Powerhouse Ballet on a Roll

The Cast of Elysian Moments at ChromaQ Theatre, Leeds 23 Nov 2024

 

Last year was Powerhouse Ballet's best ever.  We danced an extract from La Sylphide at KNT Danceworks' 15th-anniversary gala in July and contributed Emily Joy Smith Elysian Moments to Dance Studio Leeds's Celebration of Dance at ChromaQ Theatre in Leeds in November.  

We have now performed nine times in public, twice at the Manchester Dancehouse, 6 times at ChromaQ and once at York St John University.  We have held workshops on The Waltz of the Flowers with Jane Tucker,  The Fairy Variations with  Beth Meadway, Alex Hallas's Concerto Jenkins and Morning from Grieg's Peer Gynt with Yvonne Charlton,  We have hosted Ballet Cymru's workshops on Dylan Thomas and Giselle.  We have held company classes almost every month since we started including during the lockdown when we welcomed Maria Chugai, Shannon Lilly and Krystal Lowe as guest ballet mistresses.

Our next step is to hold our own show which will probably be a mixed bill or a complete act of one of the romantic ballets we have learned.   We shall probably need to do this in conjunction with one or more partners which could be a dance studio or even another small company.   That will require a lot of planning and corporate reorganization.   Right now the company is a group of friends who enjoy dancing but we shall put it on a more formal basis in the course of the year.   I am exploring the possibility of charitable status for the company and converting Terpsichore into a private limited company.

Up to now, the company has relied entirely on sponsorship.  That source of funding will not dry up but we need to supplement it with a Friends scheme whereby we shall invite the company's members and well-wishers around the country to make a modest annual contribution.  We shall also need to monetize some of our services which will include smartening the appearance of this blog, publishing a regular print version, reviving Stage Door and charging for workshops and some of our other activities.

In the longer term, we shall seek grant funding and commercial sponsorship.  I have already made contact with Arts Council England and the Arts Council of Wales.  While it is impractical to expect funding from that quarter in the medium term it is never too early to prepare the ground.   I have also put out feelers to organizations that already fund the arts to find out what we must do to qualify for their patronage.

Dancers need to train regularly with each other which is why every company in the world holds regular company classes.  However, our membership is spread over an area that stretches from Hull to Holyhead.  It is very difficult for members who have demanding professional and domestic commitments to travel long distances.  When I have tried to hold classes in outlying areas in venues like Bolton or Myndd Isa the response has been disappointing.   Obviously, the solution is to hold regular monthly classes in Leeds and Chester as well as in Manchester but these will have to rely on non-sponsorship funding.  If we get that right there is no reason why Powerhouse Ballet branded activities cannot take place anywhere in the UK or beyond and not just Manchester and Leeds.

Best "Day of Dance" Ever

KNT Danceworks has held three Day of Dance events at the Dancehouse studios.  For a Day of Dance, Karen Sant hires guest teachers from the stage and leading ballet schools. She has brought us Harriet Mills, principal ballerina of the Karlsruhe Ballet, Alex Hallas of Ballet Cymru, Martin Dutton of the Hammond and other great teachers.  I have attended all three of those events.  They have all been good but, last Saturday's was perhaps the best one yet.

Ironically, I very nearly missed the event even though I had been looking forward to it from the day it had been announced.  That was because I could barely walk on Saturday.  My legs were like jelly - or rather melting sorbet - and I was stiff and achy in every single limb and muscle.  I could barely step into the shower.  How on earth was I to achieve ronds de jambe let alone grands battements?  Reluctantly I messaged Karen to say I was unlikely to make it.  Sympathetically she advised me to rest up.

So I abandoned plans to visit Manchester and settled in front of a computer screen to write about trade marks.   But then tweets and Facebook messages about the morning's sessions started to ping.  I thought about what I was missing.  I tried to put the Day of Dance out of my mind but I couldn't.   Even if I did not dance a step I still wanted to be at the Dancehouse.  I quickly donned some leggings and a leotard and set off for Manchester.  There was no way I could arrive in time for the 13:30 class but I could still make the 15:00 one.

I arrived at 13:45 by which time Amanda Van Hoof Gilliland would have been on glissés if not further into the barre.  She subsequently informed me that she would have let me join the class late.  I have done that with teachers I know but I had not previously taken a class with Amanda. In any case, arriving late is discourteous to other students as well as the instructor.  I waited in the cafeteria until the class was due to end before making my way to the studio where it was taking place in order to find my classmates.  I caught the last few minutes and could see it was good. Amanda received resounding applause at the reverence. I shall certainly look out for one of her classes in future.

The class that I did join was excellent.  It was given by Joey Taylor of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.  He taught us the Jack in the Box solo from the first act of Sir Peter Wright's version of The Nutcracker.  That is a production that I know very well.  I had last seen it at the Albert Hall just after Christmas with my former ward and her little boy, Vladimir, who are the nearest I have to a daughter and grandson. In my review, The Nutcracker returns to the Royal Albert Hall 30 Dec 2019,   I wrote:

"Each of the five largest ballet companies of the United Kingdom has a version of The Nutcracker in its repertoire. I have seen all of them at one time or another and the ones that I like best, which are Scottish, Northern's and the Birmingham Royal Ballet's, more than once. If I had to choose one it would be Peter Wright's production for the BRB."

Vlad loves ballet and The Nutcracker in particular.  One of the bits that he liked best was the Jack in the Box solo.  He applauded until the palms of his hard were sore.

It is a very fast piece.  It starts with 4 jumps followed by 4 grands battements then 4 sets back in arabesque, a soutenu, some spectacular tours en l'air,  then some steps to the left which I can't even begin to describe, a gesture to the children at Mr and Mrs Stahlbaum's party, a coupé, two cartwheels, a run around the stage, more jumps and finally a collapse into a box. It is over very quickly but requires a lot of energy and even more skill.  Needless to say, I did not achieve very much of that though I did do some despite the discomfort.  But several members of our group did manage more.  In particular, Christie Louise Barnes, who is a member of the cast of Powerhouse Ballet's Aria, performed some very impressive cartwheels.  I should add that she is one of the most congenial persons I know and working with her on the Aria project has been a pleasure.

One of the reasons why I had crossed the Pennines was to answer questions on the constitution and business plan for Powerhouse Ballet that I had drafted on Friday (see Please do not let Powerhouse Ballet wither on the Vine  20 April 2019 Powerhouse Ballet).  I have been running Powerhouse Ballet in my spare time meeting the odd expense here and there as and when it arrived which was fine for the first few months but not for the long term. Hopefully, we shall have an organization in place to take over the management of the company after 4 May 2019 when we make our debut at KNT's Tenth Anniversary gala.

I met lots of dancers from Powerhouse Ballet as well as the regulars from KNT.  They are the loveliest bunch of people one could ever hope to meet.  Karen once referred to us as "the KNT family." That's not a bad description.  I am so glad I made the effort to attend the Day of Dance on Saturday.

Powerhouse Ballet August Update

Leeds Company Class 28 July 2018

© 2018 Powerhouse Ballet: all rights reserved

Last week's class with Annemarie Donoghue of Northern Ballet was the best class ever in terms of numbers with 21 attendees, and it was also very enjoyable.  But the excitement generated last week has been quite overtaken by events,

On 31 June 2018 I wrote that we had been offered a slot at Move IT in Manchester on 16 or 23 Feb.  I had originally planned to stage the pas de six from Bournonville's Napoli because there seemed to be nothing in the piece that I had not been taught at one time or another by my teachers at Northern Ballet or KNT.  However, Beverley Willsmer, who had actually danced that pas de six, warned me that it was nothing like as easy as it looked.   She advised us to commission our own work if we could.

As a result of her warning, I wrote on Powerhouse Ballet's website:

"I thought of the pas de six from Napoli but Beverley who has danced that work tells me that it is nothing like as easy as I had supposed. I should be very grateful for suggestions from members of the company and indeed anyone else."

I was wondering where on earth I could find a choreographer as I penned that article.

As soon as I had published that article,  the eminent dancer, choreographer and teacher, Terry Etheridge, contacted me through Facebook with an offer to create a ballet for us.   This was an exceptional opportunity and I grasped it with both hands.  Not only has Terry enjoyed an impressive career as one of the first members of the company that is now Northern Ballet, a soloist at Festival Ballet, artistic director of Hong Kong, head of dance at Urdang, principal of Rambert school and guest choreographer for the Royal Swedish Ballet school, he has many years experience of teaching and creating ballets for dancers just like us for he is resident choreographer of Duchy Ballet in Cornwall.

One of the dancers with whom Terry has worked at various times in his career is our ballet mistress, Beverley Willsmer.  She has also danced with Festival Ballet as well as in Germany and she was ballet mistress to Chelsea Ballet which is another amateur ballet company.   I am proud to say that I danced with Beverley in my very first show at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds in 2014.  Until Jonathan Barton advised me last April that one can watch a performance or one can do a performance but not both at the same time (see Visiting Taynuilt 4 May 2018) I used to position myself close to Beverley at the barre in the hope that some of her brilliance would rub off onto me. I am not sure that any did though I certainly learned a lot from her.

Terry will be in  Leeds on 15 and 16 Sept 2018.   He will hold an audition in the form of a class on 15 Sept from which he will select his cast.  He will invite the dancers he chooses back the next day to create the ballet.  I shall take thorough notes and so will Beverley.   We shall film the choreography at the end pf the session. 

Beverley will then invite the cast back for rehearsals starting immediately after each company class beginning with the 22 Sept in Liverpool.   Other rehearsals will take place in Leeds on 27 Oct immediately after Jane Tucker's class, Manchester on 1 Dec immediately after Karen Sant's and Leeds on 26 Jan 2019 immediately after Fiona Noonan's. We might even be able to squeeze in a rehearsal on 28 Nov immediately before or immediately after our workshop with Ballet Cymru.  Yet more rehearsals will be arranged by Beverley as and when necessary.  If you want to be in the show and can commit to the rehearsals here is the link to our Evenbrite page. We have room for only 6 more dancers so if you want to audition don't leave it too late to register.

The show is only one of a number of great events for you.   Don't forget Yvonne Charlton's master class on 22 Sept in Liverpool and Ballet Cymru's workshop. Fiona Noonan, who has CRB clearance, will also teach a class for  younger dancers.  We need to find a Clara (aka "Marie"), her horrible little brother who smashes the nutcracker, his even sillier little chums who disturb the girls with their drums and trumpets while they are playing with their prezzies, mice and some toy soldiers for The Nutcracker which we hope to dance at least in part next year.

A Day Not To Be Missed: KNT's "Day of Dance" in Manchester

When I told colleagues at work a few years ago that I had spent three days of my summer holidays in Manchester they did a double take.  Even more so when I told them that I had spent the time learning Swan Lake and it was one of the best three days ever. I did the same a year later to learn La Bayadère and again the year after that to learn Coppélia.  

That was great fun but this year we regulars at KNT are ready for something different.  Accordingly we are offered "A day of dance with industry professionals at the Dancehouse Theatre Manchester." In other words, wall-to-wall classes on Saturday 18 Aug 2018 from 10:00 in the morning to 17:00 in the afternoon.

Two of the industry professionals have already been announced.  They are Rachael Crocker and Harriet Mills.  Rachael will be teaching advanced jazz, beginner and pre-intermediate ballet and musical theatre and Harriet advanced ballet.  Both have very impressive credentials

Here is Rachael's bio:

"Rachael trained at Northern Ballet School and was a Royal Ballet senior Associate whilst training she qualified and took part in the prestigious Adeleine Genee Awards and also won the IDTA ballet scholarship.
Rachael recently finished performing at the London Coliseum in Kiss Me Kate (choreographed by Will Tuckett) as Dance Captain. Prior to that she was part of a small group recording the soundtrack to the new Mamma Mia movie ‘Here We Go Again”.
Other theatre credits include: ‘Dick Whittington’ at the London Palladium, ‘Strauss’ (National Tour); ‘Kiss Me Kate’ (Welsh National Opera); ‘Cats’ (RUG Australia) as Tantomile understudy Jemima, Demeter and Victoria Graziella in ‘West Side Story’ (National tour); first understudy Meg Giry in ‘The Phantom of the Opera – 25th Anniversary tour’ (National tour); ensemble and first understudy Wendy in ‘Peter Pan’ (Mayflower theatre); ‘We Will Rock You’ (Antwerp Belgium); ensemble and understudied and played Wendy in ‘Peter Pan’ (Grand Canal theatre Dublin); first understudy Cinderella in‘Cinderella’ (Orchard theatre); ensemble and 1st understudy Iris in ‘Fame’ (National tour); ‘We Will Rock You’ (Dominion theatre); swing in the original London cast of ‘Movin’ Out’ (Victoria Apollo); alternate Ice Princess in ‘The Snowman’ (Peacock theatre); swing and first understudy Zsa Zsa in ‘Love Shack’ (National tour); Dance Captain and swing in ‘Grease’ (Victoria Palace, Japan and National tour); ‘Cinderella’ (New Victoria Woking), Rumpleteaser, Demeter, Jemima and Tantomile in ‘Cats’ (Stuttgart Germany); Meg Giry in ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ (Hamburg Germany) and the Spirit in ‘The Spirit of the Dance’ (US tour).
Film and TV credits include: ‘Devils in the Disguise’ for the Discovery Channel, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ directed by Joel Schumacher and ‘Finding Neverland’ directed by Marc Forster.
Radio Credits include: BBC radio production of Smith of Wooten Major.
Rachael has also appeared on the Al Murray Show, took part in the 2008 Olympic handover ceremony and guested for Rock of Ages for their performance at West End Live. She also regularly performs for Incandescence Contemporary Circus Theatre Company and Private Drama Events.
Teaching: Rachael graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance gaining a Distinction for The Professional Dancers Teaching Diploma and teaches at various schools and colleges across London. She taught scholarship classes for the IDTA and RAD along with various workshops in ballet and jazz."

Harriet is a principal with the Karlsruhe State Ballet.  I was lucky enough to attend one of her classes earlier this year (see One of the Best Ballet Experiences Ever  14 Feb 2018).   This is her bio:

"After attending her first vocational school from the age of 11, Harriet Emily Mills left the Hammond School, Chester, to start at the Royal Ballet Upper School in London. She graduated after 3 years with her first job with the Staatballett Karlsruhe and has worked as a professional ballet dancer there for 6 years. Harriet has danced roles such as Odette/Odile in Swanlake, Myrtha Queen of the Willis in Giselle and Katharina in Taming of the Shrew. She has been involved with many creations by choreographers such as Davide Bombanas (Der Prozess), Terence Kohlers (Misia Sert, Das Kleine Schwarze/ the Riot of Spring) and Reginaldo Oliveiras (Edith Frank in Anne Frank). After 6 years of working her way through the company Harriet is now a Principal Dancer."

Space is limited and bookings have to be made and classes paid for in advance.   The email address and phone number for further information appear on the poster above.  The Dancehouse is a short walk from Oxford Road station which is on the Leeds to Liverpool mainline.  There is an NCP multistory car park in Chester Street which is literally round the corner from the Dancehouse.  The car park offers a discount for daytime parking on Saturdays. There is usually plenty of free street parking on Saturday afternoons.  There is a bus stop outside the studios which is served by several routes. The nearest tram stop is at St Peter's Square which is a few minutes walk from the Dancehouse.

Powerhouse Ballet's Training Programme

Following the success of its first class in Huddersfield on 26 May 2018 (see We have a company 27 May 2018) Powerhouse Ballet plans to hold classes on 30 June in Manchester, 28 July in Leeds, the 22 Sept in Liverpool and 27 Oct 2018 either in Huddersfield or Sheffield.

We have a very strong team of teachers from KNT Danceworks, the Northern Ballet Academy and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

For the future we plan a residential courses in a pleasant part of the country with distinguished guest teachers where we can concentrate on technique and repertoire and occasional workshops with visiting companies. I have already approached the artistic director of one company with such a suggestion,

As ballet is an art we shall offer training for the mind and soul as well as the body.  We shall therefore take a leaf out of the London Ballet Circle's book by inviting distinguished choreographers, dancers, teachers, critics and others who are either based in or visiting the North to give a talk to our members and other dance enthusiasts over a glass of wine.  These will be open to the general public as well as dancers. I hope that the first talk will be in September and that our guest will be a very big name indeed.

I hope we shall be able to host occasional outings to the Lowry, Alhambra and other theatres in the region and in time maybe even to Covent Garden, the Paris Opera or Stopera or to see our favourite dancers and maybe even meet some of the great names from whom we can derive inspiration.

However, one step at a time.  And we will take our next step with Mark Hindle who is an  excellent teacher in Studio 3 of the Manchester Dancehouse at 10a Oxford Road on Saturday 30 June at 13:30. The Dancehouse could not be easier to reach as it has an NCP multistory car park next door and is just a few hundred yards from  Oxford Road station which is on the Leeds to Liverpool mainline. Several bus routes run down Oxford Road and it is a short walk from the nearest tram stop.

I shall pay for Mark and the studio hire so the class is free to you but you must register in advance as we are limited to 25 dancers.  I know it's summer but please register and turn up.   None of the good things that I have suggested will be possible without good turnout in both senses of the word.

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The Importance of Performance

I posted those words to Facebook just before we appeared on stage to give readers who have never danced in public some idea of the thrill of doing so.   Possibly the  anticipation of the performance is even more delicious that the performance itself.  It is during those moments that the adrenaline begins to flow and a thousand thoughts slip in and out of the brain.   We danced our piece.  I don't think there were too many disasters. At least nobody shouted at us to get off or booed.  We detected no flying tomatoes or rotten eggs. Or if any were thrown the aim of the person throwing such missile would have been worse than our dancing. We even got a clap at the end.

I didn't see any of the show because we were the third act of the second part but I did see the dress rehearsal and was very impressed.  Particularly good this year were the repertoire class which presented their own original ballet entitled Pirates of the Caribbean choreographed by their instructor, Josh Moss.  I do not yet have a clip of yesterday's performance of Pirates but here in a video of their entry into the kingdom of the shades in October 2016 which I reviewed in Pride.   This film shows how good they are:


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That performance is all the more impressive when you consider that all the dancers have busy lives and  meet only for a few minutes on Wednesday evenings.  As usual, the Chinese dancers delighted me and the advanced ballet, intermediate and pointe classes thrilled me.

My Facebook post elicited a whole tas de merde, a "chookas" and several invitations to "break a leg" but also the following comment: "Sadly, I don't get to do an annual show, despite attending two schools."  The student who posted that response was right to be sad because performance is so important to ballet education.  As I said in my review of Hype Dance's Annual Show:

"Performances are important to dance education because ballet and kindred styles of dance developed in the theatre and are intended for an audience. The experience of appearing before a living, breathing (and paying) audience is delicious. I well remember the charge of excitement I felt in my first show which I tried to describe in The Time of My Life 28 June 2014. Every dance student from toddler to pensioner can and should feel that charge no matter how inexperienced or incompetent he or she may be. Most get that opportunity because almost every dance school worth its salt offers its students a chance to take part in its annual show. Training and rehearsing for that show is what distinguishes dance classes from dreary keep fit."

A flippant answer might be "Go find yourself another ballet school", but that would not be very helpful. I happen to know that one of the schools to which the dancer refers is rated as one the best in the country - at least for highly talented young students with the ambition and ability to make a career in dance.  Also, that school is not the only fine ballet school not to offer its adult dance students a chance to perform on stage.   Northern Ballet Academy did the same a couple of years ago which is why I spend at least one evening a week in Manchester even though there are outstanding teachers in Leeds and the Academy's timetabling is much more convenient

In Essex, Cornwall and other parts of the country, an opportunity to perform in public is offered by local amateur ballet companies.  I think we need something like that in the North,  That is why I hope we can launch Powerhouse Ballet.  However, everything depends on whether we can get a reasonable turnout (in both senses of the word) at Jane Tucker's class in Huddersfield on Saturday.

If you want to come but have not already registered, now is your chance.  This will be great class:

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KNT's One Day Workshop on La Bayadère

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We spent the first sunny day of the year cooped up in a dance studio in Manchester. How sad is that?  Well not at all really because we had a whale of a time. For the first time, we beginners and pre-intermediate students had an opportunity to dance with the advanced class and the experience lifted us all.  Even me!  For that reason alone it was the best KNT intensive at the Northern Ballet School's studios that I have ever attended, though, I must emphasize, all the other ones have also been good.

We had two excellent teachers:  Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy and Martin Dutton of the Hammond.  Martin took our class and Jane the more advanced students. We had several joint sessions.  A warm up with Martin at the beginning of the day. Both teachers taught us the entry into the kingdom of the Shades towards the end.   We concluded the intensive with a joint performance at which each class danced its pieces before the other and we came together for the entry into the kingdom of the Shades at the very end. 

After a warm-up which started on the floor and ended with a brisk run round the studio, Martin led us into class. We did the usual barre exercises - pliés, tendus, glissés, ronds de jambe, grands battements et cetera - then a delightful port de bras, pirouettes dehors and dedans and some of the jumps that we needed to master for Solor's solo.   We had one chap in our midst - Peter from North Wales  - and Martin drilled him (and us) in tours en l'air.  Sally used to make me do these when I was a student at St Andrews and I still remember them up to a point (see Ballet at University 27 Feb 2017).  We finished off with some jumps.  Throughout the class Martin emphasized the importance of performance.  "You look like your attending a maths class not a dance class", he said. "Dance is supposed to be fun," "So is maths" I protested sottissimo voce which was somehow picked up by the class.  Very naughty to break a cardinal rule of class etiquette that I had learned nearly 50 years ago at St Andrews but that was a provocation I could not ignore

The warn-up and class took us up to lunch time so Martin broke for lunch at 12:20.  I nipped out for some sushi and berries from Tesco across Oxford Road. While over there I noticed that the old National Computer Centre will become an incubator sometime this Spring.  There is a canteen at Northern Ballet School which opens to the public only for shows at the Dancehouse theatre. However, it has tables, chairs and a vending machine and we usually meet to eat our sandwiches there.  Many of the beginners and pre-intermediate class were regulars at Karen Sant's Tuesday class but there were three of us from Jane's Wednesday night class in Leeds and Peter from North Wales.

After lunch Martin gave us a quick warm up and then led us into the repertoire.  Before playing the music he taught us the steps as he would in class.  One of our pieces included a cabriole which he broke down into its components.  Only after he was satisfied that we were as good as we were ever going be he taught us the whole solo. For the performance, however, he divided the class into sections and allocated each of us part of the choreography.   We were able to concentrate on our part and while we were a long way from perfect we were also far from a rabble.

The second piece he showed us was from Solor's solo while he was stoned on opium.  "Heavy man" as my roommate at UCLA used to say. There were lots of jumps and turns which were great fun but we had insufficient time to polish them into a performance.

We did, however, learn the whole of the entry into the kingdom of the shades with all those arabesques and tendus as we descended the notional ramp followed by the  bourrés, the descent to one knee which I daren't risk as I might never get up again and some awkward soutenus.  Martin led us through that piece in our studio.  Then Jane invited us into hers to join her students.  She had taught her class a slightly different choreography and the two teachers drilled us together until they were satisfied that we were doing the same thing.  The advanced class danced Nikiya's solo and the second shade's solo delightfully to warm applause from us. We danced our solo to probably over generous applause from them. It was good to have an audience which included my good friend Yoshie, Karen and Mark Hindle as well as the advanced class members.

The day passed far too quickly.  However, we have a show to which we can look forward on 19 May 2018 and, of course, the launch of Powerhouse Ballet with Jane Tucker in Huddersfield on 26 May.

KNT Coppelia Intensive

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I had a splendid day at the Dancehouse yesterday dancing in Jane Tucker's Coppelia Intensive with my classmates from KNT and Northern Ballet Academy plus two new friends from Birmingham and Harrogate with whom I have much in common.  As readers of this blog know, I have attended Jane's intensives on Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère and The Nutcracker and have enjoyed them all but this was by far the best.

There were several reasons for that.  The first is that I know Coppelia very well and love the story. Unlike most other 19th century libretti, this story is years ahead of its time. It addresses issues of artificial intelligence and robotics which are now very much in the news with Elon Musk's call to ban killer robots (see Elon Musk leads 116 experts calling for outright ban of killer robots 20 Aug 2017 The Guardian). Secondly, I have seen some lovely productions of the ballet in the last few months at all levels from Manchester City Ballet's in The Dancehouse last December to Ted Brandsen's triumph in Amsterdam. Thirdly, I was dancing with people I know and like under the guidance of one of my favourite teachers.  I felt just so lucky and privileged.  Small wonder I wore the widest of wide grins for most of the day.

Jane's classes are never easy and the second day of the intensives are particularly hard because that is the day for consolidation and learning.  It began with floor exercises on our towels and Pilates mats.  We followed with a full 90-minute class which is very similar to the ones we do in Leeds.  I think everyone in Northern Ballet Academy and a lot of the regulars at the Dancehouse is used to Jane's warm up, particularly the abrupt turn on a sixpence half way through the run but she still manages to catch the odd punter out. It was a fun class with a brisk barre, lovely adagio, lots of chaînés and even some temps levés at the end,

After a 15 minute break which I regret to say I spent on the blower when I should have been stretching or at least relaxing we were into our first bit of repertoire.  That turned out to be Zwaantje's (or in most productions Swanhilde) dance after she and her ladette pals break into Dr Coppelius's den, discover that Coppelia is nothing more than a robot and Zwaantje swaps clothes with the android. As Jane had taught the dance to the others the day before she offered to coach me. However, on the first run through I found that I could keep up. Images of Celine Gittens and Anna Ol flooded back.

The next dance, Frans's (or Franz's) solo was much more difficult for me as it requires two tours en l'air from a standing start, a fouetté and more than a few grands jetés en tournant.  I had a go at one or two of these but they quite zonked me out and I had to sit out the last exercise.  Happily, we had two Franses - David and Sam from KNT - and they both did very well. At least in my eyes.

Finally, we rehearsed the village scene from Act I. Jane had also taught that dance to others the day before.  Again I was more or less able to pick it up though I made tons of mistakes. From time to time I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror and I was grinning like the Cheshire cat.  I have had a lot on my plate lately and this day off for ballet was just so liberating.

The class continues today. I wish I could have joined it.  It will end with a show before Karen which I am sure she will applaud heartily.  Jane Tucker runs these courses during the Autumn half term, Easter vacation and the summer.  If you have never attended them, do yourselves a favour and sign up. It wasn't just I who had had a whale of a time yesterday.

Show

Move it!13 May 2016

Author Gita Mistry

© 2017 Gita Mistry: all rights reserved

We attracted quite a good crowd to The Dancehouse for Move It! yesterday despite competition from the Eurovision Song Contest, Ballet Central's mixed programme in Whitehaven, Birmingham Royal Ballet's triple bill in York and the Royal Baller's Mayerling and Nothern Ballet's Casanova in London. That is not because we are such talented dancers -though several of our number are very good - but because it is fun to be there. It is more like a party than a performance both for the performers and for the audience.

I took part in KNT's pre-intermediate class show. "Sounds intriguing," said Tracy our compere at the dress rehearsal, "what's that?" Our teacher, Karen Sant, shouted that it was for students who were no longer beginners but not quite up to intermediate level. As it is a bit of a mouthful I prefer to call it the Tuesday night class which I have been attending off and on for the last two and a half years. You can see us in the picture that Gita took last night. I'm in the back row second from the left.

Karen had choreographed a piece for us that lay just within my capabilities based on the exercises that we do in class with lots of balancés and glissades and one spectacular lift by two of the gents in our group. We also had to run around the stage in clockwise and anticlockwise circles, a run into the centre and a run back and a reverence in which we bowed rather than curtsied. Unlike the previous years, all classes reappeared at the end for a final curtain call.

Yesterday was not the first time that I had danced in front of a paying audience so I knew what to expect. It did not mean that we were (or at any rate I was) any less nervous as we crept onto the stage in blackout  or any less exhilarated once the lights came on but I knew that I would not freeze like a rabbit in a car's headlights and that I was likely to enjoy the experience.

For once in my life, my hair was arranged in a proper ballet bun (merci a Gita who had arranged it in a heart shape just like one of her edible buns). Not even my hairdresser had been able to accomplish that.

Karen has asked us to assemble in the Dancehouse café at 15:45.  Gita had guessed as I panicked in the traffic looking for a way to the Chester Street car park that Karen probably meant 16:00 but knew better than to disclose the actual timetable to a band of adult ballet students. Olivier, our chef de quelquechose on whom I occasionally practise my French, confirmed that that was indeed the case.

At or about the appointed time we were led into the auditorium. Tracy emerged from behind the curtain and greeted us cheerily. We gave her a sort of half muffled grunt in reply. "You'll have to better than that, dancers", she told us. "If you expect to receive the love you've got to share it."  She read through the running order and called on the first act which was Josh Moss's repertoire class. A recording of harp strings and then Minkus's gorgeous music from La Bayadere as Katie Daly led her shades into their kingdom. Tendus and arms in 5th look simple enough but I had tried to learn that dance from Jane Tucker last year and knew that it was anything but - particularly when it comes to the bourrées with arms in arabesque towards the end.

All the other classes filed on and were warmly applauded by the crowd. I can't quite remember the order in which they came but they included the usual jazz and contemporary classes plus the belly dancers whose rhythmic music to a compelling Arabic air is clapped on by the audience and the lovely Chinese dancers in their flowing sparkly robes. "I can see you sparkling away," said Tracy from the stage, and they really do. The show rounded off with the adult ballet class in which my friend Yoshie Kimura performs. Now those students really are good. This year they recruited a young man who knows his onions when it comes to jumps. His assemblés and entrechats were a joy to behold.

After rehearsal, we were led back to our studios where we practised our steps, ate our sarnies, shared our jokes, caught up with our mates on Whatsapp and Facebook and generally chilled out. I spotted a member of the advanced class performing barre exercises. As we always have a class before a show in Leeds I decided to join her for a few pliés, tendus, glissés and ronds de jambe and am very glad I did because I would have been even more wooden otherwise. This is one thing that Manchester could learn from Leeds.

Before we knew it, it was our turn to come on. There had been some lively street dancers immediately before us and we knew they would be a hard act to follow. We entered the stage and all seemed to go well. The lift was perfect and received some cheers. We finished our routine and bowed to what seemed very generous applause.

There is always a flood of emotions after a show. On the one hand, relief that it went without too many disasters but, on the other, sadness that it is all over. That made me think of the cast of Casanova at Sadler's Wells whose two-month tour of the nation also ended last night. They must be going through the same emotions one hundred fold.

We all repaired for the bar. Hugged and congratulated each other, our friends and relations and theirs and then melted into that good Manchester night. More classes next week. More camaraderie. More pain and stiffness afterwards. More fun.

The Rehearsal

Ballet is intended for the theatre. No matter how untalented a student you may be, unless you dance before the paying public in a theatre you miss something important. The occasions that I have danced in the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre (see The Time of My Life 28 June 2014 and My Second Ballet  5 July 2015), The Dancehouse (see One of my proudest moments - Dancing in Move It! 31 Jan 2016) and Morley Town Hall (see Growing Old Disgracefully in Morley 28 Sept 2015) have truly been high points of my life and, lest the cynical suggest that I ought to get out more, I have been blessed, through my career, marriage and education, with a very full, happy, challenging and fulfilling life.

This week I am preparing for Move It at the Dancehouse in Manchester on 13 May at 19:00. I know it clashes with the Eurovision song contest but, believe me, our show will be so much better (see  Better than Eurovision 24 May 2015). If anybody thinks that in this first contest after Brexit any jury in Europe will give the British entry any points at all, irrespective of its artistic quality. must already reside n Cloud Cuckoo Land. Unless you happen to have a ticket for Ballet Central's how in Whitehaven (see Triumphant  1 May 2017), the Birmingham Royal Ballet in York or Poole (see Doing the Splits 8 May 2017), Northern Ballet's Casanova at the Wells (see Casanova Second Time Round 7 May 2017) or the Royal Ballet's Mayerling 13 May 2017) you won't find better entertainment this Saturday.

Yesterday was the day of our technical rehearsal. I had a very busy week with and yesterday was particularly hectic with my IP clinic in Barnsley (see How can I protect my Business Idea? 7  May 2017), proofs to correct, my draft decision in a domain name dispute to review on top of the usual pressing paperwork. I also had to make a detour to Planet Dance at Batley to pick up the mesh dress that I shall be wearing for Saturday's show.

Traffic was very heavy in Princes Street last night delaying my tram for over 20 minutes as a result of which I arrived at class between pliés and tendus. Nevertheless, we had a good class with the usual barre and centre exercises.  At the end of the class, Karen. our teacher and choreographer led us to the theatre, We had only a 15-minute slot on stage so we had one run through from the top. I won't even hint at what it is but Karen has included something quite spectacular in our piece.  At the suggestion of the stage manager, we also practised entering the stage and finding our place in darkness. As we were somewhat less than perfect Karen brought us back to the studio for some further work in the studio. We staggered onto Oxford Road well after 21:00 and I finally rolled up at my Pennine fastness tired but happy just before Radio 4's Book at Bedtime.

KNT's Le Corsaire Workshop and Evening Class Show

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I have been coming to KNT Danceworks's evening classes at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester ever since the 28 Aug 2014 (see So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class 29 Aug 2014). I am very glad to have found KNT as it is now very much a home from home. I have met some delightful people there, both teachers and students, and learned a lot over the last three years.

In addition to regular classes in most types of dance on almost every day of the week, KNT holds special events that I particularly enjoy. These are repertoire intensives with Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet and shows for the evening class students in the auditorium of The Dancehouse.

The latest intensive was Le Corsaire which I mentioned in Le Corsaire Intensive on 2 April 2017. It took place on 15 April 2017. I was unable to attend the workshop but I did see most of the end of workshop show which impressed me greatly.  The above video is just one clip from it. I think you will agree that everyone in the film danced well. Their performance is particularly impressive when one considers that they had only one day to learn the choreography.

The next show will take place on 13 May and I will take part in it. I will appear in the Pre-Intermediate Class performance which will be one of several contributions in many dance styles ranging from African to tap. Our instructor, Karen Sant, has created a lovely piece for us. Students in other classes will present shows too. The Chinese dance is a particular favourite of mine. There is a wonderful atmosphere in the theatre both in the auditorium and behind the scenes on show night. We have a splendid compère who is herself a dancer. To get a flavour of the evening, see Pride of 23 Oct 2016 which also contain links to reviews of other performances.

If any of my readers happens to be in Manchester on 13 May with nothing better to do that day, it would be great to see you. The show has yet to be advertised but it usually starts at 19:00 and costs about £5, The Dancehouse is almost next door to Oxford Road station and a few hundred yards from St Peter's Square Metrolink tram stop. There is a multi-storey car park in the same block as The Dancehouse in Chester Street and there is usually plenty of unrestricted street parking in the vicinity after 18:30.

"And what a class we had."

 Although I had blogged about Martin Dutton's class at KNT Danceworks this evening, I thought I knew better than actually to attend it. I wrote on Facebook:

"If I were young enough, good enough and strong enough I would be first in the queue for this class. I hope all those who can attend it enjoy it."

 I drew the class to the attention of Wendy McDermott who had taken part in Jane Tucker's intensive workshops on La Bayadere and The Nutcracker and who contributed an article on Hannah Bateman's Ballet Retreat  (see Ballet Retreat Revisited - Wendy McDermott's Experience 22 Jan 2017). She is preparing for her RAD grade 7 exams and she really is "young enough, good enough and strong enough" to benefit from a class with Martin yet she, like me, wondered whether she could keep up. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we dared each other to come and I found myself on the train to Manchester asking myself whether or not I had been just a little bit too rash.

@jelterps @DanceWithKNT And what a great class we had. Needed the reminder of how important the tendu and demi plié. Where's my notebook!

— Wendy McDermott (@WendyMcDermott3) February 21, 2017

Well, you see the result. It was a great class from the moment Martin introduced himself to the final curtsey.   He has a great eye for detail and he took us back to first principles from the way we held our arms in second making sure that we could just about see our fingers in our peripheral vision to the way we should carry our whole bodies while executing a balancé. He stressed the importance of the plié and tendu as the building blocks for just about everything else.

Wendy mentions her notebook in her tweet.  For a long time, I used to carry one too. It was a tip I picked up from Dave Wilson (see The Dance Journal – what is it and why should I have one? 14 Dec 2014 Dave Tries Ballet). It was a real treasure trove of tips and tricks and anecdotes that I had picked up from teachers from literally across the world from Annemarie in Leeds to Adam in London. Then I carelessly left my ballet bag with shoes, tights, leotards and notebook on a tram on the way to the Dancehouse while temporarily distracted by line closures in central Manchester. I was able to replace the leotards, tights and shoes easily enough from Mr Frog in Huddersfield and Planet Dance in Batley but I got out of the habit of keeping a journal after class because I never thought I would ever replace all that lost wisdom. My dancing has definitely suffered as a result.

But you know what. Wendy has prompted me to start again. I shall buy another notebook today on the way to Jane Tucker's class in Leeds and I shall write it up on the train back to Huddersfield because I always learn a lot from her. Three particularly important tips from Martin that are going down straight away are a balancing exercise, a coordination exercise and the importance of smiling. "You are all passionate about dance", he exhorted. "That's why you are here, Then show it in your faces." And so we tried.

Martin's class was hard work but also fun.  We did pliés, tendus, glissés, ronds de jambe, frappés and grands battements and stretches on the barre, then an enchainement using everything that we had learned at the barre plus pirouettes dehors and dedans, some balancés and jumps finishing off with temps levés, glissades and assemblés. At the end of the class, he commended us on how hard we had worked. "Harder than some of my usual students he added." When I thanked him for the class he asked rhetorically whether we would have him back again. "As far as I'm concerned," I replied, "anytime you want."

Dutton at the Dancehouse

The Dancehouse

Author Pit-Yacker
Source Wikipedia
Creative Commons Licence

Tomorrow at 18:30 Martin Dutton will give a special class to students of advanced and pre-intermediate Level students at the Dancehouse Theatre on Oxford Road in Manchester.  The pre-intermediate starts at 18:30 and ends at 19:55.  The advanced class starts at 20:00 and ends at 21:15. The fee for both classes will be £10.  As Karen Sant, KNT's principal says:, "it will be amazing."

Dutton must have excelled in music as well as dance for he entered Chethams and became head chorister of Manchester Cathedral.  He trained at Central School of Ballet where "Christopher Marney, Hannah Bateman, Kenneth Tindall, Rachael Gillespie, Dominic North, Sarah Kundi, Paul Chantry and many more of my favourite dancers and choreographers trained" (see Ballet Central returns to Leeds 1 Feb 2017).

He began his career in the corps of Northern Ballet Theatre (now Northern Ballet) and danced for a while with Peter Schaufuss Balletten.  Readers will remember that Schaufuss created the production of La Sylphide that the Queensland Ballet brought to London in 2015 (see A dream realized: the Queensland Ballet in London 12 Aug 2015). This should be our national ballet because it is set in the Scottish highlands but try to getting a British company to dance it - even one that is actually based in the Scottish highlands (see Taynuilt - where better to create ballet 31 Aug 2013). I digress. The point is that Dutton must have impeccable credentials with exposure to the Danish tradition as well as the English and Russian ones.

For the last 10 years or so Dutton has taught at some of our most prestigious ballet schools including Northern Ballet School (see New Dance Teacher Martin Dutton Nov 2012), Ballet Theatre UK and the Hammond School.  It is not every day that adult dance students get a chance to learn from a teacher with this kind of experience and reputation. Even if you live some distance from Manchester this class will be well worth the journey.

Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia

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Manchester City Ballet, Coppelia, The Dancehouse, 9 Dec 2016, 19:30, 10 Dec 2016

In Of Bikes and Buses 25 Oct 2016, I mentioned a short debate on Radio 4 between the newspaper critic, Luke Jennings, and David Nixon of Northern Ballet on "making ballet relevant to today." If relevance is your pigeon, you can't go far wrong with Coppelia. You don't need to change the story, commission a new score or give your dancers sticks to carry in their mouths. Coppelia has everything. Artificial intelligence. Societal dysfunction with juvenile delinquents roughing up a pensioner on his way to the pub and ladettes breaking into his workshop and trashing his handiwork. The ballet even anticipated the Turing test.

I like the ballet for many reasons none of which have anything to do with the music or choreography. It is about ordinary human beings in a rural village in deepest Mitteleuropa. Dr Coppelius is an inventor. Indeed, he reminds me of so many of my clients. After annoying his fiancee to such an extent that she nearly breaks off the engagement Franz plans a clandestine visit to the girl on Coppelius's balcony at the dead of night by ladder. Much like the defendant in R v Collins.

Manchester City Ballet, Northern Ballet School's performance company, has been dancing Coppelia at the Dancehouse Theatre since 8 Dec 2016. I had booked tickets for last night but I was delayed by congestion in Manchester city centre and missed the whole of the first act.  As I could not fairly review a ballet after seeing just two-thirds of the show I returned this afternoon to see the whole performance. It was very, very good.

Seeing the show one and a half times enabled me to see the four lead dancers in different roles.  Marin Shimizu danced Swanhilda last night and Dawn this afternoon.  Nika Lipolt was Dawn yesterday and Swanhilda this afternoon. Miguel Angelo danced Franz yesterday and Ted Beattie this afternoon.  Those four danced their roles differently but equally well.   Beattie and Lipolt are taller than Angelo and Shimizu and commanded the stage particularly well but Shimizu has dazzling technique particularly in the poses of her solo in the final pas de deux and she is an accomplished actor.  Everyone in the cast danced well but I must give a special commendation to Callum Green who was a great Coppelius.

The show was produced by the School's principal, Patricia McDonald, who was assisted by choreographers, Anton Alexandrov and Lisa Rowland and Ballet Master, Matthew Paluch. Polly Ward and the school wardrobe department produced the costumes. I don't know who designed the scenery but he or she did a good job.

If I can get up in time to catch the 04:48 from Huddersfield to Manchester airport I should see a very different Coppelius  by Ted Brandsen in Amsterdam.  I will tweet about that during the day and will review it properly when I get back to Britain.

Pride

A Pride of Lions

Author Benh Lieu Song
Source Wikipedia
Creative commons licence

The Dancehouse evening class students. Move It!, 22 Oct 2016 The Dancehouse, 19:00

I had promised a good show in Want to see a good show in Manchester this Saturday? 19 Oct 2016 but I never imagined in a million years that a member of my family would help to deliver it. But that is exactly what happened when Danny Henry of Rhythms 2 Dance invited members of the audience to join him on stage and my niece, Shola, responded. She mounted the stage to a massive cheer and picked up the steps and rhythm as though she had rehearsed it for ages. I must be one of the proudest people on the planet. Proud of my teachers and fellow students at KNT and the other dance classes at the Dancehouse, of course, but also proud of Shola.

As in the previous Move It! shows (see Better than Eurovision 24 May 2015 and One of my proudest moments - Dancing in Move It! 31 Jan 2016) the entertainment was provided by the students who attend evening and weekend dance classes at the Dancehouse theatre in Manchester. As I have said several times before, I am one of those students and I would have put myself forward for the show if I could have attended rehearsals. The show that we saw last night was to have been performed on 18 June 2016 but had to be postponed because of emergency repairs to the ceiling of the auditorium (see It could easily have gone pear-shaped ............ 19 June 2016).

Again as in previous shows the evening was compered by Tracey Gibbs of a Taste of Cairo. I have seen Tracey dance and know that she is a fine dancer but I imagine that she is also an excellent teacher for she is a great master of ceremonies. She has the audience eating out of the palm of her hand with her warmth and jokes and general good humour. "You're all here because you know someone in the show, right?" she asked. A mutter of ascent. "A son or daughter, husband, wife, brother or sister?" Applause. Tracey reminded the audience that the dancers give up their evenings and weekends to attend class and that for some of them it would be their first time on stage. She rehearsed us in whooping and clapping for them.

The show commenced with Josh Moss's Wednesday evening repertoire class dancing the Snowflakes Waltz from The Nutcracker. You know. The bit with the female voices singing "La, la, la, la, la". Here's a YouTube video of The Royal Ballet doing it to get the general idea. It was performed beautifully by my friends. Maybe not quite as polished as Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Clara, Ricardo Cervera and the artists of the Royal Ballet in the clip but when all things are considered they did pretty well. The crowd loved them and they gave the evening a flying start.

The lighting changed, A blast of what sounded to me like a didgeridoo. Ring of Fire from the contemporary class performed with energy and expression. I cannot quite remember whether they were Ailsa Baker's students or Carlotta Tocci's but whoever taught them is to be congratulated.

More congratulations to Karen Sant and the pointe class for what must have been a gruelling few minutes. Plenty of  échappés sur les pointes. I know from personal experience that it is bad enough doing that exercise on demi-pointe while facing the barre. It must be murder going all the way in pointe shoes while finding and maintaining one's balance at the same time. There are some seriously talented young women in that class.

Danny appeared next in the Brazilian football team's colours dancing a duet to what I believe to be samba but as I am unfamiliar with the genre I am probably miles off the mark. He and his partner were joined in the next dance by another two dancing to an infectious rhythm.

More ballet next and I recognized members of my Tuesday class including Simon Garner, one of the few gents in our group. They danced well and deserved a standing ovation so I gave them one.

At this point I ran out of paper for note taking so I have probably missed some of the performers for which I apologize. I remember Paint it Black performed with the same energy as Rambert do in Rooster albeit to somewhat different choreography. I also remember more of my ballet class members dancing Shostakovich's Waltz Number 2 well and prompting me to rise to my feet again but I can't for the life of me remember their place in the programme.

We had a short interval after which Tracey introduced the artists for the second half.

One of the highlights of my evening was the entry into the kingdom of the shades from La Bayadere by Josh's repertoire class. I don't know why but that dance always moves me. As I said in La Bayadere Intensive Day 3: No Snakes 17 Aug 2016 I have had a bash at dancing that piece. It looks easy enough - a tendu with arms in 5th inclining slightly towards the audience and then an arabesque but, believe me, it isn't. Watching the dancers emerge in height order is mesmeric. Being one of those dancers requires enormous concentration. Led across the stage by Yoshie Kimura, they were all impressive.

After the show, I spotted Jane Tucker, the inspiring teacher from Northern Ballet Academy who taught me the shades' entry in Manchester as well as so much more about ballet in  her Wednesday evening classes in Leeds over the last year or so. She will be teaching us repertoire from The Nutcracker next Saturday (see A Unique Opportunity to learn a Bit of The Nutcracker 12 Oct 2016) and I made an educated guess that we would be learning the snowflakes' waltz. She assured me that she had not yet decided what to teach us in that intensive. All I know is that it will be fun.

After La Bayadere there was some great tap dancing with the performers in sailor suits. Memories of Gene Kelly and On the Town. 

Then the gorgeous Peacock Dance from Susie Lu's Chinse dancers in their beautiful costumes. "Ooh" whispered Shola. "I'd love to wear one of those dresses, wouldn't you?"

Next, Danny appeared in a West African shirt to an infectious drum beat. The audience started clapping in time. Danny invited folk to join him on stage and a few responded.  "I want to join them" said Shola. She is my goddaughter as well as my niece and I have known her nearly all her life but I never knew that she could dance. Not only can she dance but she can also hold an audience. "Where did she get this from?" I asked myself. When she was a little girl my late spouse and I had taken her to see The Nutcracker by English National Ballet. As she seemed to like that we took her and her little cousin to see the Royal Ballet's Cinderella at Covent Garden. I remember her doing Fiona Noonan's ballercise class on her last visit to Holmfirth a few years ago. After the performance Danny invited her tp take his class. "If only," she replied, "but I am only here for the weekend and I live in London." Right now I am scouring the internet for classes like Danny's in the capital. "We are all good at something," I told her on the drive home, "and you seem to be good at dancing. Talent like your's needs developing."

The evening concluded with Saint-Saens Danse Macabre danced magnificently by the advanced class. They were the piece de resistance, the frosting on the cake, the bees' knees - any epithet for quality you care to dream up. Dressed in maroon they executed complicated and some very difficult steps with precision and poise. Yet another performance that hoisted me to my feet.

When Gita reviews a ballet she likes to make "a man (or woman) of the watch" award. Denis Rodkin and Isaac Lee-Baker have been previous winners. Had she been there I have no doubt she would have given it to Katie. She seemed to be in everything. "Was that 7 dances or 8  that I counted you in?" I asked her in the bar after the show. "Only 6 in the end" she replied. "Only!" That lady is full of energy as well as grace. Proud to know her and to have danced with her. Yet another source of pride.

Want to see a good show in Manchester this Saturday?

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Closer to home than Kibera is The Dancehouse Theatre at Northern Ballet School in Manchester. That is where KNT Danceworks and other teachers offer a whole range of classes in many styles of dance in the evenings (see the Classes page on the theatre's website). I am proud to say that I am one of KNT's students (or perhaps "family member" as Karen Sant, our principal, so sweetly puts it).

Last June KNT were due to stage Move It!, its summer show, at The Dancehouse but a problem with the ceiling forced its postponement.  The ceiling has now been repaired and the show will tale place on Saturday, the 22 Oct 2016. As the Move It! web page indicates the show will showcase everything from ballet to flamenco including some styles such as Chinese folk dancing that are not often performed in this country.

I had a chance to see KNT's contribution in one of the studios on the day it should have taken place. As the title to my review indicates It could easily have gone pear shaped ........... 19 June 2016 ".... but instead it was a howling success." The show that we shall see on Saturday will be slightly different because Mark Hindle, who danced the pas de deux with Karen, is performing in The Lion King at the AFAS Circustheater in the Hague (see Hindle at The Hague 25 June 2016) but I am told to expect the entry into the kingdom of the shades from La Bayadere which will help to make up for Mark's absence.

I took part in the winter show on 30 Jan 2016 which was One of my proudest moments (see 31 Jan 2016). It included the scene from Swan Lake that appears in the video above. Now we are not quite up to the Royal Ballet's standards just yet but remember that we all have day jobs or are reading for degrees and that we have only the evenings and weekends after a heavy working day or week to study ballet and rehearse. With those caveats I think the achievement of my classmates and our teachers is remarkable.

The show will begin at 19:00 sharp this Saturday. Tickets are on sale for only £5 from the box office on 0161 237 9753 or 0161 237 1413 or you can order them on-line from Ticketline. The theatre has a bar (as well as double rail barres) and is surrounded by restaurants including Casa Pancho (I know, the name made Mel and me smile too) which serves the best burritos this side of Tijuana. I defy anyone to propose a better night out than ballet, beer and burritos for so little expenditure in the entire Northern Powerhouse.

La Bayadere Intensive Day 3: No Snakes

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Updated 24 Aug 2016

It was only on the train home that it occurred to me that there might have been more tactful ways of showing our appreciation to our excellent teacher, Jane Tucker, than flowers at the end of our workshop on La Bayadère in view of what had happened to Nikiya. But some sort of expression of our appreciation was appropriate as this workshop was special. Romeo and Juliet was good (see We had a stab at that! KNT's Romeo and Juliet Intensive Workshop for Beginners 9 April 2016) as had been Swan Lake (see see KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 1 18 Aug 2915, Day 2 19 Aug 2015 and Day 3 20 Aug 2015) but this was even better. I for one learned so much over the last three days and not just about La Bayadère but ballet in general.

As on the other days the day started with floor exercises on our Pilates mats. There was then a 90 minute class which focused on some of the steps we would need for our rehearsals and performance. Jane had included some  jetés en tournant in the golden idol so we worked on those as well as our balancé turns.  After class we ran through each of the pieces that we had learned. We were far from perfect but Jane told us that she had been expecting carnage and we never got anywhere near that. For the rest of the morning and early afternoon we concentrated on the details that required most attention.

After lunch, Jane fashioned the dances that we had learned into a show. Each piece was to lead seamlessly into the next. We did a couple of rehearsals and then prepared for our audience which consisted of Karen Sant and Josh Moss who are beautiful dancers as well as outstanding instructors.  Although I have very little experience of performing I have already found that performances tend to lift a cast and it was no different today. There were glitches but everyone put her heart into the show. My favourite was the golden idol as I explained in Day 2 earlier today. Jane's adaptation included some échappés which I have always enjoyed.  It was over far too quickly. Karen clapped vigorously after each piece while Josh filmed us with a tablet or mobile. Both Jane and Karen told us that we had made progress since the start.

There were some very happy ladies who left The Dancehouse today - all fired up with enthusiasm for our classes and shows in the coming year. Tomorrow Jane starts a new course for the more advanced students which I hope and am sure that they will enjoy as much as we did ours.

Ekaterina Vazem - the First Bayadere and a First Rate Teacher

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The first Bayadere was Ekaterina Vazem. In a quotation from her memoirs which appears in Wikipedia she described it as her favourite of all the ballets that she had occasion to create. She liked its:

"beautiful, very theatrical scenario, its interesting, very lively dances in the most varied genres, and finally Minkus' music, which the composer managed especially well as regards melody and its coordination with the character of the scenes and dances."

She then goes on to mention a disagreement with Petipa which you will have to read for yourself.

Vazem was a great teacher as well as a great dancer. From my conversations with dancers and my reading of their biographies I have detected a special bond between teacher and student which does not seem to exist in quite the same way in other disciplines.

I have mentioned that bond several times in this blog.  In Le jour de gloire est arrive 3 Feb 2014 I wrote about Dame Antoinette Sibley and her teachers Tamara Karsavina and Pamela May:

"At the beginning of this post I mentioned the tradition of ballet. Crisp described Sibley as a 'repository' - which set her giggling - of knowledge. She had known so many of the greats and indeed she had been taught by two of them. The great English ballerina Pamela May who taught at the School while appearing regularly at Covent Garden and Tamara Karsavina whom Sibley adored. Karsavina once invited the young Sibley to her home and she cooked a steak for her. Sibley chose a steak because she thought it might be easy - something you just place under a grill - but Karsavina took the same trouble over that steak as she did with everything else."

One of my best friends from St Andrews who trained with Olga Preobrajenska wrote this about her great teacher which I reproduced in my post of 31 March 2013:

"Haven’t forgotten about your Olga P. request….don’t really know what to say except that she was a tiny and fierce little lady who believed in physical punishment and commanded the utmost respect from her students. I was 9 years old and terrified of her. I grew to love her and when she died, mother and I attended a benefit and somewhere I have one of her linens that we purchased. There was a gentleman at the studio who acted as her manager…he appeared to be slavishly devoted to her. As a child I did not know what their relationship was other than he also collected money for the dance lessons. I remember the time that Maria Tallchief came to the studio. She was beautiful. Many famous dancers came to her for instruction."

In my article What can be achieved by a good teacher 3 March 2013 I wrote how Mike Wamaya has changed the lives of some of the poorest children in one of the roughest neighbourhoods of Nairobi through his ballet lessons:

"In many ways the kids in this class have had the worst possible start in life but in one very important respect they could not have had a better one. Look at the teacher, Mike Wamaya. He is good. I googled for some more information on Mike and I found an even better clip from CNN and this article in The Daily Nation. These films show what can be achieved from the discipline not only in the studio but also in the class room and in life generally. Something that I and most readers of this blog in many walks of life are likely to have found out for ourselves."

"Love my profession" exclaimed Esther Protzman who teaches at the Netherlands Royal Conservatory in the Hague on social media recently and well she might for she has already trained some lovely dancers many of whom are on a trajectory to the top.

Vazem's pupils included  Anna Pavlova, Olga Preobrajenska and Agrippina Vaganova after whom the Imperial Ballet School was renamed. There does not seem to be any film of Vazem's teaching but there is this clip of her famous pupil who would have inherited something from her.

When a teacher has danced with a major company his or her teaching has a special edge which is not easy but is always good.  I experienced that edge last year in Jane Tucker's Swan Lake intensive at the Dancehouse which I described in KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 1 18 Aug 2016. I wrote:

"We were led upstairs to one of the studios where we met our teacher. I know Jane Tucker from Northern Ballet and think the world of her. She has a wonderful way of coaxing us to carry on even when we can go no further. "Not bad" she exclaims after a shambles of a turn. "How are you doing?" She smiles. "All right?" And so we are."

This year I am back for La Bayadere.  These start on the 15 Aug for beginners and the 18 Aug for more advanced pupils and I gave full details in La Bayadere - where it all took place 24 July 2016. As I said before, if you want to take part call Karen on 07783 103 037 or get in touch through her contact form, Facebook page or twitter.