Charlotte Edmonds's Fuse danced by the Dutch National Ballet

Photo Michel Schnater

Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet

All rights reserved

Reproduction licensed by the company

One of the more interesting events of last year was Northern Ballet's Tell Tale Steps. That was a day at the Stanley and Audrey Theatre which began with company class, continued with a discussion on the future of narrative dance and finally a performance of the works of several of the choreographers. I attended part of the event and reviewed it in My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015. There is also a film of the day on the "About the Lab" page of Northern Ballet's website.

The company has just announced a similar event for this year called Tell Tale Steps 2 Narrative in Ballet. It will take place in the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre on 16 June at 18:00. The format for the event will be different from last year which is probably a good thing:

Tell Tale Steps 2

"First, hear a panel of leading arts professionals discuss the delights and difficulties of creating narrative in dance. Then share with five emerging choreographers the results of their research into how to create a narrative through dance. Following a three week residency at Northern Ballet, the choreographers demonstrate, with dancers from the company, how they have investigated the building blocks of dance narrative, creating characters, a sense of place and drama.
The five selected choreographers have been supported in their research by David Nixon OBE, Artistic Director of Northern Ballet and mentors from Dance, Theatre, Film and Literature.
The choreographers are Lucia Solari, First Soloist at Northern Ballet; Morgann Runacre-Temple, Freelance Choreographer and Choreographer in Residence at Ballet Ireland, National Ballet of Ireland; Tobias Batley, Premier Dancer at Northern Ballet; Charlotte Edmonds, Freelance Choreographer; and Carlos Pons Guerra, Choreographer and Artistic Director of Denada Dance."

Of course I know about Charlotte Edmonds and have seen the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company perform her Fuse in Ballet Bubbles quite recently (see Fuse 22 Feb 2016 and Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2016) but this will be the first time I will have seen any work from Tobias Batley. I turned to The Choreographers page to learn more. There is plenty of info on his dancing but nothing on his choreography. I shall be interested to see what he will do. Lucia Solari is another Northern Ballet dancer whose work I look forward to seeing.

Tickets for the event cost £6 to £12 and can be booked on-line through the theatre's website.