Gavin McCaig in Conversation with his Friends

Gary Sutherland / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Not far from Taynuilt lies the port of Oban from where McBrayne ferries depart for Mull on the way to Iona.  I had passed through the port countless times but never bothered to stop until two years ago when I attended a performance of Highland Fling at the Atlantic Leisure Centre. It was then that I discovered that there was a lot more to Oban than a waystation to or from the Hebrides. Some of the best fish and chips in the United Kingdom are to be had in the city's many chippies.  For anybody wondering why I call Oban a city, it is because it has two cathedrals including Sir Gilbert Scott's magnificent St Columba's by the seashore.  However, the most impressive landmark in the whole of Oban is the colonnade on Battery Hill known as McCaig's tower.

I had a question about the tower up my sleeve in case I ran out of things to say when I interviewed Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet for Stage Door on Sunday but I didn't need it for the conversation flowed like water. Gavin McCaig is a very interesting chap as well as a very congenial one. I had interviewed him for Terpsichore soon after he had joined the company in 2014.  He has come a long way since then and while he might not have reached the very top of the greasy pole he has certainly gained considerable elevation.

I began the interview by asking him whether the success for which he must have aimed when he was at ballet school had turned out to be all that it was cracked up to be.  Disarmingly he replied that he had not set his sites on any particular outcome when he was at ballet school. There is stiff competition to enter any company particularly one in the UK.  His ambition was simply to get a job in ballet.  He had begun to follow Northern Ballet when he was at the English Ballet School.  He remembered trips to Woking and other theatres within the vicinity of London. Joining Northern Ballet was everything he could have hoped for.

I mentioned some of the roles in which he had impressed.  John Brown in Cathy Marston's Victoria in which he had been shot and St John in Jane Eyre which is another Marston work.  I had followed the company to London to see it in Richmon in 2016 and pronounced it the best work form the company that I had seen in 20 years.  He seemed well suited to Marston's choreography, I suggested.  He said that he enjoyed working with Cathy Marston for whom he had a particular regard.  I agreed mentioning how much I had admired Snowblind when the San Francisco Ballet came to London and how much I was looking forward to seeing what she makes of Mrs Robinson.

However, he had excelled in other choreographers' works.  I mentioned his performance as Athos in The Three Musketeers in which he had particularly impressed me.  While accepting the compliment he drew my attention to a role that I had not mentioned. Early in his career, he had been one of Friar Lawrence's acolytes in Jean-Christophe Maillot's Romeo and Juliet.  The friar and his acolytes were on stage when the curtain lowered and it was an exceptionally moving experience as the orchestra played the last few barres of the score.  I mentioned that I was a fan of Maillot having also seen the Bolshoi's performance of his Taming of the Shrew.  I asked whether he had visited Leeds.  Gavin replied that he had and that he had spent 3 days there.

In his interview in 2014, Gavin had expressed an interest in choreography.   I mentioned a choreographic workshop to which he had contributed a ballet.  I had admired the work very much particularly the take on Mr Nigel Farage's "You're not laughing now" remark with the hollowly cackling cast,  Again, he acknowledged my compliment graciously.

At this point we had the first question from the audience,  Amelia Sierevogel asked about some of the memorable costumes he had worn.  He mentioned the one with lots of buttons and others where there had been what can best be described as little local difficulties.  Elaine Berrill and Janet McNulty also intervened and Amelia asked a follow up towards the end.   He was asked what advice he would give to a young man particularly in view of prejudice against male dancers.  He acknowledged it was there and the answer was to persist,  There was one time when he thought he might give up and he actually left the class for a while.   I am glad to say that he had another think and resumed his studies,  The question on motivation and overcoming inhibitions had arisen a few days earlier in a Q&A with his class in Portugal. Janet was aware that he had done a lot of running and asked how that was affecting his legs and feet.  He replied that a certain amount of tension in those muscles was good.

As it appeared that Kevin Poeung was in the same room as Gavin I asked whether it would be possible to say "hello" to him. Kevin appeared and greeted us,   I asked them how they were coping with the lockdown.  While they were appalled by the casualties they had made the best of it.  They had a chance to appreciate their home, carry out some DIY and enjoy some quality time which would not otherwise have been available with a busy schedule,

I asked about Gavin's plans for the future.  We discussed his award-winning film on the company's digital dance platform. He was learning business finance to qualify for a managerial role in the performing arts.  I asked about roles he hoped to perform.  He had mentioned Simon in David Nixon's Swan Lake on the company's website.   He explained that was because of Simon's personality, As he had mentioned that he would like to dance the big classical roles in his 2014 interview I asked whether he retained any ambitions in that regard.   He replied that he had already danced the lead in The Nutcracker in Montana a few months ago which he had enjoyed but he was not sure that he was ideally suited to the great Petipa roles.

We finished with an appeal for contributions to the Academy of Northern Ballet.  I have placed a donate button to the ACADEMY OF NORTHERN BALLET PARENTS ASSOCIATION on my Facebook page.   Alternatively, donors can call the Academy on 0113 220 8000 or email academy@northernballet.com.

A Great Send-off for a Great Lady

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Northern Ballet Victoria, Leeds Grand Theatre, 16 March 2019, 19:30

Victoria may have been the title rôle but the star of last night's show was Pippa Moore who danced Princess Beatrice. That is not because the ballet is really about someone other than the character in the title like Coppelia or Don Quixote.  Queen Victoria has a very substantial role in Cathy Marston's ballet and it was danced beautifully by Abigail Priudames whom I admire greatly. But last night was the night the company and its audience said goodbye to Moore who is, for the time being, Northern Ballet's last remaining female premier dancer and one who enjoys great respect and affection.

At the end of the performance, Moore was presented with an enormous bouquet of flowers. Something that does not happen very often outside London (see Flowers for Dreda 9 June 2018). David Nixon came on stage and gave the best speech that I have ever heard him make (I have heard more than a few from him over the years) and handed Moore a picture of herself as Beatrice. I am a hard-bitten patent lawyer and I have seen some great moments in the theatre but I could feel the tears welling up inside me. Several members of the audience including yours truly rose to out feet.  Just as well that the curtain fell when it did because I am not sure for how much longer I could have contained my emotions.

The show in which Moore and Prudames danced was Cathy Marston's Victoria, a co-production between Northern Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada. The score was by Philip Feeney and the sets and costumes were designed by Steffen Aarfing.  There was some stunning choreography in the ballet of which the duets between the queen and John Brown, danced by Mlindi Kulashe, and the queen and Prince Albert (Joseph Taylor) were perhaps the most striking. I was particularly struck by the invocation of the saltire as the queen splayed her arms in open fifth and legs second in defence of Brown.  There were other touches that I loved like the relevés to convey excitement when Victoria met Albert for the first time.

However, regular readers of my blog will by now have sensed a "but" coming.  I cannot deny it is there but I don't want to exaggerate it.  Victoria was still a work of considerable merit.  I am a great fan of Cathy Marston even though I have not seen much of her work on stage. Most of her works that I have seen have been on YouTube.  When I saw Jane Eyre in Richmond in 2016 I described it as "the best new ballet from the company in 20 years." I think I was even more impressed with The Suit when I saw it for the first time (see Excellence - Ballet Black's Double Bill 17 March 2018). Though I admired it very much, Victoria did not have the same effect on me as Jane Eyre or The Suit.

I have asked myself "why?" as there was a lot of good in this ballet.  I think the weakness lies in the libretto.  This was a very complex story but I don't think that was the main problem.  It is never easy to create a ballet around a recent historical figure as Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Anastasia shows.  The only choreographer to have pulled it off in my humble opinion is Ted Brandsen with his Mata Hari  (see Brandsen's Masterpiece 14 Feb 2016). I think he succeeded because he kept the story simple with hardly any flashbacks, unlike Anastasia and Victoria.  Had I not read the synopsis I would not have had a clue as to what was going on and I think that would have lost me.

My only other criticism (and it is a minor one) is of the costumes for the corps.  They were clad in a stripey top and what appeared to be a red skirt for dancers of both genders.  From row P of the stalls, they looked like a crocodile of schoolgirls on an outing.  When I read the programme properly on the train to London later this morning I shall probably discover the significance of that apparel.  All I can say that it was less than obvious yesterday.

But this was still a magnificent evening. I would not have missed it for the world.  It is still a fine ballet and Cathy Marston is still one of my favourite choreographers.  I saw Anastasia when it was first staged in 1971 and have never had a desire to see it again. Unlike Anastasia, I am going to give this ballet a second view.   I am sure it will go down well at Sadler's Wells. It has already had a good press.  I have very heterodox tastes having no time whatsoever for The Favourite despite its many awards and nominations.  So see Victoria for yourself. Don't let my niggles at the plot and costume designs put you off

The Sandman in Halifax

Chantry Dance Company: The Sandman

(c) 2017 Chantry Dance Co: all rights reserved

Chantry Dance Company The Sandman Victoria Theatre, Halifax, 25 Sept 2017 19:30

When I first met Paul Chantry and Rae Piper they were literally a two-person and a dog company that had yet to acquire a dog (see Chantry Dance Company's Sandman and Dream Dance 10 May 2014). Now they are touring the nation with their first full-length ballet having recruited some pretty impressive young dancers on the way (see The Sandman Tour 27 Jan 2017). Those dancers include Isaac Peter Bowry whose career I have followed ever since he was a student at Ballet West (see Ballet West's The Nutcracker 25 Feb 2013) and Rebecca Scanlon who impressed me when I first saw in rehearsal her over two years ago (see Chantry Dance's Vincent - Rarely have I been more excited by a New Ballet 4 Sept 2017).

The ballet was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's tale Ole Lukøje though I think the libretto was entirely original. It centred around a husband and wife.  The husband was danced by Paul Chantry and his wife by Rae Piper.  The Sandman, Jack Beer, visits them and induces pleasant dreams with his multicoloured umbrella and nightmares with his plain black one.  The ballet consists of a number of dream sequences - some jolly like the brightly coloured bubbled on transparent Pilates balls - and others disturbing with faceless dancers and crawling simonite creatures.  The Sandman's umbrellas seem to represent good and evil. The husband is attracted to the black umbrella which leads him to a tavern where his wife is taken away.  All she can do is revisit her husband as a dream.

Creating a ballet from scratch with an original libretto and an original score as well as some quite elaborate set and costume designs would have been a formidable task for very much bigger companies. I can't say that they got everything right.  I lost the story in several places and Tim Mountain's score did not quite fit the mood at times but I enjoyed it a lot more than say Jonathan Watkin's 1984, Nixon's Beauty and the Beast and Christopher Wheeldon's Winter's Tale that I did not like at first and have since warmed to.  I am sure that the company will iron out the bits that need improvement.  They deserve congratulations for a successful production.

Before The Sandman, the company presented three new works created by young choreographers and performed by dancers from Studio 59.  Chantry Dance is a small touring company but it is a great deal more than that.  They are the missing link between hours of practice at the barre and performing on stage. They provide opportunities through their school, associate programmes and summer school to those with talent and ambition and they provide a sprinkling of stardust for the likes of me with their outreach programme.  A lot of companies offer open classes for the general public.  I have attended one of the best in Leeds for the last 4 years but for Paul and Rae education and outreach are central to everything they do.

The company will be in Sale tonight and then proceeds to Worcester, Greenwich, Stamford, Horsham and Andover (see the 2017 Tour Dates). If you can get to any of those performances you will be very well satisfied.