Salford Pioneers

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Jeremy Bentham

Ballet Black Pioneers (Then or Now and Nina: By Whatever Means) The Kowry 1 Nov 2023 20:00

Having missed the start of Then as Now in York on 13 June 2023 as a result of acute traffic congestion in that city (see Ballet Black Takes York By Storm 9 July 2023) I was determined to arrive on time for the start of Ballet Black's Pioneers double bill at the Lowry.  I arrived at the theatre car park for an 8pm curtain rise while The Archers were still on the radio.  Normally, I can park on the second or third floor of the multistorey but this time every floor was full.  I climbed and climbed until I found myself tracked in a queue of cars in front of me and at the back.  There I stayed until just after 20:00 when the queue miraculously started to flow downstairs towards the exit.   

Had I known that the Lowry would be full I would have driven straight to Media City which is a 5-minute walk from the theatre.  Plenty of spaces there and a clue as to what had happened at the theatre car. park There was a  notice addressed to football spectators about parking charges.  The Lowry is about a mile from Manchester United Football Club stadium where parking spaces are either scarce or deare.  Whatever the cause, football spectators strayed into our space on the night that beautiful Ballet Black was in town.  

Perhaps the reason I was able to park so easily in the Media City car park is that many MUFC fans have yet to discover it.  I am told that a "Welcome to Manchester" sign used to be displayed at Maine Road whenever City played United because United fans come from anywhere but Manchester.  I think there may be some truth in that story because I have noticed MUFC shops in Liverpool and Dublin airports but not in Manchester.  If I followed football (which I don't) I would support City over United as I was born in Didsbury, I understand that United were playing Newcastle and that the Magpies won.  "Serve them bloody right," I thought,

My antipathy towards United was more aesthetic than nativist.  I was reminded of Jeremy Bentham's remark in The Rationale of Reward that "the game of pushpin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry." Total nonsense, of course, but what can you expect from someone whose glass-cased, mummified remains continue to confront visitors to the University College London nearly two centuries after his death.  I am with John Stuart Mill on this one.  Football is the modern successor to pushpin.  Folk may call it "the beautiful game" but its value does not come close to ballet. 

I arrived in the auditorium at just about the same point in Will Tuckett's Then as Now as it had reached in York when I was admitted there.  It is an extraordinarily beautiful work as can be seen from the video on the BBC iPlayer.  Unfortunately, as I have yet to see the work on stage I can't review it properly.  But readers can get a very good taste of it from the recording which I heartily commend to them.

However, I did see Nina: By Wahtever Means again and that saved the day for me.  This was danced with the same energy as in York and was received equally enthusiastically but as I knew what to expect I focused on the individual performances.  Isabela Coracy's role as Nina is pivotal.  She threw every milligram of her being into that performance.  Once again her repetition of the word "power" with clenched fists was mesmerizing. Her final cry "That's it" unleashed a tsunami of applause.  Nina was my last chance to see Sayaka Ichikawa whose departure I shall miss greatly (see Cassa Pancho's announcement on Instagram on 21 Oct 2023). She danced Nina's piano mistress.  As always she danced with flair.  She is a delightful dancer and Cassa's tribute says it all.   There were great performances by Ebony Thomas as Nina's husband, Helga Paris-Morales as the young Nina and Taraja Hudson.  It was also good to see the piece's choreographer Mthuthuzeli November take a role.

Ballet Black has recruited a lot of new dancers whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting.  They include Acaoã de Casto,   Megan Chiu, Bhungane Mehlomakulu, Mikayla Isaacs and Love Katiya. They have added sparkle.  Their company is a great national treasure which has come of age this year.   It will launch a whole new tour called "Heroes" from the Hackney Empire with Mthuthuzeli November's The Waiting Game and a new piece by Sophie Laplane on 22 March 2023.  Not long to wait!

Stunning - Ballet Black's Triple Bill

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Ballet Black, Triple Bill (Pendulum, Click! Ingoma) Barbican Theatre, 17 March 2019 15:00

I see a lot of dance every year and one of my highlights every year is Ballet Black.  I usually see them in London (whenever I can get a ticket because they perform to packed houses) and again when they go on tour.  I have come to expect a lot from them and they have never failed to meet my expectations.

Their matinee at the Barbican last Sunday was stunning.  I mean that quite literally and I was not the only one.  Neither the family to my left nor the one to my right could get up after the performance.  We just sat still coming to terms with what we had seen on stage.  When we found the strength to move I clambered up the stairs and slumped into the first unoccupied chair.  There I stayed for a couple of hours until I was forced to sprint to the Circle Line to avoid being marooned in London.

I had brought my Chromebook with me with a view to reviewing the triple bill while it was still fresh in my mind but when I tried to write it I found it was just too soon.  The words would not flow.  However, I did make notes. I wrote that Mthuthzeli November's Ingoma was the most impressive new work that I had seen in a while. It is a work of considerable substance. It is all the more remarkable in that it was created by one so young.

According to the programme, Ingoma means "prayer" in Xhosa. In this case the Lord's Prayer though I had guessed that before I read the note. The performance began with the house lights burning.  Two miners came on stage carrying their equipment. They were joined shortly by the rest of the cast dressed identically irrespective of gender.  November mentioned two strikes in his programme note: one in the 1940s that had been suppressed brutally by the authorities and a more recent one at Marikana in post-apartheid South Africa which was also put down violently.  While I think there was more to the ballet than that there was a scene where Ebony Thomas seemed to fall to a rat-tat-tat that reminded me of automatic gunfire.

For me, the most moving part was the women's dance in the last phase of the piece.  It was danced with considerable energy by the company's four female members dressed identically in light blue smocks and head ties.  Having lived through the 1984-1985 miners strike 7 miles from Barnsley I can attest how it was the women who kept the coalfield communities intact - and indeed still do even though the mines are long gone. Having been married to an African for 27 years I was reminded of my sisters in law, strong, fierce women. Just as in the choreography.  It took a lot of courage to be a miner and perhaps, even more, to be married to one. There were always threats of accidents. pneumoconiosis and poverty even when the men were not on strike.  All of that fierceness and passion came through in that dance.

The piece was greeted enthusiastically even in London which never had mining and has now lost its heavy industry.  I think ti will strike a chord when it goes on tour.  It may have been set in South Africa but it will speak to folk here in a way that few other works can.  This is not the first time Ballet Black has moved me. It did so the first time I saw Chris Marney's War Letters at the Bernie Grant Centre and it did again last year with Cathy Marston's Suit.  But I don't think the impact of those ballets was anything like as great or as longlasting as Ingoma.

Because he had created and staged Ingoma we did not see much of November this year. That was a shame because he has the habit of stealing shows as he did with Little Red Riding Hood (see Ballet Black Triumphant 7 March 2017). I have been following him since 2015 when he was with Ballet Central (see Dazzled 3 May 2016).  He appeared in Pendulum, the first ballet of the evening, with Sayaka Ichikawa. With music by Steve Reich this was a revival of a work that Martin Lawrence had created for the company in 2009. The work starts in silence and then a gentle heartbeat cuts in.  It gathers pace until it becomes compelling.  This is a thrilling work amplified by those dancers' vigour.

The middle work was Click! by Scottish Ballet's Sophie Lapllane whom I have long admired. It shows her sense of fun. Jose Alves, Isabela Coracy, Marie Astrid Mence, Cira Robinson and Ebony Thomas are in primary colours. The piece opens with some dialogue:

"Eddie consulted his therapist because he could not stop clicking his fingers,
The therapist asked Eddie why he thought he was clicking his fingers,
'To keep the tigers away' he replied.
'But Eddie there are no tigers here within 6,000 miles of here.'
'I know' he replied, 'It works pretty good.'"

Ballet Black can make us laugh just as easily as it can make us cry,  This was our chance to laugh before Ingoma.

A sixth star of Click! was David Plater, the company's lighting designer.  I have never mentioned him before and I should have done because he is a genius.  Nowhere did his genius shine more brightly than in Click!  I love that piece and can't wait to see it again.

The company will tour Cambridge, Northampton and Bristol next month before venturing to Cambridge, Derby and Birmingham in May and Edinburgh in June (see Upcoming Performances on its website). It has not announced a date just yet but it usually comes to Leeds in November.   I shall see the company at least a couple more times this year.  This will be a season we shall long remember.

Ballet Black's Standing Ovation at the Nottingham Playhouse

Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror outside Nottingham Playhouse

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Ballet Black  Double Bill (The Suit and A Dream within a Midsummer Night's Dream) 16 May 2018 19:30 Nottingham Playhouse

Ballet Black received a well deserved standing ovation last night.  Such appreciation is commonplace in many parts of the world but not in this country - at least not outside political party conferences.  There were whoops and cheers from the audience as well as claps.  Ballet Black are obviously doing something right.

Yesterday's performance was very polished.  As I said in my review of the company's performance  at the Barbican, I had been worried that Damian Johnson might be irreplaceable but José Alves has performed the male lead roles in both The Suit and A Dream within A Midsummer Night's Dream admirably.  Like Johnson he dances with authority but he does so in his own way and just as impressively.

I particularly admired his performance as Philemon in The Suit.  Returning home to pick up his briefcase he finds his wife in bed with Simon. His countenance is like a book. First the disbelief.  "Is this actually happening?" The the shock as he collapses to the floor. The surge of anger that leads to the cruel humiliation of Matilda.  The role of Philemon was created for Alves and it is hard to imagine anyone else dancing it as well.

The wife was danced by Cira Robinson who is truly a ballerina in the traditional sense  and I think this is her finest role.  It would be impertinent of me to compliment her on her virtuosity or her dramatic skills for, as I say, she is a ballerina.  What do I mean by that?  The best way of putting it is that in most performances the artists portray their character but a truly fine artist - a ballerina - can become that character.  And so it was last night as Tilly was pushed beyond endurance.  My body shook as that beautiful woman in a simple blue dress convulsed and then hung still. Tears were welling up uncontrollably even though I knew she would snap back smiling and full or life for the curtsy just seconds away.

Seeing The Suit for a second time I noticed some interesting touches that I had missed before like dancers representing mirrors, wash basins or items of furniture.  By focusing on details such as old lady crossing the street and bumping into passers by, Marston seemed to conjure a crowd.  Mthuthuzeli November danced Simon, the owner of the suit. The rest of the company danced the chorus, commuters and passers by.

The Suit was a chilling but compelling work that left our emotions raw.  Pita's Dream applied the balm.  Yesterday must have been the sixth or maybe seventh time that I had seen that work and it never fails to charm me.   I always find something new.   Whereas The Suit focuses on Philemon and Tilly, everyone has an important role in Dream.  Robinson was Titania, of course, and Alves became Obron. Isabela Coracy amused us as Puck in her scouts uniform and green beard liberally scattering her glitter and dragging dancers by their legs around the stage. Sayaka Ichikawa and Marie-Astrid Mence charmed us as Helena and Hermia. Their Demetrius and Lysander were November and Ebony Thomas. Grunting and swaggering small wonder the girls preferred each other. November also played the one role that Shakespeare never envisaged, namely Salvador Dali in the quest for his missing moustache.

Ballet Black are about to visit Scotland where I took my first ballet class and was introduced to what is now Scottish Ballet.  One of their venues is Dundee Repertory Theatre which is just 12 miles from St Andrews where there is a Dance Club of over 100 members that I helped to found nearly 50 years ago (see St Andrews University Dance Club's 50th Anniversary Gala 5 May 2018). Should any of those students still be in town on 6 June 2018 I strongly recommend their crossing the Tay to see this show.

Fifty years after that first class at St Andrews, I attended class with the undergraduates of Ballet West (see Visiting Taynuilt 4 May 2018). A few days before my visit Scottish Ballet held a workshop at Taynuilt when they visited Oban to dance Highland Fling. Taynuilt is quite a trek from any of the venues where Ballet Black are to perform but I do hope that at least a few of the excellent young men and women I met last month can make it to Dundee, Inverness or Glasgow.

My next opportunity to see Ballet Black will be on 19 Nov when they will return to The Lowry.  They can expect a very warm welcome there

Excellence - Ballet Black's Double Bill

Ballet Black  The Suit and A Dream within Midsummer Night's Dream Barbican Centre 16 March 2018, 20:00

After seeing extracts of Cathy Marston's The Suit and Arthur Pita's A Dream within Midsummer Night's Dream at Ballet Black's rehearsal studios on 25 Feb 2018, I wrote that I was confident that this year's tour would be Ballet Black's most successful yet (see Visiting Friends - Ballet Black at Home  7 March 2018).  And so it has proved.  I don't think I have ever seen them dance better. I don't think I have ever seen their audience more thrilled.

I was led to Ballet Black by Sarah Kundi whom I admired greatly when she danced in Leeds. When she left Ballet Black I was desolate. How could the company be the same without her?  But it did and became even better (see Ballet Black is still special 7 Nov 2013).  A few years later it lost another of my favourite dancers, Kanika Carr with her beautifully expressive face and laughing eyes. Again, I felt bereft but the company recruited beautiful new dancers and was stronger still.  And then Damian Johnson, my male dancer of the year for 2017, returned to the United States. How could Ballet Black ever recover from his departure? For a moment I feared they couldn't (see Ballet Black post Johnson - Still a good performance but something was missing 19 Nov 2017).  But it has for last night's performance was outstanding.  Walking back to my hotel I realized that Ballet Black is like a living thing, greater than the sum of its parts and capable of regenerating itself even after it loses an important member.

Cathy Marston's The Suit is based on Can Themba's short story which was made into a powerful film in 2016 and stage play, Briefly it is about a husband who punishes his wife's infidelity by treating her lover's suit as though it were a living guest placing it at the table for meals and taking it outside for walks. The wife can endure only so much of this humiliation before she hangs herself on her lover's tie. Set in apartheid South Africa her oppression is compounded by the repression of the state. The austerity under which even highly educated Africans were obliged to live was represented by skeletal furniture and a percussive score.  Particularly effective was the crumbling wall of sound that accompanied the mind shattering discovery of a stranger in the marital bed.

The wife, Matilda or Tilly, was danced by Cira Robinson.   Perhaps her finest performance in any ballet and certainly the most dramatic.  José Alves was Philemon her husband.  Another stunning performance. Simon, the lover, the owner of the suit was Mthuthuzeli November.  The rest of the company danced neighbours in Sophiatown.   In the programme they are described as a "chorus".  The use of a chorus is a technique that I noticed in Jane Eyre, the other Marston ballet that I have seen recently.  The choreographer will no doubt correct me if I am wrong, but I think it is the balletic equivalent to Greek drama. I find it very effective.

After that stage suicide - not the first I have seen in the last few months (Las Hermanas in Northern Ballet's MacMillan Celebration and English National Ballet's Le Jeune Homme et la Mort in Tamara Rojo at Last! Le Jeune Homme et la Mort and La Sylphide) we needed a bit of cheer and Arthur Pita provided it with A Dream within A Midsummer Night's Dream.  This was the fifth time that I have seen that ballet and I love it.  I love Isabela Coracy's playful Puck in boy scout uniform, Titania's infatuation with Bottom (November), the delicious girlishness of Hermia and Helena (Marie Astrid Mence and Sayaka Ichikawa) and Oberon's grunting with his butterfly net. Alves danced Oberon beautifully, with gravitas tempered with levity.  I love the music and although I am still not sure how Salvador Dali fits into the story I love him and his moustache too.  In this staging of the work November glides in with a Dali dead.  I love the music, particularly the Yma  Suma and the stately Handel with the girls in classical tutus at the beginning and the end.

I had originally planned to see the double bill tonight and had a ticket for the centre stalls but on learning of the talk I asked the theatre to exchange it for whatever it had for yesterday so that I could attend the discussion.  Actually I did very well for I was in the centre of row B of the gallery commanding a great view of the stage with the most vocal and appreciative section of the crowd.  I am so glad that I stayed for the talk because Cira Robinson was magnificent.  She spoke about her art with passion.  I have always admired her. Yesterday my respect increased 200%. But there was another treat. Arthur Pita was in the audience and he spoke how Shakespeare had inspired his Dream and his love for every piece of the score.

Finally, on the way out to Silk Street I spotted some of the dancers. If they read this review they would have known how much I loved last night's performance. But yesterday I could tell them in person and that was so much more satisfying.

Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney

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Last Monday I was lucky enough to watch Christopher Marney rehearse Damien Johnson, Isabela Coracy, Jacob Wye and Sayaka Ichikawa in To Begin Begin at the Barbican Centre.  That is a ballet which David Murley reviewed in Ballet Black at The Barbican on 22 March 2016 and I reviewed in Ballet Black made my Manchester Day on 20 June 2016.

Readers of this blog know that I have a particularly high regard for Marney (see my appreciation Christopher Marney 16 March 2016). When I first published my appreciation of Christopher this blog received more hits than it had ever done before. I tweeted about it and my tweet was noticed by Sir Matthew Bourne who replied that he was not surprised because Christopher Marney is a genius. Who am I to to argue with Sir Matthew even if I disagreed with him on this matter which I don't. The chance of seeing a genius at work with some of my very favourite dancers was compelling.

Chris rehearsed two pas de deux:  first Damien and Isabela and then Jacob and Sayaka.  I was aware of his sensitivity to music and had surmised that he would have a great eye for detail but I was still amazed by its extent. Points like the way Isabela fell into Damian's arms and his insistence on their keeping eye contact as she bent back or how Sayaka and Jacob rolled up towards each other in a length of blue silk were repeated until Chris and the dancers were happy that the effect was right. They did that energetically and enthusiastically for there is something in Chris's voice and manner that would inspire an artist. At the end of each session we saw a finished performance of the work on which Chris and the dancers had been working.

After the rehearsals of the two pas de deux Marney invited questions from the audience. One of the first questions was "What comes first the story and the music."  It was no surprise to me that Chirs replied that it was the music. He listens to a lot of music, he said, particularly on Classic FM. Someone asked Cassa which of Manrey's ballets she liked best. She replied "Dogs Don't Do Ballet". I asked about the transposition of War Letters which he had created for Ballet Black to the students of Ballet Central. I observed that although the students had not yet gained the same experience of life as the dancers of Ballet Black their production had a poignancy of its own as the students were the same age as the men sent to war and the girls who were left behind. Cassa mentioned that she sent one of her dancers to Ballet Central to help them prepare that show.

The reason I was invited to the rehearsal is that I am one of the Friends of Ballet Black and this was its first event (see Ballet Black's Friends Scheme 2 April 2016). I got the opportunity to meet some of the other Friends over tea and cake.  Some I already knew from the London Ballet Circle but others were just starting to follow ballet. It was a particular pleasure to meet Bill Boyd whom I had known through Facebook and BalletcoForum for a while but had never actually met. The tea party offered a chance to chat informally with Cassa, Christopher and the dancers. They probably already know that their public love them but it never hurts to tell them once in a while.

Post script

Ballet Black are performing at To Begin, Begin  and other works at the following venues in the Autumn:

ENFIELD, LONDON: 27th & 28th September

STRATFORD, LONDON: 6th - 8th October

NEWCASTLE: 11th & 12th October

LEEDS: 14th & 15th October

GLASGOW: 28th & 29th October

DONCASTER: 2nd November

EXETER: 9th & 10th November

WATFORD: 15th November

ESSEX: 16th NovemberLICHFIELD: 18th November

I never tire of Dogs Don't Do Ballet

Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet seemed so fresh and new yesterday that I was convinced that there must be some new choreography (see As Fresh as Ever: Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale 7 May 2016).

"No new choreography tweeted" Cassa Pancho.

"That's amazing" I thought, I tweeted back

Ah right. Then it is an even better work than I thought because I am still discovering new things about it. https://t.co/GipPZUPa1C

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) May 7, 2016

Cassa replied:

@jelterps but there is a lot of detail that you might miss with only one viewing

— Ballet Black (@BalletBlack) May 7, 2016

She was right, of course. Even though I hadn't intended seeing it twice in the same weekend I returned for a second viewing (fifth all told) at 11:00 today.

I was able to sit much closer to the stage today so I caught some of those details.

There was the toy dalmatian which Bif handed to Anna just before the storm when she dreamt about a real one and in the morning a real one - or as close to real as ballet can conjure - appeared.

I took a closer look at the poster on the wall of Anna's room. "Kanikova" it read and if I am not mistaken it was Kanika Carr dancing with Jacob Wye in the video.

I noticed the intricate choreography of the ballet class with the boys pirouetting while the girls did chaînés.

Though I loved Marie-Astrid's Anna, Sayaka is such a good actor that she brought whole new dimensions to the role. I particularly loved the kiss that Tutu snatched. Her expression changed from delight to embarrassment as it did for him. Tutu and Sayaka are so well matched.

So now Ballet Black's tour to Sale is over and the dancers may be on their way home. It was good to see them here and I look forward to their return next month with their triple bill.

Finally, it was Isabela Corcy's birthday today. I left her a card on behalf of Team Terpsichore - everyone who had ever contributed to Terpsichore namely David, Gita, Joanna, Mel and me. I have been one of her fans ever since I saw her dance the pas de deux from Diana and Actaeon on YouTube, a role that requires enormous grace as well as strength. I am sure that all my readers will join me in wishing her many happy returns of the day.

As Fresh as Ever: Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale

Waterside Arts Centre

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Ballet Black, Dogs Don't Do Ballet, Waterside Arts Centre, Sale, 7 May 2016

I was charmed by Christopher Marney's Dogs Don't Do Ballet ever since I saw its first performance in Harlow on 11 Oct 2014 (see Woof 12 Oct 2014). I enjoyed it again when  I saw it twice in Leeds last year (see Not Just a Children's Ballet 19 April 2015 and Le chien mal gardé 21 April 2015), I wondered whether I would still like it as much as I crossed the Pennines on the way to the theatre.

The answer was an emphatic "yes". It was as fresh as ever. I am not sure whether that is because of new choreography or because I noticed things that I had missed before. It may be because of cast changes since I had last seen the show. Sayaka Ichikawa was a delightful Anna and Mthuthuzeli November brought his panache and style to the ballet. While I liked Marie-Astrid Mence and Christopher Renfurm well enough it is always good to see another interpretation.

Loosely based on Anna Kemp's children's story, the ballet is about a ballet mad little girl called Anna and her pet dog Bif danced by Cira Robinson. Anyone who has ever kept a dog will be amazed by Robinson's performance because she has every canine mannerism down to a tee.  Anna takes her dog to ballet class kept by the slightly ridiculous Miss Polly. Bif wants to join in the class and after a few faltering steps at the barre proves to be rather good at it. Her mistress encourages that interest and during the night a storm breaks out. As it is whining and shaking Anna comforts the dog and they both watch a scene from The Nutcracker. They fall asleep and Bif dreams of dancing a pas de deux with a handsome dalmatian. The next day the children meet in the park with their dogs where they come across their teacher fast asleep with a hip flask by her side. There is a hilarious scene where they make fun of her. Miss Polly wakes up suddenly by the dogs licking her face, In the last scene Anna's father produces two tickets to the ballet. The dog wants to come but. of course, dogs are not allowed.  Nevertheless Bif gets into the auditorium somehow which is just as well for when Madame Kanikova jams her head in a French horn Bif is ready to jump on stage and dance the principal role.

It may be my imagination but I think there has been some new choreography to show Bif's progress at ballet. When the children do the centre exercises in front of the mirror she shows that she can perform the adagio quite as well as any of them. The audience is treated to two delightful duets between Bif and the dalmatian and Bif with the male principal.

If it was Marney's intention to inspire it worked.  As I left the theatre one small child asked her mother when she could start ballet.  Alarmingly another, who could not be aged more than 7, was on pointe in trainers. Several other kids were practising port de bras.  

As a Mancunian it was good to see one of my favourite companies in my native city. Well, almost, for I was born in Didsbury just the other side of the Mersey. They are dancing again at the Waterside Arts Centre tomorrow at 11:00 and 14:00 and if you can get to see them you should. They are also coming back to our metropolis on the 19 June to dance their triple bill which David Murley reviewed at The Lowry.