Birmingham Royal Ballet brings Shakespeare to York

York Theatre Royal

Source Wikipedia
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Birmingham Royal Ballet, Shakespeare Triple Bill, York Theatre Royal, 14 May 2016, 19{30


Birmingham Royal Ballet has a lot of links with Yorkshire. Brandon Lawrence, one of my favourite dancers, comes from Bradford and David Bintley, the company's artistic director, comes from the next village to mine (see My Home and Bintley's 12 May 2015. "We like coming to York" said Jade Heusen in the talk before the show and I think I speak for most theatre goers in this county when I say that we like having you here but we wish we could see a lot more of you. Not just the Northern tour and not just in York but in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Hull and any other theatres in the county that are geared up for dance.

I asked David Bintley about that once and he seemed receptive to the idea. He said that he had first seen ballet at the Alhambra and that it would also be good to see Northern Ballet in Birmingham. One of the reasons why that does not happen now is the perceived need to build up local loyalty for regional ballet companies, but I don't think it works like that. Three of Northern's biggest fans of my acquaintance live miles from Leeds. Two in Buckinghamshire and one in Merseyside. I for my part feel a particular attachment to Scottish Ballet which was the first dance company that I got to know. I do not see it anything like as often as I wish because it is in Glasgow which is further away than Birmingham. I am also a Friend of Ballet Cymru, Ballet Black, the Dutch National Ballet and Covent Garden. I donate regularly to Northern Ballet, attend all its shows and take at least one adult ballet class there every week but I am just as much a fan of English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Anyway, this beautiful company (or at least part of it) was in York last Saturday night and it brought a programme of ballets based on the plays and sonnets of Warwickshire's most famous son, William Shakespeare. The programme began with Wink choreographed by Jessica Lang to a score by Jakub Ciupinski. It was followed by three pas de deux from Ashton's Dream, MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet and Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew and concluded with José Limón's The Moor's Pavane.  I was attracted to the show by the prospect of seeing the three pas de deux which are among the best bits of three of my favourite ballets. I was not disappointed. They were danced exquisitely and were the highlight of my evening; but I liked Wink too and The Moor's Pavane somewhat more.

As I remarked in my review of the company's  performance in Birmingham in Ashton's Double Bill 21 Feb 2016, I cannot even hear Mendelssohn's music let alone watch The Dream without thinking of Dame Antoinette Sibley who is my all time favourite ballerina or indeed Sir Anthony Dowell who partnered her in this as in all ballets so beautifully. It makes me root for tissues. Titania was danced by Karla Doorbar who looks a little bit like Sibley and Obseron by the magnificent Chi Cao. I think I enjoyed watching them even more than I did Sakuma and Caley in Birmingham.

Ideally an interview or at least a pause should have finished that performance but it was followed immediately by another treat. Tyrone Singleton and Celine Gittens danced the second pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet.  I had seen Singelton as Romeo once before when he took over the role from Jamie Bond at very short notice but this time he was dancing with Gittens and when those two are together the result is magic. I saw them in Coppelia at The Lowry last year and they were sensational. They were sensational again last Saturday night.

The last pas de deux was from one of my favourite ballets (even though I have only seen it once) by my all time favourite choreographer, John Cranko, and its was danced delightfully by Elisha Willis and Iain Mackay. It was from the part of the ballet that starts with a battle of wills but ends with the first signs of attraction and softening by Katherina. It is an amusing but also very beautiful piece and the change in mood is caught by the choreography. This work was created for the Stuttgart Ballet and it is performed not nearly as frequently as it should be in this country.  I look forward to Birmingham's production at the Hippodrome next month very much.

According to David Mead's programme note Wink comes from the first line of Shakespeare's sonnet 43 "When most I wink, then do my eyes best see." As it was also derived from the sonnets I could not help comparing Lang's work to Kate Flatt's Undivided Loves for Phoenix Dance Theatre which I reviewed in Phoenix's 35th Anniversary Tour 18 Feb 2016 and I have to say that I think I liked Flatt's work more. The score was stronger and the choreography more interesting. The black and white slabs that are intended to represent pages according to the programme note were distracting. I found it hard to get into the work and maybe need to see it again when I have not driven from Holmfirth to Bradford, Bradford to Manchester and Manchester to York all in the same day. What could not be faulted was the dancing and so many of my favourites were in that work including Singleton, Gittens, Cesar Morales, Yijing Zhang and Ruth Brill.

Created in the year of my birth The Moor's Pavane is a classic of American dance that I have long wanted to see. It tells the tragedy of Othello to the music of Purcell in 20 short minutes. Morales was the Moor, Yvette Knight was Desdemona, Chi Cao was Iago and Yijing Zhang was Emilia.  A powerful, very beautiful but also quite disturbing work. It is performed without props. The story is told entirely by the music and perhaps also by the lighting.

I should say a word about the theatre. Built in the ruins of St Leonard's Hospital it is one of the most beautiful and intimate theatre that I know.  it was established in 1744 and has staged many great productions. In her talk Jensen mentioned that it was adapted well for dancing. I can well understand why the company likes performing there. Situated not far from the Minster and almost opposite the art gallery and some lovely public gardens with a pleasant cafe and bistro the theatre is a tourist attraction in its own right,

Mel's Record Attempt

My friend, Mel Wong, hopes to break the world record for the total number of continuous grands battements which was set by Jeanne-Carlin Cilliers in South Africa on 5 March 2005 (see the Guiness World Record website). As good a definition of a grand battement as any is offered by Wikipedia's glossary of ballet terms:

"a powerful battement action where the dancer passes through dégagé and "throws" the leg as high as possible, keeping it straight, while the supporting leg also remains straight."

"Battement" is itself defined as "beat" and "a beating movement of the working leg". I can tell you from bitter experience that grands battements are not easy - well I don't find them easy - and Ms Cilliers accomplished 1,199 of them before her leg crashed through the roof and entered geostationary orbit.

Mel aims to do 1,200 - rather her than me - at Hype Dance Studio in Sheffield on 22 Aug at 16:30. She is appealing for support on Kickstarter. She is raising funds to for her advanced training at Trinity Laban but she also hopes to contribute to the Cats Protection League and Macmillan Cancer Care.  By coincidence there's a photo of the cat with the longest feline fur on the Guiness website

I wish her all the best.

Le jour de gloire est arrive - Dame Antoinette Sibley with Clement Crisp at the Royal Ballet School

The Royal Ballet School     Source Wikipedia

I have said elsewhere how much I admire Dame Antoinette Sibley in "Ballerina" on 1 July 2013 and I announced Ivy House Music and Dance's afternoon with her and Clement Crisp in "Sibley" on 17 Dec 2013. Yesterday the great day came and here is what happened.

The event took place in the theatre of the Royal Ballet School in Floral Street. This was the first time I had entered that building and indeed it is only the second ballet school I have ever seen, the other being the Northern Ballet Academy in Leeds. There were photographs, drawings and other exhibits on the walls which I stopped to regard on the way in and out. They included the designs for The Birds, a ballet performed in 1942, the School's coat of arms and lots of photos of all the great names that had been associated with the school. It felt strangely like my old school save that instead of dancers and choreographers our exhibits were of generals, judges, bishops leavened with the a few poets, musicians and actors. These exhibits reminded me that English ballet is part of a living tradition linked through Dame Ninette de Valois and Sir Fred Ashton to Dighialev's Ballet Russes and through then to Petipa, This was a theme that a gentleman who spoke on behalf of the London Jewish Cultural Centre picked up when he proposed a vote of thanks and Dame Antoinette and Clement Crisp referred to it several times in their discussion,

After tea and biscuits we were ushered into a theatre near with barres which presumably also serves as a rehearsal studio. The theatre was packed but I managed to find a seat in the second row.  Before Dame Antoinette and Clement Crisp entered we were treated to the pas de deux from Act III of The Sleeping Beauty by Hikaru Kobayashi whom I had last seen dance Myrtha in Giselle on 18 January 2013 and Federico Bonelli. I don't think I had ever been so close to such beautiful creatures even in the stalls as there has always been the orchestra between us. Experiencing that proximity and intimacy alone justified the 200 mile trek form Yorkshire but there was far greater delights than that to come.

After the dancers left the stage a screen unfolded, two chairs were produced and Dame Antoinette and Clement Crisp were introduced. Dame Antoinette wore trousers with a tailored jacket and black shores and bag. She was as beautiful as I had remembered her on the stage, The years simply rolled away to 1970 when I first saw her. Clement Crisp was elegant too in his manner as much as his dress. Urbane and generous, Dame Antoinette called him our greatest ballet critic as indeed he is.

The conversation began with a joke. Sibley's first great role had been as Swanhilde in Coppélia but a misprint in the billing had cast her as Swan Hitler instead. I wondered about the tactfulness of that reference before a predominately Jewish audience as some of them were old enough to have lived through the Holocaust but nobody seemed to mind. The conversation passed on to Dame Antoinette's first appearances on stage which began when she was still at school. The first time she came to the attention of the press when they followed her to her home in Kent where she sometimes worked in her parents' restaurant. Her first tour to South Africa. Learning ballerina's roles in a matter of days before appearing on stage. Cranko's choosing her to dance in Harlequin.  

The first clip we were shown was of Sibley dancing Dorabella in The Enigma Variations a lovely ballet which may well have been the first time I saw Sibley. Dorabella is Dora Penny and Elgar himself described the movement as follows in his notes:

"'The movement suggests a dance-like lightness.' An intimate portrait of a gay but pensive girl with an endearing hesitation in her speech."

Well that was Sibley and Ashton brilliantly translated it into movement with short steps on pointe representing a slight stammer. Seeing that footage again after all those years literally brought tears to my eyes, and still more flowed  after Crisp revealed that Ashton had nicknamed Sibley Dorabella.

The conversation moved on to Sibley's other great roles in Manon, Cinderella, Thaïs and of course The Dream which was the first ballet Ashton had created for her and Anthony Dowell.  Dame Antoinette said that she had been concerned that she had been chosen by all the other choreographers of the day but not by Ashton and she wondered whether there was a reason for that. However, one day a notice appeared calling her and Dowell to learn the part for a new ballet based on Midsummer Night's Dream. She thought she would be one of the lovers but in fact she was to be Titania. She spoke about how Ashton always prodded her with his finger because he remembered Pavlova and he wanted his dancers to move like her. But he never prodded Sir Anthony.

She discussed how other dancers have to get used to each other in a pas de duex. Often a ballerina has to ask her partner to make adjustments to accommodate her centre but with Sir Anthony it was natural like hand in glove. She had been Sir Anthony's first partner and he had thought it was always like that until he found the contrary when partnering other ballerinas.

She talked about her relationship with Sir Kenneth MacMillan and how he had announced his intention of creating a ballet for her by leaving a book for her in her dressing room and Dame Antoinette produced that book and read from Sir Kenneth's note in the cover. She spoke of the difficulties of preparing for that role as the time she had set aside was interrupted by illness and a trip to Australia.

At the beginning of this post I mentioned the tradition of ballet. Crisp described Sibley as a "repository" - which set her giggling - of knowledge. She had known so many of the greats and indeed she had been taught by two of them. The great English ballerina Pamela May who taught at the School while appearing regularly at Covent Garden and Tamara Karsavina whom Sibley adored. Karsavina once invited the young Sibley to her home and she cooked a steak for her. Sibley chose a steak because she thought it might be easy - something you just place under a grill - but Karsavina took the same trouble over that steak as she did with everything else. 

As Sibley spoke about her teachers I realized that every teacher represents to his or students every dancer, choreographer and teacher who has gone before. Sibley loved her teachers and I can relate to that because I love every one of mine. Those who have gently corrected my wobbling arabesques and feeble turns. I texted one of them yesterday after the talk from a restaurant where I ordered - guess what - a steak. 

"Oh super jealousy" she replied.

"Don't be jealous" I responded "You are also part of the tradition. You live it, I just see it. And you pass on your gift to others."

"Awwwww Thanku xxxx" 

"When I go to class you or Annemarie represent every dancer, choreographer and teacher who ever lived". 

"Aw Jane! I won't be able to leave the room soon" 

"I am only  paraphrasing Sibley. She should know. Through you I am linked to your teacher who is probably linked to someone at Ballet Russes who is linked to Petipa."

"xxxxx wise woman!"

As indeed Dame Antoinette is. I learned so much from her yesterday for which I shall always be grateful.

As if this was not treat enough I got the chance through the wonderful BalletcoForum and twitter to buy a ticket for the Gala for Ghana but that will be the subject of my next post. I have to teach some law to graduate students before I can turn to that.

Two Ballet Appeals

Here are two appeals which are very well worth supporting.

One is for the education of Mr. Alessandro Caggegi at the Bolshoi Ballet school in Moscow which has been launched by his mum, Louise Mercer. Caggegi is clearly an outstanding student from whom we can expect much. You can learn more about him and his history by visiting his website.

I learned of Caggegi and his appeal from Tracey Summerell who is another lawyer who loves ballet.  Tracey's children attend Kate Simmons Dance Ltd in Warrington where Caggegi studied. It obviously recognizes and develops exceptional talent when it sees it.   The school's end of year performance takes place at the Lowry between 12 and 14 July and I would have loved to have seen it.  Alas, I can't be in two places at the same time. But I can say chookas or toi-toi to everyone in the show.

The other appeal is my ballet teacher's 10km run in Leeds on 14 July to raise money for Northern Ballet and Macmillan cancer relief. Her target is to raise £300 and she is nearly there.   Now it takes a special type of saint to teach me ballet believe me, because I really do have two left feet, so do dig deep for that final £90.

As this blog is read in the USA, Russia and the eurozone as well as Britain you can contribute to both campaigns in dollars (US, Canadian Australian, Kiwi, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe or whatever), roubles, euro, yen, renminbi,  rupees, dirhams or indeed Sierra Leonean leones.   All contributions would be equally appreciated.

Post Script

I shared this post on Linkedin where it came to Tracey Summerell's attention. She made the following comment:

"I'm sure Alex and his mum will be delighted by your interest and grateful for the support. Alex is a shining example of what can be achieved when you work hard at your passion. Take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi7CSUW17rY"

I have uploaded the clip here.

That lad is good. As I said, dig deep but don't forget Northern Ballet or Macmillan either will you,