ballet I look forward to more of Pastor's work.