Registration is open for Maria Chugai's Online Class

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Last year I featured Maria Chugai of the Dutch National Ballet.  You will see from my article that she is a very special dancer.   She trained at the Vaganova Academy which produced such greats as Pavlova, Karsavina, Nureyev and Makarova.  She must have been one of its best pupils for she was cast in the lead role of The Nutcracker at the age of 17, one year before her graduation.  She first came to my attention in a performance of Giselle where she danced the Queen of the Wilis (see Mooie 10 November 2018.  She was the best Myrtha that I have ever seen in over 60 years of ballet going.

Earlier today she offered Powerhouse Ballet an online class over Zoom on Tuesday, 21 April at 18:00.  Needless to say, I accepted with alacrity.  Anyone who wants to attend should register through Eventbrite immediately.   Those tickets are unlikely to remain for very long,

To attend this class you will need to download at least the free version of Zoom.   We shall have a rehearsal on Monday at 18:00. An hour before the rehearsal I shall send those who register a link and invite them to join the meeting.   Should there be any problems our chambers IT guru will be on hand to sort them out.

If you wish to join the class, here is the link to Eventbrite.   If you find you can't make it let me know as soon as possible.

Ballet Cymru Workshop

A workshop that is a little bit different

28 Nov 2018  Yorkshire Dance  18:00 - 19:30 

© 2018 Sun Trenverth Photography: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of Ballet Cymru 

Ballet Cymru describe themselves as "a ballet company who like to do things a bit differently." They enjoy finding new ways to make what they do exciting, innovative and relevant.

They achieved those objectives with TIR where they collaborated with Cerys Matthews to translate traditional Welsh songs into dance. I described it as a "thrilling experience" in my review of the company's performance of that ballet in Newport.

Matthews and Ballet Cymru have collaborated again to produce Dylan Thomas – A Child’s Christmas, Poems and Tiger Eggs which the company will dance at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds on 29 Nov 2018. This show promises to be one of the highlights of the Leeds dance season for 2018/2019 so if you have not yet bought your ticket do so now while you still can.

The day before that performance we shall host a workshop for Ballet Cymru at Yorkshire Dance where they will teach us some of the choreography from that show. This is a rare opportunity to dance with artists of Wales's classical dance company who have come from all parts of the world to the work of Darius James and Amy Doughty two of my favourite choreographers.

This workshop is open to anybody aged 18 or above who is regularly attending ballet classes at Northern Ballet Academy or Dance Studio Leeds in Leeds, KNT Danceworks in Manchester, Hype Dance in Sheffield, Ballet North in Halifax or any other adult ballet class of similar standard. Ballet Cymru do not expect you to be another Pavlova but you are unlikely to get much out of the evening if you have not yet mastered the basics.

Admission is free but you must register here in advance. Yorkshire Dance is literally just across the road from Northern Ballet and Phoenix Dance Theatre. It faces the Leeds School of Music. The bus station is the same distance in the opposite direction and the mainline railway station with regular services to all parts of the country is just a little further away.

Immediately after the workshop Powerhouse Ballet will hold a reception for Darius James and the company in Martha's room at Yorkshire Dance where we shall launch the Northern Dance Circle. The Circle will promote dance and dance education in the North in very much the same way as the London Ballet Circle does in London. You can attend that even if you do not attend the workshop. Again, there will be no charge to attend the event but you must register in advance.

Go to the Eventbrite Page