Coming Back to Ballet

I've danced all my life including 30 night show at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. But I haven’t done much ballet. 

It wasn't something that many kids of Asian heritage did when I was growing up in Bradford In the 1970s. I did have a friend at school who was taking ballet lessons. She would show me what she had learnt and was not best pleased when I was able to do the exercises somewhat more easily than she could. She gave up in the end and passed some of her ballet things on to me. 

The only other time I had a go was when I kept Jane company at The Base in Huddersfield. I took a few classes on Tuesday evenings which I enjoyed very much until the teacher moved the classes to a local university on Wednesday evenings which clash with other commitments.

Just before Christmas I created a lavender and sweet martini dessert to celebrate Isaac Lee-Baker’s performance as Wilson in The Great Gatsby. Jane wrote an article about it called Food and Ballet which was read by one of the members of her over 55 class at Northern Ballet.

“We ought to get her in here” said Jane’s friend.

“But she’s not 55 yet” replied Jane.

I understand that the teacher said that wouldn't matter if I wanted to try ballet again, so Jane passed the invitation on to me.

I turned up to Annemarie Donoghue’s class at Northern Ballet a few weeks ago and enjoyed it very much. We did all the barre exercises that I had done in Huddersfield - pliés, tendus, glissés, ronds de jambe and battements tendus – and then some exercises in the centre. We did rises, marches and little sautés with our feet in parallel and then first position. Then a lovely port de bras. Finally some travelling exercises in which Annemarie showed us a movement and got us to imitate it.

Annemarie is a very good teacher and she taught a very friendly crowd. Several of the students complimented me on my dancing which made me feel very welcome. After the class I joined the students for a hot drink and a bite to eat at Café 164. Altogether it was a lovely day.

One thing I enjoyed in particular about Northern Ballet's class was that we had a live pianist. Dancing to the piano and feeling that rhythm was great. Piano is another of my passions. I longed to indulge it. After pestering my parents for lessons which they could not stretch to, I used to sit on the fence at the home of the piano teacher and watch others take their lesson through the lead patterned windows in the hope that would help me learn a thing or two. 

Anyway life is for living and its never too late. So I now attend ballet classes and I am heading back to taking a few more piano lesson too this year. 

There were only two problems with the Over 55 class. The first was that it met during the day which is difficult for me as I run a business. Most of the other students seemed to be retired or in jobs that allowed them a lot of flexibility. The other problem was that I don’t yet have any shoes and had to dance in bare feet which was a bit stressful for my poor soles... I wish I could do ballet in soft cushioned trainers but that would be sin I think... I dare say I will get used to that... So I’ve been looking for classes that meet in the evenings and found Ailsa Baker’s at KNT Danceworks in Manchester.

Ailsa is another good teacher and clearly very popular. I counted 50 students in her beginners’ class. She let me dance in socks - much easier than dancing barefoot . She was very friendly but still commanded everybody’s attention. She made us work very hard in the stretching and strength building exercises. There seemed to be a wide range of ability and experience from professionals to newbies. Ailsa was very encouraging. Because the class was large the vibe was magic and very chatty. Like all the other classes we started with barre exercises and stretches and then proceeded to port de bras and jumps. It was great fun.

As Manchester is a bit of a trek from Bradford I am checking out Chris Hinton-Lewis’s Thursday evening class at Northern Ballet. I’ll let you know how I get on.

The Choral

A view of Huddersfield from Castle Hill   Source Wikipedia

For one day a year a week or so before Christmas Huddersfield becomes the centre of the musical world. On that day the Huddersfield Choral Society which is arguably the best choir in Britain if not the world performs Handel's Messiah in Huddersfield Town Hall.

The Choral as we like to call it has a unique sound which is easier to experience than describe. It is something that is felt almost as much as heard. It can be awesome and almost frightening, a rumble like an express train or even an earthquake in the Dies Irae of Verdi's Requiem. Or it can soar majestically in the Hallelujah chorus as it did yesterday. What my late spouse called "a foretaste of Heaven". Words, incidentally, used to describe only one other shared experience during a long marriage, the beauty and tranquillity of Iona. I have heard recordings of the Choral that were made before I was born and that sound was there. I have heard other Messiahs by other great choirs, and, despite the richness of their sound, it was not there.

Although  this Huddersfield sound is a constant each year every Messiah is different because there are different conductors and different soloists. Last night the conductor was Martyn Brabbins and he understands us the subscribers. How we clapped and how we cheered and, at one point, Brabbins conducted our cheers. We, the audience, good solid Yorkshire folk are part of every performance, you know. We could sing it ourselves from memory. Every word. Every note.

In fact we do sing a little because every Messiah begins with the Christmas Hymn, 

"Christians, awake, salute the happy morn
Wherein the Saviour of mankind was born;"

Yesterday we were conducted by the Choral's chorus master Joseph Cullen. And he understands Yorkshire folk too.

We had four wonderful soloists, Susan Gritton, soprano, David Allsopp, countertenor, Ben Johnson, tenor and Neal Davies, bass.  Allsopp brought out qualities of the score that I had never previously noticed. I was particularly moved when he sang the air "He was despised". We had a great organist in Darius Battiwalla. And last but not least the magnificent Royal Northern Sinfonia.

"So what's all this got to do with ballet or even dance?" I hear you say. Well I did reserve the right to go off topic occasionally for an exceptional concert and this was certainly exceptional. And we dance in Huddersfield as well as sing (see "The Base Studios, Huddersfield"). We produced David Bintley of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. I don't know whether he had any connection with the Choral or even attended a concert but you can't live in this part of Yorkshire without knowing about it. The Choral must have been part of Bintley's cultural heritage.

Pineapple

Like me, Debbie Moore comes from Manchester. In 1979 she founded Pineapple Dance Studios which she later floated on the London Stock Exchange. I remember the stir she created when she visited the Stock Exchange in 1982. Last Tuesday evening I visited Pineapple because I had to miss my regular classes at The Base and Northern Ballet Academy.

I took Adam Pudney's beginners/elementary class on the top floor of the building. It was vast.  There are about 15 of us in the over 55 class at Leeds and sometimes as few as 2 at the Base in Huddersfield.   In Pineapple I stopped counting after 30. All very keen and competent young women and men. It was the first time I had ever trained with men and back in Huddersfield today was the second.

This was the most exhilarating class I have ever taken. It was hard work. When I finally struggled down to the changing room my T-shirt and leggings were as wet as they are when they come out of the wash.  It was also demanding.  Even the barre work was difficult. The floor work was largely beyond me.   But Adam is a wonderful teacher with lots of patience and we all learned something. Even I found myself making turns and jumps that I had never managed in Yorkshire.

I can't recommend Pineapple too highly, Now that I spend more time in London I will certainly be back.

Adult Ballet Classes

If they will have me (and it is a very big if) I will join Northern Ballet's over 55 class. Their adult classes start this week and they seem to have something for everyone.   I took my first ballet classes when I was an undergraduate at St Andrews over 40 years ago and I really loved them even though I have no natural aptitude whatsoever.

Last year I took up ballet again at the Base Studios in Huddersfield. Fiona Noonan takes the class.   She is a brilliant teacher with endless patience.   Adult ballet takes place between 20:00 and 21:00 on Tuesdays and costs £5.  For more info and photos of the class see the Base's Facebook class.

Finally, I mentioned Ballet West in Taynuilt and Yorkshire Dance last week.  Here is Ballet West's timetable and here is Yorkshire Dance's.  If anyone knows of any more classes please feel free to add them.

Intellectual Property and Ballet

"How can they stop us taking videos with our phones?" I overheard one member of the audience ask in The Lowry recently? "Well there is the law of trespass for a start" I nearly told her. "You're only allowed into this place on conditions and one of those conditions is that you don't make a thundering nuisance of yourself. Or I could have told her about performers' rights, the right of a performer (which includes a dancer) under s.180 (1) (a) of The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to object to the exploitation (which includes filming and taping) of his performance.

Before I started this blog I used rights in performances as an excuse to indulge my passion for ballet in my intellectual property titles. I reviewed the Northern Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker in "Cracking Nuts - Copyright in Choreography" IP North West, 24 Nov 2011. In it I discussed Massine v De Basil [1936 - 1945] MCC 233.which is quite an important case on non-literal copying and title. I have referred judges to it more than once in software disputes.

Then in "Ballet and Intellectual Property - my Excuse for reviewing 'Beauty and the Beast'" I reviewed Northern Ballet's Beauty and the Beast in my IP Yorkshire blog a few weeks later. I pushed my luck again in "Northern Ballet's Ondine" in the same publication on 11 Sept 2012.  And earlier this year I gave my dance school a plug in "Interesting Yorkshire Businesses No. 1: The Base Studios Huddersfield" on 11 Jan and "Huddersfield Youth Dance Academy Auditions 26 Jan 2013" and 18 Jan 2013.

Now some lawyers and intellectual property owners like ballet. As I said in "From Bar to Barre" 20 March 2013 there are links between those two worlds. It was through looking for a parking space one Saturday afternoon when Floral Street was packed that I discovered Lincoln's Inn Fields and hence Lincoln's Inn. But most do not. And for those who know little about ballet and care even less my reviews were something of a turn off.

"Now then lass" protest my clients. "We've seen thee make a fool of thou's ane attempting pliés and tendus in t'Base but we can only laugh so much. So do us a favour and keep it to tha' self." So I did and hence this publication.

Now as I have probably upset all my balletomane readers by rabbiting on about the law I have inserted this clip from the TV series "Rumpole of the Bailey". It has nowt to do with ballet but it is very funny. I hope you enjoy it.

The Base Studios, Huddersfield

"Huddersfield is not as famous in the world of classical dance as St Petersburg, Paris or London," observes the Birmingham Royal Ballet's website, "but it was the birthplace of David Bintley - one of the most consistent and significant forces in British ballet."   But the birthplace of the Director of one of the world's great ballet companies is not our town's only contribution to dance.

I am not referring to the photograph above which is the town's railway station and not an opera house even though its splendid portico bears more than a passing resemblance to the Bolshoi Theatre but to The Base Studios at 3 New Street where I render my very humble homage to Terpsichore's muse every Tuesday at 20:00 trying the bottomless patience of the adult ballet teacher Fiona Noonan, 

Fortunately, The Base has much better students than me even in the adult ballet class and in its Youth Dance Academy which I mentioned in one of my other blogs ("Huddersfield Youth Dance Academy Auditions 26 Jan 2013" IP Yorkshire 18 Jan 2013), it is nurturing some quite remarkable talent.   

Other activities that may well produce another Bintley include Heavy Arts  the resident youth production company which provides students with the opportunity to work with professional artists to create full-scale youth musical productions. Students for the Heavy Arts programme are taught in three groups:  Juniors (ages 5-8), Intermediates (ages 9-12) and Seniors (ages 13+).  I am told by Matt Slater, the Base's General Manager, that one of the programme's Juniors will be in tonight's première of Northern Ballet's "The Great Gatsby" in Leeds.  This remarkably talented child has already performed recently in two of Nixon's other works.   

Of course, ballet is not the only type of dance to be taught at The Base Studios.   There's a great list of other styles on The Base's Dance Classes page and it is ever expanding.   I can't keep up with it which is why I have invited Matt to become an author of this blog and I am even more delighted to say that he has accepted. So there is at last one contributor to this blog who knows what he is talking about.

Finally, Terpsichore is not the only Muse that Huddersfield honours.  It is also the home of the Choral which claims not without justification to be the UK's leading choral society "producing a unique and thrilling full-bodied ‘Huddersfield Sound’ from over 200 voices."  The University has a great music school which hosts the famous Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival every autumn. There is an excellent art gallery and the Lawrence Batley repertory theatre . 

This Pennine town which is my adopted home is not as large as St. Petersburg, Paris or London but it is no worse a place than any of those metropoles for producing and refining exceptional talent.

Update

9 Mar 2013  The Base Studio's Facebook page with great pictures of Sean, Fun Fridays, the rehearsal studio and my wonderful teacher.