St Andrews University Dance Club's 50th Anniversary Gala

St Salvator's College, St Andrews 30 April 2018

© 2018 Jane Elizabeth Lambert
All rights reserved

St Andrews University Dance Club 50th Anniversary gala 30 April 2018, 19:30 Byre Theatre, St Andrews

I wrote about how the St Andrews Dance Society was formed in Ballet at University 27 Feb 2017. Last Monday I attended the 50th anniversary gala at the Byre although I think the celebration is slightly premature as I did not go up to university until October 1968.  I think we set up Dance Soc in 1970 or 1969 at the earliest. I say that because our first outing was to see Scottish Theatre Ballet perform Peter Darrell's Beauty and the Beast  at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh and that was not staged until 1969 according to the Peter Darrell Trust.

Never mind! It was still a long time ago and the 50th anniversary (more or less) provides a good excuse for a celebration. And what a celebration it was with a programme comprising nearly 30 different pieces in dance styles ranging from ballet to Highland fusion.  When Sally Marshall (our founding chair) and I were about to graduate we discussed the future of the Society. "Oh it'll just pack up after we leave" suggested Sally.  Sadly I had to agree. Well it didn't. Congratulations to the present members and all the other generations of students for keeping the Club and dance alive in St Andrews over all those years.

The Byre Theatre

© 2018 Jane Elizabeth Lambert
All rights reserved

The Byre Theatre was packed to the gunwales.  Many of those present were students but by no means all.  There was at least one contemporary of mine in the audience who is now a distinguished Scottish lawyer. Although I don't think she was ever a member of the Dance Society she certainly remembered it.  She has seen a lot of dance over the years and her opinion counts. When we met for drinks in the interval we were both greatly impressed by the quality of the work that we had seen so far.  We were unable to compare notes at the end because we lost each other in the crush but my admiration grew right up to the last piece.

On entering the auditorium the stage was lit with a soft purple glow.  Purple and gold appear to be the colours of the Club because many members of the audience wore purple tee-shirts and hoodies with the words "Dance Club 50th Anniversary" in gold characters. About an hour before the show I met several students wearing those garments in South Street on the way to the theatre. I introduced myself to Katie who now does the job I used to do as Club Secretary. "Oh are you Jane?" she asked.  I was flattered to find that at least somebody in my alma mater reads Terppsichore.  Not only that but I was acknowledged by the Club president at the start of the show and thanked for helping to set up the Club.

I admired all the works.  I have no particular favourites.   I commend all the choreographers, dancers, set and costume designers and makers, lighting designers and other technical and support staff equally. However, a review has to be selective and in singling out particular pieces I intend no slight to those I do not mention.

I was very impressed by the pointe work in Jessica Linde's Nouvelle Liberté which she described as "choreographed predominately in the Balanchine style of ballet." In the programme notes she explains that Balanchine had brought an angularity and looseness to ballet allowing his dancers to be more expressive. I had always thought of Balanchine as being a pretty strict and demanding choreographer but after considering some of his early works such as Serenade I think I know exactly what Jessica means and I agree with her.  I should add that I loved all the ballets and, in particular. Ailsa Robertson's setting of Colour of Love to the Bollywood film song Gerua.  It was an ingenious juxtaposition of two art very different art forms that worked brilliantly.  I also cheered and shouted "Brave!" for Catherine Mitzen's Sospiri by the beginners' class.  That was my class when I was at St Andrews though I never reached the high standard I saw on Monday night.  I was hoping to rejoin that class briefly on Sunday for the first time in nearly 50 years but time constraints made it impossible. However, I did get a class at Ballet West which I mentioned in Visiting Taynuilt 3 May 2018.

One genre of dancing that was new to me was Highland fusion  I loved the choice of music and the multicoloured costumes in Holly Alexander's From Here On.  When I was at St Andrews Highland dancing was largely the preserve of the Celtic Society and the OTC and performed to bagpipes. It has moved on. Holly wrote in the programme notes:

"Highland dancing s no longer just about old tradition. It is no longer about sticking to strict rules and regulations. It is no longer just about the sole dancer competing alone. It is no longer solely danced in Scotland. Highland dancing is now about modernizing old traditions."

Holly's was the furthest departure from my perception of  Highland dancing but all the pieces in that genre were innovative and interesting.

Dance is now a competitive sport and the University dance team, the Blue Angels, have distinguished themselves at the Loughborough University Dance Competition before Steven McRae. Members of the team presented different genres all of which I enjoyed tremendously, Stuart McQuarrie's Minions impressed me with its wit, Clair Davison's Mamba with its sense of fun and Charmaine Hillier's The Tide Can Hold You Out with its polish.

All the jazz, tap and contemporary pieces were danced with energy and passion, the Irish with precision and the theatre and lyrical with flair. In the finale wave after wave of members came on stage. They were magnificent.  I am so proud of them.

Ballet at University

Standard YouTube Licence

In 1969 or thereabouts, I attended a student meeting to set up a dance society at St. Andrews. Most of those present were women.   I shall mention their names in case one of them reads this post or perhaps one of my readers can put me in touch with one of them.

Our chair was Sally Marshall who had either danced professionally or had trained to a high level. She came from Edinburgh, read biochemistry and taught our classes. There was Camilla Martiensen from London. A slightly built young woman but exceptionally clever and a delightful dancer. Then there was Meg Hutchinson who came from Argyll or somewhere else in the West. She was a beautiful highland dancer and was almost always accompanied by her mother and two dogs. I think she read modern languages, Spanish certainly and possibly also French. If any of those ladies gets in touch with me I shall be overjoyed.

As you can see from the video there is still a Dance Soc at St Andrews though I don't know whether it is a direct descendant of the society I helped to found. Our club met for classes every Monday at the new sports centre on the North Haugh. We even had a pianist, a young chap who played purely for the love of music. I don't anyone gave him a bean. As well as classes we made trips to nearby towns to see Western Theatre Ballet as Scottish Ballet were then known. We even brought them to St Andrews for its first arts festival in 1971. Our professor of Fine Arts, John Steer, knew the company well when they were both in Bristol It was John Steer who introduced me to the company's artistic director, Peter Darrell and his stars such as Bronwen Curry, Elaine McDonald, Kenn Wells and Ashley Killar. I was also dance correspondent for Ἁɩεν, our student newspaper and reviewed his Beauty and the Beast.

The Dance Soc seems to have grown a bit since my day and now stages shows. It has a Facebook page which I have just "liked" and a full page on the Saints website. It also has its own society website though that is down for maintenance. It appears from the President's report that the Society did very well in competitions in Dundee, Durham and Manchester.

I was reminded of Dance Soc by a post to BalletCo Forum on Cambridge University Ballet Club's recent performance of Giselle on 17 Feb 2017. There are some lovely photos of the ballet on HJORTH MLED H's website and he has written a rather good summary.  Some of those dancers seem to be rather good and it is impressive that they have found the time to fit classes and rehearsals into their busy schedule.

I have also googled "ballet" and the names of some of our other great universities and have found ballet clubs or dance societies at Oxford, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dublin, Durham, UCL, King's College London (how could they not with Deborah Bull as their Vice-Principal), Imperial College, LSE. Manchester. Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham, Cardiff, Sheffield, Newcastle, Exeter and Southampton.

I gave up ballet when I graduated from St Andrews. I went to the University of California at Los Angeles in 1972. In those days there was not even a ballet company in LA let alone a ballet class. All that seems to have changed I am glad to see for ballet is now offered by UCLA Recreation.  I still attended ballets. Dance has been an abiding passion.  I supported Covent Garden and many other theatres and companies financially throughout my life. But I did not so much as touch a barre for very many years.

It was only in 2010 (shortly after I had lost my spouse to motor neurone disease and undergone some life changing surgery of my own) that I approached a barre again. I noticed an ad by Fiona Noonan, an Australian trained dancer for ballercise which turned out to be pilates, body conditioning and a bit of ballet. I took that class for a while and miraculously recovered my will to live. A little later she invited me to take her ballet class and my confidence grew.  In 2013 I joined Annemarie Donoghue's class for the over 55s at Nothern Ballet Academy. It is no exaggeration to say that ballet has turned my life around. When I thank Annemarie, Ailsa, Chris, Fiona, Jane, Josh, Karen or some other teacher for a class, it is not just for the 90 minutes of instruction. It is for giving me my life back.

At St Andrews we sing:

"Gaudeamus igitur. Iuvenes dum sumus.
Gaudeamus igitur.Iuvenes dum sumus.
Post iucundam iuventutem.
Post molestam senectutem.
Nos habebit humus —
Nos habebit humus."

Ballet has helped to keep the molesta senectutis  at bay up to now and with a bit of luck humus me non habebit at least for a while.