All that was missing from this Evening's Performance was a Ballet by Marney ......

This evening's performance by Ballet Central of its mixed programme at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre was a triumph and I said so on twitter.

But just one thing was missing - a work by Christopher Marney. Last year we had War Letters (see Images of War: Ballet Central's "War Letters" and other Works 29 April 2016), Scenes from a Wedding the year before that (see Dazzled 3 May 2015) and in 2013 anon (see Central Forward 22 March 2013). But not this year.

So, here is a gift to everyone who attended the show to turn a great evening into a perfect one.  A charming extract from Chris's ballet, The Carnival of the Animals, which he created for the Chelmsford Ballet Company in 2015. In my review of the ballet, A Delight Indeed, 22 March 2015 I explained:

"Marney did not create a new version of The Carnival of the Animals. He made a ballet about a company that was about to dance The Carnival of the Animals. A young stage hand longed to dance - perhaps because of his longing for its principal dancer performed beautifully by Wallis. But when he tried to lift her - dainty though she is - he found that pas de deux work was not quite as easy as it looked. According to Tim Tubbs's programme notes the ballet was set in the 1930s - the heroic early days of the English ballet after Diaghilev had died but before the Second World War when endless touring by the Vic-Wells Ballet won the hearts of the nation to this originally foreign art form. There were a few animals - foxes perhaps - and a yapping lap dog quite invisible to all but the dancers but clearly another dog like Bif which could do ballet (see Woof 12 Oct 2014 to understand the reference) - but the main characters were people. Quildan the stage hand, Wallis his sweetheart and principal dancer and Pettet her mother"

As you probably guessed, the stagehand was Stephen Quidlan and Jasmine Wallis was the dancer.

The person who uploaded the film to Vimeo was Marion Pettett. She is the Chair of the Chelmsford Ballet Company of which Chris is joint patron and I am a non-dancing associate. Marion graciously permitted me to embed the film into this blog and I am enormously grateful to her. I should add that Marion appears in the film clad in red.

I need to spend some time on my write-up in order to do justice to Chris and Ballet Central. It will appear towards the end of the day or maybe tomorrow.