This Easter weekend my home has been full of laughter as I have been entertaining Vlad the Lad and his mum and dad.
As I've said many times before Vlad likes ballet and he got more than a little this weekend. On Good Friday he watched Darcey's Ballerina Heroinesbounding around my sitting room attempting grands jetésand tours en l'air. On Saturday he watched Ballet Theatre UK's Aladdin at The Atkinson in Southport. And yesterday I was even more excited than he was when I recognized Quarry Hill on Mr Tumble. "Ooh look Vlad" I squealed, "This is where you saw me dance when you last came to visit me" (see The Time of My Life28 June 2015).
But Vlad's favourite ballet by a country mile is Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet which he saw at Harlow on 11 Oct 2014 where he was also lucky enough to meet Chris Marney and Cassa Pancho (see Woof12 Oct 2014). Ballet Black and their beautiful dancers are bringing that show to Leeds the weekend after next and North London on 22 May 2015.
Although Ballet Back come from London they are very much at home in Leeds as I noted the last time they paid us a visit (see Ballet Black at Home in Leeds7 Nov 2014). One of the reasons for that is that Northern Ballet has grown an audience for ballet in Yorkshire and they start them off young. Northern Ballet is about to tour Yorkshire and the rest of the country with Elves and the Shoemaker.
Vlad's first ballet was English National Ballet's My First Coppeliawhich he saw at The Peacock this time last year. This year I have promised to take him to My First Swan Lake.
Vlad's mum has seen a lot of ballet with me and my late spouse over the years and she loves it. Her husband has only seen a few but his favourite to date was Ballet Black's triple bill at the Linbury on 14 Feb 2015 which happened to coincide with my birthday. That was a great performance. I don't think I have ever seen a better one from that company (see Ballet Black's Best Performance Yet17 Feb 2015).
A good test of the mettle of a company is how well it copes with adversity. Because it danced in Southport in the middle of Easter bank holiday weekend a lot of things went wrong yesterday most of which were not the fault of the company.
First, The Atkinson's bakery closed at 15:00. This is one of the USPs of the theatre if not the whole metropolitan borough of Sefton. My hungry crowd which included an omnivorous and voracious 4 year old who c an't stop jumping and running and "the foodie friend" referred to in my review of The Atkinson of 2 Aug 2014 had been saving themselves for the Bakery's delights all the way from Yorkshire. Quelle deception! We had to hoof off scouring the town for fish and chips which was our second choice. I am sorry to say as an exiled Lancastrian in the Land of the Tykes that the establishment that claimed to be the best chippie in town was decidedly inferior in the size of its portions and the quality of its frying to the West Riding average. Secondly, the Atkinson's ladies' was a disgrace. No bog roll in the cubicles and tissues floating in the communal sink in which we were supposed to wash our hands. Thirdly, we were kept out of the auditorium until well after the advertised start of the show. Fourthly, nobody was selling programmes or even giving away cast lists which means that I can't give you any details of the synopsis or even the composer of the score. I can tell you the names of some of the dancers but only because the mum of one of the dancers told me before the show. I can also say that Daniel Hope designed the costumes but only because of the video Ballet Theatre UK - The Making of Aladdin - Costumes. Finally, there was a much smaller crowd than I had seen for The Little Mermaidor Swan Lakewhich was hardly surprising given the date of the performance.
Yet despite all those glitches it was still a good show. The young dancers danced their hearts out and were rewarded at the end by enthusiastic applause and even whoops of delight in the case of Philip Tunstall who danced the jinn. Two ladies in row B actually rose to their feet. So I think artistic director Christopher Moore can safely chalk up yesterday's show as a success malgré tout. His heart must have been in his shoes even more than his dancers David Brewer and Ines Ferreira at the end of a very difficult pas de deux in the last scene of the show.
Aladdin is not an easy story to tell in ballet terms. There was an awful lot of detail in Act I that I couldn't follow. Happily I was put in the picture by Janet McNulty of BalletcoForum whom I met in the bar in the interval. She had a much better recollection of the Bintley plot than I did and she was able to reel off the story as well as Madame Novikova of Pathe Live. Act II was much easier to follow and contained some thrilling choreography including the pas de deux that I mentioned above. I was impressed with Brewer and Ferreira. My companion Gita liked Tunstall and a dancer who fitted the description of Sarah Mortimer. Gita who is new to ballet but not to dance spots technical points that I miss. And 4 year old Vlad loved the sword swallower. He likes ballet but I had feared that yesterday's show might have been too long and too complex for him. It wasn't. He was leaping and bowing like the dancers he had just seen even before we left the auditorium.
I do urge the denizens of Dartford and other towns to flock to the show on Tuesday and subsequently for they will have a good time. A company of this quality deserves a good crowd. I just hope that the management of those theatres do a better job than The Atkinson did yesterday. As yesterday fell in the middle of a double bank holiday weekend I am not giving up on that normally excellent arts centre.
If the above trailer is anything to go by the good folk of Southport are in for a treat tonight. Ballet Theatre UK whom I have previously described as the "Bedouin of Ballet" return to The Atkinson with a new version of Aladdin by Christopher Moore. I have seen two of their shows already: The Little Mermaidon 27 April 2014 and Swan Lake on 11 Dec 2014 and enjoyed them both very much. I have also seen and enjoyed David Bintley's version and it will be interesting to compare the two.
Southport from Holmfirth is a fair old jaunt. There and back is nearly as far as a trek to the Great Wen and can take at least as long if there is a lot of traffic around Manchester. I am making the journey for two reasons. The first is that I like my ballet and this is a good little company. It has assembled a troupe of promising young dancers one of whom is the son of a lady with whom I correspond through BalletcoForum. It is the nearest we have to the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company in this country and deserves to be encouraged for the same reason. The second is that my grandson manqué seems to have taken a liking to ballet and shows signs that he may be good at it. He was imitating some of the dancers in Darcey's Ballerina Heroinesand not making too bad a hash of it. Though he was born in London his mum comes from Sierra Leone and we have told him all about Michaela De Prince and her life story.
After tonight the caravan moves on to Dartford (which is only a few miles from where the little lad lives so her may pester his parents to take him again), Yeovil, Dunstable, Cambeley and then back to Runcorn. As I say, they do get around a bit. Wherever you live there is a good chance that you will catch them. Like Peter Brinson's Ballet for All when I was young Ernst Meisner's Junior Company in the Netherlands now Ballet Theatre UK is taking ballet to the parts that other companies cannot reach. HDTV transmissions from Moscow and Covent Garden are all very well but they are to ballet in the theatre what hamburger is to fillet steak (see For those who may be interested ........ 24 Jan 2014). Ballet Theatre UK are the real McCoy and they deserve to be supported.
On 26 April 2014 I saw Ballet Theatre UK's production of The Little Mermaid at The Atkinson and loved it (see Pure Delight - BTUK's Little Mermaid in Southport27 April 2014). Sitting next to me in the theatre was a young woman called Emma who had just started to appreciate ballet and expressed the wish to take up adult ballet but was not sure how to start. For her and everyone else in a similar position I wrote For Emma 28 April 2014.
A few weeks later I had a cup of tea with Frances who was in my over 55 ballet class in Leeds. Frances loved that class as do we all but she thought she would have to give up her ballet because she is going back to Liverpool.
And then there are others in that great metropolis by the Mersey including many of my instructing solicitors and patent attorneys of both genders whom I would just love to see in tights and leotards.
The Atkinson was established in 1875 by a gift of £6,000 from William Atkinson, a wealthy Yorkshire industrialist, to provide an art gallery and library for the town. The building opened in 1878. It is now Southport's home for music, theatre, art, poetry, literature and history. Over the years it has acquired a vast collection of works of art and curiosities that it has had to archive. Following extensive recent renovation it now has space to display its collection of Egyptian artefacts, fine art and archaeological and historical items. That part of the museum will open in October 2014.
At the reception I met The Atkinson's Director. I told her that I was a dance fan and that I had already visited the centre recently to see Ballet Theatre UK and Ballet Black. She replied that she had been told that the theatre had one of the finest surfaces for dance in the country and that the Atkinson hoped to attract more dance companies. I noted that there was no ballet at theOne City One Summer arts festival which had accompanied the International Festival of Business though there had been other types of dance. I had drawn the absence of ballet to the attention of Paul Kelly of MurleyDance and suggested that might be an opportunity for his company to grow a following since Merseyside is a major conurbation with a massive hinterland that extends well into Lancashire, Cheshire, the Marches and North Wales. Mr Kelly did look into it but had found no suitable venues in greater Liverpool. The Director replied that she would welcome any company that wanted to perform in Southport. She gave me her card which I passed on to Paul Chantry and Rae Piper of the Chantry Dance Company when I saw them on Saturday (see "Chantry Dance Summer School" 2 Aug 2014).
Searching The Atkinson's website I see that Ballet Theatre UK will return on the 11 December 2014 with their production of Swan Lakeand that the BalletBoyz will perform on 13 March 2015. The Atkinson will also screen performances of the Bolshoi streamed from Moscow and host the Sereno School of Dance's annual show Dance Matters on 6 Dec 2014.
Having sponsored Liverpool Sound City earlier this year QualitySolicitors Jackson & Canter have already demonstrated their commitment to the performing arts. I understand from Michael Sandys who heads the firm's commercial department that that commitment extends to dance but I must emphasize that there are far more worthy causes in the performing arts than any law firm could possibly support.
After speeches from Michael and the head of wills and probate of his firm and also from the Director of the Atkinson we were led off to tour of the building. We were shown samples of some of the rare Egyptian artefacts and paintings including a gorgeous portrait by Augustus John which will be on display from October. We were also taken around the current Walk on exhibition which actually had some choreography of a kind. There was a film of a a group of soldiers wandering aimlessly round the City of London one Sunday morning carrying firearms. When they met one of their number they formed a file which grew bigger and bigger until a whole platoon marched 8 abreast towards the Thames where they suddenly broke step and dispersed again. I watched it transfixed because there were some lovely shots of the Temple and the Barbican but I could not see how this exercise could be art or made military sense. I couldn't help wondering what one of the theatre companies that lost out on the recent Arts Council funding spree could do with the money but then what do I know about art or the military?
Anyway we all had a good day at The Atkinson especially my foodie friend who took all the delicious cakes and canopies that had been prepared in the centre's bakery off their hands. "It would only be binned if I didn't eat it" she explained. I am sure she will put the food to very good use.
Ballet Black, Triple Bill, The Atkinson, Southport 23 May 2014
I have just returned from Southport where I saw Ballet Black. They danced the works that I saw at the Linbury in February (see "Extra Special - Ballet Black at the Linbury 26 Feb 2014" 27 Feb 2014). It was the same programme but different - and different in a good way for I thought that they danced better than I had ever seen them dance before.
The first ballet was Limbo by Martin Lawrence which he set to a score by Hindemith. As in February the male dancers were Jose Alves and Jacob Wye but Isabela Coracy danced the female role. She interpreted it quite differently from Cira Robinson. Robinson is a remarkably graceful and elegant classical dancer. Coracy is a ball of energy and extremely strong. I have been a Coracy fan ever since I saw her dance Diana and Actaeon withHelenonilson Ferreira on YouTube (see "Ballet Black's New Dancers" 24 Sept 2013). That was the piece that I saw Michaela de Prince dance in Amsterdam ("The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam" 24 Nov 2013). Like de Prince Coracy has enormous potential and it is likely that she and de Prince will be compared throughout their careers.
As readers of this blog may have noticed, I am also something of a Marney fan (see "Christopher Marney" 16 March 2014). He is the next guest of the London Ballet Circle on 2 June 2014. I shall be at the Civil Service Club to hear him speak. I hope I get a chance to shake his hand. Two of a Kind, reminded me why I admire Marney so much. Flowing and soaring with the most remarkable lifts the ballet expressed the ecstasy of love. At least twice in her pas de deux, Robinson was turned literally head over heals. Such a position could have been ungainly for most dancers but Robinson gave it beauty. The choreography brought out the best in all the dancers, Damien Johnson, Kanika Carr and Christopher Renfurm as well as Robinson. I cannot tell whether it was a joy to dance - though I suspect it was - but it was certainly a joy to watch.
Having seen A Dream within Midsummer Night's Dream in FebruaryI concentrated on the detail. For the first time I noticed Carr's virtuosity: a remarkable samba on pointe and some spectacular fouettés. She has a most expressive face that can tell a story with a single glance and that was the quality that I had noticed before. I noticed the humour second time round. Sayaka Ichikawa as Helena beating off the attentions of Demetrius and Lysander (Alves and Wye). Titania (Robinson)'s infatuation with Bottom (Alves). My companion yesterday evening (who is herself an accomplished dancer) said that she enjoyed Arthur Pita's Dream even more than David Nixon's. While I would not go quite that far because Nixon's ballet is special for me I certainly enjoyed Pita's very much indeed.
There were two pleasant surprises yesterday evening. The first was meeting Janet McNulty, one of the most authoritative contributors to BalletCo Forum. She has seen a lot of ballet and knows what she is talking about. I look to her before most critics when I want to know something about a show. The second was meeting Cassa Pancho and bumping into some of the dancers in the foyer. It was great to have an opportunity to tell then just how much we enjoyed the show though I think they must have known that already. The house was not quite as full as it might have been but the applause at the end was sustained and deafening. More than a few of us felt compelled to rise to our feet and that does not happen every day in ballet.
The company will be in Exeter on the 27 and 28 May and then Nottingham on the 2 July. In the Autumn they will be back in Leeds. If you live anywhere near those cities go see the show.
Yesterday evening I saw Ballet Theatre UK ("BTUK") dance The Little Mermaidat The Atkinson in Southport. This was the first time I had seen BTUK and my first visit to The Atkinson and i was impressed with both. I left the theatre on a high (as I always expect to do) eager to see more of both.
BTUK is no ordinary company. It has a punishing schedule. Before coming to Southport it had danced a matinee and evening at Dunstable on the 22 April, an evening show at Tamworth on the 23, a matinee and evening at Keswick on the 24 and an evening at Runcorn on the 26. Today it crosses the Ribble to Blackpool and on 1 May it comes to Rotherham and then on Peterborough on the 2. I counted over 66 different venues throughout the British Isles. This show has quite elaborate scenery and props and sumptuous costumes. Bearing in mind that the dancers must find time for company classes, rehearsing their next production, eating and drinking, some kind of family and social life as well as travelling, I take my hat off to them. An hour's class alone takes it out of me. Admittedly I am a lot older than the dancers and very new to ballet but a couple of hours on stage is still hard work requiring considerable concentration and stamina even for a young man or woman with years of training.
The company is also remarkable in that it has an extensive repertoire choreographed largely by its artistic director Christopher Moore. These include an Aladdin but not David Bintley's, A Christmas Carol but not Christopher Gable's, an Alice in Wornderland but not Christopher Wheeldon's as well as old favourites such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty. I googled Christopher Moore but all I could find was the blurb on BTUK's website stating that he had trained at Tring and had danced professionally all over the world in many different productions. Clearly, the company is ambitious. It has established a school in Hinckley with Daria Klimentova as its patron and, according to its website, its guest tutor. In many ways BTUK reminds me of the London Festival Ballet in the 1960s when I first took an interest in ballet. I think BTUK is going places and I am not just referring to the tour schedule.
Yesterday's performance was lovely. First, it was a good story based closely on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale. In the programme Christopher Moore wrote that on the first day in the studio the company faced two rather large challenges one of which was
"would we use the original ending written by Andersen and used in the book's first edition, or would it be better to have a happier ending similar to the one used by the Walt Disney company in the classic 1989 animated film!"
In the end after much deliberation Moore and the company chose to stick with the original and I think that they were right to do so because it made for a much more interesting story and gave the character of the little mermaid some depth.
Having lost out on one Faustian pact with the sea witch she was offered another. The first agreement allowed her to come on shore with legs but only on condition that she should marry the prince whose life she had saved. The downside was that she would perish if she failed. The terms of the other pact were that she could return to the sea as a mermaid if she killed the prince who had rejected her.
Now that presented the mermaid with an interesting moral dilemma. At least some of the audience would urge her to accept the offer and kill the prince in order to save herself. Some would say that the prince had it coming for his ingratitude to the one who had rescued him. However, she decided to sacrifice her life in order that he might live. As Hans Christian Andersen tells us that mermaids do not believe in an after life, accepting instant annihilation in order to do the right thing is even more of a sacrifice than it would be for a human,
Secondly, the ballet had a very good score. I don't know how much of it was original. I recognized the Geordie ditty about a little fishy when the boat comes in as well as some sea shanties from the last night of the proms and an ear worm that was never off Uncle Mac's Children's Favourites in the 1950s but which I can't for the life of me remember/ However, it all fitted together very well indeed and I found myself humming bits of it to myself on the long drive back from Southport.
I have already mentioned the scenery, props and costumes which was yet another aspect of the ballet that I liked. Comparisons are odious and I have already cut out lots of references to The Winter's Tale but lengths of fabric have far more in common with waves than large land mammals. After being hauled half way round the kingdom and back one would expect the sea backdrop and the wedding dresses to look a bit tired by now but they were still fresh. And they really wowed the audience.
However, it was the dancing that I really loved. Now that there is a very remote possibility that I may perform in public at the end of June I am treating every ballet performance as an extra lesson. In this lesson I learnt a lot about port de bras. That is the most appealing aspect of Moore's choreography. There was drama as the mermaid painfully discovered her legs and was forcibly accustomed to human ways, How she grimaced and struggled in the bath, especially as the soles of her soles were scrubbed. All that added yet another dimensions to the ballet. How do people born without legs get used to them and begin to walk?
The programme came without a cast list and that was my only grip of the evening. I asked a gentlemen in a BTUK tee shirt who was selling programmes where I could get one.
"Oh we never give them out" he replied.
"But I want to review this show for my blog," said I. "Can you tell me who danced tonight?"
"Was the mermaid blonde or brunette?" the programmer enquired.
"Brunette, I think but under the lights with all that makeup ......"
"Oh it must have been Sarah" he said.
I looked at my programme and it did indeed look like Sarah Mortimer: but it was not until I returned home and looked up a post on BalletcoForum by someone I know only as Hfbrew that I could be sure. According to Hfbrew
"Sarah Mortimer as mermaid (the beautiful mermaid on the poster) , Luca Verone as the prince,Jessica Hill as sea witch and Natalie Cawte as princess."
All of them danced well as indeed did the whole cast.
When looking up Sarah Mortimer I noticed that she had trained at Ballet West in Taynuilt near Oban. I know a little bit about the school having seen its pupils and teachers perform "The Nutcracker"and Swan Lake. I have also visited the village in which it is located and rejoiced at its success in the Genée. I was delighted to see that not just Mortimer but also Joseph Mackie-Groves and Charlotte Eades studied at Ballet West. I am delighted that students of that school who are hundreds of miles from Floral Street, Tring, Birmingham, Leeds and even Glasgow are establishing themselves in their careers. I wish them and indeed all the dancers from every other ballet school and company every success.
Finally, I should like to say a word or two about Southport in general and the Atkinson in particular. Southport is a town that I should know better than I do because my father was born there. Apart from two forays to its county court when I was starting out at the Bar and one weekend at a party conference when I was on the committee of the party's lawyers' association I have never had much to do with the town. That is a pity because it has an excellent fish restaurant, the smallest pub in England, a lawnmower museum, an elegant thoroughfare called Lord Street (happily being restored to its Edwardian glory), a dance shop called Centre Stage and a magnificent arts complex all collectively known as "The Atkinson" of which the theatre forms part. The best thing about The Atkinson is that it has pictures and exhibits to admire during the interval as it is an art gallery, museum and library as well as a theatre.
Yesterday the theatre seemed to be packed. There was barely an empty seat in the house. We started at the slightly unusual time of 18:00 which worked out very well. Dining in time for a 19:30 start really is a little too early for most folk and after 22:00 (always supposing restaurants are open at that time) is a little too late. An early start meant that the show finished at a reasonable time for supper. It was not too late for young children - of which there were many - and it allowed me to navigate the somewhat, twisty roads of rural Lancashire in daylight. Maybe other companies and theatres should try an 18:00 start if they can.
PS
The reason why Hfbrew was able to give me accurate casting for last Saturday is that her son dances with the company. She did not identify him and I won't guess but if he was dancing on Saturday he did very well. I wish him and the others in the company all the best. If he cares to read "For Emma" he will see that I was not the only one who was bowled over by Saturday's show.
