Windrush: Movement of the People

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Phoenix Dance Theatre  Mixed Programme (Maybe Yes Maybe, Maybe No Maybe, Shadows and Windrush: Movement of the People)  West Yorkshire Playhouse, 7 Feb 2018


Yesterday Phoenix Dance Theatre opened its Spring tour at West Yorkshire Playhouse with a triple bill consisting of Aletta Collins's Maybe Yes Maybe, Maybe No Maybe, Christopher Bruce's Shadows and Sharon Watson's Windrush: Movement of the People.  All three are important works. At any other time performances of the first two works would have received a lot of attention.  But yesterday the focus was on the last which was performed in full for the first time.

Having seen previews of Windrush at A Celebration of Female Choreographers and Windrush Studio Sharing, there was never any doubt in my mind that the work would be a great success.  So it was with the audience on its feet cheering until its members' voices were hoarse and clapping till their palms were sore.  They - we - were applauding a beautifully crafted and performed work of art, of course, but also something more.  A movement of people, a melding of cultures, a response to enormous adversity, hardship and in many instances even violence, a story of individuals and families, an epic in which everyone in the auditorium - indeed everyone in these islands - has participated in one way or another.  We celebrated not just those who boarded the Empire Windrush 70 years ago - one of whom was in the audience - but also everyone who has followed them since. "This was my mother's story" said Sharon Watson after the show. So it was but it was a story of many others and one that resonates with all.

The work divides into four scenes.  It opens in Jamaica full of light and colour and movement. The women in gorgeous costumes. Young men tumbling over each other to read a newspaper. The women are more restrained - subdued, even, as some of them will be left behind - but even they are excited by the adventure. The passengers board the ship still full of hope and energy.

The next scene is the most poignant. A voice calls out.  "You called and we came". The stage was much less bright. The dancers hardly moved. The voice continued about the skills, the energy, the quick minds of those who came and how so many of those talents were squandered in post-war Britain. Matrons reduced to sisters, sisters to nurses and nurses to chambermaids.  Women with masked faces hang out washing each with a letter spelling out the infamous words "NO DOGS" et cetera.  An arrangement of the national anthem is sung live on stage except instead of "Queen" it is "God save the Dream."

The Dream is saved for in the third scene sweethearts reunite in England. They find homes, lay down carpets and purchase settees - and radiograms.  The parents play their LPs but their mini-skirted children will have none of that. Off goes Jim Reeves and on comes 10ft Ganja Plant.  Again there is movement and energy on stage.

The final scene is a church with stained glass lighting, a pastor and his choir.  It's a service but this service is almost a party. The cast invite those in the front seats onto the stage. The audience claps rhythmically and euphorically then rises to its feet as one.  A triumph indeed!

There are so many people to congratulate for this triumph.  Sharon Watson, of course for her choreography, Christella Litras for her score, Eleanor Bull for her designs and Phoenix's beautiful dancers.  I spoke to several of them afterwards.  The show was special for them too.  Something they will remember for the rest of their lives. And for the audience?  I can only speak for myself but it was the best show that I have ever seen in Leeds.

Maybe Yes Maybe, Maybe No Maybe and Shadows need to be reviewed separately and I will review them soon.  They were fine works that were performed well and a paragraph or two about them tagged onto a review of Windrush will not begin to do them justice. Phoenix will perform the mixed bill at Leeds until the 10 Feb. Then it will go to Keswick, Cheltenham, Doncaster, Leicester, Aachen, London, Birmingham and Newcastle.  If you live anywhere near those places you really must go.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - "an impressive work that was danced splendidly by Northern Ballet"

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Northern Ballet The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 9 Sept 2017 19:30 West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds


Daniel de Andrade's ballet, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, is an impressive work that was danced splendidly by Northern Ballet last night. I congratulate the choreographer, his fellow creatives, the dancers and everyone else who was involved in the show on an outstanding performance. It greatly exceeded my expectations and raised my admiration for the company to new heights.

Although  I had neither read John Boyne's novel nor seen the film and had been unable to catch the work in Doncaster or any of the other venues on this year's midscale tour, I had been aware of the story. I feared a descent into mawkish sentimentality and that this review would be an exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification. Instead, de Andrade explored the twin themes of corruption of decent men by poisonous ideology and love between children.  Watching that ballet was a moving, indeed harrowing, experience that tugged at every emotion.

Boyne's novel cannot have been easy to transpose to dance.  De Andrade responded to that challenge with considerable ingenuity.  For example, Hitler appears in the book and personally appoints the father of one of the children at the centre of the story as Commandant of Auschwitz. Easy enough, one would think, as Hitler is instantly recognizable with his half moustache and floppy forelock. But de Andrade resisted the temptation to do the obvious. He substituted a Fury for the Führer - an even more menacing Siegfried type character crouching, creeping and dripping with evil. For some reason or other, the Bolshoi refer to Siegfried as "the evil genius" in its version of Swan Lake (see Grigorovich's Swan Lake in Covent Garden 31 July 2016). Well, de Andrade's evil genius was spine chilling.

The strong libretto was just one reason for the show's success.

There was some pretty powerful choreography.  The duet between the boys on different sides of the fence - always harmonious but never symmetrical - the acts of violence - the cashiering of the arrogant and sadistic Lieutenant Kotler - and so much more of which space does not permit proper acknowledgement.

There was also an excellent score by Gaty Yeschon reminiscent of the compositions of the time - at least in this country, America and even Russia though not perhaps Nazi Germany.  It must have been difficult to play and seemed from the luxury of my chair particularly difficult to dance but it fitted the ballet exactly.

There were sets cleverly transporting us to the Reichs Chancery, the Commandant's home, the boundary of the concentration camp and even the train and gas chambers by Mark Bailey. The outline of that monstrous sign, "Arbeit macht frei" (as horrifying as the inscription on the gates of Hell "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate") made me shudder. Bailey's uniforms and civilians' costumes seemed authentic to the last detail.

Finally, there was some exquisite lighting by Tim Mitchell. The pool of red light around Kotler's body represented his death in combat eloquently and chillingly.

The dancers, as I said above, were splendid.

The boys, Matthew Koon who danced Bruno (the Commandant's son) and Filippo di Vilio who danced Shmuel (the prisoner), central to the story, were lyrical. The playful, loving, innocent Bruno with his cartwheels and jumps. The starving, beaten, almost dehumanized Schmuel with his arabesques. How I rejoiced as he sank his teeth into an apple, How I wept as the cloud destroyed them both.

Mlindi Kualshe, often cast as a villain even though he is a most affable young man, radiated evil as the Fury. He was an excellent choice for the role.  He emerged from his mask with a gleaming smile and special applause at the reverence.

Javier Torres, the company's remaining premier dancer, interpreted the Commandant's role with sensitivity and sophistication.  This was a man who would almost certainly have been hanged at Nuremberg for his crimes.  However, he was also a loving father and husband and even in the running of the camp he showed signs of humanity. A much more complex character than O'Brien in Jonathan Watkin's 1984.  Torres discharged that role magnificently.

Also magnificent was Hannah Bateman who danced his wife.  A vain and spoilt beauty - a model of Aryan womanhood - hollowed out by conscience and in the end the loss of her son in her husband's death machine.  A formidable dancer.  A superb actor.  I can think of few artists from any company who could have carried off that challenging role anything like as well.

Magnificence, too, from Antoinette Brooks-Daw, Bruno's sister who swallowed the Nazi message, perhaps because of the attentions of Lieutenant Kotler (Sean Bates) who delivered it, Mariana Rodrigues, the Commandant's mother who would have none of that message, Dominique Larose, the Commandant's maid, and indeed each and every other member of the cast.  I don't know whether anyone else joined me but I was compelled to rise to my feet after that performance.  That's not something I do every day.

Yesterday's was almost the last performance of the current run.  The show moves on to Hull next month and then that's it for the time being. I hope it stays in the company's repertoire for I would love to see it again.

There's a reason why Phoenix was my contemporary company of the year

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Phoenix Dance Theatre, Mixed Programme, West Yorkshire Playhouse, 8 Feb 2017, 19:30

In Terpsichore Titles: Contemporary Company of 2016 31 Dec 2016 I chose Phoenix Dance Theatre as my contemporary dance company of the year. I wrote:

"I've seen a lot of contemporary dance this year: the National Dance Company of Wales and BalletLorent in Huddersfield (see Cambriophilia 19 March 2016 and BalletLorent 3 Oct 2016), Rambert at the Lowry (see Red Hot Rambert 1 Oct 2016) the Royal Ballet's Wayne McGregor triple bill at Covent Garden (see McGregor Triple Bill 18 Nov 2016) and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Nederlands Dans Theater 2 at the Bradford Alhambra (see Prickling - NDT2 in Bradford 1 May 2016 and Alvin Ailey in Bradford 29 Sept 2016) and the Lowry (see NDT2 at the Lowry 24 April 2016 and Alvin Ailey in Salford 8 Oct 2016). But for me, 2016 was the year of Phoenix."

There were three reasons for my choice:  its massive contribution to the culture of Leeds over the last 36 years, its creative genius which generates ever more impressive new work and its outreach work for young people everywhere but especially in Leeds and the North East.

Those three strands came together on the opening night of Phoenix's new tour which begins its 2017 season with performances in Leeds, Durham, Oldham and Edinburgh (see "What's On" on the company's website). The evening began with Calyx. a new work by Sandrine Monin demonstrating Phoenix's creative genius and propensity to create ever more impressive new work, Douglas Thorpe's Beast, a work from Phoenix's recent past and NightLife at the Flamingo, one of its earliest works, celebrating the company's past, present and future.

"Calyx" is a botanical term meaning "the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud." The calyces, in this case, were a number of boxes each containing a dancer representing a flower. And the flowers? Well, they allude to Baudelaire's anthology, Fleurs du mal which inspired both choreographer and composer, Roberto Busconi. I had seen a preview of Calyx in the studio before Christmas (see Calyx 8 Dec 2016).  In the last paragraph of that article I wrote:

"Even in a rehearsal studio Calyx was quite enthralling. In a theatre it will be breathtaking."

And so it was. Emma James's costumes instantly put me in mind of the illustration of the front cover of the first edition of the book which I reproduced in my write-up of the preview. Luke Haywood's lighting enhanced the sense of foreboding. The dancers were the same as in the preview: Sam Vaherlehto. Carmen Vazquez-Marfil, Prentice Whitlow and Natalie Alleston. Not an easy work to digest but compelling to watch and hauntingly beautiful.

Thorpe's Beast was first staged in 2009, not long after Sharon Warson became the company's artistic director. In a contemporaneous video, Sharon described it as her first challenge. She acknowledged the work's robustness, its rawness, its quality yet still struggled with it wondering how, if at all, it fitted into Phoenix's repertoire. But the company did accept the work and it has strengthened them.  The work is about the rage that bubbles below each of us. Very topical with Trump and Brexit. A disturbing work. Uncontrolled hysterical laughter from Vasquez-Marfil. Wild explosions of movement from other dancers, Alleston, Monin, Vaherlehto, Prentice and Carlos J Martinez, the artist I had introduced as "Carlos" in my preview of Calyx. The score, a medley of work by Ben Frost, Matt Davignon, Aes Dana, Jaydev Mistry and Tam Tam, was skilfully selected and arranged. Once again, Haywood's lighting was in the old sense (that is to say not in the Hackneyed sense that it is used nowadays) awesome.

Th human spirit can only take so much beast and mal in one evening and NightLife at the Flamingo came as a blessed relief.  This was first staged in 1983 and shows the company at its very best. It opens with a single dancer to Gershwin's Summertime. Dressed as a waiter he opens the bar. Other dancers follow. The women in floral dresses or full-multicoloured skirts which must have been such fun to wear, Each of them performs a solo or party piece - one of the men pretending to be drunk helped to his feet by a waiter - cartwheeling and somersaulting girls. A party on stage, at one point, quite literally as the cast fanned into the stalls inviting audience members to join them on stage. The performers were drawn from three generations of Phoenix. Every member of the present company. Its veterans: Hughie Davies, Seline Derrick, Donald Edwards, David Hughes and Edward Lynch. And last but not least, kids from the Phoenix Youth Academy, stars of the future. A euphoric piece finishing in flowers for Sharon and ecstatic applause. One of my best evenings in the theatre. Ever.

I left the theatre floating 4 feet in the air. Mainly because it was such a good show. But partly because it is from the region in which I live. Phoenix started in Leeds. It is anchored in Leeds. Its dancers come from across the world. It is receptive to influences from everywhere. But it has never forgotten its origins. That's a source of pride.

Northern Ballet's "Wuthering Heights" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse - about as good as it can get

Emily Btonte

Artist Bramwell Brinte
Source Wikipedia

Northern Ballet Wuthering Heights West Yorkshire Playhouse, 9 Sept 2016

It was only upon a last minute impulse that I decided to check West Yorkshire Playhouse's website to see whether they had any tickets left for the law few performances of Northern Ballet's Wuthering Heights. Saturday evening appeared to be sold out but there were still a few seats for yesterday evening and today's matinee. As I have not attended class or even worked out in the gym for over a week I wanted to leave this afternoon free for Lucy's class at KNT if I finish my tasks in time to make it to Manchester by 15:00 or a 90 minute session in the local gym at the very least.

The reason I had not bought a ticket before is that I had intended to give Wuthering Heights a miss this year. I had seen the ballet in Sheffield and Bradford last year where I had been somewhat less than overwhelmed (see Wuthering Heights 19 March 2015 and Northern Ballet's Wuthering Heights in Bradford 22 Nov 2015). The Brontës are not among my favourite novelists, All their books seem dark and miserable to me. Except perhaps for Shirley and Villette, they are very heavy going. I much prefer Jane Austen. Her works are set in rather more agreeable places with generally more pleasant characters than the maungy folk who tend to populate the heaths of the rapidly industrializing West Riding.  Also I had been awake since 05:00 British time in order to catch my flight home from Amsterdam. There I had seen the best of one of the world's best ballet companies at their opening night gala in their magnificent auditorium. As the best is said to be the enemy of the good, I feared that experience would spoil me for anything else for weeks to come as it had last year when I saw 1984 for the first time (see My First Impressions of 1984 12 Sept 2015).

It was Janet McNulty's excellent review, Northern Ballet's "Wuthering Heights" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse 9 Sept 2016, that changed my mind and I am glad that it did because I enjoyed last night's performance.  I think there are two reasons why I enjoyed it so much.

The first is that it too place in the best possible auditorium for a performance of this ballet. The Quarry Theatre with 750 seats arranged as an amphitheatre is designed for drama and Wuthering Heights is nothing if not dramatic. In some ways it is more play than ballet. The West Yorkshire Playhouse is only yards away from Northern Ballet's premises on St Cecilia Street and the crowd who attend its performances there are fanatically loyal. Judging by snippets of conversation that I overheard it seemed that many members of the audience were also in the Brontë Society. The result was a receptive audience that must have given the dancers a lift. Also, their enthusiasm was infectious

The second reason why I enjoyed last night's show so much was the cast.  The website had advertised Dreda Blow, Javier Torres. Ayami Miyata, Kevin Poeung, Nicola Gervasi and Rachael Gillespie. The cast that we got was Antoinette Brookes-Daw as Cathy and Ashley Dixon as Heathcliff with Jenny Hackwell and Matthew Topliss dancing their younger selves. Matthew Koon was Edgar Linton and Pippa Moore, his sister Isabella. It was the first time that I had been them in those roles and they seemed fresh and energetic. I was particularly impressed by Brookes-Daw who was the best Cathy that I have seen to date. Dixon, too, was a perfect partner for her. It was also good to see Moore, the company's only female premier dancer (principal), in a substantial role.

There are many intense moments in the ballet such as the wedding where Heathcliff, who has somehow made his fortune, shows up unexpectedly. Heathcliff and Cathy forget their surroundings which is cleverly reflected in the score with changes of theme and choreography with the entry and exit of the wedding guests. Another scene that depicts the mean side of Heathcliff is the humiliation of Isabella when she returns Heathclkiff's riding whip. There are bits of the ballet that don't work quite so well such as the nervous maid with her tinkling tea tray or the Christmas card scene at the end with Heathcliff and his younger self and Cathy playing in the snow. However that is a matter of taste. The guffaws around the auditorium showed that the tea tray scene was appreciated by many.

After the show Gavin McCaig and Kiara Flavin kindly stayed behind to answer questions from members of the audience.

I was  gratified to learn that I was not the only one to find Wuthering Heights heavy going. McGaig said that he opened the book and put it down after the first chapter. He picked it up and put it down again several times before he got to the end.  He persevered because he felt he owed it to his audiences to understand the stories and emotions the were experiencing in dance. By contrast Flavin had listed Wuthering Heights as one of her favourite heart-wrenchers on her web page.

I was surprised to learn that Northern Ballet no longer record most of their ballets in choreology. Flavin described Benesch notation as "archaic" and said they relied on videos. As a lawyer it prompted me to wonder whether their choreography was legally protected since s.3 (2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 provided:

"Copyright does not subsist in a literary, dramatic or musical work unless and until it is recorded, in writing or otherwise; and references in this Part to the time at which such a work is made are to the time at which it is so recorded."

It is of course arguable that the words "or otherwise" connote film but there is yet to be a decision on the point,  Personally, if I were a choreographer or company I would not want to risk it, Especially if I was supported by sponsorship money.

I was sorry to learn that 1984  had not been a sell out everywhere. McCaig said that it had done well in Leeds, London and Edinburgh but there were more than a few empty seats in other cities.

Each dancer was asked how he or she came to Northern Ballet. Flavin said she had heard of the company as a 15 year old ballet student in Canada and she liked the sound of them. McCaig expressed his pleasure at finding a job immediately after finishing ballet school. The competition was intense, he explained, with the 5 major ballet schools and other conservatories training lots of dancers every year. It is particularly hard to get a job in the UK so if a dancer is offered a job with any company in this country he or she grabs it with both hands.

McCaig chatted with me for a few minutes after the Q & A. I had featured him in Meet Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet on 3 Sept 2016 and it is good to see him doing well. He is a splendid chap as well as a fine dancer and I wish him all the best.

Northern Ballet's "Wuthering Heights" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse

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Northern Ballet, Wuthering Heights, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds 6 Sep 2016

Guest Contributor  Janet McNulty

The West Yorkshire Playhouse (WYP) has always been a special performance space for Northern Ballet since their first season there in the early noughties. Most of the productions performed there have been created there and only A Midsummer Night's Dream has toured extensively to the Company's more usual theatres.

Wuthering Heights is a first for the Company as it is a main stage production transferring to the much more intimate space of the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Since the news was first announced I, and many other fans, have been waiting eagerly to see how this ballet favourite would transfer to WYP.

Well the wait was finally over last night when Northern Ballet opened a short season of Wuthering Heights at the WYP. There was a lovely sense of anticipation as the house lights went down...

I was not disappointed. Wuthering Heights looked every bit as wonderful as I expected it to in this terrific theatre. The orchestra was hidden away behind the set but their playing of the score, under the baton of John Pryce-Jones was splendid. The positioning of the orchestra also meant that the audience was very close to the action and we were able to take in every tiny gesture of the dancers.

Opening night was led by Dreda Blow as Cathy and Javier Torres as Heathcliff. Dreda was a wild Cathy, adoring Heathcliff from the start but also being swayed by the riches of Thrushcross Grange. She was totally hemmed in to her marriage to Edgar (exquisitely danced and acted by Nicola Gervasi). Javier was everything we would expect from Heathcliff - darkly brooding and very passionate in his feelings towards Cathy. One of my favourite moments of this work is the red duet when we have seen a subdued dance between Cathy and Edgar who cannot express their feelings to each other and as they part Heathcliff bursts into the garden. Their duet is exciting and passionate and last night I forgot to breathe!

We were very privileged to see Rachael Gillespie make her debut as Isabella last night - she was just exquisite. She was a total innocent abroad and it was easy to see how she fell for Heathcliff's rough charm.

The ballet starts with Mr Earnshaw bringing the foundling Heathcliff into his house and shows young Cathy's growing attraction to him as Hindley becomes neglected and embittered. Kevin Poeung and Ayami Miyata portrayed the young loves incredibly expressively. Kevin's facial expressions were subtle and a joy to behold. Giuliano Contadini gave a very nuanced performance as Hindley from enthusiastic young boy to embittered sadist and sad drunk. Victoria Sibson and Hiro Takahashi brought all their experience to the roles of devoted Ellen and the devout Joseph. I particularly noticed Victoria's devastation during Cathy's death scene.

One of the joys of watching Northern Ballet is to glance around the stage and see how involved all the dancers are, no matter how small their roles and last night was no exception.

It really was a terrific start to Northern Ballet's Autumn season!

Phoenix's 35th Anniversary Tour

Phoenix Dance Theatre, Triple Bill, West Yorkshire Playhouse, 17 Feb 2016

In 1981 David Hamilton, Donald Edwards and Vilmore James founded Phoenix Dance Theatre in Leeds (see the History page on the company's website). Yesterday David Hamilton attended the first night of Phoenix's 35th anniversary tour at the West Yorkshire Playhouse at the start of a year of celebrations of the 35th anniversary of the formation of the company.

There is a lot to celebrate. As the tour page puts it:

"From small beginnings in inner-city Leeds, Phoenix Dance Theatre has grown to be one of the UKs leading contemporary dance companies."

Phoenix contributes much to the cultural life of the North of England and the nation not only through its performances but also by its educational and outreach work which includes workshops on tour, academies for young people in Leeds and the North East and schools partnerships. The statistics are impressive. According to the programme for yesterday's performance there were 641 workshops engaging 2,379 young people in Leeds between 2014 and 2015 and a further 228 engaging 1,360 young persons outside the city with a total audience of 91,128.

Phoenix started its tour with a triple bill that consisted of Sharon Watson's Melt, Kate Flatt's Undivided Loves and Itzik Galili's Until.With/Out.Enough. I loved all three of those works but particularly Undivided Loves which focused on Sonnet 18:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Brilliantly accompanied by the music of Adriano Adewale who played his score on stage, the dancers Prentice Whitlow, Sam Vaherlehto and Marie-Astrid Mence explored the themes of love, jealousy and rivalry. I saw a preview of this work just before Christmas as I mentioned in Never attend a Ballet Class the Morning after the Night Before 21 Dec 2015. In the discussion after the performance I asked the composer who is Brazilian whether he had read the sonnets in Portuguese as Shakespeare belongs to every culture and not just the anglophone. Adewale proved that point at the end of the score with snippets of Portuguese and Finnish.

Melt is another favourite. It never fails to lift me.  When I reviewed it for Phoenix at Home 4 Oct 2015 I described it as a "joyful work" and a "dance in three dimensions". I explained that:

"Dancers formed patterns on the stage. Then they were hoisted up on ropes from which they swooped and twirled and turned. The programme notes mentions elements colliding and the choreographer talks about ice and fire from which I surmises the title Melt is derived. I saw only harmony and fluidity. If there were collisions they were controlled. The work is hauntingly beautiful not least because of the music chosen for the work: "We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues" by Wild Beasts from their 2009 album ‘Two Dancers‘. Watson, the company's artistic director, created Melt for the company's Reflected programme in 2011."

The dancers (Carmen Vazquez Marfil, Sandrine Monin, Vanessa Vince-Pang, Jack Thomson, Prentice Whitlow, Sam Vaherlehto and Marie-Astrid Mence) seemed to love this piece. I have never seen them dance better.

Until.With/Out.Enough is a co-commission with the Royal Opera House and I saw it at the Linbury on 13 Nov 2013 (see The Phoenix Soars Over London 13 Nov 2015. It was created by Irzik Galili to the music of Gorecki which cannot have been a an easy score to interpret.  The choreographer responded to that challenge ingeniously by working on the collective shape of the dancers so that the piece seemed to be almost as much a work of sculpture or architecture as a work of dance. Consequently lighting was particularly important in a piece such as this and it was designed impressively by Yaron Abulafia. In this piece were Natalie Alleston performed with Carmen Vazquez Marfil, Sandrine Monin, Vanessa Vince-Pang, Jack Thomson, Prentice Whitlow and Sam Vaherlehto.

As Phoenix has given so much to the nation the company has invited the public to donate 35 for 35. That can be
- £35 - "£1 for every year that Phoenix has been entertaining and inspiring dance audiences" for which contributors will receive a poster of the Company’s latest repertoire and an acknowledgement of support on its website;
- £3.50 per month which, if renewed for a second year, will earn automatic membership of the dancer's circle.
- a one-off donation of £350 which will be rewarded with membership of the choreographers' circle; or
- £3,500 bringing membership of the artistic director's circle.
Information  on making donations is available on the "Give 35 for 35 Years" page of the company's website.

Watkins on 1984

The world in 1984

Author MichaelsProgramming

Source: Wikipedia

After Northern Ballet's performance of 1984 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on Friday Jonathan Watkins agreed to answer questions from members of the audience.  The session took place in the Quarry auditorium where the ballet had been informed.

I had read up about Watkins earlier in the year because I liked his A Northern Trilogy and seen a number of videos in which he had appeared on YouTube. I was aware that he came from South Yorkshire, that he had trained at the Royal Ballet School and that he had danced with the Royal Ballet between 2003 and 2013. It occurred to me that Ernst Meisner, one of my favourite choreographers, would have been one of his contemporaries.

The session was opened by a lady whose name I forget but who I believe must have been Selina McGonagle for she introduced herself as Northern Ballet's Director of Learning. As she was chairing the session she reserved the right to ask the first question which was on how the concept of the ballet had changed since her first discussion with Watkins about the ballet several months ago. Watkins replied that there had been change largely to reflect the input of the dancers whom he praised very highly and the other members of the creative team. I got the impression that he had an outline in his mind but the ballet had developed organically.

As the chair had warned us that we had time for only 3 or 4 questions I stuck my hand up next.  As I said in My First Impressions of 1984 12 Sept 2015 the ballet had a very retro feel and I asked him whether that was intentional. I am not sure whether he asked for amplification or whether I volunteered it but I was thinking specifically of Miracle in the Gorbals and Job. Watkins knew Job but not Miracle even though it had been re-staged recently by Gillian Lynne.  He replied that that had not been his intention but he had been exposed to many influences through his training at the Royal Ballet School and his work in the company. If he was influenced  by anything it was the cinema. He mentioned several films that he admired including Kes which he had translated into dance and the Lego Movie. Indeed he mentioned the Lego Movie several times in different contexts in the Q & A.

The next question was on why Watkins had chosen 1984  and whether he had any other works in the pipeline. He replied that he had read the book as a teenager and had been affected by it. He had contemplated how it could be translated into dance for some time. The same had happened with the Ken Loach film Kes which he first saw about the same time. That film resonated with him because it was set in the area in which he had spent his childhood. Last year he had the chance of stage it for The Crucible in Sheffield. By staging Kes and 1984 he had achieved two longstanding ambitions. He did have other projects in mind but he did not want to announce what they were for the time being.

A lady behind me congratulated him on his love scenes which she described as "erotic". He acknowledged her praise and remarked that those are scenes that many people like best.

He was asked about his collaboration with the composer and whether he specified the music he needed. He confirmed that that was the way he worked.  He described the music as "a character in itself."

A gentleman congratulated him on his use of colour.  Watkins replied how the colours of the party members and proles had been chosen. They started with brown and developed into orangey reds.

A lady with a North American accent who was there with her daughter mentioned her daughter's amazement that the story had been told without a spoken word. I couldn't help reflecting that was the whole point of ballet and indeed all dance drama.  Watkins accepted that praise graciously.

He was asked several detailed questions about the transposition of the story and the characters from the book, why there were no children in the ballet and how he had maintained the tension of the story in the ballet. The last question prompted him to ask whether the audience felt he had maintained tension and he was told that he had.

All in all I found Watkins a very likeable chap with a good sense of humour. Because my senses were still overwhelmed by the marvellous gala I had seen in Amsterdam three days earlier (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 13 July 2015) I probably didn't do justice to his work. Indeed it is unlikely that I would have done justice to anybody's work. Maybe I should have stayed away until Amsterdam had worn off but then I would have missed this Q & A with Watkins.

1984 and All That - Northern Ballet's New Season

Sellar and Yeatman's 1066 and All That is one of the books that we all read at school.  George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is another. Jonathan Watkins's arrangement of Orwell's novel for Northern Ballet opens to a full house at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on 5 Sept 2015 is the company's big ticket production for the new season. Northern Ballet has released this hour long video on YouTube with talks by Watkins, David Nixon, rehearsals, a pas de deux by Tobias Batley and Martha Leebolt and more.

After Leeds the production tours Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Southampton culminating in a season at Sadler's Wells between 24 and 28 May 2016. My favourite venue for anything in Northern Ballet's repertoire is West Yorkshire Playhouse because it feels like the company's home. It is a stone's throw from Quarry Hill and the auditorium is so intimate. I have seen some lovely shows there in the past, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream on 14 Sept 2013 (see Realizing Another Dream 15 Sept 2013). Unfortunately, the West Yorkshire Playhouse season clashes with the Dutch National Ballet's opening gala in Amsterdam and professional commitments in London (see Triple Dutch 4 July 2015). If any of my readers would like to review the opening night I should be very grateful.  I will catch the ballet in Manchester or Sheffield with my Swiss friend who first dew it to my attention even though she does not go a bundle on ballet (see 1984 28 Feb 2015 and Für Andrea - more Information on 1984 26 July 2015).

Another new ballet in Northern Ballet's repertoire is the children's ballet Tortoise and the Hare which is choreographed by Dreda Blow and Sebastian Loe. Blow spoke briefly about her work for children in the panel discussion on narrative dance in ballet on 20 June 2015 (My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015). She told a delightful story about one child's reaction to one of her ballets. Although I had already admired her as a dancer I warmed to her ever more. Tortoise and the Hare opens at The Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds on 22 Oct 2015. It will also be performed in Southampton on 6 May 2015.

Elves and The Shoemaker another children's ballet choreographed by Daniel de Andrade to music by Philip Feeney is touring Hull, Nottingham, Canterbury, Manchester, Woking, Newcastle and Bradford. I saw it in Huddersfield on 11 April 2015 and reviewed it in The Ballet comes to me 12 April 2015.

Also coming to Hull is Madame Butterfly which I described as Nixon's Masterpiece in my review of the opening night in Doncaster. Another popular Nixon ballet Wuthering Heights which I saw in Sheffield on 18 March 2015 is coming to Canterbury in October and Bradford in November. Northern Ballet's take on The Nutcracker where the Stahlbaums become the Edwardses is coming to The Grand between 16 Dec 2015 and 2 Jan 2016 after touring Woking, Newcastle and Norwich. I saw it twice and sort of half reviewed it in my IP law blog for solicitors and patent agents in Manchester and Liverpool (Cracking Nuts - Copyright in Choreography 24 Nov 2011 IP North West). Even more liberties are taken with Swan Lake which is coming to Leeds, Norwich and Milton Keynes in the new year. I saw it in Leeds with my late spouse first time round. We both regarded it as interesting in the sense of "May you live in interesting times".

Dracula

Dracula as depicted in the cinema: Béla Lugosi in the 1931 film

Photo Wikipedia

Northern Ballet's Dracula, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds 13 Sep 2014

Although I am a Friend of Northern Ballet I had intended to give Dracula a miss, I have never been able to get into Bram Stoker's novel and I have never watched a horror film in the cinema or on TV. To my mind there are enough frightening things in reality without paying to be frightened synthetically.  Also, I had intended to be in Holland yesterday for the opening night of Dutch National Ballet's season and Van Dantzig's Swan Lake tonight but for various reasons that was not to be. So I went to West Yorkshire Playhouse instead and am very glad I did for I was rewarded with a magnificent performance.

As the theatre had run out of programmes I had to remember the plot from the website scenario which is schematic to say the least. The story is convoluted which is one of the reasons why I have never been able to finish the novel. All I could remember last night is that an assistant solicitor called Jonathan Harker found himself in Transylvania  where he encounters the evil count Dracula in his castle and gets into all sorts of trouble which follows him back to England. I also remembered that the novel had a connection with Whitby for which reason it attracts the attention of the modern Goths. However, I could not remember how the other characters fitted into the story so I concentrated on the choreography and the dancing which were stunning.

Created originally for Ballet Met  in Columbus, Ohio in 1999 this ballet was choreographed, directed and in part designed by David Nixon (see the Information Pack) who brought it to Northern Ballet in 2005 (see "Dracula 2005 - From the Archive"). You can get a flavour of the work from this YouTube video of a rehearsal:

The ballet hangs around Dracula, Mina, Harker and Lucy danced impressively by Javier Torres, Dreda Blow, Antoinette Brookes-Daw and Joseph Taylor with strong supporting performances by Lucia Solari, Jessica Morgan and Mariana Rodrigues as the brides of Dracula oozing sex and menace in equal measure, Seward (Nicola Gervasi), Holmwood (Isaac Lee-Baker) and Van Helsing (Matthew Broadbent). A special word of praise for Kevin Poeung who danced Renfield, a psychiatric patient confined to a cage tormented by his warder (Jeremy Cunier) who exploded into frenzy when released from his confinement.

The set, costume and lighting designs were imaginative. I was particularly impressed with Lucy's rose lid coffin and the horses of the night. The score by Alfred Schnitke and arranged by Mikhail Popov varied from the lyrical such as Mina's entry to the unearthly such as her pas de deux with Dracula. Nobody left the theatre humming the score but it worked very well.

West Yorkshire Playhouse is a few hundred yards from the company's headquarters at Quarry Hill so it is a special place for them and also for their audiences. Something magical often happens on the last night of their season in this theatre. It did last year (see "Realizing Another Dream" 15 Sept 2013) and it also did last night. The crowd roared and at least half of us (including me) rose to our feet. On the way out I said goodnight to Janet McNulty whom I know from Balletcoforum. "Aren't you glad you came here tonight?" she asked. "Indeed, I am" I replied, "It might have been as good in Amsterdam but couldn't have been better."

Other Reviews
Luke Jennings  Northern Ballet: Dracula review – lashings of gothic coupling 14 Sept 2014 The Guardian

Janet McNulty BalletcoForum 14 Sept 2014

Further Reading

Charles Hutchinson  Northern Ballet’s Dracula, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, September 4 to 13 4 Sept 2014 The Press