Wednesday 31 May 2017

Birmingham Royal Ballet reaches out to Birmingham's LGBT Community














Sarah Lambert (no relation as far as I am aware but one never knows) has drawn my attention to a very generous offer by the Birmingham Royal Ballet to Birmingham's LGBT community.  She writes:
"For a while now I've been working informally with BRB on extending participation in ballet and to this end they work with various community groups. The latest initiative is an amazing offer to the LGBTQI community. They are putting on a taster workshop in one of their wonderful studios and led by one of their Principal dancers. Anyone attending will also get a free ticket to a matinee theatre performance of Coppelia on the same day immediately after the workshop. SO far we have twelve people signed up, but we can go up to 20."
 Particulars of the offer have been posted on Birmingham LGBT's website by Ros Gammie who is the charity's administrator and sports activator who will allegedly answer correspondence in Latin and Runes as well as English.

The taster and matinee take place on 15 June 2017 and the timetable is as follows:
  • 10 am, arrival at Birmingham Royal Ballet Reception (next to Hippodrome Stage Door), Thorp Street B5 4AU
  • 10.30 am, 90-minute Ballet taster session
  • 12.30 pm, tour of Birmingham Royal Ballet building
  • 1 pm, hour lunch break
  • 2 pm, performance of Coppélia at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Sarah adds that she worked with both Ros Gamey of the Birmingham LGBT Centre and Kasia Krause of Birmingham Royal Ballet to make this happen. She posted the following announcement on a Facebook ballet group:
"We can now take up to 20 people for the workshop and free ticket to Coppelia, so if you haven't signed up, you still have a chance. The class will be led by one of BRB's principal dancers, so how cool is that? The chance to dance in one of Birmingham Royal Ballet's wonderful studios in a class led by one of their principal dancers... And then seeing a performance of Coppelia, all for free. It doesn't get any better than that!
If you're unsure because you're a total beginner and you're nervous, remember this is a totally safe space for all trans and LGBQI people, and how often can you say that of a beginner ballet class? Also I will be there, and believe me, there's no-one more of a novice than I am!"
I think Sarah may be a bit modest there. I have never met her but we are connected on Facebook and she tells me that she attends classes at Elmhurst and the DanceXchange in Birmingham which sounds pretty high powered to me.

Sarah has also offered the following invitation to her friends in the Facebook Group who are members of the LGBT community in Birmingham:
"We could all meet up in Izzi and Jess's board gaming cafe in the LGBT Centre for tea and cake; it's going to be amazing!  http://cakesandladderscafe.co.uk/"
I saw Birmingham Royal Ballet's Coppelia when it visited the Lowry in 2015 with Tyrone Singleton and Celine Gittens in the lead roles. Their performance was sensational, hence the title of my review of 6 March 2016. I hope to see the ballet again on Saturday, 17 June 2017.

I congratulate both the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Birmingham LGBT on this initiative. I hope that the visitors to the company will enjoy their visit, perhaps consider adult ballet or other dance classes and support the company with donations and patronage. I hope that the company will continue to reach out to all communities of the third city of this nation.

Tuesday 30 May 2017

Principato moves to a Bigger Stage

Standard YouTube Licence


Last year I nominated Cristiano Principato of the Dutch National Ballet as our outstanding young choreographer of the year (see The Terpsichore Titles: Outstanding Young Choreographer 28 Dec 2016). I chose Principato because of his enormous achievement in assembling some of the world's most promising young dancers for a benefit performance for the Italian charity, Casa Alessia, in Trecate, a small industrial town in North West Italy (see From Italy with Love 1 July 2016).

In that show, Principato performed some of his own work including Palladio which he contributed to the Dutch National Ballet's New Moves in 2016 (see Palladio 4 June 2016). I described that ballet as  "a very sophisticated work and quite a remarkable piece for one so young." I should add that Principato had only recently celebrated his 21st birthday. Equally impressive, however, was Principato's management of the gala. I exchanged a few words with him after the performance in which he told me that he had been responsible for everything.

I am glad to say that Principato's talents have been recognized by his company for he has been put in charge of New Moves 2017.  This is an "annual event where dancers of the company get the opportunity to develop their choreographic talents will be like a gala performance, with a party to follow." This year there will be contributions from Thomas van Damme who was also in Trecate last year as well as Bruno Da Rocha Pereira, Sebastien Galtier, Chanquito van Hoeve, Matthew Pawlicki-Sinclair, Milena Sidorova, Bastiaan Stoop, Clotilde Tran-Phat, Jozef Varga, Remi Wortmeyer and Jared Wright.  In previous years the show has taken place in a studio. This year it will be performed on the main stage of the Music Theatre or Stopera.

Last year, as a special treat that happened to coincide with my birthday, I was allowed to walk on the stage of that theatre as part of the New Friends Tour (see Double Dutch Delights  17 Feb 2017). I remarked that
"From the audience's perspective the theatre is massive but from the performer's it has quite an intimate feel."
To be put in charge of such an event at age 22 is a remarkable achievement. Did Kevin O'Hare do anything like that at the same age? I ask myself, or, indeed any of the artistic directors of the world's other great national companies? Could Principato be one of their successors?

Not Quite "Death in Venice", more "The Big Sleep"

Interior of La Fenice, Venice 2015
Photo Youflavio
Source Wikipedia
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International Licence




















Rome Opera Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, La Fenice Theatre, Venice, 10-14 May 2017

I have just received an interesting note from Mr Ian Wishart of a performance of The Sleeping Beauty by the Rome Opera Ballet at La Fenice Theatre in Venice which he attended while on holiday in Italy earlier this month. Ian is a chartered patent attorney who now works as a director of an insurance broking company which arranges specialist intellectual property insurance.

Ian remarked that the preeminence of Itay's opera tends to eclipse the brilliance of its ballet despite the enormous contribution to that art which Italy has made and continues to make. He described the show that he attended as "an excellent account of Tchaikowski’s famous and emotional score". He noted that "the staging, lighting and costumes reflected centuries of opera experience," The company has also posted a trailer of the production to YouTube and it looks magnificent.

The ballet was staged by the French choreographer Jean-Guillaume Bart. The Rome Opera House has released an interesting interview with Bart on YouTube in French. There are some beautiful clips of the dancers in rehearsal and the other preparations. The assistant choreographer is Patricia Ruanne, formerly of the Royal Ballet. The conductor was David Colman.

Ian saw Rebecca Bianchi dance Princess Aurora and Claudio Cocino Prince Désiré. Ian said they "brought skill and emotion to their parts". He added that "Annalisa Cianci clearly enjoyed her role as the wicked fairy Carabosse" and noted that Maianna Suriano danced the Lilac Fairy. He was also impressed by Bluebird but did not pick up the dancers' names. I have googled Bianchi and found this interesting feature on her in Gramilano (Introducing Rebecca Bianchi, Rome Opera Ballet’s new Principal Ballerina 3 May 2016). I also found this clip on Cocino's elevation to principal (see Claudio Cocino nominato Primo Ballerino del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma 11 Feb 2017).

La Fenice is described by Ian as "a tiny gilded jewel box, with stalls and four tiers of boxes." La Fenice means The Phoenix in Italian and it was given that name because it was burned down three times. That happened to a lot of opera houses in the 19th century including Covent Garden.

Sunday 28 May 2017

The Royal Ballet's Quadruple Bill - well balanced in Content, Style and Mood

Natalia Osipova in Strapless
Photo Bill Cooper
© 2017 The Royal Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company 







































Because of the terrible events of last Monday ballet did not seem all that important to me last week. I missed the launch in Doncaster of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by Daniel de Andrade for Northern Ballet altogether. It appears to have been well received so I will try to catch it at some other venue - probably Leeds between the 5 and 9 Sept. I attended class on Thursday but found it hard to put my heart into it. I very nearly let the Royal Ballet’s mixed programme go too until I realized that that was exactly the sort of despondency that terrorists try to induce. We owe it to their victims, if not ourselves, not to let them win by cowing or depressing us.

Thus I woke up early yesterday to catch the 07:51 train from Wakefield to London. That was the last train that would get me there an hour before the curtain was due to rise. The programme consisted of works by William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon and Liam Scarlett. Scarlett’s Symphonic Dances was a new commission. I had seen Balanchine’s Tarantella before but Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and Wheeldon’s Strapless were also new to me. I am very glad that I made that trip because I saw the Royal Ballet at its best. I get the impression that dancers like mixed programmes because of their variety and also because there offer lots of opportunities for them to shine.

The afternoon began with The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. A strange name I thought. I am not sure where the vertigo came in but it was certainly thrilling not to say also exuberant and joyful. It must have been very hard work for the dancers, particularly the women as this YouTube video of the San Francisco Ballet’s performance of that work shows. The work begins with two men in mauve costumes standing in 5th. Yesterday they were Trystan Dyer and Valentino Zuchetti. They introduce themselves with slightly different solos. They are joined by three women in lime green tutus. Each of their roles is exacting as this video by Dorothée Gilbert demonstrates. Forsythe set his ballet to the final movement of Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, as stirring a work as have ever heard. Mauve and green may not be an obvious colour match but it worked for this piece.

The momentum was maintained a few minutes later by the Tarantella Last year I saw Michaela DePrince and Remi Wortmeyer dance it at the Dutch National Ballet’s opening night gala in Amsterdam (see "Quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" 29 Oct 2017 and the YouTube video of Wortmeyer with Maia Mahateli). The Dutch National Ballet’s performance had thrilled me then and yesterday’s performance by Alexander Campbell and Meaghen Grace Hinkis thrilled me again. The crowd loved the show too and Hinkis was presented at the curtain call with the biggest bouquet of the afternoon.

The work that I had come to see was Christopher Wheeldon’s Strapless because I had missed it first time round. It is a narrative ballet based on Deborah Davis’s John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X (see The real Madame X: the true story that inspired Christopher Wheeldon’s ballet Strapless 18 May 2017). The ballet is about the ostracism of the Parisian socialite, Amelia Gautreau, after a painting of her by John Singer Sargent showing a strap of her dress dislodged from her shoulder was exhibited at an important art show. Not a single portion of her body had been exposed but those who went to art galleries in Paris at that time knew that Madame Gautreau was conducting an illicit affair with a fashionable gynaecologist called Pozzi. They gossipped mercilessly as to how and why that strap had been dislodged.

It is not easy to base a ballet on an episode in history but Wheeldon carried it off well. A sex scene between Pozzi (Federico Bonelli) and Madame Gautreau (Natalia Osipova) was represented by a pas de deux in which the dancers removed their outer garments. It was not in the least bit smutty as the dancers remained well covered but it was still very sexy. The man who destroyed Madame Gautreau’s reputation was, of course, Sargent danced by Edward Watson. From one brief conversation with him, I formed the view that Watson was a really good bloke (see Ed Watson: more than just an outstanding dancer - a really good bloke 13 Feb 2015) but in Strapless as in A Winter’s Tale, he dances a really beastly character. Madame Gautreau implores him to withdraw the painting from the show but he ignores in the quest to advance his career. Watson portrayed Sargent’s arrogance and stubbornness superbly. This ballet has introduced me to the music of Mark-Anthony Turnage of which I shall try to hear more. I also admired Bob Crowley’s sets and costumes.

Most of the Royal Ballet’s regulars will have seen Strapless before. For them, Symphonic Dances would have been the main draw. Based on three movements of Rachmaninoff’s music the ballet is built around the leading lady who was Laura Morera yesterday. Morera, who danced the leads in Viscera and Frankenstein, is another of my very favourite dancers (see Laura Morera 25 Aug 2015). In the programme notes, there is an interview with Scarlett in which he says:
“I’ve worked consistently with Laura over the years and created so much work on her that I wouldn’t be choreographing without her.”
The ballet began with the Non Allegro. Morera appeared in a swirl of red material. She was joined by Giacomo Rovero and the ensemble. Morera was in each of the subsequent movements - alone with the ensemble in the second movement and with Matthew Ball in the third. Towards the middle of the second movement, the back of the stage began to glow red. It became a screen which for a time projected images of the dancers much in the way Darshan Singh Bhuller does in Mapping (see Rehearsals: Revealed - Darshan Singh Bhuller Mapping). Different images appear on the screen which seems to become an electrode. The ballet ends with Morera alone on stage with the descending device hovering above her and seemingly zapping her. Two colours predominated in the ballet - black and red - which, as Christopher Bruce showed in Rooster, can be a striking combination.

The quadruple bill was balanced well in mood, style and content. Judging by the snatches of conversation that I caught as I descended the stairs and the messages that have appeared on social media, the audience that spilt onto Bow Street were more than satisfied.

Tuesday 23 May 2017

Melbourne City of Dance

Photo © The Australian Ballet Studios

Since arriving in Australia, the last three weeks have flown by and I have settled into life in Melbourne. Melbourne is a really cool city, very clean, easy to navigate and arty. But the biggest thing I have noticed is that there is a massive dance scene here. There are adult classes in everything from ballroom to hip-hop to ballet, and a good range of levels.  

Obviously, I’ve come to Australia for my placement in costume department at the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia, gaining industry experience for when I graduate. But that hasn’t stopped me from taking the opportunity to take class out here; because of course it is important to take class to keep good form.

The first dance class I took part in was actually a Salsa class at The Salsa Foundation. I was invited to join in by a guy I met on my flight to Melbourne from Hong Kong.  Having touched the basics of Salsa whilst on holiday in Cuba three years ago, I was a little apprehensive as to whether I would be able to keep up with the class. Especially as I took part in a Level 1.5 class – focussing on teaching partner work, lots of turns and cross body leads – so the basic steps are essential!

The class was extremely busy, there was a surprising male turn out, but as to be expected women dominated the class.  

They split the group into three lines of men and women. The excess women were spaced in-between couples, so at points you would dance by yourself, as the women would rotate and change partners roughly every 5 minutes or so. I feel this is a good way to learn the steps as you’re not always with the same partner. I also think it is great that rather than some women learning the male steps you really had a chance to get the female steps ingrained into your mind. It was a fun evening, I managed to keep up and it was enjoyable to let my body move loosely and freely for a change. Rather relaxing. The class cost $15, which I think is pretty reasonable, as the instructors are really informative and entertaining. The beginner’s class is also free. 

Following this, I have taken a few weekly ballet classes, repertoire classes and pointe classes. The classes I have attended are at the Australian Ballet Studios and City Dance Centre in Armadale (south Melbourne).

The Australian Ballet Studios is a great option when looking for classes in the city centre of Melbourne, they offer Pilates, Jazz, Contemporary, Ballet and Repertoire.  They also have a fantastic set of teachers – incredibly knowledgeable professionals. You really are getting your moneys worth here. When you register to take classes, your first week with them is absolutely free, which is why I took the opportunity to get involved in so many classes after that each class has a set price. A ballet class is $28, but you can buy class passes, which work out cheaper in the long run.

To take part in repertoire class you have to take a Level 2 or Level 3 ballet class beforehand – this is important so that you obviously warm up, but also so that you can keep up with learning the choreography.  I’ve been taking the level 2 classes, which is the equivalent of an intermediate class. Technically challenging but not too overwhelming. Like in any class you start at the barre with plies and tendus, grand battements and frappes too, amongst other steps.  After the barre, we then move into the centre and do a lovely port de bras, a variation of turns and jumps. The truly wonderful thing about the classes here is that there is a live piano accompaniment – something I haven’t experienced much, so that really has given me the opportunity to work on my musicality.

The teachers I’ve had for repertoire and ballet have been Jessica Thompson, Justine Miles and Roland Cox. In repertoire with Justine Miles we have been learning Balanchine’s Serenade and with Jessica Thompson we have been learning Seguidilla from Don Quixote. Both are very challenging pieces but fun to learn.

On a Saturdays, I have been attending ballet class and pointe class at City Dance Centre. The classes cost $20 for ballet and $10 for pointe (this however is the student price, a full price list is available here). The classes are taught by Sakura Shimizu who has danced with the Hamburg Ballet and Singapore Dance Theatre to name a few. Ballet class again as to be expected starts with barre and works into the centre with a variety of travelling sequences.

Pointe class has been particularly enjoyable for me and I feel I have made a lot of progress. I only started doing pointe in November, doing only 10 minutes at the end of class, so I feel rather pleased that I am able to keep up with a 30-minute class.  We start pointe facing the barre with tendus working our intrinsic muscles and getting our feet warm. Then rises and relevsés in first and second position, followed by échappés and rises in fifth.  Next we pas de boureé with the foot coming to sur le cou-de-pied (Not necessarily the correct name for the step – but that was the only way I could think of how to describe it!). We then turn side on to the barre and pique to retire travelling forward three times. On the final piqué  we come up to arabesque. Following this we move into the centre and do rises in first and échappés again – this I find particularly challenging without the barre but I feel I am making progress and getting stronger. We have then been doing preparation for pique turns and courus across the floor. I really love doing the courus as I feel so elegant and dainty, like a fairy (despite the loud noise my Grishko's make).

There are many other dance schools in Melbourne that offer ballet classes, but as I don’t have a lot of money and I like repetition, I have happily settled into taking the classes at the Australian Ballet Studios and City Dance Centre.

With just a week and a half left in Melbourne I will be sad to leave these classes behind. I’m also incredibly sad that my placement with the Australian Ballet is coming to a close at the end of this week. I have loved every minute working with the wonderful wardrobe department, gaining incredible experience, which I will value for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, although I would love to be able to share what costumes I have been working on for the ballet, I am not publicly allowed to do so. I would hope that you as readers would respect and understand this. 

Most importantly, I hope that this post will give you a good insight into the dance scene in Melbourne.


Amelia x

Monday 22 May 2017

Photos from Birmingham Royal Ballet's Northern Tour

Robert Parker as Captan Belaye in Birmingham Royal Ballets Pineapple Poll
Photo Roy Smiljanic
© 2017 Birmingham Royal Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company






































I reviewed the Birmingham Royal Ballet's performance of Solitaire, 5 Tangos and Pineapple Poll at York on 12 May 2017 in Birmingham Royal Ballet's Northern Tour 2017 13 May 2017. I now have some lovely photos of scenes from the triple bill which I am delighted to share with you thanks to Mr Lee Armstrong. the company's design executive. I should stress that the photos were not taken at the performance that I reviewed but they will give you a good idea of the costumes, scenery and choreography.

The artist who danced Captain Belaye in York was Matthias Dingman. The artist in the photograph above is Robert Parker who is the Artistic Director of Elmhurst Ballet School.  Parker would be very well cast for the role of a sea captain as he is qualified in real life to be an airline captain. According to his biography, he acquired a commercial pilot's qualification in 2008. Last week Northern Ballet and Phoenix hosted a dancers' career development workshop at Quarry Hill helping dancers explore their career options when they retire from the stage (see Evolve in Leeds 4 May 2017). Even though he has returned to dance as Artistic Director of a leading ballet school, his qualification shows that dancers really can do anything.  I would quite happily board a 747 in the knowledge that its captain has reliably supported high flying and fast moving ballerinas through countless fish dives. Incidentally, I last saw Parker at the 25th anniversary of the Birmingham Royal Ballet's move to the Hippodrome and David Bintley's 20th anniversary as the company's Artistic Director (see In Praise of Bintley 21 June 2015).

In my review of Solitaire I mentioned how much I enjoyed "Desmond Heeley's gorgeous costumes - especially the red bodice of Baselga's tutu - and his draping golden sun backcloth design" which you can see in the photo below

Miki Mizutani in Solitaire
Photo Bill Cooper
r
© 2017 Birmingham Royal Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company






































Readers will recall that Dame Ninette de Valois asked Sir Kenneth MacMillan to create Solitaire at very short notice using sets and costumes that had been designed for The Angels by Cranko.

Finally, two glorious shots from 5 Tangos also taken by Bill Cooper:


Birmingham Royal Ballet 5 Tangos
Photo Bill Cooper
r
© 2017 Birmingham Royal Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

























Birmingham Royal Ballet 5 Tangos
Photo Bill Cooper
r
© 2017 Birmingham Royal Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

Sunday 21 May 2017

The Light Princess - a Special Ballet for a Special Company

Copyright 2017 Ballet Cymru: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company


















BalletCymru The Light Princess, Riverfront Theatre, Newport 20 May 2017, 19:30

In 2015 Ballet Cymru's Cinderella was my ballet of the year and its Tir was the runner-up (see Highlights of 2015 29 Dec 2015. Last year Gwenllian Davies was my young female dancer of the year for her magnificent performance as Juliet on 5 Nov 2016 (see The Terpsichore Titles: Outstanding Young Dancers of 2016 28 Dec 2016 and A Romeo and Juliet for our Times  7 Nov 2016). Quite remarkable, I think you will agree, for a small company in a city with a slightly smaller population than Huddersfield some 140 miles from London.

Yesterday I tried to put my finger on what made Ballet Cymru special and this is what I concluded.

First, the company is lucky to have as artistic directors Darius James and Amy Doughty who are two of the finest choreographers on the British stage. Their ballets with expansive upper body movements and sudden spins, whether chaînés, fouettés or pirouettes, are thrilling to watch. James and Doughty create their work in collaboration their dancers with the result that every movement showcases the artist's personality as well as the vision of the choreographers. Each of those artists is young at peak strength and energy, When James unfurls them, as he does at the end of company class, they are a wonder to behold (see Ballet Cymru at Home 5 Oct 2015).

Secondly, this company is unmistakably Welsh. Its dancers may come from all parts of the world and it visits nearly every part of the United Kingdon on tour but its credentials are entirely cymric.  The company's name, after all, is "Ballet Cymru" - never "Ballet Wales", the literal translation. There are Welsh characters even in Romeo a Juliet and Cinderella: Juliet's confidante in Romeo a Juliet is Cerys, Cinderella's half-witted step brother is named Cas and her step sister is called Seren. The backdrops projected onto the screen are created digitally from scenes of Wakes ranging from the subway under the arterial road near the Riverfront Theatre in Romeo a Juliet to Lake Bala in The Light Princess. More importantly, the company commissions scores from outstanding Welsh composers like Jack White who wrote the music for Cinderella and Stuck in the Mud and Catrin Finch who contributed Celtic Concerto as well as The Light Princess to the company's repertoire. I am most grateful to Ballet Cymru for introducing me to those composers.  I am now a fan of both.

Thirdly, James and Doughty make clever use of technology. I have already mentioned the projected backdrops which are designed for the theatres around this island which might struggle with conventional scenery. Yesterday, there were gently floating images as the overture concentrated our thoughts on weightlessness. We saw circus hoops courtesy, no doubt, of Citrus Arts who had previously worked with Ballet Cymru on Cinderella.  For those who had not read the programme or my preview, the synopsis in two languages flashed onto the gauze with occasional directions to the audience such as "hiss". Did you know that the Welsh for "hiss" is "his"?

Like The Sleeping Beauty, George McDonald's story begins with a christening for a princess to which three of her relations had not been invited. Like Carabosse those relations were witches but, instead of sending the royal household to sleep for 100 years (a fate that Exeunt's Anna Winter might regard as lenient (see Exeunt's Ballet Reviews - Mayerling and Casanova 12 May 2017) they made her weightless with the result that she had to be tethered with ropes. The king and queen consulted Kopy-Keck and Hum-Drum, Chinese experts in spells as to what might be done but they offered conflicting and equally useless advice. At a water carnival on Lake Bala, the princess discovered that she could acquire weight under water. She nearly floated away again when a visiting prince dived into the lake to rescue her for which gallantry he received no thanks at all from the princess. Realizing that their spell did not work in water the witches tried to drain the lake. They were foiled when the prince offered his body to plug the drain. The prince's willingness to sacrifice himself for the love of the princess broke the spell. A cartwheeling king and equally ecstatic queen allow the princess to marry her rescuer. All, no doubt, lived happily ever after.

Anna Pujol, who had delighted the Millennium Centre as Little Red Riding Hood before Christmas (see Ballet Cymru's "Sleeping Beauty Moment" 5 Dec 2016), danced the princess. She showed formidable strength and artistic versatility with her floorwork representing her swimming and her adeptness with hoops. Her prince, Andrea Maria Battagia, partnered her gallantly. I loved Robbie Moorcroft's performance as king (particularly his cartwheels) and was impressed by Beth Meadway, a recent recruit to the company, as queen. I was also impressed by another recruit, Miles Carrott, who complemented Miguel Fernnades and Natalie Debono as the vindictive, serpentine witches. Gwenllian Davies was one of the experts and the magnificent Krystal Lowe (anything but humdrum) was the other.  Davies showed that she can dance character roles as convincingly as she can dance Juliet. Daniel Morrison danced the butler and Ann Wall the nurse with their usual flair. Each of those roles offered the dancers a chance to shine and shine they did.

Something that made last night particularly special was the appearance of Catrin Finch in the orchestra pit. This was not the first time that the company had performed with live musicians.  The last time I saw them they shared the stage with the entire National Orchestra of Wales, but it was the first time that I had seen them with their own ensemble and the result was magic. Sadly, the musicians cannot follow the company everywhere so the performances at Bury St Edmunds, Llanelli, Milford Haven, Stevenage and Newcastle under Lyme will make do with recorded music.

Those performances will still be worth seeing.  This is the best ballet that I have seen from this company ever and it is the best new ballet that I have seen so far this year from any company.

Monday 15 May 2017

Music Copyright

By User:Milantex (File:DVD-4.5-scan.png) 
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons





















Yesterday someone asked a very interesting question about music copyright on BalletcoForum. I shall not address the specific question but I shall say a few words about music copyright generally.

What is Copyright?
In the United Kingdom, copyright is defined by s.1 (1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as
"a property right which subsists in accordance with this Part in the following descriptions of work--

(a) original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works,

(b) sound recordings, films or broadcasts, and

(c) the typographical arrangement of published editions."
Although this Act applies only to the United Kingdom, the definition will be very similar in most other countries as most of the world has agreed to bring their copyright laws into line with certain international agreements.

What is a Copyright Work?
The above definition says that copyright can subsist in musical works and sound recordings.  A musical work is essentially a score.  A sound recording is a recording of a performance of a score. Thus there at least two separate copyrights in every DVD or other sound recording.  One copyright will subsist in the work of the composer who wrote out the notes. The other will lie in the work of the recording studio which captured the playing of the work and reproduced it on DVDs or other media. If the music is a song then a separate literary copyright will subsist in the words of the song.  If there is more than one tune on the DVD there will be a separate copyright for each tune. On a typical DVD, there will be lots of different types of copyright works.

What does Copyrught do?
Copyright confers on the copyright owner the exclusive right to do various acts in respect of a copyright work.  These include copying the work and performing and playing the work in public. Unless you are the copyright owner (which is usually the person who created the work or his or her employer) you need the copyright owner's permission to do any of those things. If for instance, you want to play a DVD in public, you will need permission from the owner of the copyright in the score - that is to say the composer or music publisher - and the owner of the copyright in the sound recording.

Where do you get Permission?
Most copyright owners belong to collecting societies which grant permission to play, perform or make available copyright music on behalf of their members and members of collecting societies overseas in return for a fee. For instance, The Performing Rights Society represents songwriters, composers and music publishers and has formed an alliance with the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society.  You can find out whether you need a licence and, if so,  how much you will have to pay, from the Music Users section of the PRS website.

What if you don't get Permission?
Unless you fall within one of a number of exceptions you will infringe the copyright in the work which will entitle the collecting society to sue you for an injunction (an order by a judge to do or not to do a specified act), damages (compensation for your wrongdoing) or an account and surrender of the profits you made from your wrongdoing and an order that you contribute to the other side's legal fees and other expenses in bringing you to court.  Some copyright infringements are also offences which are punishable by long terms of imprisonment and unlimited fines.

Are there any Exceptions?
There is actually one for dance schools and a more limited one for teachers outside dance schools who provide teaching for recognized exams.

Further Advice
Copyright law is complex and if you are in any doubt you should seek specialist professional advice.

Simon Garner's Dancer

Dancer inspired by the work of Glen Keane
Author Simon Garner
©  2017 Simon Garner: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the author



























I introduced Simon Garner in Images of Giselle on 20 May 2016.  He describes himself as a nurse, Photoshop lover, aspiring writer and an asexual male who takes ballet classes which are amazing fun. It is through those classes that I have made his acquaintance.

Although he does not mention it on his twitter account description he is also an artist. He made this drawing of a dancer for his "favourite ballerinas" on the day of our Show last Saturday.  He would have taken part in that show had he not sustained injury a few days ago. We all missed Simon and wish him well. We also appreciate his drawing which is why I sought his permission to publish it in this blog.

In granting permission, Simon asked me to add that his drawing was inspired by the work of Glen Keane. Keane is described by Wikipedia as "an American animator, author and illustrator. He is best known for his character animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios for feature films including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan and Tangled." It will not have escaped your notice that the first three of those film titles are also the names of ballets by Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Ballet Theatre UK. For those who want to know more about this artist, his work is explored and celebrated in The Art of Glen Keane and the Keane Art blogs.

If you liked Simon's drawing, you will find more of his work on his flickr account.

Sunday 14 May 2017

Show

Move it!13 May 2016
Author Gita Mistry
© 2017 Gita Mistry: all rights reserved





















We attracted quite a good crowd to The Dancehouse for Move It! yesterday despite competition from the Eurovision Song Contest, Ballet Central's mixed programme in Whitehaven, Birmingham Royal Ballet's triple bill in York and the Royal Baller's Mayerling and Nothern Ballet's Casanova in London. That is not because we are such talented dancers -though several of our number are very good - but because it is fun to be there. It is more like a party than a performance both for the performers and for the audience.

I took part in KNT's pre-intermediate class show. "Sounds intriguing," said Tracy our compere at the dress rehearsal, "what's that?" Our teacher, Karen Sant, shouted that it was for students who were no longer beginners but not quite up to intermediate level. As it is a bit of a mouthful I prefer to call it the Tuesday night class which I have been attending off and on for the last two and a half years. You can see us in the picture that Gita took last night. I'm in the back row second from the left.

Karen had choreographed a piece for us that lay just within my capabilities based on the exercises that we do in class with lots of balancés and glissades and one spectacular lift by two of the gents in our group. We also had to run around the stage in clockwise and anticlockwise circles, a run into the centre and a run back and a reverence in which we bowed rather than curtsied. Unlike the previous years, all classes reappeared at the end for a final curtain call.

Yesterday was not the first time that I had danced in front of a paying audience so I knew what to expect. It did not mean that we were (or at any rate I was) any less nervous as we crept onto the stage in blackout  or any less exhilarated once the lights came on but I knew that I would not freeze like a rabbit in a car's headlights and that I was likely to enjoy the experience.

For once in my life, my hair was arranged in a proper ballet bun (merci a Gita who had arranged it in a heart shape just like one of her edible buns). Not even my hairdresser had been able to accomplish that.

Karen has asked us to assemble in the Dancehouse café at 15:45.  Gita had guessed as I panicked in the traffic looking for a way to the Chester Street car park that Karen probably meant 16:00 but knew better than to disclose the actual timetable to a band of adult ballet students. Olivier, our chef de quelquechose on whom I occasionally practise my French, confirmed that that was indeed the case.

At or about the appointed time we were led into the auditorium. Tracy emerged from behind the curtain and greeted us cheerily. We gave her a sort of half muffled grunt in reply. "You'll have to better than that, dancers", she told us. "If you expect to receive the love you've got to share it."  She read through the running order and called on the first act which was Josh Moss's repertoire class. A recording of harp strings and then Minkus's gorgeous music from La Bayadere as Katie Daly led her shades into their kingdom. Tendus and arms in 5th look simple enough but I had tried to learn that dance from Jane Tucker last year and knew that it was anything but - particularly when it comes to the bourrées with arms in arabesque towards the end.

All the other classes filed on and were warmly applauded by the crowd. I can't quite remember the order in which they came but they included the usual jazz and contemporary classes plus the belly dancers whose rhythmic music to a compelling Arabic air is clapped on by the audience and the lovely Chinese dancers in their flowing sparkly robes. "I can see you sparkling away," said Tracy from the stage, and they really do. The show rounded off with the adult ballet class in which my friend Yoshie Kimura performs. Now those students really are good. This year they recruited a young man who knows his onions when it comes to jumps. His assemblés and entrechats were a joy to behold.

After rehearsal, we were led back to our studios where we practised our steps, ate our sarnies, shared our jokes, caught up with our mates on Whatsapp and Facebook and generally chilled out. I spotted a member of the advanced class performing barre exercises. As we always have a class before a show in Leeds I decided to join her for a few pliés, tendus, glissés and ronds de jambe and am very glad I did because I would have been even more wooden otherwise. This is one thing that Manchester could learn from Leeds.

Before we knew it, it was our turn to come on. There had been some lively street dancers immediately before us and we knew they would be a hard act to follow. We entered the stage and all seemed to go well. The lift was perfect and received some cheers. We finished our routine and bowed to what seemed very generous applause.

There is always a flood of emotions after a show. On the one hand, relief that it went without too many disasters but, on the other, sadness that it is all over. That made me think of the cast of Casanova at Sadler's Wells whose two-month tour of the nation also ended last night. They must be going through the same emotions one hundred fold.

We all repaired for the bar. Hugged and congratulated each other, our friends and relations and theirs and then melted into that good Manchester night. More classes next week. More camaraderie. More pain and stiffness afterwards. More fun.

Saturday 13 May 2017

Birmingham Royal Ballet's Northern Tour 2017


Standard YouTube Licence


Birmingham Royal Ballet, Solitaire, 5 Tangos and Pineapple Poll, York Theatre Royal, 12 May 2017, 19:30

As I mentioned in Doing the Splits 8 May 2017, the Birmingham Royal Ballet splits into two. One group of dancers visits theatres in the North of England and North Midlands which this year includes Durham, York and Nottingham while the other goes to Cheltenham, Poole and Truro. Yesterday, I caught the dancers on the Northern Tour at York Theatre Royal in a splendid triple bill consisting of MacMillan's Solitaire, van Manen's 5 Tangos and Cranko's Pineapple Poll.

Each of those works was created by one of the greatest 20th-century choreographers. John Cranko was only 24 when he staged Pineapple Poll in 1951. Kenneth MacMillan was slightly older in 1956 when Ninette de Valois asked him to create Solitaire at very short notice using sets and costumes that had been designed for The Angels by Cranko. While in retrospect in looks like an early work because his career has lasted so long, Hans van Manen had already been working for over 20 years when he made 5 Tangos for the Dutch National Ballet in 1977.

I had already seen 5 Tangos performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet in High Wycombe (see Birmingham Royal Ballet in High Wycombe 31 May 2015) and Scottish Ballet in Glasgow (see No Mean City - Accessible Dance and Ballet 26 April 2015). I had also seen two performances of Pineapple Poll, one of which was by the Birmingham Royal Ballet when it was still known as the Royal Ballet Touring Company at a matinee at Sadler's Wells together with Ashton's Les Rendezvous and Facade, and the other by the Chelmsford Ballet (see A Delight Indeed 27 March 2015). Solitaire, however, was new to me and what a treat it turned out to be.

According to the Kenneth MacMillan website, Solitaire was subtitled  "A kind of game for one".  The site describes it as  "a sequence of dances knit together by Malcolm Arnold’s Eight English Dances and by the continuity provided by Margaret Hill’s appearance in each one."  Margaret Hill danced the lead role in the original production.  Referred to only as "the girl", she opens and closes the work appearing in one capacity or another in every scene. The other dancers are her playmates though it is hinted that they may not be real. They enter the stage, dance a scene and disappear as suddenly as they came on. Yesterday "the girl" was danced delightfully by Arancha Baselga who was joined on stage by 16 other dancers in various scenes. My enjoyment of the ballet was greatly facilitated by Arnold's music which included much that was familiar including the signature tune to "What the Papers Say" on Radio 4 on Sunday night. I also enjoyed Desmond Heeley's gorgeous costumes - especially the red bodice of Baselga's tutu - and his draping golden sun backcloth design,

Yesterday, the Dutch National Ballet's online magazine ran a feature on van Manen entitled Hans van Manen: een levende legende the meaning of which is obvious. A link appeared on Facebook which has already attracted 426 likes, 29 shares and lots of comments including this one from me:
"Just seen Birmingham Royal Ballet dance van Manen's 5 Tangos in York this evening. It was great. Jenna Roberts, Matthias Dingman and Maureya Lebowitz were in the cast. They did the great man justice."
That just about says it all. I love this work, the designs and Piazzolla's music, the choreography, the vigorous and expressive dancing and all the connotations with Argentina, one of my favourite countries, and the Netherlands where van Manen is a national living treasure and the subject of a great deal of blogging by me.

Pineapple Poll with its synopsis based on W S Gilbert's ballad The Bumboat's Woman's Story, Charles Mackerras's arrangement of a selection of Gilbert and Sullivan's favourite tunes and Osbert Lancaster's intricate designs was a wonderful way to round off a wonderful evening. Yesterday it occurred to me that this work may well have inspired Ashton to create Fille and Balanchine to create Union Jack. There is certainly a link in Osbert Lancaster in that he created the designs for both Poll and Fille and the exuberance of Mackerras's arrangement finds resonance in Hershey Kay, Maybe my imagination but why not. Matthias Dingman was the gallant Captain (later Admiral) Belaye. Easy to see why the girls' hearts were aflutter. Laura Kay (who had earlier delighted the audience as a playmate in Solitaire) danced his sweetheart Blanche. Laura Purkiss was her interfering aunt, Mrs Dimple, who doubles as Britania at the end. Nao Sakuma danced Blanche's rival, Pineapple Poll.  Kit Holder was the hero of the piece rising from pot boy to naval officer and Poll's husband without even having time to remove his apron. There were lots of other favourites in the cast including the magnificent Valentin Olovyannikov who delighted me in The Taming of the Shrew last year (see Birmingham Royal Ballet performs my favourite ballet at last 23 June 2016).

Birmingham Royal Ballet are giving two more performances today plus a talk and they are also opening their company class to the public. Next week, they move on to Nottingham. I would have been back today had I not been dancing in my own ballet this evening. If you can get a ticket for the matinee or evening performance in York tonight or Nottingham next week I strongly recommend the show.

Friday 12 May 2017

Exeunt's Ballet Reviews - Mayerling and Casanova

The Mayerling Hunting Lodge near Vienna
Source Wikioedia

















I have recently discovered Exeunt Magazine as a result of a twitter spat that has arisen from its review of a performance of the Royal Ballet's Mayerling (see Anna Winter's Review: Mayerling at the Royal Ballet 3 May 2017). I read the review to see what the fuss was about.

The review starts with the observation
"The Royal Ballet is on mighty form in Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling, delineating the late choreographer’s dark vision of lust, morphine and mental instability with exquisite panache."
Had I not had other commitments tomorrow evening those words might have tempted me down to London. The reviewer then discusses the plot which deals with the death of the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian empire in very suspicious circumstances at Mayerling, the imperial hunting lodge just outside Vienna, in 1889. There is quite a good synopsis in Wikipedia (see Mayerling (ballet)) as well as a discussion of the incident (see Mayerling Incident).

This was a scandal that had many repercussions, though perhaps not as many as some would say as the First World War would probably have taken place even without the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the dual-monarchy would probably have collapsed even without a war. Nevertheless, Anna Winter was shocked by this story and wrote:
"You leave the theatre not only having experienced incredible dancing, Liszt’s luscious score and Nicholas Georgiadis’s murkily opulent designs, but also with the distinct feeling that the royal family should really be doing something else apart from narrowing their DNA selection and having parties."
She then took a swipe at the person sitting next to her who had "remarked that in several years’ time he hoped to see an all-British roster of principal dancers."  It was that remark that appears to have got Winter's goat for she linked it with the incident and her critique of monarchy generally:
"Yes, that’s right, you tweedy prick – let’s narrow the balletic gene pool. Let’s have British dancers for British people! Let’s ignore the fact that it’s such a fucking immense privilege that dancers – stupendously talented foreign dancers – like Marianela Nunez and Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov choose to make London their home and in doing so help to make the Royal a beacon not just of artistic excellence but relative diversity."
After that peroration, Winter returned to the performance of the principal dancers which included Marianela Núñez. Edward Watson, Natalia Osipova, Sarah Lamb and Franceska Hayward.  A very strong cast from whom one would expect an "astounding artistic achievement" which is exactly how the reviewer described the ballet.

On balance, a perfectly reasonable review, one might think, but that is not how it was viewed by everybody. Exeunt's editor, Alice Saville, reported "an unprecedented number of emails and tweets directed at Exeunt in response to Anna Winter’s review of Mayerling at the Royal Ballet" in her feature In Defence of Exeunt’s Mayerling Review 8 May 2017. The passage that seems to have prompted all those emails is Winter's reaction to the remark about an all-British roster of principal dancers in a few years time. That may have been an expression of post-Brexit chauvinism (in which case my thoughts would have been similar to Winter's), or it may simp,y have been an expression of hope that enough young British dancers would eventually make it to the top so that it would be possible one day to stage a performance of Mayerling from their number.  As context is everything I took the view that the reviewer's reaction to the remark was a little over the top and detracted from an otherwise good review.

But that was nowhere near as far over the top as sending "blisteringly unpleasant" emails. Saville complained of
"a forum thread devoted to picking apart both Exeunt’s response, and the credentials of our writer. One poster hunted down her educational background, and proposed confronting her at a future performance!"
She also said that
"Several members of ballet.co are calling on the Royal Opera House press office to revoke our press tickets, in a hugely illiberal response to a single review that offended them."
Now that really is going a bit too far. As Saville observes, "a threat of harassment is much more serious than reporting on the speech of an anonymous stranger."

Now that spat troubled me because I have been a subscriber to BalletcoForum for several years. I have enjoyed reading its discussions and have met a number of very interesting people who share my passion for ballet. When I learned that one of them had been blocked on twitter my reaction was to take up the cudgels against the blocking. However, even though I am still against blocking I can see why it was done in this case.

Some pretty horrible things were said about the Exeunt website.  I had never heard of it before but I read some of the reviews including Winter's and found that they are actually quite good. Winter has just written a particularly good review of Kenneth Tindall's Casanova (see Review: Casanova at Sadler’s Wells 11 May 2017 Exeunt) which is a ballet that I know quite well having attended the opening night in Leeds (see Casanova - "it has been a long time since I enjoyed a show by Northern Ballet as much as I enjoyed Casanova last night" 12 March 2017), last Saturday's performance at The Lowry (see Casanova Second Time Round 7 May 2017) as well as a preview in Leeds (see Casanova Unmasked 16 Feb 2017) and having been given an exclusive interview by Tindall (see "A Many Sided Genius" - Tindall on Casanova 4 March 2017).  As I said in my original article on Winter's review (which I have removed at the request of one of the moderators of BalletcoForum) it is thoughtful and well researched and one of the best reviews of the ballet that I have seen so far.

Exeunt was founded in 2010 by Natasha Tripney who is now the Reviews Editor of The Stage and Daniel B. Yates. It claims to believe in "making beautifully written, experimental, fierce and longform writing about theatre available for free" and I think it succeeds.  I shall certainly visit it again.  The irony is that I might never have learned of its existence had it not been for BalletcoForum.