Making a Splash - The National Ballet of Japan in London

By Katsushika Hokusai - Metropolitan Museum of Art: entry 45434, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2798407

 

National Ballet of Japan Giselle  The Royal Ballet & Opera, 26 July 2025, 14:00

The National Ballet of Japan has made quite a splash on its short visit to London.   Louise Levene of the Financial Times (Clement Crisp's old paper) wrote: "The National Ballet of Japan makes its UK Debut with an Exquisite Giselle".  David Jays of The Standard exalted Yui Yonezawa's triumph in the title role. Debra Craine of The Times acclaimed "a triumphant return for Miyako Yoshida".  Mark Monahan of The Telegraph asked: "Who needs the Russians when the Japanese can dance like this?"  It seems a long time since a visiting company received a reception of this kind.   The only comparable one that I have been able to find was when the Bolshoi first visited London in 1956.

We should not be surprised by the National Ballet's success.  There are Japanese principals and soloists in many of the world's great companies.  One of them was the company's director, Miyako Yoshida, who danced first with the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet and then with the Royal Ballet as a principal. Japanese students often do well in international competitions like the Prix de Lausanne.  Yoshida won that too. 

The company that visited London last week was founded in 1997.  According to Wikipedia, it had made only two previous trips abroad.  It visited Washington in 2008 and Moscow in 2009.  Roslyn Sulcas of The New York Times observed that "In London, the National Ballet of Japan steps onto the World Stage."  As I said in Yoshida Coming Home, the National Ballet is not the first company in Japan.  The art form appears to have been introduced into Japan at about the same time as it was introduced here.  There are parallels between the development of ballet in Japan and its development here.   The history of Japanese ballet is explored by Janey Pritchard in an article in the programme entitled Ballet - A Bridge Between Britain and Japan.  

There are certainly strong links between artists in the UK and Japan.  One of Yoshida's predecessors was Sir David Bintley, and Alastair Marriott and Dick Bird contributed to Yoshida's production of Giselle.  But the British connection does not seem to be the only one.  I think I detected a Russian influence in the dancers' virtuosity and maybe an American one in their athleticism. Indeed, Pritchard mentions some of those connections in her notes.

I attended the matinee on 26 July 2025.   The first thing that impressed me, even before the curtain rose, was the full-throated sound of the orchestra.  It was, of course, the Royal Ballet Symphonia who must have played that overture countless times, but something was different.  The conductor was Misato Tomita.  According to Meet Misato Tomita, 25 Sept 2015, on the English National Ballet's Facebook page, this was not the first time that Tomita had worked with the orchestra of an English ballet company, but I am not sure how many times she has conducted the Royal Ballet's orchestra.  She had a rapport with the musicians, which usually takes a long time to develop.

Shortly afterwards, the curtain rose to reveal Bird's set, which was magnificent.  The details and colours of the trees and buildings in Giselle's village were intricate.   His scenery for the second act was even more impressive.  Hills around the cemetery marked with crosses and lanterns were spine-chillingly spooky.  I did not think that I would ever see a set to compare with Toer van Schayk's designs for the Dutch National Ballet's Giselle, but Bird's designs were at least their equal.   Bird had collaborated with the lighting designer Rick Fisher, who plotted the course of the moon as it receded and dimmed with the first rays of morning.  

The first on stage was Hilarion, danced by Takaro Watanabe.  He was well cast for the role.  An excellent dance actor, he expressed jealousy, indignation and self-pity in Act 1 as Giselle's relationship with Albrecht developed.  The audience could almost hear gears grinding in his brain as he worked out the stranger's identity.  In Act 2, he demonstrated his athleticism, flinging himself across the stage at the wilis' behest.

Hilarion was followed by Shogo Hayami, who danced Albrecht, and Fukunobu Koshiba, Albrecht's squire Wilfred.  Hayami was good-looking and suave, but the role required him to project haughtiness and entitlement.  Even though he had concealed his sword and discarded his cloak, it was obvious that he was no peasant.  It was not difficult to understand why an inexperienced, perhaps somewhat simple-minded country girl should be flattered by his attention.  Nor was it difficult to understand Berthe's exasperation or indeed Hilarion's at Giselle's headstrong naivety.  There were a few sniggers and gasps from the audience as Albrecht picked up the flower and surreptitiously removed a petal.

Of all the great classical roles, Giselle must be one of the hardest to perform.  Like Odette/Odile, it requires a personality change, though in Giselle's case, the change results from a transformation and not an impersonation.  In Act 1, Giselle is an impressionable peasant girl from a remote village with a weak heart and a protective mother.   In Act 2, she is transformed into an aetherial being capable of sublime love.   Saho Shibayama performed that transformation flawlessly.   Her interpretation of Giselle was one of the best I have ever seen.

The peasant pas de deux is the only divertissement in Giselle.  The piece offers an opportunity for two of a company's up-and-coming young soloists to show off their virtuosity.   On this occasion, it was danced entertainingly by Moeko Iino, one of the company's most experienced dancers, and  Ren Ishiyama, one of its first artists. I think it was there that I detected a Russian accent. At any rate, I was not surprised to learn that Moeko Iino had studied in Novosibirsk before joining the company,

Although it is not a major role, Berthe (Giselle's mother) is important to the story.   She has a premonition of Giselle's fate, which she reveals graphically to her daughter.  She even traced out the outline of the wilis' veils with her hands.  That role was performed by Misato Nakada, who is an excellent character dancer. I am sure she would be a great Madge in La Sylphide or nurse in Romeo and Juliet.

Other featured dancers in Act 1 were Masahiro Nakayo, who was the Duke, and Misato Uchida, Albrecht's betrothed.  All danced well, as did the villagers and hunting party.  The women members of the corps were magnificent in Act 2, as I shall mention later.

The success or otherwise of any production of Giselle rests on Myrtha, one of the great female roles in ballet.   In Saturday's matinee, it was danced by first artist, Suzu Yamamoto.   Technically, she was faultless.  However, wilis are the spirits of scorned women whose fury exceeds that of Hell.  I have come to expect an iciness and steeliness, not to mention spite in Myrtha's role, and maybe Yamamoto was just a little bit too nice.

Susan Dalgetty Ezra of the London Ballet Circle once referred to Moyna and Zulme as "Myrtha's sidekicks", and I smile at that thought, which I can never remove from my mind.   Moekko Iinp, who had danced in the peasant pas de deux in Act 1, reappeared as Zukme in Act 2.  Maho Higashi danced Moyna. They also danced well.

I was most impressed with the corps in Act 2.  They were disciplined, well-rehearsed and as precise as a company of guardsmen.   The scenes in which they crossed the stage en arabesque in formation were mesmerizing.  The scene in which they dispatched Hilarion was spine-chilling.  They deserve much of the credit for the success of the show.

Yoshida has produced a fine Giselle. It stands comparison with my other favourites, Mary Skeaping's, Sir Peter Wright's and even Rachael Beaujean's.  The National Ballet's visit was far too short.  They have left their audience wanting more.   If they come back to London, it would be good to see some of the other works featured in their 2024/2025 video, or better still, some of their commissioned works, such as Ishii Jun's Bonshō no Koe—from The Tales of the Heike, or Maki Asami's La Dame aux Camélias. 

Ballet Cymru at Theatr Clwyd - "Llongyfarchiadau"

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Ballet Cymru Giselle Theatr Clwyd, Mold, 8 July 2025  20:00

I have been following Ballet Cymru for well over 12 years, and have seen some great shows including Romeo a Juliet at the Riverfront on 5 Nov 2016 and Child's Christmas in Wales and Tiger Eggs at the Pontio Centre in Bangor on 1 Dec 2018. Last night's performance of Giselle by Ballet Cymru at Theatr Clwyd in Mold was exceptional.  I think it was the best performance by Ballet Cymru of anything that I have ever seen them do.  It was also one of the best performances of Giselle by any company that I can recall in 65 years of ballet going.  Over that time, I have seen some of the world's best artists in that ballet.

I described Darius James and Amy Doughty's new production in Ballet Cymru's Giselle 3.0  and The Days I went to Bangor - Ballet Cymru's Relaxed Performances.  James and Doughty have stripped Giselle to its essentials, emphasising its drama in much the same way as David Dawson did with Scottish Ballet's Swan Lake (see Empire Blanc: Dawson's Swan Lake, 4 June 2016).  That places a lot of responsibility on the virtuosity and storytelling capabilities of the artists who dance the three principal characters, Giselle, Albrecht and Myrtha.  Happily, Gwenllian Davies, Kamal Singh and Jakob Myers were more than equal to the challenge, and they were supported brilliantly by the rest of the cast.  The result was an exciting but also very polished performance.

Yesterday, the title role was danced by Gwenllian Davies.   I first saw her in Romeo a Juliet in 2016 and wrote:

"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 Slovak saw in that talented young artist what Shakespeare must have imagined."

Since then, Davies has danced with the Opera Baltic Ballet in Gdansk, where she performed Giselle as well as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the offering in The Rite of Spring.   Her performance as Giselle impressed me even more than her performance as Juliet.   

It comes as no surprise to learn that Singh attended the Vaganova's Russian masters' programme in 2019 because he dances like a Russian.   He showed enormous strength and achieved great elevation - virtuosity tempered with consummate grace.  One of the tests of a male dancer is the degree to which he enables his partner to shine.  In that respect, Singh was a perfect partner for Davies.  Singh is also an accomplished dance actor, projecting all the emotions from arrogance to repentance.

The queen of the wilis is one of the great female roles.  Until yesterday, I would have regarded the idea of a male Myrtha as absurd.  Yet Jakob Myers somehow made it work.  Not only that, he injected another level of horror into that role.  In a romantic tutu, he appeared as something unnatural - indeed diabolical.  Myers is also a virtuoso, and I had been impressed with his performance as Albrecht in Bangor.  Yesterday he gave me the creeps, which I believe to have been his and the choreographers' intention.

Everyone in the cast danced well, particularly Isobel Holland in the peasant pas de deux and Sanea Singh as one of Giselle's friends in Act 1.  Holland is also an artist I have followed for a long time and I am now a fan of Sabea Singh.

The ballet was danced to Adolphe Adam's score recorded by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Mogrelia.  The sets and costumes were designed by Darius James, and the lighting by Chris Illingworth.  

The evening began with a performance of a dance routine by schoolchildren from Ysgol Tŷ Ffynnon in Shotton called Finding Peace. Accompanying programme notes stated that the dancers would explore the vast emotions that Giselle experienced from love and happiness to anger and devastation. They would take the audience on a journey of trust, heartbreak and betrayal to eventual peace. Their performance was offered under the Duets scheme, which I mentioned in my review of Ballet Cymru's performance in Bangor. As I said in that article, it is a project that deserves the widest possible support.

This was the first time that I had visited Theatr Clwyd since its extensive renovation.  It is a very impressive undertaking.   It is not completely finished.  For example, a new restaurant to be run by Bryn Williams is expected to open later in the year.  As it was not available yesterday, a friend and I visited a very good gastro pub just a few hundred yards from the theatre called Glasfryn.   Although the traditional industries of Northeast Wales were mining, steel making and heavy industry, there is also some spectacularly beautiful countryside with a lot of historic buildings and archaeological sites to visit.  Yesterday we visited Chirk Castle, which is just over 20 miles from Mold.  Other places in the neighbourhood that are worth visiting are Flint Castle, Erddig Hall and the city of Chester.

Ballet Black's Autumn 2025 Tour

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Ballet Black has just announced the itinerary for its autumn tour.   It will present a double bill consisting of My Sister, The Serial Killer by Cassa Pancho, based on Oyinkan Braithwaite's novel, and Chanel DaSilva's A Shadow Work.

The company will visit

• Watford on 8 Oct 2025
• Durham on 14 Oct 2025
• Nottingham on 24 Oct 2025
• Coventry on 4 Nov 2025
• Marlowe on 18 Nov 2025
• Sadler's Wells 26 to 29 Nov 2025.

Sadly, the company will miss Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York this year, even though it has danced to packed houses in some of those cities on previous tours.  Nor does it plan to visit Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Nottingham is the nearest venue for us, and Durham for the Scots and Northumbrians.

It is important to note that Ballet Black is more than a touring company.   It has a Junior School with classes in West and East London and an associates programme.   One of the teachers is Cassa Pancho, and I am proud to say that I once attended her class at the Barbican.   I could barely keep up as I was by far the oldest member, but I learnt a lot from her.   Ballet Black also offers online classes and makes some great films. 

Through these and other activities, Ballet Black makes a valuable contribution to the cultural and social life of this country.

Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet Revisited

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Northern Ballet Romeo and Juliet Leeds Playhouse 20 Jun 2025 19:30

Few people, if any, understood Romeo and Juliet better than Christopher Gable.  He and Lynn Seymour had been selected by Kenneth MacMillan to premiere the title roles in MacMillan's new ballet.  They were replaced by Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn only because the US impresario Sol Hurok thought that American audiences would flock to see Nureyev and Fonteyn in preference to Gable and Seymour. I saw both Nureyev and Fonteyn and Gable, and Seymour in the late 1960s or early 1970s. While I admired Nureyev and Fonteyn very much, I preferred Gable and Seymour in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet.

Many years after the premiere of MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, Gable became the Artistic Director of the company now known as Northern Ballet.  He commissioned a new version of Romeo and Juliet for his company, choosing Massimo Moricone as his choreographer and Lez Brotherston OBE as his designer. Unlike the productions of Krzysztof Pastor and Sir Matthew Bourne, Gable's Romeo and Juliet follows Shakespeare pretty closely, though it has its own features.  Each act begins with a clap of thunder.  The second act ends with the fall of a beaded curtain representing a hailstorm.  Gangs of Capulets dance as cats making soft mewing sounds, while the Montagues present as birds. Mercutio's death throes are quite different in Gable's ballet from his agonies in MacMillan's, where he mistakes a sword for a musical instrument. Juliet witnesses the sword fight between Romeo and Tybalt in Gable's version.  I saw Gable's ballet in Sheffield on 4 Apr 2024 and reviewed it in Moriconi and Gable's Romeo and Juliet the next day

I watched Gable's Romeo and Juliet again at Leeds Playhouse on Friday, 20 Jun 2025.  One big difference between the performance that I saw in Sheffield last year and last Friday's is that the cast danced to Northern Sinfonietta last year, but to a recording by the Orchestra of the Slovak National Theatre on Friday.  I have to say that I liked the sound of the Slovak orchestra very much.  If a company has to dispense with live musicians, a recording of the Slovak National Theatre musicians was probably the next best choice.  But ballet is a three-way communication between dancers, musicians and audience.  Something is lost when a conductor and orchestra are absent.

    

Romeo was danced by Joseph Taylor on Friday.  He is currently the company's only premier dancer.  It goes without saying that he would have understood his role well.   He performed it with virtuosity and flair.  Juliet was Alessandra Bramante, who happens to be Italian.   She brought a freshness and energy to that role.   Mercutio was danced again by  Jun Ishi.   He first came to my attention in that role last year.   I was impressed with him then, and I remain impressed this year.   Harry Skoupas was a menacing Tybalt this year.  Last year he had been Paris.  Harriet Marden was a passionate Lady Capulet, 

At the reverence, several members of the audience rose to their feet.   I counted 20 dancers at the curtain call.   That's not a big cast, but they gave the impression of a big full-length production. 

Yoshida Coming Home

Author Scillystuff Licence CC BY 3.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Miyako Yoshida trained at the Royal Ballet School and spent most of her career dancing in the United Kingdom, first with Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet and later the Royal Ballet.  She rose quickly to principal and has won all sorts of awards, including the Order of the British Empire.  She is now Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Japan, which she will bring to London between 24 and 27 July 2025.

The company will perform Giselle at Covent Garden.  It will be Yorshida's own production with designs by Dick Bird and lighting by Rick Fisher. Judging by the YouTube video of Yoshida's rehearsal, audiences are in for a treat.  The National Ballet is located in the recently opened New National Theatre in Tokyo, which it shares with the National Opera and the National Theatre of Japan.  There are 75 dancers in the company, which enables them to perform everything from The Nutcracker to Kaori Ito's Robot, l'amour éternel.

The company has its own ballet school, which offers a two-year full-time course to prepare students for a professional career.  The school also offers a two-year preparatory course for younger students.  Details of the curriculum and profiles of some of the students appear on the ballet school webpage.

The National Ballet is not the only company in Japan; The Tokyo Ballet and the K-Ballet are also prominent companies.  According to Wikipedia, ballet was introduced into Japan by the Italian ballet master Giovanni Vittorio Rossi in 1912.  Rossi trained several Japanese pupils, some of whom entertained troops and factory workers during the Sino-Japanese War, much in the way that Vic-Wells, Rambert and other companies did here (see Yukiyo Hoshino Use of Dance to Spread Propaganda during the Sino-Japanese War Athens Journal of History Vol 1 Issue 3 pp 191 - 198).

The Days I went to Bangor - Ballet Cymru's Relaxed Performances

View of Bangor University and the Pontio Centre

Author Andrew Woodvine  Licence CC NY-SA 2.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Ballet Cymru Giselle relaxed performance Pontio Centre 14 Jun 2025

The great David Plumpton knows that there are two ways to revive me when I am flagging in class.  One is to play Khachaturian's adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from Spartacus. The other is to play The Day We Went to Bangor  (see Our Anniversary Company Class 26 May 2029 and Magic 26 May 2024 Powerhouse Ballet),  Bangor occupies a special place in my affections, not least because it reminds me so much of my alma mater, which Andrew Lang celebrated in his Almae Matres.  

Just below the main university buildings lies the Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre. It is important not just for the University and the city but also for Wales. I have tried to explain its importance in Ballet Cymru's Dylan Thomas Programme: The Company's Best Work Ever 12 Dec 2018, Ballet Cymru at the Bangor Pontio Centre, 24 Nov 2019, Ballet Cymru's Outreach Work 8 Jun 2020, Ballet Cymru's DUETS Programme and why it is important, 14 Feb 2022 and Dance for Parkinson's in the Pontio Centre 2 Feb 2023).

Yesterday, the Pontio Centre hosted Ballet Cymru's relaxed performance of their new production of Giselle, which I reviewed in Ballet Cymru's Giselle 3.0.  A relaxed performance is designed for very young children and some adults who, for one reason or another, are inhibited from sitting in a darkened auditorium for 2 hours or more watching a full-length ballet.  The idea of a relaxed performance is best explained by Birmingham Royal Ballet in their Cinderella Relaxed Performance page and their YouTube video.

I have attended two relaxed performances by Ballet Cymru:  yesterday's Giselle and last year's Romeo a Juliet, which I did not get around to reporting. Those shows are a vade mecum to the appreciation of ballet.  Between 1964 and 1976, the Royal Ballet operated a relaxed performance programme called "Ballet for All" which toured village halls, factory canteens and other makeshift auditoriums around the country. It brought ballet into the lives of 70,000 people a year, according to Wikipedia.   I think my love of ballet was ignited by one of those performances.

Yesterday, the Pontio Centre was thronged with children and their parents, though there were more than a few unaccompanied adults like me. They mobbed Louise's exhibition spot to touch the pointe shoes, Myrtha's twigs, Giselle's headdress and other props from the performance. They gathered around a screen showing the storyboard as though it were an ice cream van.  Some were jumping, humming snatches of the score and attempting pirouettes and arabesques. When the artists appeared in costume, I was reminded of the entry of Micky and Minnie in Disneyland.  I met several and congratulated them.  I also firmed up the arrangements for Powerhouse's visit to Mold, Ballet Cymru's workshop in Leeds and Isobel Holland's masterclass.

Bangor could be regarded as the intellectual and cultural capital of Welsh-speaking Wales.  Last year, only a handful of the dancers introduced themselves and their characters in Welsh.  This year they all did so llongyfarchiadau mawr to them.   Ceris Matthews once described Ballet Cymru as "the pride of Newport and the pride of Wales."   I could not agree with her more.

Ballet Cymru's Giselle 3.0

Scene from Act Two of the Original Performance of Fisekke

 

Ballet Cymru Giselle  Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre, Bangor 13 Jun 2025 19:30

Yesterday I saw Ballet Cymru's third production of Giselle.  Their first production was in 2006 when they were known as Independent Ballet Wales (see Ballet at the Bridport Arts Centre, BBC website, Oct 2006).  Their second was livestreamed from Lichfield Cathedral on 5 Jul 2021 (see Giselle Reimagined, 9 Jul 2021).  I later saw it in Leeds and Newport and even danced a bit of Darius James and Amy Doughty's choreography for a workshop that Ballet Cymru held for Powerhouse Ballet when they visited Leeds (see Ballet Cymru's Giselle, 10 Nov 2021).  Their latest version was premiered in Newport on 16 May 2025 and is now touring the United Kingdom (see Ballet Cymru's New Giselle, 8 Jun 2025).  I was not in Bridport to see Giselle 1.0, but I did see and liked Giselle 2.0.  In Giselle 3.0, Darius James and Amy Doughty reverted to Adolphe Adam's original score and much of Petipa's choreography, albeit with a simplified libretto.   I thought it worked very well.

The versions of Giselle that big national companies perform, such as Peter Wright's, Rachel Beaujean's or Mary Skeaping's, require a lot of dancers for such roles as the vignerons and hunters in Act 1 and the wilis in Act 2.  Ballet Cymru is still not a big company so the story has to be tweaked if it is to be told successfully.  That is probably why James and Doughty dropped such characters as Giselle's mother who warns her daughter of the likes of Albrecht and the consequences of too much dancing for a girl with a dicky heart, Bathilde (Albrecht's betroathed) who presents Giselle with a necklace just before Hilarion exposes Albrecht or Moyna and Zulma in Act 2 aptly described by Susan Dalgetty-Ezra as "Myrtha's sidekicks".  But they did keep a lot of the essentials, including the peasant pas de deux and the mesmerizing arabesques from Act 2.  They set Act 1 in a Welsh village and Act 2 in a forest, and they dressed their wilis, including the men, in romantic tutus.

Isobel Holland, who had danced Myrtha powerfully in Giselle 2.0, was equally impressive in the equivalent role in Giselle 3.0.  If I am not mistaken, her makeup and costume in Giselle 3.0 were similar to her costume and makeup in  Giselle 2.0.   I gave her my loudest clap at the reverence.  Also impressive were Mika George Evans in the title role and Jakob Myers as Albrecht.  They are both athletic dancers, and they came into their own in Act 2.  I once saw Carlos Acosta and Natalia Osipova in Giselle, and Evans and Myers reminded me strongly of their performance.  Jacob Hornsey elevated Hilarion's role into a major part of the drama, which cannot have been easy, as he is portrayed as a bit of a churlish chump in most productions.   The same is true of Wilfred, Albrecht's squire. James Knott, who danced the equivalent role as Albrecht's friend, made that a much bigger role.  It is not clear from the cast list whom I should congratulate for the peasant pas de deux bit they delivered one of the highlights of my evening.

Before the show, the audience was treated to a performance by local ballet students called Duets.  It is part of a programme that offers dance training to children in rural or former mining, steel-making or heavy industrial communities who would otherwise be unable to receive it.  Immediately after their performances, the children are led to any vacant seats in the auditorium where they watch the company.  Until Wales gets its own national ballet school with connected associates schemes, it is the best way to identify and promote talent and ambition in that nation.  It is good not only for Ballet Cymru and Wales but also for all the other ballet, contemporary dance and theatre companies in the rest of the UK and beyond.  It is a project that deserves the widest possible support.