The Terpsichore Nominations

Just a bit of fun inspired by the National Dance Awards and not to be taken at all seriously but at the end of every year I do a review of the best work that I have seen in the previous 12 months (see Highlights of 2015 29 Dec 2015). At the end of the post I set out my favourites which were:

Ballet of the Year
Ballet Cymru's Cinderella, runner up Ballet Cymru's Tir

Company of the Year
Scottish Ballet, runners up Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Ballet

Small Companies of the Year
Ballet Black and Ballet Cymru

Contemporary Company of the Year
Phoenix Dance Theatre

Male Dancer of the Year
Denis Rodkin in La Bayadere, runner up Matthew Golding in the Royal Ballet's Onegin and the Dutch National Ballet's Cinderella

Female Dancer of the Year
Laura Morera as Lise runners up Anna Tsygankova and Bethany Kingsley-Garner as Cinderella

Choreographers of the Year
Christopher Hampson for Perpetuum Mobile for Northern Ballet and Ernst Meisner for Embers for the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company

Dancers to watch
Floor Elmers of Dutch National Ballet, Krystal Lowe of Ballet Cymru, Marie-Astrid-Mence of Phoenix Dance Theatre and Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet

Promising Newcomers
Bart Engelen, Norwegian Ballet, Cristiano Principato and Emilie Tassinari, Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Tim Hill of Ballet Cymru and Prentice Whitlow of Phoenix Dance Theatre

This year we shall do it a little differently. I invite everyone who has contributed to Terpsichore in the last year or so (that is to say Alison Winward, David Murley, Gita Mistry, Janet McNulty, Joanne Goodman and Mel Wong (happy birthday Mel by the way) to nominate for each category. Then I shall hold a ballot for the readers.

I have not quite made up my mind yet but provisionally Jean-Christophe Maillot is leading the way in the best full-length ballet stakes with his Taming of the Shrew for the Bolshoi pursued hotly by Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari, David Dawson's Swan Lake and Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre in that order.

In the one-act ballets category, it is a dead heat between Ernst Meisner's No Time before Time  and Christopher Hampson's Storyville.

My classical company of the year is the Durch National Ballet though I was impressed by the Australians and the Bolshoi when they came to London and the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet are always near the top of my lists.

My nominations for best small company are Ballet Black and the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company,

Having seen a lot of contemporary dance, this year I can't make my mind up between Netherlands Dance Theatre and Rambert though Phoenix and the National Dance Company of Wales are also on my list. I am not sure how to classify Alvin Ailey but they definitely deserve an award.

Best male dancer this year has to be Federico Benelli for his Albrecht in Giselle and Lauren Cuthbertson as best female in the same production, However, I would make special personal awards to Bethany Kingsley-Garner for her Odette-Odile in Liverpool and Anna Tsyganlova for her Mata Hari.

Dancers to watch? There are so many but I think we shall be seeing a lot of Cristiano Principato of the Dutch National Ballet who proved his worth as a choreographer, artistic director and chief cook and bottlewasher as well as dancer in Trecate earlier this year, Daniele Gould in Hungary who was an enchanting Puss in Boots and Mthuthuzeli November here.

I would also like to add a special adult ballet education award to Karen Sant of KNT Danceworks for organizing wonderful intensive workshops for adult ballet beginners in Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadere and The Nutcracker and Jane Tucker for teaching them.

Alison, David, Gita, Janet, Joanne and Mel are invited to let me have their nominations (if any by 17:00 on 30 Nov) and then we shall offer it to the readers for a vote.

Ballet Black in Doncaster

Ballet Black, Triple Bill, CAST, Doncaster, 2 Nov 2016

Yesterday Ballet Black made its debut at the CAST Theatre in Doncaster with its triple bill of Cristaux, To Begin, Begin and Storyville. Considering that the performance was in direct competition with the live streaming of the Royal Ballet's Anastasia and that the centre of Doncaster resembled a ghost town last night as I tramped around pedestrian streets and plazas looking for the theatre, the company did very well to attract a fair sized crowd.

The programme was the same as the one I had seen in Leeds on the 15 Oct 2016 (see Never Better: Ballet Black in Leeds 16 Oct 2016) and at the Lowry on the 19 June 2016 (see Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016). Two of my friends wondered why I wanted to see the show a third time rather than the Royal Ballet screening. The answer is that there are some ballets that one can see time after time and still find something new while there are others for which one performance is quite enough even if that performance did take place in 1971 and the cast included Lynn Seymour, Antoinette Sibley and Svetlana Berisosva. Once I have made up my mind about a ballet, no amount of peer pressure on Facebook or BalletcoForum, marketing hype or rave reviews by journalists who are likely to have seen far fewer ballets than I have and who probably think a frappé is a type of coffee will change my mind.

So did I see anything new in Doncaster? Why, yes I did. On the previous occasions I had seen Arthur Pita's Cristaux my eyes had been on Cira Robinson rather than on Mthuthuzeli November. This time I concentrated on him and realized how much I had been missing. He begins the dance and it ends with him. My eyes have gravitated towards Robinson on the previous occasions because its title means Crystals and her tutu and headdress seem to sparkle with crystals. But November is splendid too in his costume of shiny blue which also has an odd sparkling stone or two. And it is he who leads the ballerina round the stage with his glissades and piqués.

Having seen To Begin, Begin in rehearsal at the Friends' event in July (see Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney 14 July 2016) where the audience discussed it at length with the choreographer I think I learned to love it more. This is a ballet that Sayaka Ichikawa makes her own. It is she who is hoisted into the air seemingly by the stream of silk and later enveloped by it as though she were the madonna. But Ichikawa was not the only dancer to shine. So too did her partner, Jacob Wye, as well as Damien Johnson, Jose Alves, Isabela Coracy and Marie-Astrid Mence who were the other couples in the piece.

There were some interesting cast changes in Christopher Hampson's Storyville which helped me to understand it better. Johnson, who had previously danced Nola's lover, was Mack in last night's show while Jacob Wye became her lover. Coracy danced Lulu which had previously been danced by Ichikawa. Those changes introduced a new dynamic into the ballet. Johnson dances with considerable authority which is why he is ideally suited for such roles as Oberon in Arthur Pita's Dream or the dad in Marney's Dogs Don't Do Ballet. Because he carries such authority it is a shock to see him playing a villain. He used that authority to spice that role with menace. By contrast, Wye seemed fresh-faced, sensitive, almost as vulnerable as Nola. How he must have suffered as that beautiful creature sank into alcoholic despair. Coracy was a great Lulu. She can play mean in a way that other dancers can't. My heart missed a beat as Lulu plunged a hat pin into the heart of Nola's rag doll. And Nola? Robinson was as beautiful as ever.

Yesterday was a bittersweet moment. It was the last time I would see beautiful Ballet Black this year and, in many ways, this tour was the company's best ever. When I booked my seat at the front of the stalls I had thought of throwing flowers London style at those wonderful dancers. My plan was defeated as no shops were open in the Frenchgate Centre yesterday evening. Probably just as well because the CAST is a fine theatre for dance and I would hate to be banned from it. As was said by a kind Doncastrian (is that right for a denizen of Doncaster?) who had tried to direct me to Sheffield in the belief that there were no theatres nearby when I asked for directions to the CAST: "We're in Donny, love". So the dancers will have to content themselves with verbal flowers - but they and their director and choreographers each deserved the biggest bouquet I could carry for their performances last night.

Last Chance to see Ballet Black in the North

South Yorkshire

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Ballet Black are coming towards the end of their national tour with the triple bill that David Murley saw at the Barbican (see Ballet Black at the Barbican 22 March 2016) and I saw at the Lowry and Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre (see Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016 and Never Better: Ballet Black in Leeds 18 Oct 2016). The company usually makes an appearance in Leeds but this year they have spoilt their fans in the North with performances of Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale (see As Fresh as Ever: Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale 7 May 2016 and I never tire of Dogs Don't Do Ballet 8 May 2016) as well as those I have already mentioned and their forthcoming visit to the CAST theatre in Doncaster on 2 Nov 2016.

As I mentioned in my review of Northern Ballet's Madame Butterfly (Nixon's Masterpiece) on 22 May 2015 CAST is  "a £22 million municipal theatre that opened in 2013 (Ian Youngs £22m Cast theatre opens in Doncaster 6 Sept 2013 BBC website)" and is one of the plushest performing spaces I know. It has attracted not just Northern Ballet but also Wayne McGregor and other dance companies. This will be Ballet Black's debut in Doncaster and tickets seem to be selling well (see the "Book Tickets" page on the theatre's website).

In my humble opinion, this year's programme is the company's best ever with works by three of my favourite choreographers including Christopher Marney (artistic director of Ballet Central) whose work reminds me so much of John Cranko and Christopher Hampson of Scottish Ballet who was my joint choreographer of the year for 2015 (see Highlights of 2015  29 Dec 2015). All the works in this year's programme are sombre. Storyville which charts the destruction of a beautiful young woman is particularly sad. But they are also very beautiful.  Ballet Black is a company that delivers the sort of works that Luke Jennings seemed to be calling for on Front Row  on Monday which I discussed in Of Bikes and Buses 25 Oct 2016. I can't imagine why nobody on the programme mentioned that.

Ballet Black's remaining performances of the triple bill will be in Exeter, Watford, Harlow and Lichfield. Soon they will begin work on a new programme which will open at the Barbican on 2 March 2017. I gleaned the following details from the Barbican's website:

"A four-hander characterised by intricate detail and propulsive energy, Captured ebbs and flows to the fiery emotion of Martin Lawrance’s edgy choreography, set to a Shostakovich string quartet.
Celebrated British choreographer Michael Corder, whose glittering versions of Cinderellaand The Snow Queen have been seen across Europe, creates the evening’s second abstract piece for four dancers.
South Bank Sky Arts Award-winner Annabelle Lopez Ochoa turns a popular fairy tale on its head, as she gives her short narrative ballet a surprising twist. This time, the Wolf will regret ever meeting Red Riding Hood."

Those who like Ballet Black may wish to consider the company's Friends scheme. Membership does not cost much and it provides opportunities to get to know the company better.  Friends receive an occasional newsletter and invitations to attend events like the rehearsal of Marney's To Begin, Begin at the Barbican (see Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney 14 July 2016).

Never Better: Ballet Black in Leeds

Ballet Black, Triple Bill, Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds, 15 Oct 2016, 18:30

Every Autumn Ballet Black performs its triple bill at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Northern Ballet and Phoenix Dance Theatre's premises in Leeds and packs it out. The company has a loyal following throughout the land, but especially in that theatre where it seems to dance particularly well. Probably the intimacy of the auditorium suits its style better than most theatres but I think another reason may be that it always feels lifted by the crowd.

As I noted in Ballet Black at Home in Leeds 7 Nov 2014 and Ballet Black return to Leeds 21 Nov 2015, Leeds is the company's second home. I visit Northern Ballet Academy at least once a week for class during term and I can tell you that there is always a buzz in the cafe and changing rooms when the posters and flyers for Ballet Black start to appear. Snippets of "Ooh I must see them!" or "Did you see them last time?" occur in conversation as we wait for the lift or relax after a class. No other company (except perhaps the resident ones when they are about to present a new work) generates that sort of excitement among my adult ballet classmates or theatre goers in West Yorkshire generally.

Audiences can now welcome back Jose Alves and Marie-Astrid Mence to Ballet Black.  It was so good to see them again. Hugs and flowers to both of them! But where was Kanika? She has such expressive features and a delightful sense of humour. Vlad the Lad will be devastated if Madame Kanikova has gone for good. So, too, will his granny. If she has indeed left Ballet Black I send her my best wishers wherever she is. I hope to see her back on stage soon - but even if that is not possible I wish her well.

Last night Ballet Black was as good as ever.  In fact I have never seen the company dance better. It performed the triple bill that David Murley saw at the Barbican on the 19 March (see Ballet Black at the Barbican 22 March 2016) and I saw at Salford on Manchester Day (see Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016). It started with Arthur Pita's Cristaux, continued with Christopher Marney's To Begin, Begin and finished with Christopher Hampson's Storyville. Pita, Marney and Hampson are three of the country's best choreographers. What could be a stronger programme than that?

Some ballets grow on you and so it was with Cristaux. I  liked it first time round but mainly for its impressive footwork - particularly the pointe work at the beginning at the beginning of the work. The music, Steve Reich's Drumming Part III, which seemed so sharp and repetitive first time round, was soothing last night. Watching Cira Robinson and Mthuthuzeli November circle the stage was like watching the life of a beautiful creation, a butterfly perhaps (or maybe even us), from its emergency from a chrysalis to its extinction. The music stressed the briefness of that existence. Then darkness. Very clever lighting design by David Plater. Beautiful costumes, particularly Cira Robinson's tutu, by Yann Seabra. Her tiara had been delayed in transit when the company visited Salford. That tiara really made a difference. Last night she sparkled literally from head to toe.

I found myself rooting for a tissue for To Begin, Begin. That was mainly because it was so beautiful. I had surmised that the blue silk that enveloped Sayaka Ichikawa at the start of the performance might represent distance such as an ocean and that the ballet might be about separation by distance when I saw it in Salford in June. I got to understand the ballet rather better when I attended the rehearsal at the Barbican a few weeks later (see Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney 14 July 2016). The ballet is about relationships.  Then the thought occurred to me that maybe the silk represents not just distance but death? I was reminded of those no longer with us. That was the other reason I had to fight to hold back tears last night.

Finally, Hampson's Storyville or the destruction of Nola. As I noted before, NOLA is an acronym for New Orleans Louisiana, Storyville is the red light district of that city and there are obvious parallels between Nola's story and Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire which Hampson's company transformed into dance  last year. This is a narrative ballet which requires superb acting as well as dancing. What superb dance actors there are at Ballet Black - particularly the leads Cira Robinson as the hapless Nola, Sayaka Ichikawa as the heartless Lulu, Damien Johnson as the long suffering sailor and Jose Alves as the unscrupulous Mack.  Storyville is not a very happy but a compelling one.

Ballet Black will take their triple bill to the Tramway on 28 and 29 Oct 2016 which is a similar venue to the Stanley and Audrey Burton but on a somewhat bigger scale (see No Mean City - Accessible Dance and Ballet 26 April 2015). I am sure they will do well there for two reasons. First, it is on Hampson's home turf. He is a great fried of Ballet Black as well as the creator of two of its ballets, my joint choreographer of the year for 2015 and an all round good bloke. Secondly, they should find at least as good an audience in Glasgow as they have in Leeds and for much the same reason. As I wrote in No Mean City:

"I should say a word about the Glasgow audience. Even though I am a Friend of the company yesterday was the first time I had visited Scottish Ballet's home at The Tramway. There was a buzz in the auditorium and the bar that I have felt only in London in the United Kingdom. Evidently, Scottish Ballet has cultivated an audience that understands and appreciates dance and expresses its appreciation with the same enthusiasm."

I love Glasgow and I adore Ballet Black and I would have been in the audience had I not been learning The Nutcracker on the 29 (see A Unique Opportunity to learn a Bit of The Nutcracker 12 Oct 2016).

But at least I can give them a a tip as I know from its twitter stream that the folks at Ballet Black enjoy a celebratory nibble after the show. In my humble opinion, the best eatery in the whole United Kingdom is the Ubiquitous Chip. I've been going there for nearly 50 years - ever since I was a student at St. Andrews when I first started following what was then Scottish Theatre Ballet. Even Gita the Eater was impressed (see Feed me Scotland  18 Feb 2013 Gita Mistry Food).

Cassa Pancho is coming to the London Ballet Circle

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Tomorrow at 19:30 Cassa Pancho, the London Ballet Circle's most recently appointed Vice-President will address members of the Circle and their quests at the Civil Service Club, 13-15 Great Scotland Yard, London, SW1A 2HJ. Cassa is, of course, the founder artistic director of Ballet Black and although I try hard not to have favourites when it comes to ballet and contemporary dance companies it is hard not to have  particularly soft spot for the company.

Tomorrow will not be the first time that I will have travelled long distances to see them. I have even sacrificed an all expenses paid trip to Paris to see them dance in Leeds. There are a few other companies for which I would do the same, such as Scottish Ballet, Ballet Cymru and, of course, the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company but I wouldn't do it for them all. No way José!

And talking of José , what better news to read in Ballet Black Friends Newsletter than that  José Alves and Marie Astrid Mence are about to rejoin the company. They are both fine artists and I admire them both. I first saw Marie Astrid as Anna in Dogs Don't Do Ballet (see Woof 12 Oct 2014) and I have been lucky enough to see her dance over the last few months with Phoenix which is another company I like a lot.

I have seen quite a lot of Ballet Black over the last few months: two performances of Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale (see As Fresh as Ever: Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale 7 May 2016 and I never tire of Dogs Don't Do Ballet 8 May 2016), the triple bill at the Lowry (see Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016) and a special Friends' event (see Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney 14 July 2016). They are about to set off on their Autumn tour which will include Leeds and Doncaster (see Performances on Ballet Black's website). I for one will be in the audience for both shows.

Ballet Black made my Manchester Day

The Lowry

Author: Rob Chafer

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Ballet Black, Triple Bill, The Quays Theatre, 19 June 2016

I am not sure whether the timing was deliberate but Ballet Black visited us on Manchester Day which celebrates "the creativity and diversity of Manchester ...... where communities can celebrate pride in our city and show what makes them feel uniquely Mancunian [and where] communities, artists and businesses can work together to create something truly special for Manchester" (see the Manchester Day Parade 2016 video on YouTube). Whether or not they were aware of yesterday's significance they could not have come on a better day for Ballet Black, like my beloved birthplace, is hugely creative, its repertoire could not be more diverse and, as I have said more than once, Ballet Black, like Manchester, is special (see Why Ballet Black is Special 20 May 2013 and Ballet Black is still special 7 Nov 2013).

The audience at The Quays sampled that diverse repertoire last night with Arthur Pita's Cristaux. Christopher Marney's To Begin, Begin and Christopher Hampson's Storyville.  Two of Ballet Black's best loved works while I have been following them are Pita's A Dream Within a Midsummer Night's Dream from their 2014 season and Marney's War Letters from 2013. Storyville is another favourite with audiences from the 2012 season which I saw the first time last night. Hampson together with Ernst Meisner was my choreographer of the year last year and Marney is my favourite living British choreographer. Pita is another firm favourite. Those chaps have never put a foot wrong in my eyes. I expected a super evening and that's exactly what I got.

Cristaux opened with Cira Robinson on pointe in a sparkly tutu gyrating to the tinkling rhythm of Drumming Part III  by Steve Reich. She was joined by Mthuthuzeli November in blue and white. Though the steps seemed simple the pace was fast and frenetic and the effect quite mesmerizing. In the programme notes Pita said that he was inspired by the title to Balanchine's Le Palais de Cristal even though it is thought that the title was not intended to be descriptive. "I personally love the title Le Palais de Cristal", wrote Pita, "as it paints such a beautiful image." So he started thinking about crystals and how we can be mesmerized by their simplicity and beauty. "The reflective light that radiates from crystals is so magical and enchanting" he added. "I wanted to capture this feeling." It led him to "a place in which one is not dead or alive, asleep or awake, but somehow being led or seduced by a glimmering light." A mysterious but strangely exciting work.

Marney's To Begin, Begin  was also mysterious but in a very different way. Sayaka Ichikawa appeared as though on stilts draped on an enormous canopy of blue.  In the programme notes Marney explains:

"In To Begin, Begin, you see first a woman walking under a wave, a floating blue silk, waiting to be found by her soul-mate, who descends from above." 

Other dancers follow: Kanika Carr Jacob Wye, Isabela Coracy, Damien Johnson and Joshua Harriet. Marney continues that as the soul-mate finds the woman he witnesses other other relationships but his instincts lead him back to where he belongs. Marney says his inspiration for the piece came from watching an animation that had been made to some music by Dustin O'Halloran for an animation that he had written for the Sophie Coppola film Marie Antoinette. Like all Marney's work it was lyrical and moving.

Storyville was the story of Lulu White, a brothel keeper in the Storyville district of New Orleans, danced by Ichikawa and one of her girls called Nola (danced by Robinson), which appears to be an acronym for New Orleans Louisiana. The ballet charts the course of Nola's short unhappy life from her arrival as an innocent newcomer to the big city to her death a few years later. It is uncannily like Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire which Hampson's company tuned into a very striking ballet last year (see Scottish Ballet's Streetcar 2 April 2015). I can't help wondering whether there is any connection between Hampson's creation and his company's creation. Nola was danced by Robinson. On stage she seemed so fragile and so vulnerable. It was clear how this story would end. If only I could reach out and rescue her. Lulu's henchman, Mack, the epitome of evil. Lulu and Mack appeared in Nola's dreams or hallucinations as symbols of death. Carr and Coracy were bar girls and November and Wye as their guests. Nola's only hope of salvation was the sailor, Johnson, but not even he could divert her from her path to destruction. Not a pretty work at all but an absorbing and important one.

Before the show we learned from the stage manager that a case containing the programmes and some of the props was missing. I met Cira Robinson and asked what had gone missing. She mentioned her headdress and a chandelier from Cristaux which can be seen in these in Dave Morgan's photo on BalletcoForum. The missing items did not diminish the audience's enjoyment one little bit. However, it would be a great excuse to see the show again in Nottingham next Wednesday or in Leeds in the Autumn.

I do hope Ballet Black enjoyed their visit to Greater Manchester. It was great to see them in our area again and I do hope they come back soon. Perhaps even on Manchester Day again. Maybe they could even be part of it.