Northern Ballet's Generations - A Treat in Store for London

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Northern Ballet Generations Three Short Ballets 16 Sept 2023 14:00

Tomorrow Northern Ballet will dance Benjamin Ella's Joie de Vivre, Hans van Manen's Adagio Hammerklavier and Tiler Peck's Intimate Pages at the Linbury.  Those who are fortunate enough to obtain tickets are in for a treat.  I saw the show at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds on 16 Sept 2023. I have to think back to the first time I saw A Simple Man nearly 40 years ago for a show by Northern Ballet that I have enjoyed as much.  

In his foreword to the programme, Federico Bonelli wrote how much he had been looking forward to the moment when he could present a programme of his own to reflect his ambitions for Northern Ballet in the years to come.  Each of the works that the company danced had a connection with the Bonelli.  Adagio Hammerklavier was a reminder of his time with the Dutch National Ballet, Joie de Vivre of his career at the Royal Ballet and Intimate Pages of his guest appearances around the world.

My favourite work of the three was Adagio Hammerklavier.  I had seen it online as part of the Dutch National Ballet's Hans van Manen's Variations which were screened from an almost empty Music Theatre on 27 and 28 Feb 2023.  In my review of that performance, I referred to a panel discussion in the Stanley and Audrey Forum in 2015 when a critic who really should have known better opined that Beethoven is impossible to choreograph (see My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015).  It was glorious to watch a ballet set to Beethoven's music in the same theatre in which it had been declared impossible.   

In my humble opinion, van Manen is the world's greatest living choreographer.  I had the enormous good fortune to shake his hand at the Dutch National Ballet's gala in June 2022.  This is not the first time Northern Ballet has performed his work   The company performed Concertante in 2013 and on being asked what he thought of the dancers he replied that he liked them very much indeed (see YouTube Dance Master Hans van Manen on Concertante & Northern Ballet),   There is now a new generation of dancers at Northern Ballet and I think he would like today's artists even more.  The first couple in Adagio Hammerklavier were Amber Lewis and Jonathan Hanks, the second Alessandra Bramante and George Liang and the third Dominique Larose and Joseph Taylor. The pianist was Colin Scott.  They danced with flair and precision and I think van Manen would have liked them too,

I was not the only one to relish that ballet.   In the second interval, I spotted Bonelli standing on his own so I introduced myself.  As I was telling him about my blog Janet Mclty of  BalletcoForum joined us.  She like me had been impressed by van Manen and she asked the director whether we could have more van Manen, ideally one of his ballets in every mixed bill.  Bonelli did not think that would be possible but said that it was a very nice idea and I agree.

Joie de Vivre was light, fresh and exuberant - a perfect start to a triple bill.   The score consisted of 8 violin and piano concertos performed live by Geoffrey Allan and Ewan Gilford.  Ella described it as "a poem or epigram of human feelings, emotions or reactions."  Three couples performed this work: Dominique Larose and Joseph Taylor, Sarah Chun and Harris Beattie, Kirica Takahashi and  Jun Ishii.  Finally, I should say a word for the costumes and lighting which were exquisite.

The last piece was choreographed to Leoš Janáček's String Quartet No. 2 Intimate Letters and again we had a live string quartet  consisting of Geoffrey Allan, Helen Boordman, Rosalyn Cabot and Toby Turton.  The music was plaintive and haunting. Peck explained in the programme notes that the composer wrote it with a love interest in mind.  The piece requires a main couple, two soloists and three couples.  Sarah Chun and Harris Beattie were the main couple.  Aerys Merrill and Kirica Takahashi were the soloists.  The couples were Julie Nunes and Stefano Varalta, Kaho Masumoto and Archie Sherman and Helen Bogatch and Bruno Serraclara.

Just before the show I watched the dancers in company class.  They looked happy, energetic and motivated.

Up to t'Smoke

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Usually at this time of the year Northern Ballet takes a slot at the Linbury. Joanna Goodman saw them there last year and reviewed their performance in Mixed Programme with a Sweet Centre 14 May 2015. Unfortunately the Linbury is closed this year but Londoners can still see them in the capital.

On Mondayon 23 May 2016  Javier Torres will be the guest of honour at the London Ballet Circle. I will be in the front row of the audience to hear him speak.

Between 31 May and 1 June Northern Ballet will dance Jane Eyre at the Richmond Theatre. I am giving a talk on IP law and fashion in London on the 2 June so I will be in the audience on the 1st. My parents moved to Surrey from Manchester when I was very young and I spent most of my childhood and adolescence in that part of England. It is a lovely theatre overlooking the Green and I have fond memories of pantomimes in that auditorium.

One of the performances by Northern Ballet that I most enjoyed last year was Jonathan Watkins's Northern Trilogy and, in particular, Yorkshire Pudding.  For me that was one of the highlights of the Sapphire gala (see my reviews in Sapphire 15 March 2015 and Between Friends - Northern Ballet's Mixed Programme 10 May 2015). Watkins will be London Ballet Circle's guest on 6 June 2016. Here is a video of Watkins from last year (see Jonathan Watkins on Working with Northern Ballet).

After that interview Watkins created 1984 which I don't like anything like as much (see My First Impressions of 1984 12 Sept 2015, Watkins on 1984 14 Sept 2015 and 1984 Second Time Round  24 Oct 2015). However, Londoners will get the chance to judge for themselves as it will be at Sadler's Wells between 24 and 28 May 2016.

The Phoenix Soars Over London

Phoenix Dance Theatre, Mixed Programme, Linbury Studio Theatre, London 12 Nov 2015

It should never be forgotten that there are two great dance companies at Quarry Hill in Leeds. My beloved Northern Ballet, of course, but also Phoenix Dance Theatre which started in Leeds and remains rooted in that city.  It is entirely fitting that Phoenix's artistic director, Sharon Watson, should chair the committee that will coordinate the city's bid to become the European Capital of Culture for 2023. If anyone can bag that prize it is she.

Yesterday she showed her genius in TearFall as part of Phoenix's Mixed Programme at the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London. TearFall is a work of art but it also incorporates science. One of the disadvantages of our English, Welsh and Northern Irish Systems (but not so much the Scottish one) is that our schoolchildren are required to focus their studies on three arts or science "A" levels from age 16. The result is that we have educated several generations of science graduates with an incomplete knowledge of history, social sciences, the arts and literature but also several generations of arts graduates with only the scantiest understanding of basic science. C. P. Snow discussed that phenomenon in the Two Cultures as long ago as 1956. As Sharon Watson explains in Rehearsals: Revealed - TearFall - Sharon Watson she collaborated with Professor Sir John Holman of the University of York in creating Tear Fall. There are shots in the video of Sir John in a seminar with the choreographer and dancers and also sitting with them on the floor in a rehearsal studio. The work is supported by the Wellcome Trust which usually funds pharmacology and healthcare. It is great to see that it is also funding the performing arts.

The performance began with a short monologue by Prentice Whitlow on the function and composition of tears. Having began his topic quite clinically he discussed tears as a vehicle for conveying emotion and that, of course, was the topic explored by the dancers. Even without props the choreography would have been sufficiently expressive but Yaron Abulafia's lighting with little bulbs symbolizing individual tears complementing the pearl coloured helium balloons focussed the audience's thoughts (or at least mine) on the things that had caused them pain.  I shed many tears this week having been forced to end a friendship that has lasted for 6 years and it has almost been a bereavement.  Kristian Steffes's music also spoke to me, especially the sound of sobbing.  For so many reasons, I felt TearFall had my name on it and I am very glad that Sharon Watson and her dancers have produced this work and that I saw it when I did.

TearFall was one of three brilliant works and my focus on that work has meant that I have not done sufficient justice to Itzik Galili's Until.WithOut.Enough and Caroline Finn's Bloom. These are two very different works as you can see from Rehearsals: Revealed - Until.With/Out.Enough and Rehearsals: Revealed - Bloom - Caroline Finn and suit different moods.  The first is sombre while the last is comic though not without a bitter sweet twist.  I think Sharon Watson had a reason for inserting her work which deals with pleasant as well as painful emotions between them. I loved the music for both - Gorecki for Galili's work and some very clever lyrics in Bloom.  I shall see this programme in Huddersfield on 26 Nov 2015 and I will focus on them properly then.

Phoenix has never forgotten where and how it started and it works closely with local schools and community groups in Leeds.  If you look at its twitter stream you will see that it has not taken a rest in London. It has led workshops in the capital too. It is the nearest thing we have in Yorkshire to a national treasure.  On the steps leading down to the Linbury we were handed leaflets inviting us to support the company. I urge all my readers to do so.

Anna Tsygankova

Anna Tsygankova danced Cinderella on the last night of the Dutch National Ballet's season at the Coliseum and her performance was a triumph. It was the first time that I had seen her but I will make sure that it is not the last. I hope that the next occasion that I see her will be at the opening gala of the Amsterdam ballet season on the 8 Sept 2015.

Tsygankova talks about her role in Cinderella in the above video that the company has released recently on YouTube.  In it she describes her collaboration  with Christopher Wheeldon which was clearly a remarkable experience. She states how it helped her develop as a dancer.  The video also shows glimpses of her in Don Quixote, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake and other ballets.

The final shots show her at the piano in a building with magnificent views of Amsterdam. She explains how she was brought up in a musical family where her parents practised every single day. From the little I heard she is an accomplished pianist in her own right,

The Dutch National Ballet is one of the world's great ballet companies and it is on our doorstep. Amsterdam is easier to reach than London for many of us in the UK and a good deal less expensive once you get there. There will be quite a contingent from this country at the opening gala. Kenneth Leadbeater has proposed a British chapter of the Friends of the Dutch National Ballet along the lines of the American Friends of Covent Garden and the London Ballet Circle has promoted that idea in its latest newsletter. The Junior Company has enjoyed two successful seasons at The Linbury and I hope we will bring them back to the UK (perhaps to Leeds) notwithstanding the closure of the Linbury.  Tsygankova will be assured of an appreciative audience whenever she steps onto one of our stages.

The New Season at Covent Garden

Royal Opera House

Author Russ London

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The Royal Opera House's new dance season has been on the House's website since 15 April and it has already attracted some 71 comments, not all of them positive though I can't see why. The Royal Ballet is special and I wish I had the time and resources to see everything though if I did I would never be able to see anything else.  There are some who would ask "Why would you want to see anything else when the Royal Ballet is the gold standard, at least in Britain?" My view is that one needs a bit of variety in life. Fish and chips and chicken tikka masala as well as haute cuisine. In ballet terms, that means small regional as well as national flagship companies. So I have to be selective and here are my choices.

This Autumn I am tempted by Viscera, Afternoon of a Faun, Tchaikovsky pas de deux and Carmen particularly Viscera after hearing Laura Morera at the London Ballet Circle last week (see Laura Morera 25 Aug 2015). Of course, I am also looking forward to Carlos Acosta's Carmen. There have been lots of attempts to translate Bizet into ballet but they have not generally stuck with the public. Maybe  this production will be different.

One ballet that I really love is Ashton's Monotones and that is to be performed with Two Pigeons in November and early December. The Nutcracker returns at Christmas and the Royal Ballet's production is particularly good. There are so many Nutcrackers at that time of the year that it is easy to get Nutcracker fatigue. However this one is magical not least because the House with its Christmas decorations offers such n enchanting setting. It is the show to which I shall take my grandson manqué for his first experience of Covent Garden.

I did not do justice to The Winter's Tale first time round because I was shattered by the drive (see Royal Ballet "The Winter's Tale" 14 April 2014) and I only got to appreciate it in the cinema (see The Winter's Tale - Time to eat my Hat 29 April 2014) and on telly last Christmas. I think I shall appreciate it far more when I see it on stage again.

The last show on my "must go" list is the new Wayne McGregor, The Invitation  and Within the Golden Hour in Spring.  Another Wheeldon and one, of course, MacMillan.

Most of the productions are contributed by the Royal Ballet but there will be visits to the Linbury by our own Phoenix Dance Theatre which I would not miss for the world, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and a number of other interesting companies. This year the Linbury will close for a while which will mean that Ballet Black will have to find somewhere else to launch their new season which is a shame because they always shine in that auditorium. The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company will also have to find another venue if they come to this country this year. I am trying to persuade them to perform at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre and if they came to Leeds Gita and I would spoil them to bits. But I guess there are many other factors that they have to consider.

Wonderful Phoenix

Phoenix Dance may be a small company but it is at the forefront of contemporary dance in the UK  It has strong dancers who confidently deliver.  I was therefore delighted to be one of a number of guest who had been invited to see Until.With/Out.Enough which is to form part of a mixed bill to be danced at the Linbury between the 11 and 15 November 2015 and as part of the company's 35th year Birthday celebrations  to be delivered in 2016. The performance took place in Leeds last Friday in a studio in the building that Phoenix Dance shares with Northern Ballet.

  

Sharon Watson, the company's artistic director, introduced the piece to us.  She explained that it had been created by Itzik Galili. in 1997. It is about the importance of the experience of the moment.  She described it as a "work in progress" which will be more polished by the time it is performed in London. I have to say I that it is not clear where further polishing is needed for the work was very well done and exciting. The piece came through to me as being about struggles of relationships and experiences we encounter in life; how they fit in to others around us; how we interact with them; and how we cope or don't cope with those relationships and experiences,

The space was owned  as the dancers burst on stage to the music of  Henryk Gorecki and they maintained that momentum throughout the show. It was a dramatic piece. It was like a vortex.  The emotions expressed by the dancers rippled through the audience who almost participated in the show.. Exciting stuff.  There were solos, duets and group dances. Each flowed into the other in sync. .Some of those duets were between males who showed great tenderness to each other. It was a tight performance and the audience loved it.  The applause was deafening and very well deserved..

I had the pleasure of almost being face to face with the dancers as they performed this breathtaking piece. I had never been that close to a dancer in a performance before.  I really felt their presence as they performed their movements. I could hear the dancers breathe and pant.

After the performance I spoke to Sharon Watson and other members of the company about how the show was put together.. Although the work was created by Galili, Sharon and Caroline Finn must also share the credit. They added layers and nuances to the work, Galili visited the company and outlined his choreography. He was represented by Elizabeteh Gilbat who worked with the company's choreographers and dancers. The whole process took about 4 weeks. It was interesting to compare that process with the one discussed in the Narrative Dance in Ballet talk on 20 June 2015 (see Jane Lambert My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015).

I look forward to seeing this and Phoenix Dance's other works when they visit the Royal Opera House in November.

Junior Company in London - even more polished but as fresh and exuberant as ever

Dutch National Ballet, Junior Company, Blink

Photo Michael Schluter
(C) 2015 Dutch National Ballet  All rights reserves
Reproduced with the kind permission of the company

Dutch National Ballet, Ballet Classics and Modern Masters, Linbury Studio Theatre, 6 June 2015

I saw the Dutch National Ballet, Junior Company perform their mixed programme Ballet Classics and Modern Masters at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam on 6 Feb 2015 and you will find my review at The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015.  I saw the show again last night at the Linbury Studio Theatre in Covent Garden. In the intervening 4 months they have performed that programme in towns and cities across the Netherlands.  As a result it has become even more polished while remaining as fresh and exuberant as ever.

The programme was very much as it had been in February.  The one big difference is that Ernst Meisner, the Artistic Coordinator introduced the company instead of the Artistic Director, Ted Brandsen. Ernst explained how the Junior Company had been formed and that it provided opportunities not only for talented young dancers but also talented young technicians and choreographers. He promised us two of the best: Surfacing by the Canadian dance maker Robert Binet and Blink by Juanjo Aques from Spain. As in Amsterdam the dancers introduced themselves in a film which I have embedded in "We are the Junior Company"  13 Feb 2015. I just love their giggle at the end of that clip and having met them all in Amsterdam I can say that they are among the most pleasant and personable, as well as the most talented, kids on the planet. Each ballet was introduced by a short clip bits of which are in the trailer that I embedded in Not Long Now 28 May 2015.

The show began with Bourgonville's Napoli danced by Riho Sakamoto, Emilie Tassinari, Veronika Verterich, Yuanyuan Zhang, Cristiano Principato and Martin ten Kortenaar. The women wore the most gorgeous costumes with long flowing skirts which photographer Michael Schluter captured in the picture that I inserted into my previous review. There was some great jumping by the men and some delightful pointe work by the women. I had forgotten how sexy and fun Napoli remains despite the passage of time. The crowd loved it. It was a real pot boiler. The audience were as putty in the company's hands for the rest of the performance. It was an inspired choice for the start of the show.

The next work was Ernst Meisner's Embers danced by Nancy Burer and Thomas van Damme. In my previous review I described it as "quite simply ....... one of the most beautiful ballets I have ever seen." It moved me the first time I saw it on film - a performance on the concourse of Amsterdam railway station which I embedded into Junior Company's New Season 6 Feb 2015. It moved me again last night. I was delighted to learn that Joanna, who also saw the show, loved that piece as much as I do.

Another moving piece is the pas de deux from Act II of Swan Lake where Siegfried first sees and falls in love with Odette. This is probably the most frequently performed, the most televised, the best known and the best loved pas de deux in the world and it is an honour to dance it. That honour fell to Martin and Yuanyuan who were charming. There was one anxious nano-second but nothing like enough to break the spell. The version of the ballet that the Junior Company performed was Rudi van Dantzig's with lovely costumes by Toer van Schayk. Odette wears a red stone representing ruby in her head dress and on the bodice of her tutu. A lovely touch that I had never noticed before. The programme notes describe this production as the most beautiful Swan Lake ever. I missed it this year but I will catch it next time.

Bart Engelen changed our mood with his witty performance of Milena Siderova's Full Moon. Bart wants to grab some kip but the pillow seems to have a mind of its own.  Bart tugs it this way and that, jumps with it, applies his whole weight to it but the pillow won't keep still. Finally he stamps on it.  All this is performed to the music of Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights from Romeo and Juliet. Bart and Milena have a lot to answer for. A few weeks later my beloved Northern Ballet performed Romeo and Juliet in Leeds (see Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good way 8 March 2015 and Leebolt's Juliet 13 March 2015). The image of Bart and his cushion came flashed back. I just couldn't help chuckling to myself at this very solemn moment in the work with which that music is usually associated. I hope I get that image out of my system by the time I have shelled out some serious moolah to see the Royal Ballet's production in the Autumn.

The last work of the first part of the show was Hans van Manen's Visions Fugitives. What can I say?  I love this work and indeed every other work of his that I have ever seen.  Van Manen is my favourite living choreographer and in case readers accuse me of inconsistency let me say that Marney is my favourite British choreographer and Cranko is my favourite of all time. It has humour. It has pathos. The dancers form lovely almost architectural patterns. The piece was danced by Nancy Burer, Ryosuke Morimoto, Lisanne Kottenhagen and Thomas van Damme, Yuanyuan Zhang and Martin ten Kortenaar.  On the two occasions I saw the company in Amsterdam van Manen took a bow. The crowd went wild as well they might in the presence of such a distinguished dance maker. These are moments like the times I saw Fonteyn and Nureyev and Ashton and Helpmann as the ugly sisters in Cinderella that I love to relate to young dancers and dance fans.

Part two was devoted to two new works: Binet's Surfacing and Arques's Blink.  I liked both of those works. They are aptly described as "modern masters".  It was interesting to see from the introductory films the contrasting styles of working of the two choreographers. Binet seems very precise and technical. "Chasser" as though you are skating. Arques seems to be fun. "That's nice". "That's nice". "Smile!" "Boom!" Both brought out the best of their dancers.

Surfacing reminded me very much of the van Manen that we had just seen both in its choreography and its staging. It was danced beautifully by Riho, Cristiano, Nancy and Antonio Martinez. Binet chose the music of Somei Satoh which was hauntingly beautiful. His costumes were by Oliver Haller.

Blink epitomized the company. It was witty, it was exuberant and it was exciting. It reminded me of the film at the start of the show where the dancers described themselves: "we are young", "we are talented", "we are fun", "we are the Junior Company." The dancers in this last piece were Veronika, Martin, Riho, Ryosuke and Bart. Beautiful Bart with his powerful jumps and contortions. It was a great evening and I was moved to rise to my feet though I don't know how may other members of the audience joined me.

London audiences are such a snooty lot! Had the dancers performed in The Stanley and Audrey Burton Janet McNulty in the front row would have brought the whole audience to its feet as she did for Wuthering Heights in Sheffield and I would have been right behind her. It would have been the same in The Tramway because Glaswegians are demonstrative too. All of which is a roundabout way of welcoming Ernst's announcement that the company is staying on in London for a week to work with the Royal Ballet's choreographers. But is is also an entreaty to our neighbours across the sea not just to stay in London. I'd like to see what those talented young artists could do with Kenneth Tindall, Christopher Hampson and Christopher Marney. I know that Kenneth for one would love to work with the Dutch National Ballet's dancers for he told me so.   There are no British dancers in the Junior Company but it is good to know that relations are developing between the Dutch National and the Royal Ballets. All I would add as a mere balletomane is that The Royal Ballet may be the gold standard but it is not the alpha and omega of ballet in this country.

Because performers sometimes meet their public in the Linbury bar after the show, Joanna and I lingered there for 15 minutes so that we could congratulate them personally if they showed up. We did meet Ernst and exchanged a few greetings with him but only a few other members of the audience stayed so we pushed off for dinner too. We went to Wahaca for a Mexican which will feature in the chapter on where to eat after a show in the House or Coli in Team Terpsichore's forthcoming book for ballet sceptics "Will I like Ballet?" More about that later.

Other Reviews

Maggie Foyer  Dutch Juniors pack a mature punch Critical Dance

Wheeldon in Amsterdam and the Dutch National Ballet in London

I mentioned the Dutch National Ballet's triple bill Cool Britannia in Cool Britannia - in Amsterdam on 16 April 2015. The company has just uploaded this fascinating video of the choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's working with the dancers who will perform his ballet this month. I am flying out to Amsterdam to see the show on the 27 June and will report back shortly afterwards.

Meanwhile Ernst Meisner and his wonderful Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet are at the Linbury today and tomorrow. Joanna Goodman and I will be in their audience tomorrow. They will perform Ballet Classics and Modern Masters which I saw in February (see my review The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015). Last year I noted quite a difference between the company's opening show in Amsterdam and its show in London. Their show last February was magnificent so I am expecting great things tomorrow.

On my awayday to London for the trade mark attorneys' party yesterday I noticed posters for the Dutch National Ballet's Cinderella in every tube station. This is another Wheeldon ballet which is coming to the Wells next month (see The Dutch National Ballet are coming to London 2 May 2015). Needless to say I shall be seeing that too. So you can expect to hear a lot form me about this great company over the next

A Post Script from New Zealand

In The All Blacks of the Art World are coming to Leeds I wrote that the Royal New Zealand Ballet will visit the UK in the Autumn and they are bringing two of their works to this country: Giselle which they are dancing in Edinburgh, High Wycombe and Canterbury and a mixed bill entitled The Anatomy of a Passing Cloud which they will perform at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds and the Linbury in Covent Garden.

The mixed bill will contain several ballets from Salute which opened in Wellington on 22 May and is now in Christchurch on the second leg of the company's tour of New Zealand. @tweeting_nik who lives in New Zealand kindly brought the following video by the Royal New Zealand Ballet to my attention:

@ShippLea and @jelterps - thought you might enjoy this! https://t.co/yj5QTgMnD6

— Nik (@tweeting_nik) May 28, 2015

Check out some footage of our premiere in Wellington and make sure you get your tickets http://www.rnzb.org.nz/shows-and-events/salute/dates-venues/
Posted by Royal New Zealand Ballet on Wednesday, 27 May 2015

She also kindly offered to identify the individual works shown in the clip which offer I gratefully accepted:

@jelterps No worries! In order: Dear Horizon, Soldier's Mass, Salute (which I think was your favourite) and Passchendaele.

— Nik (@tweeting_nik) May 28, 2015

Clearly, we in this country are in for a treat. I am grateful to the company for publishing this clip and providing an embed code and to @tweeting_nik for her commentary.

Mixed Programme - with a sweet centre

Northern Ballet’s Mixed Programme, Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House

Northern Ballet is known for storytelling, and last night’s programme mostly lived up to this reputation. The Mixed Programme too lived up to its name: the five ballets designed by five choreographers each told a different story. 

Angels in the Architecture – Mark Godden’s Shaker-inspired choreography to Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring (which includes the song ‘Lord of the Dance’) – featured six couples, with brooms and chair as props. The girls’ flowing circle dresses were particularly lovely – pretty, elegant and used to great effect choreographically as the dancers pulled them over their heads in different ways and I loved the creative use of the Shaker chair which had apparently inspired the piece. Personally, I wasn’t too sure about the brooms – I understand the motif, but there were a couple of times where they seemed to confuse the pattern of movement.

Christopher Hampson’s Perpetuum Mobile to Bach’s violin concerto in E Major was a beautiful classical piece which did not have a clear narrative – at least not one that I could discern – but followed the patterns of the music. I liked the way the dancers’ skill and dynamism brought this set piece to life as they leapt joyfully across the stage.

After the first interval, Little Monsters offered a complete change of tone with Dreda Blow and Isaac Lee-Baker doing marvellous things with Demis Volpi’s choreography. This was a fresh, innovative interpretation of Elvis Presley’s music, about as far away stylistically from 1950s cliché as you could get.  I thought it worked perfectly, making the most of the dancers’ exquisite physiques and energy. The theme was a love story, told in three songs, and it was both entertaining and emotive. I can still picture the resonant simplicity of ‘Are you Lonesome Tonight?’ with the two dancers who had been so closely entangled and engrossed with each other in the first two songs – ‘Love me Tender’ and ‘I want you, I need you, I love you’ – standing apart, each in their own spotlight.

A Northern Trilogy was perfect too, in a different way, offering a sensitive and entertaining take on the company’s northern roots, with Jonathan Watkins’ clever and cute interpretation of Stanley Holloway’s monologues, ‘Yorkshire Pudden’, ‘One-Each-A –Piece All Round’ and ‘The Lion and Albert'. As well as the dancers’ accomplished and enthusiastic performance and the straightforward storylines overlaying some deeper themes, the costumes and lighting accentuated the bitter-sweet sentimentality of these pieces. Yorkshire Pudden was lit in a way that suggested a sepia photograph, while the fresh brightness of ‘The Lion and Albert’ evoked images of the mid-20^th century seaside holiday and managed to include humour without descending into pantomime.  Everyone in the auditorium was smiling – the programme had been designed with a sweet centre.

The final and most ambitious piece was Kenneth Tindall’s The Architect. This was highly original – and dazzling. I hardly know where to start. It was also the most obscure narrative of the programme, a cryptic version of the biblical creation scene with Adam and Eve – well, multiple Adams and Eves and a few pounds of apples. A beautiful opening sequence with what seemed to be Adam and Eve chasing a single apple set the scene for a dramatic sequence around birth and creation. There then followed a complex sequence involving several apples being passed mouth-to-mouth between the dancers while Adam had his own apple routine. This was certainly different, but I was a bit distracted from the tango-like ambiance by all the apples. In the final sequences a single apple, this time suspended above the dancers, provided a focal point for some clever and quite acrobatic group sequences enhanced by darker lighting design. Personally, I preferred the sections where there was just one apple in play, as it were.

I may have picked at a couple of details, but I was hugely impressed. It was a pretty tall order to create a contemporary ballet that balanced biblical narrative with biological symbolism and it looked amazing and the demanding choreography showcased the dancers’ extreme athleticism and flexibility. It also showed what an excellent company Northern Ballet are, particularly in the group sequences that expanded and contracted around the single, suspended apple. There were also some wonderful partner and individual pieces.

This was my first experience of Northern Ballet and I will definitely find opportunities to see them again. I love their originality, their clear identity and the way their work can be appreciated on multiple levels. I felt that their excellent dancing spoke for itself and didn’t need embellishing with complex staging. Having said that, it would be interesting to see The Architect performed in a bigger space.

Further Reading

10 May 2015  Between Friends - Northern Ballet's Mixed Programme (The Mixed Programme in Leeds)

Au Revoir rather than Goodbye

As every reader of this blog knows, I am a huge fan of Kenneth Tindall.  Tindall makes his last appearance as a principal of Northern Ballet at Milton Keynes Theatre where he will dance Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights with Julie Charlet as Cathy. It will be quite a special occasion and one of the events arranged for Friends and Patrons (and prospective Friends and Patrons) of Northern Ballet will be a post-matinee performance discussion held in the MK Gallery from 16.45 which is next door to the theatre. Anyone who wants to come to that talk should email Joanne Clayton.

Although this will be Tindall's last appearance with Northern Ballet as a dancer it will not be his last connection with Northern Ballet.  The company will dance The Architect at The Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds as part of its mixed programme between the 6 and 9 May 2015 and at The Linbury in London between the 12 and 14 May 2015. Both Mel and I reviewed that work when we saw it last year (see Mel Wong Kenneth Tindall - The Architect of Ballet 21 June 2014 and Jane Lambert A Wonderful Evening - Northern Ballet's Mixed Bill 21 June 2014 23 June 2014).

I am sure readers (many of whom will be at Milton Keynes Theatre) will join me in wishing Kenneth Tindall toi-toi for Saturday and ever greater success in his career as a choreographer.

Further Reading

Northern Ballet  14 Years with Kenneth Tindall  29 Apr 2015
Jane Lambert   Kenneth Tindall 28 Feb 2015

La Bayadère - The Ninth Life

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance's La Bayadère - The Ninth Life at the Linbury yesterday lasted about an hour but it was one of the most intense hours that I have ever spent in the theatre. I had come to the performance expecting a transposition of the story of the ballet into bharatha natyam or some other Indian dance idiom but it was nothing like that. That would have been too easy and it is clear from the list of her works on her company's website that Jeyasingh doesn't do easy. Instead, it compared and contrasted a modern Indian's perception of one of the classics of Western dance with Théophile Gautier's perception of Indian classical dance.

At least I think that is what it was about. My friend and colleague Gita Mistry understood it much better than I did. She has studied bharatha natyam (see Our Three Hundredth Post - Now we are a Team 21 Feb 2015) and picked up on cues like the counting of time and the sharp heel movements that had passed me by. She explained her understanding of this work to me patiently over dinner (a curry as it happens) and the long drive back to Yorkshire. I admired the virtuosity of the dancers and I came reasonably prepared for the show having read everything I could about it but without Gita's commentary it would have been very much harder for me to appreciate the show.

The performance opens straightforwardly enough with a blogger and his computer. He is an Indian man in a check shirt sitting on the floor as the audience arrives and takes their places. The lights dimmed. He began to type and words appeared on the screen. On a visit to London, he explains, a friend had taken him to the ballet to see La Bayadère. He found it a remarkable experience. He set out the story noting that it set near modern Hyderabad. He listed the characters - Nikiya, Gamzatti, Solor, the holy man - each of whom appeared behind the screen. "I've never seen a holy man move like that" he mused to the audience's laughter. The plot he described as "pure Bollywood" the only authentic bit being the protracted Indian wedding. And finally the entry of the shades.

The next scene focused on the words of Gautier who saw real bayadères or temple dancers from Pondicherry when they visited Paris in 1838.  At first came wonder and appreciation for the dancers - their wonderful soft skin and teeth - but then disdain - blue gums, the ears riddled with holes, the gifts of tobacco, the dancer's feet one toe separated from the others like a bird's foot - and this refrain was repeated with the temple dancer manhandled on stage.

Gita told me that much of the dancing in that scene had been bharatha natyam which I might have worked out for myself had Indian instruments been played but there were no hints of that in Gabriel Prokofiev's score. This was a combination of voice with percussion and other sound. The soundtrack from this trailer will give some idea. As I say above, Jeyasingh does not do easy.

Listening to Gauthier's words which were repeated several times, it dawned on me why India unlike China, Japan and Korea appears relatively unmoved and uninfluenced by Western ballet or for that matter classical music. I had considered that conundrum several times in this blog (see, for example, More on Ballet in India 4 Sept 2014). Gauthier, the author of Giselle, never really understood or appreciated an Indian dance form that has subsisted for more than two millennia. Why should an Indian pay regard for an art form which in its modern embodiment is barely two centuries old!

As I said above I found the show intense. Gita felt it too.  Both of us would have preferred a different score. I would have liked Indian instruments and rhythms. But we are both glad to have seen the show. Armed with the knowledge that I now have I should like to see it again. It is going on tour but only in places like Eastleigh, Exeter and Watford. "Why not bring it North?" I asked the choreographer whom I approached after the show. She replied that she would love to do so.

Further Reading
31 March 2015   La Bayadère  

Ballet Black's Best Performance Yet

There are nights in the theatre when  magic happens. Several things come together. A receptive audience, The last night of a successful run.  An intimate auditorium. Whether consciously or not the dancers pull out all the stops and give the performances of their lives. That happened last Saturday in The Linbury when Ballet Black danced brilliantly. I have never seen them perform better. Though they always dance well, it is possible that I will never again see them dance as well as they did on Saturday night. As I tweeted after the show:

My mother told me of the time she had seen Pavlova dance in Leeds. I will tell Vlad about @BalletBlack's performance. last night.
— Terpsichore (@jelterps) February 15, 2015

The performance opened with Jacob Wye and Kanika Carr as Jack and Jill in Kit Holder's "To Fetch a Pail of Water". Except there was no pail and no water.  As the choreographer wrote in the programme:

"I am intrigued by why Jack and Jill are said to have gone up the hill - surely not to look for water?"

They fell perhaps but not physically. Coyly dressed as 1950s teenagers - Carr in a tartan skirt like an American co-ed - this was a sweet story (well I thought so though Holder refers to a dark coded meaning in his notes) - of lost innocence. It was an interesting choice of music: Mother McKnight, Nostalgic Oblong and Skyward Bruise Descent by Clark.

The next piece was Depouillement by Will Tuckett. It was a YouTube video of an earlier version of  that work which had attracted me to Ballet Black long before I saw them on the stage (see Ballet Black's Appeal 13 March 2013). The piece I saw on Saturday seemed to be different from the one that I knew from YouTube but no less beautiful. Damien Johnson and Cira Robinson who had danced Depouillement in 2009 are thanked by Tuckett for teaching the work to Jose Alves and Isabella Coracy and Christopher Renfurm and Marie-Astrid Mence. Alves, Coracy and Renfurm were already high in my pantheon of dancers and they have risen even higher in my esteem after Saturday's performance but the it was the performance of Mence that most surprised and delighted me. I suppose I had continued to think of her as Anna in Dogs don't do Ballet but she is a strong and expressive classical dancer. I should not have been so surprised as I had seen her on YouTube but I have every right to be delighted.

After Despouillement there was an interval. "Aren't they wonderful" I said to Joshua Royal whom I had seen with MurleyDance. He agreed. The audience was happy and chattering. David Nixon had taught me to recognize what he called "the best sound in the world" (see the last paragraph of Like meeting an old friend after so many years 4 Jan 2015).

For me the best part of the show was Mark Bruce's Second Coming. This is a complex, mysterious and beautiful work with many layers on meaning that I have not a hope of understanding upon a first viewing. I am sure I will understand it better after I have seen it a few times on tour. My initial impression was that of an initiation ritual of some magical rite perhaps from Brazil, or maybe New Orleans or even Haiti. Carr brandished a hoop through which each of the dancers passed - some, apparently. not altogether willingly. There was a powerful and slightly disturbing dance of a man in a lion's mask In a Q&A in the programme notes Mark Bruce writes:

"I read the Second Coming by William Butler Yeats (1855-1939) and it speaks of a creature with a man's head and a lion's body coming out of the desert."

There was a lovely bit where Damien Johnson bearing a mandolin seemed to be dancing just for me. I was sitting in the first seat in the front row and our eyes seemed to meet though I didn't think that was possible as I couldn't make out faces in the audience on the one occasion I was on the stage (sse The Time of my Life 28 June 2014). Strangely it was for he told me so when the audience met the cast in the bar of the Linbury after the show.

There was a pas de deux to Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor which had me reaching or a tissue. Partly it was the memory of Jacqueline du Pré but mainly it was the fluidity and delicacy of Cira Robinson's dancing. She is a wonderful dancer. A true ballerina in the strict sense of the word. I exchanged a few words with her too after the show and she is as gracious off the stage as she is when dancing. There were some spectacular turns and jumps which must have been fun to dance, I suggested.  "Yes, so dramatic and different from everything else we have dome before" came the reply.

The company is taking a break for a few days. The American dancers are going home and I believe that at least some of the English dancers are visiting America. They will be back in Leeds on the 18 and 19 April with Dogs don'r do Ballet where they are now part of our ballet family (see Ballet Black at Home in Leeds 7 Nov 2014). Though they have not yet announced details of their tour on their website they will doubtless take this mixed bill on tour. When they do, be sure to see it.

Further Reading
10 Feb 2015    John Ross, Ballet Black Triple Bill, London, Feb 2015 BalletcoForum
27 Feb 2014  Extra Special - Ballet Black at the Linbury 26 Feb 201

The Junior Company

Dutch National Ballet Junior Company

Photo Robin DePuy

(c) Dutch National Ballet 2014

Reproduced with kind permission of the Dutch 

National Ballet

As in the previous interview, my words are in italics and Ernst Meisner’s are in plain text.

“You had some brilliant young dancers last year. Some, such as Michaela DePrince, were already well known before they joined you. How did you recruit them?

"Michaela is indeed a very special dancer and she has now joined the main company and is already dancing nice roles, like the pas de trois in Swan Lake. I also cast her in my ballet for the Back to Bach programme and she did a fine job!

We have an open audition every year. About 700 dancers apply each year and between 100 and 150 are invited to actually come and take a class with us in Amsterdam. This is one way of recruiting. However our school is the first port of call and I prefer to get to know a dancer a bit longer and see how they work in classes over a period of time. So we always hope to get some talent that comes through our own school.

I also attend competitions like the Youth American Grand Prix and the Prix de Lausanne to scout for other talent.”

“How did you become the Junior Company's Artistic Co-ordinator?”

“Once I had heard about plans of having a Junior Company, I approached Ted Brandsen and mentioned that I was ready to make a new step in my career and wanted to focus more on choreographing, managing and teaching. All three things are part of the job.  I was offered the job a few months later.”

“What does the role of Artistic Co-ordinator involve and how does it differ from that of Artistic Director?”

“Ted Brandsen is the Artistic Director of both the main company and the Junior Company.

My job entails the daily running of the Junior Company, planning, contact with choreographers, designers, programming, rehearsing dancers, teaching class, watching shows and so much more that comes along…!
It is a very diverse job and teaches me so much every day! I work very closely together with Ted and aim to achieve his vision for the Junior Company on a daily basis.”

“Tell me something about a Junior Company dancer's day - class, rehearsals, touring etc."

“A Junior Company dancer’s day is much the same as any dancer’s day in the sense that he or she will do class, rehearse and sometimes have performances or tour the Netherlands to do performances. What is different is that because there are only twelve of them. We can give them all a lot of attention and coach them individually. Not just in solos and repertoire, but also how to behave in a big company.

Three times a week they do class with the main company (to get inspired!), but the other three times we give them a separate class so we can focus on their individual needs. They also get more individual guidance from our health team and we organize special classes on whatever we feel they need to spend some more time on. Last year we even did a cooking class for the young ones! That was great!”

“It sounds a lot of fun as well as a lot of hard work. I am sure they all enjoy it.”

“Your dancers come from all over the world and not all of them speak Dutch or Flemish. Do you require recruits from other countries to master Dutch or do you allow them to use English?”

“The language in the main company and Junior Company is English. Almost everyone in Amsterdam speaks fluent English, so it isn’t difficult for foreign dancers to fit in.”

“I see that Nathan Brhane, Mert Erdin, Michaela DePrince, Wentao Li, Daniel Montero Real, Sho Yamade and Jessica Xeian are now apprentices. Are these long term appointments? Will they be invited to stay with the Company and allowed to rise as far as their talent takes them?”

“All our dancers receive one year contracts for the first four years they are with the company. Once they pass their first four years they receive what we call a permanent contract and can stay until they are 38.”

“By the way, they are all beautiful dancers and I wish each and every one of them all the best in his or her career.”

“Me too! And it is great to see them do so well already in the main company!”

“Will there be another grand opening night for the Junior Company like the one I attended last year at the Stadsschouwburg?”

“Yes on 6 Feb 2015 we will open the second season of the Junior Company officially at Stadsschouwburg again. So that promises to be a nice evening again!”

“Are there plans to tour the Netherlands and other countries? Shall we see them again in England?”

“Yes we will have about 20 performances around Holland again. They are now all on our website http://www.operaballet.nl/en/doublebill/2014-2015/show/junior-company.

I am also really pleased that our relationship with The Royal Opera House continues and we will be back at the Linbury Studio Theatre in 2015 as part of the Springboard Series Season again.”

In the next few posts I introduce each of the new members of the Junior Company.

Tindall's Architect - How to Get a Piece of the Action - Literally!

Last month our beloved Northern Ballet danced at the Linbury Studio Theatre to packed houses and favourable reviews. It was by no means their first season in London but it was their first at Covent Garden and their success filled all of us woad-painted, ferret-tending, coal-in-the-bath-storing Borealians with pride. There were regrettably attempts to puncture that pride by one who should have known better who dismissed  one of our wonderful choreographers as one of "dozens of others who have done a few pieces, successful or otherwise". But, never mind. A week or two later my pride was more than restored when Christopher Marney listed Martha Leebolt and other Northern Ballet dancers among his favourites.

One of the most popular works at the Linbury was Kenneth Tindall's Luminous Junc•ture.  That is an impressive work that I saw and reviewed last June (see Angelic - Northern Ballet's Mixed Bill 9 June 2013).  In less than a fortnight Northern Ballet are bringing the programme that they danced so successfully in London back to Leeds but, instead of Luminous Junc•ture, Tindall has created a new ballet called The Architect.

According to Northern Ballet's website this ballet was inspired by Genesis. The score is  Zinc by Zoe Keating Remix, ...Og Lengra by Olafur Arnalds, Aria by Balanescu Quartet, Til Enda by Olafur Arnalds and Architect of the mind by Kerry Muzzey. The sets and costumes are by Christopher Giles. If you visit that page you will see a gorgeous drawing of two of the costumes by Giles and a dramatic photo by Darren Goldsmith of Benjamin Mitchell and Giuliano Contadini in a scene from that ballet.

I am, of course, looking forward to seeing this work very much indeed but ballets being transitory it will be over all too quickly. However, there is a chance of preserving this work on film for I have just seen a post on by Hannah Bateman on Kickstarter appealing for funding for the filming of the work by Stephen Lally. Most of the money for the project has been raised but Lally and his team still need to raise another £3,000 by private subscription in the next 12 days and they are already well on their way there. If you want to contribute you can offer anything from £1 upwards and there are incentives like signed posters and advanced viewing of the picture if you do.

Tindall isn't just one of "dozens of others who have done a few pieces, successful or otherwise". He is good. I have seen Bitter Earth as well as Luminous Junc•ture and I look forward to more.