KNT's One Day Workshop on La Bayadère

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We spent the first sunny day of the year cooped up in a dance studio in Manchester. How sad is that?  Well not at all really because we had a whale of a time. For the first time, we beginners and pre-intermediate students had an opportunity to dance with the advanced class and the experience lifted us all.  Even me!  For that reason alone it was the best KNT intensive at the Northern Ballet School's studios that I have ever attended, though, I must emphasize, all the other ones have also been good.

We had two excellent teachers:  Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy and Martin Dutton of the Hammond.  Martin took our class and Jane the more advanced students. We had several joint sessions.  A warm up with Martin at the beginning of the day. Both teachers taught us the entry into the kingdom of the Shades towards the end.   We concluded the intensive with a joint performance at which each class danced its pieces before the other and we came together for the entry into the kingdom of the Shades at the very end. 

After a warm-up which started on the floor and ended with a brisk run round the studio, Martin led us into class. We did the usual barre exercises - pliés, tendus, glissés, ronds de jambe, grands battements et cetera - then a delightful port de bras, pirouettes dehors and dedans and some of the jumps that we needed to master for Solor's solo.   We had one chap in our midst - Peter from North Wales  - and Martin drilled him (and us) in tours en l'air.  Sally used to make me do these when I was a student at St Andrews and I still remember them up to a point (see Ballet at University 27 Feb 2017).  We finished off with some jumps.  Throughout the class Martin emphasized the importance of performance.  "You look like your attending a maths class not a dance class", he said. "Dance is supposed to be fun," "So is maths" I protested sottissimo voce which was somehow picked up by the class.  Very naughty to break a cardinal rule of class etiquette that I had learned nearly 50 years ago at St Andrews but that was a provocation I could not ignore

The warn-up and class took us up to lunch time so Martin broke for lunch at 12:20.  I nipped out for some sushi and berries from Tesco across Oxford Road. While over there I noticed that the old National Computer Centre will become an incubator sometime this Spring.  There is a canteen at Northern Ballet School which opens to the public only for shows at the Dancehouse theatre. However, it has tables, chairs and a vending machine and we usually meet to eat our sandwiches there.  Many of the beginners and pre-intermediate class were regulars at Karen Sant's Tuesday class but there were three of us from Jane's Wednesday night class in Leeds and Peter from North Wales.

After lunch Martin gave us a quick warm up and then led us into the repertoire.  Before playing the music he taught us the steps as he would in class.  One of our pieces included a cabriole which he broke down into its components.  Only after he was satisfied that we were as good as we were ever going be he taught us the whole solo. For the performance, however, he divided the class into sections and allocated each of us part of the choreography.   We were able to concentrate on our part and while we were a long way from perfect we were also far from a rabble.

The second piece he showed us was from Solor's solo while he was stoned on opium.  "Heavy man" as my roommate at UCLA used to say. There were lots of jumps and turns which were great fun but we had insufficient time to polish them into a performance.

We did, however, learn the whole of the entry into the kingdom of the shades with all those arabesques and tendus as we descended the notional ramp followed by the  bourrés, the descent to one knee which I daren't risk as I might never get up again and some awkward soutenus.  Martin led us through that piece in our studio.  Then Jane invited us into hers to join her students.  She had taught her class a slightly different choreography and the two teachers drilled us together until they were satisfied that we were doing the same thing.  The advanced class danced Nikiya's solo and the second shade's solo delightfully to warm applause from us. We danced our solo to probably over generous applause from them. It was good to have an audience which included my good friend Yoshie, Karen and Mark Hindle as well as the advanced class members.

The day passed far too quickly.  However, we have a show to which we can look forward on 19 May 2018 and, of course, the launch of Powerhouse Ballet with Jane Tucker in Huddersfield on 26 May.

Bolshoi's Giselle Second Time Round

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Bolshoi Ballet  Giselle 8 April 2016 Pathé Live

The recording of Giselle (for which the Huddersfield Odeon charged me £15.15 even with a 10% discount) was first performed on 11 Oct 2015.  I reviewed that performance in The Bolshoi does the Business - Giselle streamed from Moscow the next day.  I liked it then and I still liked it when I saw the recording on Sunday though I would have much preferred to have seen a live work.  The Bolshoi was dancing Spartacus on Sunday with Denis Rodkin in the title role, Lantratov as Crassus, Zajharova as Aegina and Nikulina as Phrygia.  Now why couldn't the Bolshoi and Pathé Live have shown us that?

However, it was good to see Zakharova, Polunin, Shipulina, Tsvirko and Khokhlova again.  In contrast to his Swan Lake about which I had expressed reservations in Grigorovich's Swan Lake in Covent Garden 31 July 2016 after I saw it in London, Grigorovich's Giselle is one of the best I have ever seen.  I explained why in my 2015 review: a superlative cast, a fin orchestra and although I found the backdrops somewhat dowdy in contrast to the Royal Ballet's they are a good deal better than the sets for the Bolshoi's Swan Lake.

I am writing this article at a time of increasing tension between my government and the government of Russia following events in Syria and Salisbury.  Though I agree reluctantly with the decisions that my government have taken in solidarity with its international partners on those issues, I am and always have been a great admirer of Russia and its people for their contributions to science and technology as well as the arts.  I have never been to that country or learned Russian but have always wanted to do so. I look forward to better days.

While watching the recording of Giselle I received an email from Kirklees Active Leisure accepting my booking of the dance studio from at Huddersfield Leisure Centre from 15:00 to 16:30 on 26 May 2018 (see We now have a studio 8 April 2018 Powerhouse Ballet). If you would like a free 90 minute ballet class in Huddersfield with an inspiring teacher click the button marked "Register" below.  You will find more details in the Powerhouse Ballet blog.

BalletLORENT's Rumpelstiltskin

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BalletLORENT  Rumpelstiltskin 7 April 2018, 14:30 Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield

The dancers of BalletLORENT performed the Poet Laureate's adaptation of the Grimms' Rumpelstiltskin to an almost full house at Huddersfield's municipal theatre with great gusto yesterday afternoon.  The audience which consisted largely of schoolchildren and their patents seemed to like it. In so far as I have reservations they relate to the style of dance which is just not my personal preference.  The exaggerated and sometimes unpredictable jumps, turns and arm movements as well as the clambering over the sets reminded me more of troops on an assault course or even children in an adventure playground than highly trained dancers but then that may be because I see too much ballet and not enough of other styles of dance.  Having said that, it had very little in common with Wayne MacGregor;s Yugen or Sharon Watson's Wundrush which are contemporary works that I enjoyed very much indeed.

Despite its name BalletLORENT is not primarily a ballet company though one dancer did bourré on pointe briefly as she tried to distract a grief stricken king.  It is a contemporary dance company based at Dancecity in Newcastle (see Dance in Newcastle 4 Nov 2016).  It has already created two works based on the Grimms Children's and Household Tales, namely Rapunzel and Snow White which explore "how complicated and faulted individuals are relevant to the contemporary world". As the programme adds, "This is not Walt Disney." I had seen Snow White on 30 Sept 2016 and reviewed it in BalletLORENT on 3 Oct 2016.

Carol Ann Duffy's Rumpelstiltskin has parallels with Snow White in that they are both about the rejection of children by their patents.  I didn't like Grimms' tales when my mother tried to read them to me as a child because of the horrible ways that characters met their ends.   I don't think that she liked them either because we never reached Rumpelstiltskin and I looked up the story for the first time only yesterday. I was born just a few years after the second world war when passions were still running high against Germany.  I heard it said more than once that the Grimms showed a cruel streak in the German character. That, of course, was nonsense.  I am glad to say that such things are no longer said, but the stories were still chilling. With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps the most alarming aspect of the tales is the fact that not all children are loved as they should be. Alas, that is always a contemporary reality.

Yesterday's performance focused on the following main characters: the king and queen and later the queen's ghost danced by John Kendall and Virginia Scudeletti, the shepherd, Toby Fitzgibbons, his daughter Natalie Trewinnard and, of course, Rumpelstiltskin danced by Gavin Coward. There were also a  lot of children in the cast. All, professionals and kids, danced energetically and expressively and were applauded vigorously for their efforts. My favourite characters were the sheep who did not have to move with wild abandon.  They appealed to me because they behaved, well, just like sheep.  The choreographer  and maybe the dancers seem to have spent some time watching them on moors and in farmyards because their head movements  in particular were quite lifelike.

The set consisted of a palace and a hill mounted on scaffolding and there were props like straw, gold leaf and bigger and bigger spinning wheels all cleverly designed by Phil Eddolls. There was a lavish use of gold cloth by Michelle Clapton, especially in the queen's costume.  Murray Gold's music fittted the story well. I particularly liked the reel in the wedding celebrations.

The show opened at Sadler's Wells where it received good reviews from the dance critics. Huddersfield was its second stop.  It will move on to The Lowry, Hull, Oxford, Darlington and Aberdeen (see the tour dates page of the company's website).  The audience in Huddersfield seemed to like it very much so it is quite likely that you will too.  If you live anywhere near those towns then watch it - particularly if you have children to treat.

Junior Company - Five Tremendous Years

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In Ernst Meisner’s Work with the Dutch National Ballet 2 Dec 2014, Ernst Meisner. the Artistic Coordinator of the Dutch National Company Junior Company, told me how that company came to be formed:

“It has been a wish of Artistic Director Ted Brandsen for a long time to have a Junior Company to bridge the gap between school and company. While Christopher Powney was Director at the National Ballet Academy and placing the school on the international map, it seemed the right time to start such a young group. I was involved in setting the Junior Company up and it has been great to have the chance to develop the way we like this venture to go together with Ted and Christopher (now Jean-Yves Esquerre) during the years. We had a great start last year, with seven of the first group actually having joined the main company now."

I was lucky enough to attend the first performance of that company at the  Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam  which I reviewed in The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013.  On 15 April 2018 I am returning to the Stadsshouwburg to celebrate that company's fifth anniversary with a special performance of In the Future by the current members of the Junior Company.

According to the Dutch National Ballet's website, In the Future will be a triple bill consisting of the Napoli Suite (Pas de Six and Tarantella) by August Bournonville, Fingers in the Air, a new work by Juanjo Arques and In the Future by Hans van Manen.  it is described as "an attractive, yet daring programme for twelve dancers."  It differs from previous galas that I have seen where up to 8 new works were presented in a single evening.

Because I had been married for many years to a Sierra Leonean national who loved ballet as much as I do and knew a lot more about it, I was thrilled to learn about a young American dancer of Sierra Leonean origin.  She was already carving an enviable reputation for herself by winning the Youth America Grand Prix. her film First Position and early reviews of her performances in New York and her guest appearances in South Africa (see Michaela DePrince 4 April 2013).  When I learned that she had moved to Amsterdam my heart leapt (see No Holds Barred  4 Oct 2013).  I bought a ticket for the Junior Company's first show and booked a flight to Amsterdam.

When I eventually saw DePrince I described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" but she was not the only dancer who impressed me that night. So, too, did Sho Yamada who partnered DePrince in Diana and Actaeon and all the other brilliant young people whom I saw on 24 Nov 2013 and subsequently.  On my last visit to Amsterdam just over a month ago I was overjoyed to see Yamada and Riho Sakamoto top the bill in Don Quixote (see A Day of Superlatives - Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote 1 March 2018).

I have got to know several of those dancers.  When the outstanding young dancer and choreographer, Cristiano Principato, brought friends and colleagues from the Dutch National Ballet and other major companies to Trecate, a small town in Piedmont to raise funds for the charity Casa Alessia, I attended and reviewed their show (see From Italy with Love  1 July 2015).  The next year Principato arranged an even more ambitious programme of new choreography in Amsterdam called New Moves I was there for that too. One of the dancers who accompanied Principato to Italy was Thomas van Damme. Van Damme.  Van Damme also showed enormous talent as a choreographer in  New Moves 2017 but he also shows extraordinary talent as a film maker (see The Ballet Couple 8 Sept 2016). In that regard he reminds me so much of our own Kenneth Tindall.

If you can't make the Staddshouwburg next Sunday you get another chance to see it on 28 June 2018 at the Korzo Theatre in the Hague, The International Court, the International Criminal Court and a branch of the European Patent Office are also to be found there though only a lawyer would be interested in that kind of thing.  One of my ballet teachers danced there in The Lion King but he has now returned to Manchester.

If you miss In the Future  I recommend the opening night gala on the 8 Sept 2018 which is followed by a party a which you can meet the dancers and choreographers, Giselle, Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella and Rudi van Dantzig;s Swan Lake.  There is now a direct train to Amsterdam from St Pancras and yesterday The Guardian published the Top 10 affordable hotels, hostels and B&Bs in Amsterdam.   

Bernstein Centenary Encore

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Royal Ballet Bernstein Centenary Encore 14:00 Leeds Showcase Cinema

I attended the Bernstein Centenary triple bill at Covent Garden on 17 March 2018 (see Bernstein Centenary 18 March 2018). I enjoyed it very much but there were gaps in my comprehension and appreciation of the three ballets. Many of those gaps were filled by yesterday's Encore in which Ore Oduba interviewed Bernstein's biographer, Humphrey Burton and Wayne McGregor, Liam Scarlett and Christopher Wheeldon who created the three works that were screened yesterday.

In my previous review I wrote:

"I liked all the ballets in the programme. Yugen and The Age of Anxiety appealed immediately. Corybantic Games was different. I admired the choreography, the geometric sets and, of course, Bernstein's music and I am an enormous fan of Lauren Cuthbertson but I think I will have to see it again and probably more than once to appreciate it properly."

Yugen remained my favourite but I learned a lot about The Age of Anxiety and a little more about the Corybantic Games.

I love the Chichester Psalms at any time but I was particularly receptive to them yesterday having heard the magnificent choir and organ of Bradford Cathedral at choral Eucharist few hours earlier.  In that service the congregation was allowed to sing another great choral work, namely Handel's Hallelujah Chorus which certainly lifted me aesthetically as well as spiritually.  Once again the beauty of the 23rd psalm was sublime and the figures in red became angelic. I will never tire of this work. It is one of a very small number of abstract ballets like Meisner's Embers and Ashton's Monotones that are too beautiful for words.

The Age of Anxiety started with shots of the posters on the walls, the labels of the bottles and details such as the maple leaf and "Canada" flash on Emble's uniform which I had missed before even though I was pretty close to the stage on 17 March.  I also caught significant bits of choreography that i had missed before such as the goosestepping of the four strangers with a Hitler salute and the futile haling of taxis on the way back to Rosetta's flat.  I also began to appreciate the dynamics of the relationships with its triangular affections and sense of betrayal as Emblem drop's Malin's business card in the gutter.  But there was still the glory of the Manhattan morning skyline which must have made me sigh, "Shut up Jane" my companion hissed at me.  Sarah Lamb was Rosetta in yesterday's screening but the other dancers were Alexander Campbell, Bennet Gartside and Tristran Dyer,

According to Burton the music for Corybantic Games was inspired by Plato's Symposium.  We also learned that Corybantic is the adjective of Κορύβαντες who were worshippers of a Phrygian goddess given to wild dancing. Although some of the poses reminded me of the figures on Greek pottery the ballet has a period field to it.  In my review of the 18 March I compared the show to Symphonic Variations which was a postwar work. It still had a period feel but after seeing the crimping of the women's hair and the group poses it reminded me more of 1920s Ballets Russes than Ashton.  I have still not digested the work though I like it just a teeny bit more than I did two weeks ago.

I should say a word about Ore Oduba. It was the first time that I had seen his presenting a screening from Covent Garden on his own and he did it very well.  On previous occasions he has appeared with Darcey Bussell and other dancers whom I love dearly and admire greatly but are just  not presenters. Like Pathé Live's Katerina Novikova, Oruba is a broadcaster and it shows. He was a bit raw when I first saw him calling 90 yer old ballet dames by their first names but he has grown into the job.  He has now seen enough ballet to talk about it authoritatively but not too much to cease to be enchanted by its beauty. Long may be occupy that sweet spot.

David Murley

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I have just stumbled upon the website of one of my favourite choreographers, David Murley. I was led to him, as I had been led to Ballet Black, by Sarah Kundi.  For a few months she was a member of a company that Murley directed. Extracts from two of the works that Murley created for that company, Frisky Claptrap and Highgrove Suite, appear in the above show reel.

It appears from the CV/resume page of his website that Murley has packed a lot of experience into his career.  He has worked in London and on tour with Covent Garden.  His experience includes opera as well as dance.

Murley has recently obtained a Professional Dancer's Teaching Diploma.  He has already taught at the London Ballet School, London Boys Ballet School, and Pineapple among other places.

A man of many talents, I look forward to finding out what he will do next.

Powerhouse Ballet

Last week I saw a brilliant performance of The Snow Queen by the Chelmsford Ballet Company which I reviewed in Chelmsford's Dazzling Snow Queen,  A couple of weeks earlier I saw an innovative performance of The Nutcracker by Duchy Ballet of Truro in which a Sugar Rum Cherry replaced the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Wouldn't it be lovely to do something like that in the North I mused on the long trek home. With great teachers throughout the region, lots of able and enthusiastic adult dance students, top professional companies for inspiration and great ballet schools, we ought to be able to do at least as well.

I canvassed the idea on Facebook and found that lots of other people with the same idea. We discussed how to get started.  We decided that a good way would be advertise a free class at a convenient venue with a teacher who is well known on both sides of the Pennines and see who turns up.  I have already received an expression of interest from an excellent teacher who meets that criterion and I have shortlisted some possible studios.

As I hope that the company will straddle the Pennines I have provisionally called the project "Powerhouse Ballet".  If folk don't like that name we can easily call it something else after we get started.  For now I have registered the domain name "powerhouseballet.co.uk" and set up a website in that name. Over the next few days I shall talk to dance agencies, the RAD,

If anyone wants to discuss this project call me on 07966 373922 or message me through my contact form.