A Romeo and Juliet for our Times

Ballet Cymru, Romeo a Juliet, Riverfront Theatre, Newport, 5 Nov 2016, 19:30


Never has the story of Romeo and Juliet been more relevant to our times. Powerful aristocratic families may no longer brawl in Verona but, as Krzysztof Pastor showed in his version of Romeo and Juliet for Scottish Ballet, other forces have taken their place (see Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet 18 May 2014). In Pastor's ballet the protagonists wore red shirts and black shirts and his message was reinforced by documentary footage from recent Italian history which was projected onto the backdrop. We see similar divisions in the bitter election campaign on the other side of the Atlantic  and, indeed, in our own country since the EU referendum. Shakespeare teaches us that hate kills. A lot of people die in his story - not just Romeo and Juliet but also Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris. However, there is also hope in Shakespeare's tale for the feuding families eventually come to their senses.

It is one thing for a theatrical work to be relevant to our times but quite another to transpose it to our times. It is sometimes said that ballet (like the other performing arts) needs to "get with it" (as folk used to say in the 1960s) if it is not to wither on the vine. It was the subject of the discussion between David Nixon and Luke Jennings on Front Row a few weeks ago which I mentioned in Of Bikes and Busses 25 Oct 2016. Pastor's colleague at the Dutch National Ballet, David Dawson, successfully brought  Swan Lake up to date for Scottish Ballet (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016). It seems that Ted Brandsen may have pulled it off with Coppelia (see A Coppelia Makeover  5 Nov 2016). Other choreographers have been less successful. I fear that Akram Khan did not quite manage it with Giselle nor Nixon with Swan Lake I think Darius James and Amy Doughty succeeded in Romeo a Juliet.

Over the last few years, James and Doughty have produced one fine work after another - Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella and Tir to name just three. They have a company of dancers who in my view stand comparison with any similarly sized troupe in the world. They have rightly been nominated for the National Dance Awards for the second time year running, Why they do not get even more critical attention and indeed acclaim beats me. I may be a humble blogger but I have seen a lot of ballets in my time and in my book James and Doughty and their company are among the brightest stars in the balletic firmament just now.

I had seen Ballet Cymru's Romeo a Juliet in the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal in 2013 and loved it (see They're not from Chigwell - they're from a small Welsh Town called Newport 14 May 2013). On Saturday I saw the same ballet in the company's hometown and loved it even more. The show was presented in the Riverfront Arts Centre, a modern complex of galleries, studios and auditoriums on the banks of the Usk. The larger of the auditoriums seats 482 persons and has a big stage for dance. It was there that the show took place.

One of the reasons why I loved the show so much was Gwenllian Davies's remarkable performance as Juliet. Davies is in her first year with the company and this is her first job. Consequently, she is barely older than Shakespeare's Juliet. As I told her after the show, I have seen some of the world's greatest dancers in the role including Lynn Seymour and more recently Alina Cojocaru and Viktoria Tereshkina, but never have I seen a more convincing Juliet. Davies danced with passion and energy and, for a while, I saw in that talented young artist what Shakespeare must have imagined. Of course, Juliet is nothing without her Romeo. Andrea Battagia partnered Davies exquisitely.  Also young he has already achieved much in his career. He brought that experience and authority to the performance. He commands a stage in a way that few other dancers of his age can equal.

Another reason for the success of the ballet was Lydia Arnoux. She danced Cerys or Juliet's best friend. Because I am accused of double standards in not criticizing this innovation as "change for change's sake", I should explain that James and Doughty have set their ballet in modern Britain (indeed Newport) in which teenagers' nurses no longer exist but best friends do. Cerys more than makes up for the absence of the nurse. She introduces a new dynamic into the show. I had seen Arnoux in Kendal but she was even moredelightful on Saturday night.

Anther excellent young dancer whom Ballet Cymru has recruited as an apprentice just over a month ago is Ann Wall. As a member of the London Ballet Circle, I am proud to see that we have supported her. She danced Lady Capulet which is a demanding role for any dancer but particularly a very young one. She has to balance conflicting emotions of love and duty and acquire instantly the weight of years. She succeeded admirably.  In that role she was partnered deftly by Robbie Moorcroft as Lord Capulet. Moorcroft, another of the company's most experienced dancers and well liked by audiences, was impressive. He was magisterial in restraining Tybalt and rebuking Romeo after Romeo had gatecrashed the Capulets' party but tyrannical in his anger when confronted by a defiant daughter.

It was her father's blow that triggered the chain of events that led to the death of the lovers and Paris. Paris, danced by Mark Griffiths, yet another recent recruit by the company. Paris, an apparently decent man with seemingly sincere affection for Juliet, suffers not just her rejection but also death after lingering in the crypt for just a little bit too long. I have always had sympathy for him as I have for Hilarion in Giselle. He has even less cause to die.

The same cannot always be called for the headstrong Tybalt whom I have always regarded as a bit of a thug. Dylan Waddell portrayed him as a loyal brother zealous in defence of his sister's honour. Waddell, whom I had previously seen in MurleyDance, us a strong but sensitive dancer and a fine actor. Miguel Fernandes was a great choice for Mercutio. Another exciting dancer tp watch. So, too, was Anna Pujol, a convincing Benvolio.

One dancer I was particularly glad to see on stage was Krystal Lowe. She first impressed me in Kendal and my admiration for her work has increased with every performance. Her appearance in Tir at Sadler's Wellls last year a few weeks after the loss of Mandev Sokhi  was one of the most moving I have ever seen. She was the Friar on Saturday, a pivotal role but not the extended one created by Jean-Christophe Maillot for his version. Lowe was as magnificent as ever. If I had flowers I would gladly have tossed them on stage for her. On Saturday she performed as a guest artist. I understand that she is now at the University of South Wales and teaching Ballet Cymru's adult ballet class. I am sure all my readers join me in wishing her well in this latest stage of her career.

I said above that this was a Romeo and Juliet for our times. James and Doughty achieved this with only minimal changes to the libretto and only an abridgement of Prokofiev's score. The dancers wore modern dress and images of Newport flashed on stage. For instance, an image of the passage under the bridge across the Usk (which lies just yards away from the Riverfront) appeared in the riot scenes. The flashing light of a police vehicle appeared just at the point where the duke would arrive in other productions. Instead of swords the boys carried shillelaghs and knives. Nothing to suggest Verona.

Romeo a Juliet is James and Doughty's best work yet, It shows how a small company of young dancers with modest resources can stage a full-length ballet brilliantly.  It would not surprise me in the least if Ballet Cymru were nominated for a National Dance Award next year on the strength of this production.

The Terpsichore Nominations

Just a bit of fun inspired by the National Dance Awards and not to be taken at all seriously but at the end of every year I do a review of the best work that I have seen in the previous 12 months (see Highlights of 2015 29 Dec 2015). At the end of the post I set out my favourites which were:

Ballet of the Year
Ballet Cymru's Cinderella, runner up Ballet Cymru's Tir

Company of the Year
Scottish Ballet, runners up Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Ballet

Small Companies of the Year
Ballet Black and Ballet Cymru

Contemporary Company of the Year
Phoenix Dance Theatre

Male Dancer of the Year
Denis Rodkin in La Bayadere, runner up Matthew Golding in the Royal Ballet's Onegin and the Dutch National Ballet's Cinderella

Female Dancer of the Year
Laura Morera as Lise runners up Anna Tsygankova and Bethany Kingsley-Garner as Cinderella

Choreographers of the Year
Christopher Hampson for Perpetuum Mobile for Northern Ballet and Ernst Meisner for Embers for the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company

Dancers to watch
Floor Elmers of Dutch National Ballet, Krystal Lowe of Ballet Cymru, Marie-Astrid-Mence of Phoenix Dance Theatre and Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet

Promising Newcomers
Bart Engelen, Norwegian Ballet, Cristiano Principato and Emilie Tassinari, Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Tim Hill of Ballet Cymru and Prentice Whitlow of Phoenix Dance Theatre

This year we shall do it a little differently. I invite everyone who has contributed to Terpsichore in the last year or so (that is to say Alison Winward, David Murley, Gita Mistry, Janet McNulty, Joanne Goodman and Mel Wong (happy birthday Mel by the way) to nominate for each category. Then I shall hold a ballot for the readers.

I have not quite made up my mind yet but provisionally Jean-Christophe Maillot is leading the way in the best full-length ballet stakes with his Taming of the Shrew for the Bolshoi pursued hotly by Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari, David Dawson's Swan Lake and Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre in that order.

In the one-act ballets category, it is a dead heat between Ernst Meisner's No Time before Time  and Christopher Hampson's Storyville.

My classical company of the year is the Durch National Ballet though I was impressed by the Australians and the Bolshoi when they came to London and the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet are always near the top of my lists.

My nominations for best small company are Ballet Black and the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company,

Having seen a lot of contemporary dance, this year I can't make my mind up between Netherlands Dance Theatre and Rambert though Phoenix and the National Dance Company of Wales are also on my list. I am not sure how to classify Alvin Ailey but they definitely deserve an award.

Best male dancer this year has to be Federico Benelli for his Albrecht in Giselle and Lauren Cuthbertson as best female in the same production, However, I would make special personal awards to Bethany Kingsley-Garner for her Odette-Odile in Liverpool and Anna Tsyganlova for her Mata Hari.

Dancers to watch? There are so many but I think we shall be seeing a lot of Cristiano Principato of the Dutch National Ballet who proved his worth as a choreographer, artistic director and chief cook and bottlewasher as well as dancer in Trecate earlier this year, Daniele Gould in Hungary who was an enchanting Puss in Boots and Mthuthuzeli November here.

I would also like to add a special adult ballet education award to Karen Sant of KNT Danceworks for organizing wonderful intensive workshops for adult ballet beginners in Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadere and The Nutcracker and Jane Tucker for teaching them.

Alison, David, Gita, Janet, Joanne and Mel are invited to let me have their nominations (if any by 17:00 on 30 Nov) and then we shall offer it to the readers for a vote.

A Coppelia Makeover

Standard YouTube Licence

Dutch National Ballet's Christmas show this year will be Ted Brandsen's Coppelia. It will run at the Stopera (or Music Theatre) from 10 Dec 2016 to 1 Jan 2017 with performances on Christmas  Eve, Boxing Day and New Year's Eve,

This is nothing like any Coppelia that we have seen before. It is set not in a remote 19th-century village somewhere in Mitteleuropa but in a modern urban setting.  Instead of being an eccentric recluse Dr Coppelius runs a beauty clinic to which celebrities flock including a beautiful young girl with a curious hairdo who turns Franz's head. In this video, the choreographer explains that the set was designed to resemble a child's picture book by the well-known illustrator, Sieb Posthuma. Because of the change of period and setting a delicious range of new costumes have been designed by François-Noël Cherpin.

I am very cautious about attempts to update well-known, well-loved ballets. I think David Dawson succeeded with Scottish Ballet's Swan Lake (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016) but I am much less sure about David Nixon's version (see Up The Swannee 17 March 2016) and I have one or two issues with Akram Khan's Giselle. I have yet to see Brandsen's Coppelia on stage (though I have seen quite extensive bits of it on YouTube) and if the video is anything to go by it seems to work very well

Dance in Newcastle

Dance City Performances (with subtitles) from Northern Stars on Vimeo.

I first heard of DanceCity from BalletLORENT when they visited Huddersfield on 30 Sept 2016 (see BalletLORENT 3 Oct 2016). BalletLORENT are one of several dance companies that are based at a studio and theatre complex known as "DanceCity" which is located just north of the Tyne at Temple Street in Newcastle.

DanceCity is a member of the National Dance Network to which dance agencies around the country (including our own Yorkshire Dance) are also associated. DanceCity runs classes in many styles to students of all ages and abilities. These include ballet classes for beginners and improvers aged 55 or over which seem to be very similar to the classes that I attend at Northern Ballet Academy. For those contemplating a career in dance, DanceCity's Learning Academy offers formal, professional, dance training at all levels starting from children aged 10 to postgraduate level in conjunction with Northumbria and Teeside Universities and local schools and universities. That includes a Centre for Advanced Training similar to the CATs in Leeds and the Lowry. There are opportunities for local choreographers and companies to perform their own work and even a small fund for commissioning new work from local artists.

Equally impressive is the performance programme for the theatre. In November, for instance, there will be no less than 6 shows starting with James Wilton's Leviathan this evening which is described as a "blend of athletic dance, martial arts and capoeira." The plot is intriguing:

"LEVIATHAN follows Ahab, a ship captain hell-bent on capturing the white whale: Moby Dick, a beast as vast and dangerous as the sea itself, yet serene and beautiful beyond all imagining. Ahab’s crew is drawn into the unhinged charisma of their captain, blindly following him on his perilous adventure towards almost certain destruction."

The theatre is currently offering a very generous 2 performances  for £22 promotion which seems good value for live entertainment in the centre of a major city.

Although Newcastle does not yet appear to have its own professional classical ballet company (but please do correct me if I am wrong) it is on the circuit for visiting companies. For instance, Northern Ballet will perform Beauty and the Beast next week and Scottish Ballet will dance Hansel and Gretel  in the same theatre in February.

Ballet Black in Doncaster

Ballet Black, Triple Bill, CAST, Doncaster, 2 Nov 2016

Yesterday Ballet Black made its debut at the CAST Theatre in Doncaster with its triple bill of Cristaux, To Begin, Begin and Storyville. Considering that the performance was in direct competition with the live streaming of the Royal Ballet's Anastasia and that the centre of Doncaster resembled a ghost town last night as I tramped around pedestrian streets and plazas looking for the theatre, the company did very well to attract a fair sized crowd.

The programme was the same as the one I had seen in Leeds on the 15 Oct 2016 (see Never Better: Ballet Black in Leeds 16 Oct 2016) and at the Lowry on the 19 June 2016 (see Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016). Two of my friends wondered why I wanted to see the show a third time rather than the Royal Ballet screening. The answer is that there are some ballets that one can see time after time and still find something new while there are others for which one performance is quite enough even if that performance did take place in 1971 and the cast included Lynn Seymour, Antoinette Sibley and Svetlana Berisosva. Once I have made up my mind about a ballet, no amount of peer pressure on Facebook or BalletcoForum, marketing hype or rave reviews by journalists who are likely to have seen far fewer ballets than I have and who probably think a frappé is a type of coffee will change my mind.

So did I see anything new in Doncaster? Why, yes I did. On the previous occasions I had seen Arthur Pita's Cristaux my eyes had been on Cira Robinson rather than on Mthuthuzeli November. This time I concentrated on him and realized how much I had been missing. He begins the dance and it ends with him. My eyes have gravitated towards Robinson on the previous occasions because its title means Crystals and her tutu and headdress seem to sparkle with crystals. But November is splendid too in his costume of shiny blue which also has an odd sparkling stone or two. And it is he who leads the ballerina round the stage with his glissades and piqués.

Having seen To Begin, Begin in rehearsal at the Friends' event in July (see Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney 14 July 2016) where the audience discussed it at length with the choreographer I think I learned to love it more. This is a ballet that Sayaka Ichikawa makes her own. It is she who is hoisted into the air seemingly by the stream of silk and later enveloped by it as though she were the madonna. But Ichikawa was not the only dancer to shine. So too did her partner, Jacob Wye, as well as Damien Johnson, Jose Alves, Isabela Coracy and Marie-Astrid Mence who were the other couples in the piece.

There were some interesting cast changes in Christopher Hampson's Storyville which helped me to understand it better. Johnson, who had previously danced Nola's lover, was Mack in last night's show while Jacob Wye became her lover. Coracy danced Lulu which had previously been danced by Ichikawa. Those changes introduced a new dynamic into the ballet. Johnson dances with considerable authority which is why he is ideally suited for such roles as Oberon in Arthur Pita's Dream or the dad in Marney's Dogs Don't Do Ballet. Because he carries such authority it is a shock to see him playing a villain. He used that authority to spice that role with menace. By contrast, Wye seemed fresh-faced, sensitive, almost as vulnerable as Nola. How he must have suffered as that beautiful creature sank into alcoholic despair. Coracy was a great Lulu. She can play mean in a way that other dancers can't. My heart missed a beat as Lulu plunged a hat pin into the heart of Nola's rag doll. And Nola? Robinson was as beautiful as ever.

Yesterday was a bittersweet moment. It was the last time I would see beautiful Ballet Black this year and, in many ways, this tour was the company's best ever. When I booked my seat at the front of the stalls I had thought of throwing flowers London style at those wonderful dancers. My plan was defeated as no shops were open in the Frenchgate Centre yesterday evening. Probably just as well because the CAST is a fine theatre for dance and I would hate to be banned from it. As was said by a kind Doncastrian (is that right for a denizen of Doncaster?) who had tried to direct me to Sheffield in the belief that there were no theatres nearby when I asked for directions to the CAST: "We're in Donny, love". So the dancers will have to content themselves with verbal flowers - but they and their director and choreographers each deserved the biggest bouquet I could carry for their performances last night.

Powys Dance

Powys is huge. It accounts for 25% of Wales. It stretches all the way from the county that we used to know as Merioneddshire to erstwhile Monmouthshire. It straddles the English border to Machynlleth by the Irish sea. It stretches from the Brecon Beacons almost to Snowdonia.

Powys was created by the Local Government Act 1972, the same monstrous legislation that abolished our Saxon ridings and left us "Cleveland" and "Humberside" in its stead. Save for early medieval historians and archaeologists whose research or teaching concerned the 5th-century Celtic kingdom by that name, nobody spoke of "Powys" before that Act came into force.

But never mind, the people of that massive local government entity have created institutions with which folk from its ancient market towns and rural villages can identify. One of those institutions is Powys Dance (or Dawns Powys if you prefer).

Powys Dance is the dance authority for this municipality and claims on the About page of its website to have "been a part of the cultural fabric of the Powys arts scene for 35 years." Its mission is "to inspire more people to enjoy participating in dance" and, if the following video is anything to go by, it succeeds in that objective.

What We Do at Powys Dance from Powys Dance on Vimeo.

Classes are offered to kids, young people and adults with disabilities at very reasonable rates. These include ballet, Pilates and yoga at an impressive looking studio and auditorium at Llandrindod Wells.

Powys Dance's blog shows that the county is visited by the National Dance Company of Wales (see National Dance Company of Wales @ The Hafren: Class + Performance 24 Oct 2016) and I see from Ballet Cymru's website that that company will dance Romeo a Juliet at the same venue on 9 Dec 2016. Having seen that performance in Kendal three years ago (see They're not from Chigwell - they're from a small Welsh Town called Newport 14 May 2013) and the National Dance Company in Huddersfield (see Cambriophilia  19 March 2015) I can tell the ballet and dance fans of Newtown that they are in for a treat.

12,190!

That was the number of hits that we received in October 2016!  In March 2013, our first full month, we achieved 269 hits and actually dropped to 196 in August of that year. We are now averaging 393 hits in a single day.

I started this blog on the 25 Feb 2013 with a review of Ballet West's performance of The Nutcracker at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Since then we have published 777 posts including contributions from Alison Winward, Ciara Sturrock, David Murley, Gita Mistry, Janet McNulty, Joanne Goodman, Mary Howard, Peter Groves and Mel Wong.  My thanks to each and every one of them.

Our most popular article to date was my interview with Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet on 3 Sept 2014, followed by my reviews of the Junior Company's opening night in Amsterdam on 8 Feb 2016, Ballet West's 2016 Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet in 2015 and Chelmsford Ballet's Nutcracker in 2014.

This blog has recorded important events in my life such as  my first lesson with the over 55 class of Northern Ballet and my first performance on film with Chantry Dance and my first live performance on the stage of the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre.

I have reviewed some great performances such as Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari, David Dawson's Swan Lake, Cranko's Onegin and David Nixon's Midsummer Night's Dream. Some of those shows have been in great theatres like the Stopera and Covent Garden. Others have been local theatres in small towns like the Chelmsford Civic and the Teatro Silvio Pelico in Trecate.

Through blogging I have seen some of the greatest dancers of all time such as Antoinette Sibley and Beryl Gray and shaken hands with some of the great names like Li-Cunxin and Peter Wright. I have also met some fine people - some on stage as dancers and choreographers, others in the studio as teachers and fellow students and many more in the auditorium or at talks who simply share my passion for dance.

I should like to thank all those who have danced for me or created dance for me, all who have taught me dance and all who have contributed in one way or another to this blog.