One of KNT's Best Shows Ever

Friends' Meeting House, Manchester

Photo RuthAS Licence CC BY 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

 

KNT Showcase of Dance Friends Meeting House, Manchester 19:30 21 May 2022

Yesterday's Showcase of Dance was KNT's first show since the pandemic and, in many ways, it was one of its best. Showtime is important to dance education because dance is part of theatre. Everything we learn in class is in preparation for performance.  It is therefore important that everyone is offered a chance to perform even though not everyone wants to accept it.

KNT is run by Karen Sant, one of the most enterprising but also one of the most pleasant young women I have ever had the good fortune to know.  Over the last 13 years, she and her teachers have offered adults and kids evening and weekend classes in ballet, contemporary, jazz and tap in central Manchester.  For most of those years, they gave those classes in the studios of Northern Ballet School on Oxford Road.  When access to the studios was prevented by the pandemic Karen transferred the classes online.  When it became possible to hold classes in the open air, Karen moved them to Castlefield.  When it became possible to teach indoors again Karen tried a number of venues including eventually the Quaker Meeting House. 

Karen's students followed her through those changes of venue. That says a lot for both Karen and her students. Students followed her because she is an excellent teacher and her classes are fun.  But dance is not easy and requires a lot of personal commitment.  Dance students are good at supporting each other and from such support, friendships form. That is particularly true of rehearsals, choreographic workshops and days of dance when we have a shared project and rely on each other for the project's success as well as our own.  I have made a lot of friends at KNT over the years.  One of the delights of the evening was seeing many of them in the show.  

Part of the reason for yesterday's success was the venue which the compère likened to a school assembly hall.  In fact, it was a place of worship which would have been used as such this morning and nearly every other Sunday. Quaker worship can take many forms which, incidentally, could include dance. While I did not detect religiosity yesterday I did see enthusiasm (derived from ἐνθουσιασμός or "inspired by God") and plenty of devotion.  But the main advantage of yesterday's venue was its intimacy.  The audience was very close to the dancers which I particularly appreciated as I would normally have been one of them.

Every class performed a short piece last night,  The teachers skilfully choreographed each piece to display their students' skills to their best advantage and I was most impressed with their capabilities. In the beginners' ballet for example one of the few men in the show supported a woman in a movement that gave the impression of a duet.  The tap class danced to music from Slumdog Millionaire.  The compere performed in that piece changing from a three-piece suit to his costume before the audience.  When he asked how he had done I found myself shouting "very well".   My friends and classmates from my pre-intermediate class filled me with pride.  However, my favourite piece of the evening was the advanced ballet class's interpretation of music that Karen has chosen for her wedding.

Yesterday coincided with Karen's birthday. At the reverence, she was presented with a cake, flowers, a massive card and presents to a more or less tuneful rendering of "Happy Birthday".  It was a wonderful evening that I would not have missed for the world.

KNT's Day of Dance Tomorrow

The Dear Old Dancehouse

One of the highlights of my year is KNT's Day of Dance.  It offers a chance to train with some of the best teachers and performers in the business.  Last year, for example, I took classes with   Alex Hallas of Bale Cymru and  Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy.

Another Day of Dance will take place tomorrow and I regret to say that I only learned of it a few minutes ago when I tried to check in your some online classes for the coming week. According to KNT's Class Manager app, the following are available:

• 11:00 - 12:30 Beginner/Pre-Intermediate Ballet 
• 11:00 - 12:30 Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary 
• 13:00 - 14:30 Intermediate/Advanced Ballet
• 13:00 - 14:30 Pre-Intermediate Contemporary 
• 19:00 - 20:30 Beginner/Pre-Intermediate Ballet 
• 19:00 - 20:30 Beginner/Pre-Intermediate Contemporary
• 20:30 - 22:00 Intermediate/Advanced Ballet  
• 20:30 - 22:00 Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary 

All the classes for tomorrow's Day of Dance are priced at £10.

Sadly it won't be quite the same as last year because we are exiled from the Dear Old Dancehouse as a result of the public health emergency but we shall still have excellent teaching.  Above all, we can still wave at each other over Zoom even if we can no longer embrace.

Plagues don't last forever.  There is every chance that medicine will eradicate or at least contain this virus as it has done with so many other infections.   One day this horrible scourge will be nothing more than a horrible memory.  I wish everyone a great weekend.

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.

Scottish Ballet and its Public

Standard YouTube Licence


I was at St Andrews when Western Theatre Ballet moved to Glasgow and right from the start it engaged with its public in a way that no other British company had ever done before.  It visited all sorts of venues including our Buchanan Theatre the day this country adopted decimal currency. Scottish Ballet was the first company that I got to know and love and you know what they say about first loves. As you can see from the film the tradition of engaging with the community continues.

The other way in which Scottish Ballet engages with its public is through its classes. In its newsletter today it announced particulars of its adult ballet classes:

• In my age group there is Regenerate on Thursdays and Sundays;
• A 10 week class Absolute Beginners on Wednesdays between August and October;
• A 10 week class for Beginners on Thursdays between August and October;
• An Intermediate class on Mondays;
• An Advanced class on Tuesdays; and
• Open ballet classes on Tuesdays over the Summer.

Classes take place at the company's premises at The Tramway on Albert Drive next to Pollockshields East station.

Dance Like A Knight - Romeo and Juliet Intensives

Every time I hear Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet my spine tingles and I come out in goose bumps. Whenever I ask a young male dancer what would be his favourite rule it is almost always Romeo and a fair number of young women want to dance Juliet or at least one of the other strong female roles such as Lady Capulet danced so memorably by the magnificent Sarah Kundi in Manchester last year (see Manchester's Favourite Ballet Company 29 Nov 2015).

Well now we can all have our chance since KNT Danceworks are running beginners and advanced intensives on Romeo and Juliet at the Dancehouse at 10 Oxford Road in Manchester on 8 and 9 April 2016. Those intensives will be taken by Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet who taught us Swan Lake in April (KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 1 18 Aug 2015).

Jane Tucker is a wonderful teacher and, as I have said before, I think the world of her but don't expect this programme to be easy. For Swan Lake we did a warm up on pilates mats, then a 90 minute class, then wall to wall rehearsals for the rest of the day until cool down at the end.  It nearly killed me. Nearly, but not quite. If I can survive this intensive, folks, then so can you.

I am really glad I did Swan Lake for lots of reasons. It was good fun and I got a great sense of achievement at the end. Everyone on the course got to know each other a little better and we developed a great camaraderie. I got to know and appreciate the choreography so much more. Whenever I watch cygnets, the swans' entry, the Hungarian dance or Siegfried's solo I smile and say to myself I had a go at that.

If you want to do this intensive call Karen Sant on 07783 103 037, email her at info@kntdanceworks.co.uk or contact her through Facebook you had better get your skates on. Tickets are selling like hot cakes.

By the way Dance of the Knights was used for another ballet  by Milena Siderova of the Dutch National Ballet. She created a hilarious dance called Full Moon for Bart Engelen who is now with the Norwegian Ballet. Read my review in The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015.

KNT Danceworks Summer Intensives

I have already mentioned KNT Danceworks' Adult Summer Intensives in More good news from Manchester 14 April 2015 and KNT Danceworks Adult Summer Intensives 7 May 2015. Yesterday Karen Sant published the curricula vitarum of the course teachers and their credentials are impressive.

Here is what she wrote about Jane Tucker:

"Born in West Yorkshire, Jane undertook her early training with the Northern Dance Centre and completed it at Central School of Ballet and Northern Ballet School where she performed and toured with Manchester City Ballet.
Jane began her professional career with Hong Kong Ballet in 1994, touring extensively through Asia, north America and Canada.She returned to her roots joining Northern Ballet Theatre in 1999 and enjoyed three years touring around the UK and China.Throughout her dancing career Jane has performed in most of the classics and premièred in many new works: The Last Emperor, A Streetcar Named Desire and Madam Butterfly to name a few.
Jane gained Distinction for the Professional Dancers Teaching Diploma at the RAD, London in 2002 and has accumulated extensive teaching experience to date.Since graduating from the RAD Jane has toured Australia undertaking workshops and classes in companies and vocational colleges including the Western Academy for Performing Arts. Within the UK Jane has taught for various schools - Northern Ballet School, Elmhurst, NSCD, SLP college and Theatreworks. She helped produce sleeping Beauty for the Liverpool Proscenium Youth Ballet Company, and provided classical training for contemporary companies Darkin Ensemble and Diversity Dance. She has also coached boys for the West End production of Billy Elliot."

Pausing there,  Jane taught one of the vacation classes at Northern Ballet last year. It was hard work but I enjoyed it very much. I should add that Manchester City Ballet is still going strong and that they performed The Nutcracker delightfully last year (see Alchemy 13 Dec 2014). Jane will teach both the beginners' and the advanced ballet courses. The beginners will be based on Swan Lake and the advanced on Giselle.

Jazz will be taken by Dane Quixall and contemporary by Gavin Persand.  Karen warns that the places are filling up. If you want to take part you should contact her through her Facebook page and ask for an application form. You will be asked for a £50 deposit and the balance must be paid not less than 4 weeks before the start of the course.

I am in a quandary. I love to dance and I know that I would appreciate Swan Lake so much more when I see it on stage if I have actually danced some of it myself - but I have come to ballet very late in life. While I can just about struggle through Fiona Noonan's 90 minute mixed age and mixed ability class at Huddersfield I am not sure that I can keep up with the agile young people who danced so well in Move It last month (see Didn't They Do Well 27 May 2015). My balance is not as good as it was last year and I struggle to stay on demi-pointe for more than a micro-second these days. On the other hand, maybe I should go for it while I can still dance at all.