Product Review #2: Capezio 27" Stirrup Legwarmers

© 2017 Wendy McDermott: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the copyright owner

Wendy McDermott

I read an article recently via Twitter entitled “Listening to your Body” (dancemagazine.com). Its focus was on the development of the dancer’s body with age.  However, there were points within that article that could apply to most of us, whether dancing professionally or enthusiastically attending a class at a local dance studio. The awareness of the difference between static and dynamic stretching is one example as are the importance of proper nutrition and rest. 

The article went on to say that, as we go through our forties, tissues don’t retain water as they used to (and therefore require more rest, stretching and strengthening). In our 50s and onwards our tissues become thinner and weaker. Warming up, therefore, is crucial. 

I’ve been to classes where warming of the body precedes barre and others that go straight into pliés etc (can this be considered warm up?). The aforementioned article reads: 

“...the older dancer must be steadfast about warming up [to]...allow that muscle to get as juicy as possible and to be able to contract and expand within its limits”. 

There are garments aplenty which help dancers keep their bodies and muscles warm. Hopefully, some of you have read my short review on the Essential Legwarmers (see Wendy McDermott Product Review: Leg Warmers 10 March 2017).

Here I review of the Capezio 27” Stirrup Legwarmers. I ordered them in Wolf Grey. The colour looks fairly true to that provided by the colour swatch on the website but the actual product is much darker in colour. Hopefully, you can see that in the above photograph.

The length was adequate, the ribbed knit stretching naturally as I pulled them on. The legwarmers are made from 44% viscose, 28% polyester and 28% nylon, which gave them a smooth, soft feel. I have only worn them over tights but I am confident that if worn over bare legs they would not itch at all. They are neatly finished at all opening points with no raw edges and the elastic ‘hidden’ within the knit.

For some time I had been considering buying this longer style but I had two main concerns:– 

• The first was that they would slip down; 
• The second was that the elastic would be too tight around the thigh. 

I had asked several fellow dancers if their leggings fell down during class. All of them said theirs did so I had no high expectations that mine would defy gravity. They didn’t. What I can say though is that, despite the expectation they did not fall below the knee. They took me through barre to grand allegro and also floor work (some of you might be familiar with the RAD grade 7 ‘Study in Stillness and Gravity'). By the end, I was pleasantly surprised. 

Nor were they too tight around the top of the thigh, which I was glad of, but wonder whether this ‘comfortable fit’ would prove detrimental after several wears and washes. I have now worn them three times and washed them once. After the latter, they’ve neatly returned to their original state, though likewise, it’s too soon to tell for how long this will remain. 

All in all, I can say I’m very satisfied with my purchase and, given the dangers of not keeping ‘older’ muscles warm and flexible, I consider them to be another essential part of my dance wardrobe and shall be wearing them at Jane Tucker's forthcoming intensive one day workshop at KNT Danceworks (see Le Corsaire Intensive 2 April 2017).  Maybe I shall see some of you there.

A Hero of our Time

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Bolshoi Ballet A Hero for our Time streamed from Moscow, 9 April 2017

I could not help wondering whether I was letting my love of ballet get the better of me as I drove for nearly an hour to the nearest cinema to show the Bolshoi's A Hero of our Time on the first really good day of the year, especially as the forecast for the rest of the week is nothing to write home about. But I am very glad I did because this was one of the best live screenings that I have ever seen. It was the Bolshoi Ballet at its very best.

One of the reasons why I trekked to the Pictureville cinema at the Science + Media Museum in Bradford is that I read Lermontov's short stories in translation when I was at school. It was just after I had made the acquaintance of Leon Bakst and other late 19th and early 20th century artists who in turn led me to Diaghilev and eventually to ballet. I had read Princess Mary with particular attention because the death of Grushnitsky in a duel with Pechorin foretold the manner of the author's own death. Lermontov was only 26 when he died. He had published A Hero of our Time the year before his death and it was already in a second edition in his lifetime. Think what he might have achieved and he lived as long as Tolstoy.

A young man's novellas need to be interpreted by a young composer and that is precisely what we got with Ilya Demutsky's score. Demutsky speaks English well having studied in San Francisco and he discussed his work in that language with the presenter Katya Novikova in the interval. He told her that this was his first full-length ballet which makes it all the more remarkable. Novikova had noticed that he opened each ballet with a single instrument on stage: a clarinet for Bela, a cello for Taman and a cor anglais for Princess Mary. Demutsky explained that was to set the atmosphere. For instance, Lermontov had described Taman as "the nastiest little hole of all the seaports of Russia". Demutsky spoke how he had expressed that nastiness in his music.

Lermontov's book is a collection of novellas or long short stories centring around the adventures of Pechorin, a young army officer, who makes his way through the Caucasus mountains which were then the frontier of the Russian empire. The choreographer, Yuri Possokhov, has taken three of those stories, Bela, Taman and Princess Mary. Rather than repeat the plot word for word I shall leave it to my readers to consult the excellent introduction on the "About Performance" and synopsis pages on the Bolshoi's website.

As Pechorin appears in all three ballets, it would have been asking far too much of one dancer to perform that role through the whole show. Especially as there were was a lot of jumping to be done, The role was therefore split between Igor Svirko in Bela, Artem Ovchanrenko in Taman and Ruslan Skvortsov in Princess Mary. Readers will remember that Skvortsov impressed me particularly for his performance as Siegfried in Swan Lake when the company visited London last year.

The Bolshoi fielded three of their best leading ladies with Olga Smirnova dancing the beautiful, tragic Bela,  Yekaterina Shipulina the enticing and ultimately treacherous Undine and the magnificent Svetlana Zakharova as Mary. All three ballerinas were impressive but Zakharova showed her genius in one prolonged camera shot immediately after a duel where her face expressed her complex emotions more completely than any poem or novel. I have never seen this in a dancer before and rarely in an actor, Truly an artiste sans pareil.

There were several other memorable performances in Princess Mary. Denis Savin as the unhappy Grushnitsky. How my heart leapt out to him as he flinched from aiming at his friend Pechorin who seemed to have no qualms in dispatching Grushnitsky. Why is duelling so prominent in Russian literature? There is another in Pushkin's Onegin. Duelling is homicide no less. Kristina Kretova was a compelling Vera. Yet another victim of Pechorin. Finally, the wheelchair dancers deserve a cheer. They are every bit as polished and graceful as the rest of the cast.

I should say a word for the set designer Kirill Serebrennikov and the lighting designer Simon Donger. The conjuring up of ripples of water on the backdrop in Taman impressed me particularly. So, too, of course, did the sanitorium in Princess Mary.  

I am not sure when the Bolshoi will return to Covent Garen but I hope that they will bring A Hero of our Time when they do.

Gems

Lauren CuthbertsobRoyal Ballet Jewels Royal Opera House

Photo Helen McDonough
© 2017 Helen McDonough, all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the author

Helen McDonough

The Royal Ballet, Jewels, Royal Opera House, 1 April 2017, 14:00

Last Saturday I went to ROH to see the matinee of Jewels. It was wonderful I really enjoyed it and I came away ever grateful to Mr B for looking in that window at Van Cleef & Arpels in New York 50 years ago and being inspired to create this ballet - one of my all time favourites!

Emeralds

Photo Helen McDonough
© 2017 Helen McDonough, all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the author

Emeralds was beautiful I really love that piece for its elegant dancing and the gorgeous Faure score which I find so calming. Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball were the main couple and danced like it was second nature to them and not their debut! I thought Yasmine was really beautiful. Itizar Mendizabal did the other lead with the clock-work like arm and leg moves - she was nice but Leanne Benjamin, whom I saw years ago, is the one to get those moves spot on. I really enjoyed watching the corps with all the patterns and intricate weaving in and out that Balanchine so loves.

Rubies

Photo Helen McDonough

© 2017 Helen McDonough, all rights reservedReproduced with kind permission of the author

In Rubies we had Tierney Heap as the "Tall Girl" - she was very good. The couple was danced by Alexander Campbell and Akane Takada. They were all great. It is such a fun piece and at one point though Tierney ran out of music! She was still dancing but the orchestra had finished the music - Pavel Sorokin conducting perhaps did not have his eye quite on the dancers?! Alexander Campbell had a lot of fun especially where he danced with the male corps being chased by them - he was not quite as fast as Steven McRae with the spins but that is Steven's speciality I think! Akane Takada was a surprise choice for me in Rubies as I thought Emeralds might be more "her". However, she danced beautifully as she always does.

Diamonds on this occasion was my favourite piece it was just stunning. I was mesmerised by it. Lauren Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov danced the lead couple and their grand PDD was just fabulous. The brush of hands, very light touches and regal elegance of their dance was just gorgeous to watch. Vadim has really matured since I last saw him in a major performance and his command of the stage has grown. He did some amazing tours en l'air in a large circle and landed so softly from all his jumps. His partnering of Lauren was always very considerate - a real "danseur noble" as they say! It was such a refreshing change for me to see these 2 dance Diamonds as previously I always seem to have seen Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares who are good, but I needed a change and yesterday I got it in spades. The corps de ballet were great in Diamonds and the choreography was so wonderful to watch with its complex patterns - all best seen from above as per my seat. It is a credit to all the dancers and repetiteurs that the patterns worked so well - squares, lines, crisscrossing over, circles you name it it is in there - what a genius Mr B was! Then the finale with the crescendo of music was just spine tingling and really left me wanting more. 

For some reason, there was no "red run" at the end of any piece which was a pity, but the applause was enthusiastic for all three pieces. I shall be going to the cinema relay next week to see the main cast, but I would really love to see this cast again, I was so impressed. If you can get a ticket I would highly recommend seeing this run of Jewels as The Royal Ballet seem to be on really good form with lots of the younger dancers coming up and doing really well. The future looks very bright at ROH at the moment!

Dance! Dance! Dance!

Ripon Cathedral

Author wfmillar
Source Wikipedia

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Ripon Dance Academy  Dance! Dance! Dance! Ripon Grammar School, 2 April 2017, 18:30 

Today's New York Times features a charming 360 degree video of children in New York auditioning for the School of American Ballet. Almost every one of those children will have been taught pliés and tendus at a local dance school. We saw Sergei Polunin's first teacher in Dancer on 3 March 2017. Local dance schools are very important and deserve to be supported by those who value dance. That is one of the reasons why I drove half way across Yorkshire to see the annual show of the Ripon Dance Academy in the assembly hall of Ripon Grammar School last Sunday.

The performance took place in the assembly hall of Ripon Grammar School whose old boys include Richard Hammond and Bruce Oldfield. Not perhaps the best venue because it was pretty full by the time I arrived a good 20 minutes before the curtain rose and as all the seats were on the same level it was impossible to see the dancers' feet. I took an aisle seat about 2 two-thirds of the way back from the stage which enabled me to see the dancers on the periphery of the stage who tended to be the younger or least experienced ones but not those taking the leading roles who took centre stage.

The show was organized in three parts called "acts" and between each act there was an interval that allowed the audience to stretch to stretch one's legs. The show was compered by a gentleman whose name I have been unable to find in the programme. He had mentioned something about refreshments in the intervals which had apparently earned him the displeasure of his wife for none were on offer. I don't think anyone minded for it was a fine evening and it was relief enough to stand and walk around the auditorium, foyer and forecourt.

Act 1 started with a modern jazz routine called One Short Day. It was followed by "What is this feeling?" from Wicked. The singers whom I believe to have been Amelia Noakes and Sofia Robinson had pleasant voices and good stage presence. Children in the preparatory and primary ballet classes danced the Ugly Duckling to Danny Kaye's vocals and Cinderella though not to Prokofiev. In this they were led by an adult whom I guess to have been one of their instructors. The choreography seemed to incorporate some of the exercises that they would have learned in class which they seemed to remember well. Next was a tap routine by the youngsters, Everything Old is New Again. 

My favourite piece in the first act was Five Guys Named Moe who turned out to be four girls, Amelia Dodds, Matilda O'Brien, Shannon O'Brien and Gaby Simmonds and one guy, Elliot Hutchinson. All danced well but I was particularly impressed by Eliot who seemed to show real promise though he has got to learn to smile a bit. Indeed, all the dancers have got to smile. Only my colleague, Amelia Sierevogel, seemed to be enjoying herself but she is an undergraduate whereas most of the others were teenagers or young children.

The preparatory and primary tap dancers performed the Mickey Mouse March delightfully in their Minnie Mouse costumes. They earned some of the loudest applause of the evening. The show group rounded off the first act with extracts from Mary Poppins.

The whole of the second act was given over to extracts from Coppelia though a version that did not seem to have a Franz or Swanhilda. Eliot, however, danced Dr Coppelius, a role which required him to do so lifting as well as some awkward assemblés and chaînés. Four scenes were danced - the flower scene, the presentation of the doll, the girls' trespass in Coppelius's workshop while he is in the pub and a finale. Students of all levels performed in this act and they were all good.

Act three started with another musical, Join the Circus, by the Show Group. Elliot plus the girls in the grade 4, 5 and intermediate classes danced an Egyptian Ballet. I had hoped we might get a rare performance of The Pharaoh's Daughter by Petipa but it turned out to be from Nixon's Cleopatra. Or at least it was  Schönberg's music. I am not sure about the choreography. The boys (who were in the minority in this cast) danced a vigorous Mission Impossible. More freestyle from the seniors in Lose My Breath. Then Fame from the grade 4 tap dancers, Trolls by the preparatory, primary and grade 1 modern students in delightful costumes with some impressively spiky headgear, Music by the grades 2, 3 and 4 modern jazz students and a reverence by the entire cast.

The cast was rewarded by enthusiastic applause. The principal, Carole Cundale, gave a short speech thanking all who had participated in the show including some of her classmates from some of her own childhood classes who had trekked up from London. Everyone got a goody bag of some kind. The compere and technicians were shiny's blue and the women's were multicoloured.

I noticed in the programme that Amelia Sierevogel had assisted Cundale with the costume design. They deserve special credit for the costumes were splendid. Delightful dirndls and flowing skirts for Coppelia which must have been such fun to wear and the lovely trolls and Minnie Mouse outfits for the younger children. Everything in the production worked well. All who took part whether cast, front of house or back stage did a great job and deserve congratulations.

As she is about to go to Australia for her placement as part of her degree course I waited for Amelia to appear. I commended her on her performance and also on the costumes. She introduced me to her teacher, Laura Murphy, who told me that the Academy was not yet 4 years old but had already placed students in vocational schools.

It seems well supported by the community. Ripon is not a big place yet the fair size auditorium was pretty full, I am not sure that I saw any stars of the future but we certainly saw some very promising children and young people who had obviously worked hard and had been trained well. I hope those kids and their instructors will be encouraged in their endeavours by this review. Above all I hope they learn to smile.

Onegin

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Between now and Easter Sunday the Dutch National Ballet are dancing John  Cranko's Onegin.  We already have an excellent review from Remco van Grevenstein (see Dutch National Ballet's Onegin 31 March 2017). The Royal Ballet danced Onegin just over two years ago and I reviewed the performance in Onegin: the most enjoyable performance that I have seen at the House since Sibley and Dowell 21 Feb 2015.

This work is conventionally regarded as Cranko's best ballet - though I have a personal preference for The Taming of the Shrew (see Cranko's "Taming of the Shrew": Now's our chance to see one of the Ballets everyone should see before they die 21 Sept 2013).  As I noted in that article:

"He was one of the great choreographers of all time. Born in South Africa in 1927 he choreographer Pineapple Poll in 1951 when he was only 23. In 1961 he was placed in charge of the Stuttgart Ballet when only 34. There he created great full length ballets such as Onegin, Carmen and, of course. Shrew. Sadly he died on the way back from New York at the early age of 45. Think what he would have achieved had he survived."

Happily I see the influence of Cranko in two modern choreographers whether they are conscious of it or not. One of them is Christopher Marney.  The other is Ernst Meisner of the Dutch National Ballet. They are both young men. I think they can achieve in their careers what Cranko would have done in his had he lived,

Le Corsaire Intensive

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One of the grandest ballets in the classical cannon but least performed here is Le Corsaire. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to a score by Adolphe Adam for the Ballet of the Paris Imperial Opera House in 1856 it was extensively revised by Marius Petipa for the Imperial Russian Ballet in St Petersburg. All the versions that are danced today in Russia and elsewhere derive from Petipa's revival. The ballet is in the repertoires of a number of companies including that of the English National Ballet. I saw it in the Palace Theatre on 14 Feb 2014 (see English National Ballet's Le Corsaire - a Valentine's Day Treat 16 Feb 2014).

As you can see from the synopsis on the Bolshoi's website it is a thrilling action-packed story based loosely on Lord Byron's poem. There are some great roles for the leads Conrad and Medora as well as the treacherous Birbanto and Gulnare, the beautiful slave girl. If there was any ballet the repertoire of which I would love to learn it would be this one. And there is an opportunity to do just that on15 April 2017 when Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy will present a full day intensive workshop in the studios of the Dancehouse Theatre on  Oxford Road in Manchester for KNT.

This will be Jane's fifth repertoire intensive. I have attended all the previous ones and I can't recommend them too highly, For an idea of what to expect, see my report of The Nutcracker intensive last October in Sugar Plum for an Hour 30 Oct 2016. The day starts with gentle floor exercises on Pilates mats, gears up with a 90-minute class which is exactly like Jane's Wednesday evening class in Leeds which is, to say the least, challenging. Then wall to wall rehearsals with an hour's break for lunch concluding with a show before our principal, Karen Sant at about 16:00, Now, however fit you may think you are, I guarantee that you will leave the Dancehouse knackered. Knackered but happy because you will have achieved a lot.

The fee for the intensive is £60 and places are filling up like nobody/s business. To book your place call Karen on 07783 103 037, send her an email on info@kntdanceworks.co.uk or contact her through Facebook.

If you are lucky enough to get in I am as jealous as hell because I have to take a raincheck this Easter. I have not seen my family in London for yonks and my grandson manquḗ, Vlad the Lad, is growing like mushrooms on steroids. This Easter we shall be celebrating Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, Vlad's birthday, my birthday and mothers' day plus Easter all rolled into one. I can't leave them hanging around on their tod all day while I pretend to be Gulnare on one their precious visits.

Bajadera where tech meets ballet

Photo Eakdgyth
Source Wikipedia
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Forget phone apps like Dutch National Ballet's Bounden (see Bounden - Something that appeals to my Interests in Technology and Dance 17 Dec 2013). Virtual reality ballet is old hat (see Pacific Northwest Ballet experiments with Virtual Reality 27 March 2017). To see the real potential of technology and ballet you need to visit Leeds or San Diego next Spring to see the world's first simultaneous performance of the same ballet from two venues 6,000 miles apart.

How can that be possible?

"Simple!" Smiles Bharatnatyam Bhatti, Chief Technical Officer, of Silicon Valley startup Pygmalion Pixels. "We project a lifelike image of a dancer onto the stage of a theatre here in Californa and the identical picture at the same time onto the stage of a theatre over there in Leeds, England."

Bhatti, originally from Hyderabad developed an interest in ballet while researching for his PhD on 3D imaging technology at Stanford.  "Did you know that there is actually a ballet set near my hometown" he added. "I think it is called La Bayadere, or something like that."

The technology involves taking multiple pictures of real, live, dancers and somehow running them through some special software which feeds apparatus that projects 3D images onto the stage.  The software allows a choreographer to get the images to do superhuman feats like 12-foot jumps or 128 fouettés.

Bhatti had heard that there were two premier dancers from Leeds in Southern California, Tobias Batley and Martha Leebolt, and invited them to take part in his project.  "Toby was really impressed when I showed hm a lifelike image of himself effortlessly doing any number of tours en l'air."

Toby and Martha told their former artistic director, David Nixon, about this technology and he came on board from the start. "David has created a whole new ballet based on that ballet I was telling you about but set somewhere here out west," said Bhatti. "I think he is calling it Bajadera which I've googled and turns out to be some sort of candy from Croatia but it sounds kinda Spanish like Baja California."

The story goes that Solly, a deputy sheriff, has just shot some desperadoes at a showdown in Tombstone. He loves Nikki,  a dancing girl in the Last Trump Saloon but the sheriff, Mr Gamzatti, has other ideas. His daughter is in love with Solly and has persuaded her father to make Solly an offer that he just can't refuse  - if you get my meaning. Adding to the complexity, the town's preacher has the hots for Nikki but she is just not interested in hm. Naturally, Nikki is not too happy about Solly's forthcoming marriage and attacks Miss Gamzatti with a knife. She says nothing at the time but vows to get her own back by planting a rattlesnake in a bouquet of flowers.

The wedding goes ahead in the Last Trump Saloon. The festivities begin with Donald, an orange coloured robot performing a jerky dance. Nikki is bitten by the snake. The preacher offers her serum that can save her life but she refuses it indicating that life without Solly just isn't worth living.  Just before Solly and Miss Gamzatti exchange vows the town is hit by an earthquake and the saloon is destroyed.

Solly chews on some magic mushroom and sees 246 computer generated images of Nikki descending a ramp doing tendus and arabesques.  There are solos by three of those images and finally Solly imagines himself dancing with Nikki again. In his narcotic induced stupor, Solly allows himself to be bitten by the rattlesnake that had been disturned by the earthquake and finds himself soaring into the afterlife looking for Nikki.

"So what do you think?" asked Bhatti. "Worlds fail me" I reply. "Toi, toi and chookas to everyone involved. Just let me know when it is all over."