Chelmsford's Dazzling Snow Queen

Lucy Abbott and Scarlett Mann as the Snow Queen's Wolves

Author Andrew Potter
Copyright 2017 Chelmsford Ballet Company - all rights reserved

Reproduction licensed by kind permission of the company

Chelmsford Ballet Company Snow Queen The Civic Theatre, Chelmsford, 24 March 2018, 19:30

I have been coming to Essex to see the Chelmsford Ballet Company's annual show since 2014. All the shows I have seen have been good but every show that I have seen since 2015 has been better than the last.  When I reviewed Alice's Adventures last year in An Adventure Indeed 26 March 2017 I wrote:

"Every show has been excellent but Alice's Adventures which I saw last night was by far the best."

Well, this year the show was even better than ever.

Not only that but it was in a different class. The company presented a production that would have been a credit to any professional company with original choreography, elaborate sets, lavish costumes and beautiful dancing as well as an efficient and welcoming front of house team. Every aspect of the production was impressive right down to the design and content of the programme. Even more remarkably. the members of that company did it at least largely (and probably entirely) by themselves.

I am a non-dancing associate member of Chelmsford Ballet Company and, even though I had no part in it, I am enormously proud of that production and everyone who contributed to it. Most of all, I am proud to be associated with an institution that has contributed much to the cultural and social life of Chelmsford and Essex for nearly 70 years.

The ballet to which I refer was The Snow Queen.  It was created by Annette Potter, the company's artistic director.  The libretto followed Hans Christian Andersen's story closely which meant that there were lots of scenes with plenty of roles for dancers of all ages and all levels of experience.  Her music was selected from Glazunov's 4th and 5th Symphonies and The Seasons.  The choice of those pieces was inspired for they fitted the story beautifully.

The central characters in the ballet are Kai ("Kay" in this production) and Gerda.  Kay was danced by James Parratt who had impressed me in Chris Marney's War Letters when he was still a student (see
Images of War: Ballet Central's "War Letters" and other Works 29 April 2016. He impressed me again last Saturday with his portrayal of a troubled and distracted young man. In the story he is charmed by the wicked snow queen but I saw something more in his performance. It was a study of personality change, a condition that caused him to turn against Gerda and withdraw from his community.

He was led back by the faithful Gerda whose role was danced delightfully by Georgia Olley. This was the first time that I had noticed Olley and I hope that it will not be the last for she is very talented. She does not appear to be a guest artist so she must be a dancing member of the company living in or within commuting distance of Chelmsford. I forgot to ask where she trained and whether she has ambitions to dance professionally but I would be in the least surprised if she does.  She can dance and she can act.  She deserved the loud applause that she received when she took her curtain call.

The other principal character was the snow queen danced splendidly by Samantha Ellis. She seems to get all the regal roles for she was the queen and schoolmistress in Alice's Adventures.  She was attended by two wolves whose costumes were magnificent. Lez Brotherston could not have done better. They looked so lifelike that I would have forgotten that they were human not lupine had it not been for their pointe shoes. Their roles were performed by two of the company's most experienced and able dancers, Lucy Abbott and Scarlett Mann, who had delighted audiences as the lilac fairy and Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty two years ago.

One performer who wins everyone's hears is every production is the company's chairperson, Marion Pettet. If anyone asked me what is meant by stage presence I would send that person to Chelmsford for Pettet has it in spades. She has enchanted me every time I have seen her whether as Mrs Stahlbaum, Britannia, Carabosse or in the prologue in Alice. She was Gerda's grandmother last Saturday, a role that she performed with her usual flair.

There was another grandmother in the ballet who could easily have been eclipsed by Pettet but wasn't. Debbie Snell was Kay's granny and she was impressive too. So, too, was Andrew Potter, another fine dancer who opened the show as the head troll. Potter took the picture of the wolves above. A talented artist in at least two art forms.  Other soloists who delighted me were Olivia Riley as the first river nymph, Stacey Byrne as the woman who knew magic, Holly Scanlan as the crow, Darci Wilsher as the reindeer and James Fletcher (another guest artist) as the Laplander who rescued and revived Gerda.  Everyone in the cast - trolls, ice maidens, villagers, nymphs and gypsies - danced well.

I lost count of the number of scenes - the trolls' workshop, the square in Kay and Gerda's home town, Gerda's grandmother's home. the snow queen's castle, the river where Gerda rested, Lapland - maybe more. Each had elaborate scenery lovingly painted and constructed.  Every detail from the Romanesque arches of the trolls' workshop to the houses in the street and the turrets of the snow queen's castle was a work of art. Perhaps the masterpiece was the snow queen's sleigh. Those who designed, painted and constructed those backcloths and properties deserve special congratulations.

So too, does, Ann Starling, the costume design and wardrobe manager. I have already commended her wolves but all the costumes were great, particularly the snow queen's robes and head dress and the outfits for the crow and reindeer.  Gerda wore the prettiest dirndl. Everybody had fun costumes to wear

Next year marks the company's 70th anniversary and they will celebrate it with a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Annette Potter.  I can barely contain my excitement. But there are plenty of things to do before then including a special workshop for dancing members with our patron Chris Marney and Ballet Central on 22 April 2018 (see What's coming up on the company's website). I urge my readers, particularly those in South East England, to check them out.

At Home with the Chelmsford Ballet

Annette Potter, Artistic Director of the Chelmsford Ballet Company

Author Jane Lambert
(c) 2016 Jane Lambert: all rights reserved

I first learned about the Chelmsford Ballet Company nearly three years ago (see The Chelmsford Ballet 15 Dec 2013). I joined the company as a non-dancing associate shortly afterwards. Since joining I have written a lot about the company and attended all its shows (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014, A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015 and A Real Beauty: Chelmsford Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty 25 March 2016. It was only on Sunday that I got a chance to visit the company at its home in Chelmsford.

The occasion was the company's annual general meeting which took place at the headquarters of Chelmsford Young Generation Amateur Music Society ("CYGAMS"). CYGAMS is located on a recreation ground just outside the city centre which would have taken hours to find before the development of satellite navigation. Google maps guided me the 208 miles from my home without a hitch and I reached the room where the meeting was to take place with time in hand.  I already knew the company's chair, Marion Pettet, its artistic director, Annette Potter, and its publicity officer Jessica Wilson. I had met some of the front of house volunteers at the annual shows and, of course, I recognized some of the dancers, but this was my first opportunity to chat with them.

The AGM was conducted very briskly and efficiently but also quite thoroughly. Minutes were approved. The office holders and committee members were introduced. The chair reported on the year's activities which were impressive. The treasurer and other officers reported on their respective stewardships. Everything seemed to be managed most satisfactorily. The officers and committee were re-elected and received a vote of thanks from the floor.

Chelmsford Ballet Company's Rehearsal Studio

Author Jane Lambert
(c) 2016 Jane Lambert - all rights reserved

After the meeting the artistic director showed me the studio where the company class and rehearsals take place and the properties store which are also located in CYGAMS.  As you can see from the photo, the studio is spacious with a sprung floor, a wooden double rail barre, a carpeted area for an audience and a baby grand in the corner. It stands comparison certainly with the studios at the Northern Ballet School where my evening classes with KNT take place and even the top studio of Northern Ballet and Phoenix Dance Theatre's premises at Quarry Hill in Leeds.

Chelmsford and District Model Railway Club

Author Jane Lambert
(c) 2016 all rights reserved

The props store was next to the rehearsal studio and it was a veritable treasure chest.  There were flags, halberds and items of every conceivable kind of scenery. The company had been particularly adventurous and innovative in its use of projected graphics in  its production of The Sleeping Beauty earlier in the year. Annette Potter told me a little about how those effects were achieved. She was very proud of her technicians' expertise and she commended them as warmly as she did her very talented dancers.

As I was about to set off for the trek home to Yorkshire I heard a whistle blast and the chugging of a locomotive. I turned to investigate and found this tiny engine dragging its driver and passengers around a miniature railway track. A kindly gentleman in a smiley faced t-shirt with a North American accent told me that the track was operated by the Chelmsford and District Model Railway Club. He invited me to take a ride and I would gladly have accepted

Photo Jane Lambert
(c) 2016 Jane Lambert All rights reserved 

had it not been for the prospect of a long drive home. There were also miniature traction engines wheezing in the space between the tracks. It all seemed a lot of fun.

I told the North American gentleman that I had driven down from the North to attend the Ballet Company AGM. He told me that the Model Railway Club often receives visits from curious dancers whom it is delighted to welcome. He wished me a safe journey to my Borealian fastness. Coming from the other side of the Atlantic he may well have regarded 208 miles as no big deal. A Sunday afternoon drive if he hailed from somewhere like Texas or Alberta but it was a long way for me.

I have to say that Chelmsford with its friendly people and many activities is my kind of town. It is good that engineering is pursued as energetically and enthusiastically as dancing and the other performing arts that take place at CYGAMS.

I look forward to returning in March (if not before) for Annette Potter's new ballet, Alice's Adventures, which will run at the Civic Theatre from the 22 to 25 March 2017. Other events that will take place shortly are Lets Make a Ballet for local children on 16 Oct 2016 and the Christmas concert with the local choral society in Brentwood on 17 Dec 2016.

A Real Beauty: Chelmsford Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty

Marion Pettet as Carabosse

(c) 2016 Chelmsford Ballet Company, all rights reserved
Reproduction licensed by the company

Chelmsford Ballet Company, The Sleeping Beauty, Chelmsford Civic Theatre, 19 March 2016


Some would say that I am not the best person to write this review on the ground that I am far from unbiased. It is true that I am more than a Friend or well wisher of the Chelmsford Ballet Company as I am an associate member of the company and if I lived nearer I would audition for dancing membership. My membership of this remarkable company, which will celebrate the 70th anniversary of its origins next year, is a source of enormous pride. Never have I been more proud of my membership of the Chelmsford Ballet Company than I was on Saturday evening when I saw its performance of The Sleeping Beauty.

The Sleeping Ballet is not an easy ballet to stage because it is very long and has an enormous cast.  It is also associated in the minds of us Brits with the re-opening of the Royal Opera House on the 20 Feb 1946 with a cast that included Moira Shearer, Leslie Edwards. Gillian Lynne, Henry Danton, Beryl Gray, Michael Somes, Robert Halpmann, Jean Bedells, Harold Turner, Gerd Larsen, Stanley Holden, Pamela May and, of course, Margot Fonteyn. It is therefore a challenge to any company, particularly one that is composed largely of men and women with full time careers outside dance.

Our company responded to that challenge admirably.

First, our choreographer and artistic director, Annette Potter, pruned Petipa's choreography to manageable lengths adapting the work to the capabilities of her dancers who ranged widely in age and experience without sacrificing any of the important and often difficult bits such as the rose adagio or bluebird pas de deux.

Secondly, she had an excellent cast: Scarlett Mann as Aurora who had danced the title role in Pineapple Poll so enchantingly last year (see A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015), Lucy Abbott as the lilac fairy (quite a challenge as the company's co-patron dances Count Lilac in Sir Matthew Bourne's production of The Sleeping Beauty). guest artists Andrei Iliescu as Prince Florimund, Emily Starling as the fairy in the vision and Matthew Powell as one of the princes in the rose adagio, Morgan Wren who has advanced tremendously since I saw him as Fritz in The Nutcracker two years ago (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014) and of course the magnificent Marion Petter as Carabosse. Everybody in the show performed well and the only reason why I have not mentioned them all individually is that this review is long enough already.

The third ingredient of the show's success was its special effects. There were indoor fireworks as Carabosse made her entrances and exits. A menacing image projected onto the backdrop presaged her arrival at Aurora's christening and birthday party. An ingenious animation represented a century's growth of vegetation around Aurora and her family. The programme credited Phil Rhodes with special effects. Clearly he is a talented young man and I hope to see more of his work in future.

There is in fact a lot of talent in Chelmsford.  For me, Marion Pettett stole the show as she did last year as Mrs Dimple and Britannia in Pineapple Poll and the mother in Carnival of the Animals.  She positively exuded evil with her rodent like acolytes. Gita, the other member of Team Terpsichore, likes to choose a man or woman of the match when she attends the ballet as she is an accomplished sportswoman. Her choice for this show was Morgan Wren and I can quite see why. But there is also talent bubbling up from below. The smallest of Carabosse's acolytes had real stage presence as she took her leave of the audience before scurrying off with her evil mistress. I don't know that child's name but I do hope she carries on with her dance and theatre studies because she has great aptitude for the performing arts.  It is worth adding that that young girl was by no means the only young person to show promise.

It is rare for ballet companies to receive a standing ovation in this country but there were more than a few members of the audience who rose to their feet at the end of Saturday evening's show. The audience in the Chelmsford Civic was not unsophisticated. It knew when to clap - for instance the entrance of the principals and difficult bits of the choreography. I don't think that they would rise for anyone or anything without good reason and the fact that so many did on Saturday night speaks volumes for the show.

I do not know what Annette Potter and Marion Pettett are planning for next year's show but as it was in 1947 that Joan Weston organized a troupe of dancers at Broomfield YMCA which became Chelmsford Ballet I am sure that it will be good. Having achieved a lot over the years the company has a lot to celebrate. Though the March show is the highlight of the year the company holds other events such as Let's Make a Ballet for children in the Autumn and the Hutton and Shenfield Choral Society's Christmas show. Occasionally, they arrange coach trips to West End shows. I know we have the Choral but I wish we had a something like the Chelmsford Ballet in Huddersfield.

The Sleeping Beauty

Leon Bakst's costume design for  Carabossse

Source Wikipedia

In my review of Birmingham Royal Ballet's performance of The Sleeping Beauty in The Lowry on 27 Sept 2013 I wrote:

"Even though The Sleeping Beauty was premièred at St. Petersburg, its score was composed by Tchaikovsky and it was choreographed was by Petipa to Perrault's story, it is also a very English ballet. It was the work that reopened the Royal Opera House on the 20 Feb 1946 after the House had been used as a dance hall and furniture store (see "The History of the Royal Opera House" on the Royal Opera House website).

To understand the importance of The Sleeping Beauty in our social as well as our cultural history you have to know that it entered the repertoire of the Vic-Wells Ballet just before the Second World War. By all accounts the 1946 revival was a glittering occasion. It must have been one of the rare great nights of ballet to which I referred "In Leeds of all Places - Pavlova, Ashton and Magic" 18 Sept 2013. It was produced by Ninette de Valois, designed by Oliver Messel, Princess Aurora was danced by Margot Fonteyn and Petipa's choreography was supplemented by Frederick Ashton. There must have been a whiff of mothballs in the theatre as the audience had dusted off their pre-war dinner jackets, retrieved their best frocks and put on their jewellery for the first time after the Second World War. The analogy of that evening after years of war and rationing with Aurora's wedding after a century of hibernation must have been obvious and compelling."

It is a very special ballet which is why I am delighted to report that the Chelmsford Ballet Company (of which I am a proud non-dancing associate) will perform it at the Chelmsford Civic Theatre between 16 to 19 March 2016.

Although this company is made up largely of dancers who do not make their living from dance there is nothing amateurish about its performances (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014 and A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015). They have a resourceful and imaginative artistic director in Annette Potter, talented dancers several of whom are at first rate ballet schools, accomplished costume and set designers and makers, able technicians and an inspiring Chair in Marion Pettet who showed her flair as a character dancer in Pineapple Poll and Carnival of The Animals. Small wonder that their patrons are Christopher Marney, my favourite living British choreographer, and the great ballerina Doreen Wells.

I don't yet have any details of the performance. In particular, I don't know whether they have begun casting but I know who could dance the lilac role very well indeed. In my review of Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty in Bradford on 28 March 2013 I wrote:

"No Lilac Fairy though there was a Count Lilac powerfully danced by Christopher Marney"

Marney's dancing in that show was spectacular. I also seem to remember that Cara O'Shea, one of Northern Ballet Academy's most adored teachers (see Northern Ballet Open Day 18 Feb 2014 and A Treat For Us Old Ladies 27 Feb 2014), once danced Princess Aurora for the company. When I do get some information about Chelmsford's show I shall pass it in to you.

There's just one other thing about The Sleeping Beauty and that is the following passage from Wikipedia:

"Trademark controversy

The Walt Disney Company has registered a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office, filed March 13, 2007, for the name "Princess Aurora" that covers production and distribution of motion picture films; production of television programs; production of sound and video recordings. Some suggest that this may limit the ability to perform this ballet, from which Disney acquired some of the music for its animated 1959 film Sleeping Beauty."

At first I thought it was a joke but I followed the link and found that the words PRINCESS AURORA have indeed been registered by Disney Enterprises Inc. with the US Patent and Trade Mark Office as a service mark for

"Production and distribution of motion picture films; production of television programs; production of sound and video recordings"

in class 41 on 17 Jan 2012 under registration number 4,088,154.

The scare seems to have originated in an article by Nikki Finke in Deadline Hollywood dayed 1 May 2009 entitled An Attempt To Stop The Disney Machine which began with the alarming words:

"I’m told that the Walt Disney Co is currently attempting to trademark the character name “Princess Aurora” for all media: stage, sound, film, TV, video, Internet, photographs, news. In short, everything except literature."

The article continued:

"The problem is that, if the Disney Company is successful, it will effectively control the legal right to all future performances of the ballet. The move also could sink any movie about the ballet or that uses a scene of the ballet in another movie."

There is, incidentally, a parallel registration for the words PRINCESS AURORA in relation to a wide range of goods and services here.

Disney's trade mark cannot be infringed by performing Petipa's ballet The Sleeping Ballet for all sorts of reasons. The intellectual assets that the Disney Corporation seeks to wish to protect is a range of goods and services about a number of princesses one of whom is called Aurora.  She seems to be a spin-off from the studio's well known 1959 animation. The other princesses, incidentally, include Cinderella, Pocahontas and Rapunzel. A ballet that is based exclusively on any of those characters might perhaps infringe some of Disney's IP rights (though not necessarily the trade mark) but that would be an altogether different matter.

If anybody is, however, troubled by the intellectual property issues relating to The Sleeping Beauty, do give me a shout. I will advise and represent you and keep you on the straight and narrow for free. I know of at least one patent and trade mark agent as well as a specialist solicitor who love ballet as much as I do who would probably do the same.

Post Script

I do have some more information about Chelmsford Ballet's production. The following notice appeared on its Facebook page:

The Company will present
  "The Sleeping Beauty "

March 2016

Do you or someone you know want to dance in this enchanting tale?

Company Auditions 21st June 2015

Only auditioned dancing members can dance in our annual productions.
Company auditions for new members and for upgrades for existing members are scheduled for Sunday 21st June.  Male applicants are especially welcome. Application forms are available to download from the website, or you can contact the membership secretary directly for more information. cbcenquiries@hotmail.com 
The closing date for applications to audition is the 7th June.
(Auditions for The Sleeping Beauty, open only to members, will take place in October 2015)

La Bayadère

On Saturday I saw Shobana Jeyasingh's Bayadère - Ninth Life and you will see my report (I can't call it a review because I am still digesting it) at La Bayadère - The Ninth Life 29 March 2015. Jeyasingh suggested a connection between a visit by temple dancers from Pondicherry to Paris in 1838 and Petipa's ballet in St. Petersburg in 1877. While I was sceptical at first I think there may well have been through Théophile Gautier,

The reason for my scepticism is that there was a 39 year time lapse and a thousand miles of distance between the visit of the temple dancers to Paris in 1838 and the premiere of La Bayadère in St Petersburg in 1877. But then I remembered that Gautier was the librettist of Giselle.  Marius Petipa who created La Bayadère knew Giselle well and staged his own version in St Petersburg in 1884. When you compare the two ballets you notice similarities. For instance the heroine dies a pretty horrible death in both ballets.  Giselle in a fit or by a heart attack upon learning of Albrecht's deception; and Nikiya by a bite from a snake concealed in a basket of flowers. Both have visions of the afterlife: the vengeful wilis on the prowl in the forests and the shades in the mountains, Both visions provide great roles for the corps. 

Except for the entry of the shades which is sometimes shown at galas, La Bayadère is not well known in this country. Natalia Makarova has staged a version for the Royal Ballet which was last danced two years ago (see La Bayadère on the Royal Opera House's website) and it has been performed by visiting companies from Russia. A performance of the whole ballet in the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg can be seen on YouTube. There is a pretty good entry on the ballet in Wikipedia. The Royal Ballet website has a great interview with Nehemiah Kish who danced Solor and an interesting article by Paul Kilbey entitled Eastern Promises: The allure of the Orient in opera and ballet with a clip of the dance of the bronze idol.

The reason I have compiled these resources is that Marion Pettet of the Chelmsford Ballet Company who tweeted yesterday

@IAmTheMann_UK @jelterps I can see that I'll have to do something about this gap in my ballet education.
— Marion Pettet (@MarionPettet) March 30, 2015

Anyone who watched her in Pineapple Poll and Carnival of the Animals two weeks ago will agree that Marion  knows a lot about ballet. I mentioned it as a possible project for the company because they have a lot of good female dancers who could dance the shades well. I would love to see someone dance this ballet again.

I know who would be the perfect Nikiya -  not because she is of South Asian heritage but because she reminds me so much of the first English dancer to dance that role. But I can imagine others such as Leebolt, Gittens and Mutso in the role. Rojo, Nixon, Bintley, Hampson - are you listening?

Post Script
10 April 2015

The Paris Opera are staging Nureyev's version of La Bayadère between 17 Nov and 31 Dec 2015 (see the Paris National Opera's website). I know what I want for an early Deepvali present.

Chelmsford Ballet - the Magnificent Marion as Britannia in Pineapple Poll

Marion Pettet as Britannia (and Mrs Dimple)

Photo Amelia Potter
Reproduced with kind permission of the Chelmsford Ballet

Last Sunday I reviewed Chelmsford Ballet's Pineapple Poll and Carnival of the Animals (A Delight Indeed 22 March 2015).Marion Pettet has kindly sent me 4 photos all by Amelia Potter which I shall publish individually.

Here is the magnificent Marion as Britannia in the closing scene of Pineapple Poll To the right stands Andrew Potter as Admiral Belaye.

A Delight Indeed

On Wednesday Leanne Shipp tweeted

@jelterps Jane, you're in for a delight on Saturday in Chelmsford with @Ballet_CBC! Loved both pieces but esp Carnival by @chrismarney!
— Leanne Shipp (@ShippLea) March 18, 2015

She was so right. Any company would have been proud of yesterday's double bill.  As it was performed largely by dancers who do not yet make their living from dance it was all the more remarkable.

Note my terminology. I did not say "amateur" deliberately. There was nothing amateurish about the show. Everything was polished. Not just the dancing (which was perhaps not so surprising since several members of the cast were either at, had been to, or were on their way to, top ballet schools) but the direction, stage management, sets, costumes, lighting - even the glossy programmes. All the more impressive when it is considered that the production was completed in a year on a limited budget and much of the set painting and costume making would have been done by the members themselves.

There were two one act ballets yesterday evening - Annette Potter's Pineapple Poll based on John Cranko's choreography and a new ballet by Christopher Marney called Carnival of the Animals. The works complemented each other perfectly for Marney has much in common with Cranko. Pineapple Poll was created early in Cranko's career and while Marney has created a string of successful ballets for Ballet Black, Ballet Central and others it has to to be remembered that he is still a very young man (see Christopher Marney 16 March 2014). If, as I fervently hope, he lives to a ripe old age and his career maintains its present trajectory Carnival will be regarded as an "early Marney". I can foresee school and university teachers yet unborn setting essay questions like "Pineapple Poll and Carnival - compare and contrast" to the grandchildren of yesterday's corps de ballet.

For those who do not know the Cranko ballet there is a good synopsis in Wikipedia. There are five key roles: Pineapple Poll, Jasper the pot boy, Captain Belaye, Blanche his bride and her aunt, Mrs Dimple. Jasper falls in love with Poll but she has eyes only for the captain. She steals on board his ship with her friends to attract his attention but he has eyes only for Blanche and she is so disappointed when the captain leads Blanche and Mrs Dimple on board HMS Hot Cross Bun. However when Jasper enlists as a midshipman Poll finally takes an interest in him and the ballet ends happily with Mrs Dimple representing Britannia. With music selected and arranged from the works of Sir Arthur Sullivan it was a great patriotic romp.

Captain Belaye was portrayed majestically by Andrew Potter. Readers of last year's review of The Nutcracker will remember that he was Drosselmeyer. Jasper was danced by Stephen Quildan whom Jessica Wilson has interviewed recently in Dance Direct (see Stephen Quildan – Educating Experiences 13 March 2015). He displayed great virtuosity - I couldn't help clapping one particularly difficult jump even though I shouldn't have done - but also he expressed loving, longing, disappointment and despair so eloquently. Scarlett Mann was a delightful Poll - coquettish, determined, devious but still delightful whether selling trinkets on the quayside or marshalling the crew of the Hot Cross Bun. Also attractive was Megan McLatchie as Blanche. However, for me the star of the show was Marion Pettet as Mrs Dimple - and Britannia. Last year she was Frau Stahlbaum. A wonderful actor as well as an accomplished dancer and a great chair of the Chelmsford Ballet Company.

The Carnival of the Animals was written by Saint-Saëns which is best known for The Swan. That piece upon which Fokine created The Dying Swan for Anna Pavlova never fails to move me even when I hear it on a DVD player or over the radio. There are many reasons for that - some personal - to which I alluded in my review of Northern Ballet's Sapphire gala last week (see Sapphire 16 March 2015). Last Saturday Javier Torres presented a new interpretation of Saint-Saëns's music and last night we got another. A pas de deux between Quildan and Jasmine Wallis which was also lovely. Typical Marney.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Marney did not create a new version of The Carnival of the Animals. He made a ballet about a company that was about to dance The Carnival of the Animals. A young stage hand longed to dance - perhaps because of his longing for its principal dancer performed beautifully by Wallis. But when he tried to lift her - dainty though she is - he found that pas de deux work was not quite as easy as it looked. According to Tim Tubbs's programme notes the ballet was set in the 1930s - the heroic early days of the English ballet after Diaghilev had died but before the Second World War when endless touring by the Vic-Wells Ballet won the hearts of the nation to this originally foreign art form. There were a few animals - foxes perhaps - and a yapping lap dog quite invisible to all but the dancers but clearly another dog like Bif which could do ballet (see Woof 12 Oct 2014 to understand the reference) - but the main characters were people. Quildan the stage hand, Wallis his sweetheart and principal dancer and Pettet her mother.

Again, Pettet stole the show for me as the bossy, fussy but affectionate mother but she was not the only star. Quildan with a foot in a bucket one moment and fumbling the ballerina the next - showed that he can amuse an audience as well as amaze it. Wallis was an adorable ballerina. Everybody in that show danced well. Jessica Wilson (the blogger who interviewed Wilson and danced Harlequin last year) and Jenni Stafford as the ballerina's friends, Georgia Otley and Amelia Wallis (Clara in last year's show) as playful school kids, Hannah Cotgrove, McLatchie again and Carly Parry as the domestics and Mann, April Goulding and Darci Willsher as the company's dancers. It must have been such a thrill for them to work with a dancer of the calibre of Marney and one which each and every one of them richly deserved.

I loved The Nutcracker but this double bill was even better. "What are you doing next year?" I asked Marion Pettet when I congratulated her after the show. "Not sure" was the answer. I suggested La Sylphide at first because ir is a ballet in a British setting which should be danced by a British company. But then I remembered their wonderful young women dancers (some of whom I have mentioned above) which is the company's strength. Wouldn't they be splendid in the entry of the shades in La Bayadère?

The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy

Chelmsford Ballet Company The Nutcracker Chelmsford Civic Theatre
19 March 2014

I had very high expectations of The Chelmsford Ballet Company's performance of The Nutcracker. As I noted in The Chelmsford Ballet 16 Dec 2013

"An amateur company with patrons like Christopher Marney, choreographer of the wonderful War Letters for Ballet Black, and the great ballerina, Doreen Wells, invites attention. On the home page of their website the Chelmsford Ballet Company describes itself as "an amateur company who set professional standards for all [its] work, involving professionals in [its] productions, courses, and other teaching and workshop opportunities." According to the history page it traces its history back to 1947 which makes it older than English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet and Northern Ballet."

I had fresh cause to admire the company when I learned that Cara O'Shea, the wonderful teacher I had seen at Northern Ballet's Open Day and who also taught me a few days later, had danced for the Company as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. None of that had quite prepared me for yesterday which was one of the happiest evenings that I have ever spent at the ballet.

There were so many reasons why I enjoyed this performance. First, it kept faithfully to the story that we all know and love.  No gimmicks like balloon trips or regal rodents clinging to the gondola into Act II. Set firmly in Mitteleuropa rather than the banks of the Thames, the Christmas party taking place at the Stahlbaums and not the Edwards and Clara remained a little girl throughout the show and did not morph into Sugar Plum. Secondly, this was a production in which every age group and both genders were well represented. I had expected to see only teenagers (mainly girls) and while there were certainly plenty of them the cast also included prominent members of Chelmsford society. Thirdly. they had a wonderful audience who knew when and where to clap. How they yelled when they saw something they liked. And how they roared at the end of the performance. Chelmsford knows that it has something special in its city and it supports the company magnificently. The theatre was packed. 

As I mentioned in "Chelmsford Ballet's Nutcracker - Not Long Now!" 24 Feb 2014 the company had engaged Richard Bermange to dance the Cavalier, Emma Lister Sugar Plum and Michael Budd, the Mouse King as guest artists.  They all danced well but I particularly admired Lister for her solo in the final pas de deux. With the possible exception of the overture the music for that dance is the best known part of the score and this ballet has more memorable tunes than just about any other. She executed it impressively. Bermange partnered Lister well and Budd was a Putin of a mouse king if not a Stalin. Really, really scary.

Amelia Wallis, who danced Clara, was delightful. Not only can she dance well but she can also act. Clara is on stage for almost the whole ballet which must require considerable stamina and concentration. Wallis did not flag or drop her smile for a second.  Clearly she has talent and I am sure we shall all see more of her. Also talented is Morgan Wren who danced Fritz, Clara's pesky brother, the Nutcracker and the Chinese divertissement. He has presence. Other dancers who caught my eye were Jessica Wilson who danced one of the Harlequins, the Spanish dance and the dance of the flowers, Jasmine Bailey, the other Harlequin, the principal snowflake and leader of the dance of the flowers and Megan MacKatchie, also in the Spanish dance.  Andrew Potter was a magnificent Drosselmeyer, Marion Pettet. Frau Stahlbaum, ever the gracious host - I loved the way she reprimanded a naughty boy tousling his hair - Stan Rose the sporting grandfather and Elizabeth Baker his wife.

But there was far more than just great dancing.  Ingenious sets and costumes, clever lighting and a last but not least a beautifully designed and printed illustrated programme. Altogether it was a triumph for the artistic director Annette Potter.

The show continues until the 22 March and there will be a video of Saturday's performance of which I shall certainly buy a copy. I came down from Yorkshire to see this show and I would say it was well worth the effort. We Yorkshire folk are quite sparing in our praise - particularly of Southerners. If we say something is good you can be sure it is bloody marvellous. If you live anywhere in East Anglia, Greater London or the home counties do yourselves a favour and see this show.