News from Scotland - Dylan Thomas, The Crucible and the Commonwealth Games

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Dylan Thomas's birth and to celebrate the occasion Christopher Bruce has created Ten Poems which he set to Thomas's poetry as read by Richard Burton. You can get a flavour of the work from Fern Hill on Scottish Ballet's website. Ten Poems is to be premièred in the UK by Scottish Ballet at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow on 25 Sept 2014 together with the world première of Helen Pickett's The Crucible.  As I am now formally a Friend of Scottish Ballet I shall be there and I shall report back to you.  In the meantime here are some gorgeous photos from Scottish Ballet of the rehearsals for the two works.

I received that information in my Scottish Ballet newsletter for July 2014. Among a number of important events in Scotland over the next few months are the Glasgow Commonwealth Games which take place between 23 July to 3 Aug.  The equivalent of the Olympic torch is the Queen's Baton which is being relayed over 190,000 kilometres across 70 countries in 288 days. The last part of the baton's journey will be in Glasgow itself where it will be carried by dancers of Scottish Ballet on 22 July.

Two other events connected with the Games in which Scottish Ballet is taking part are the Commonwealth Youth Exchange by which a group of exceptionally talented young dancers visited Singapore and the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival at which that group will be performing.

I am not sure how much if any of those events I can see for myself as the Games coincide with the visit of the Mariinsky to London and there is only so much that one can do, but I am glad to have renewed my acquaintance with this fine company and I will certainly see The Crucible, Ten Poems and The Nutcracker later this year.