An "Evening with Ashton" and the Launch of an English Junior Company

Lesley Collier

Photographer MaraJK Licence CC BY-SA 4,0  Source Wikimedia Commons

Birmingham Royal Ballet  An Evening with Ashton 24 Jan 2023  Elmhurst Ballet School

Lesley Collier was one of my favourite dancers when I first took an interest in ballet.  I had not seen her for many years so I jumped at the chance to watch her coach two dancers from Birmingham Royal Ballet at Elmhurst Ballet School on 24 Jan 2023.  Shortly before the masterclass was due to start, Carlos Acosta appeared,  It was clear that this event would be out of the ordinary.  The director introduced the dancers as founder members of BRB2.

It was only in the interval that I appreciated the significance of that introduction.  I overheard Caroline Miller (who was sitting immediately behind me) discuss the new company.  Her description sounded very like Ernst Meisner's Junior Company which I have followed since 2013 (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Feb 2013 Terpsichore). I turned around and asked her whether my surmise was right.  She confirmed that it was.  I was delighted because I had been calling for British companies to follow the Dutch lead for many years, The Junior Company has launched many dazzling careers and strengthened still further an already great company.

The dancers whom Lesley Collier coached were Frieda Kaden and Oscar Kempsey-Fagg,  The piece that she rehearsed was the pas de deux from Ashton's Rhapsody.  Ashton had created that work to celebrate the Queen Mother's 80th birthday and he had chosen Collier to dance it with Mikhail Baryshnikov.  The music is  Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini which the conductor, Barry Wordsworth described as virtuoso in the pit as well as on stage in the Royal Opera House's YouTube clip An Introduction to Rhapsody (the Royal Ballet).   The video shows Collier coaching Steven McRea and Natalia Osipova on the same piece as she coached Kaden and Kempsey-Fagg in Birmingham. 

Kaden and Kempsey-Fagg are at the very start of their careers but they seemed to do the pas de deux just as well as McRea and Osipova.  For the audience the exercise was fascinating.  Ashton had labelled different parts of the piece with distinctive names such as "the pussy cats".  Collier spotted the most minute details such as Kempsey-Fagg lifting Kaden a little bit too high. She reran each sequence requiring a correction until it was perfect.  My only regret as an audience member is that there was not enough time for the dancers to take the whole piece from the top.

The two young dancers rehearsed the piece not only in front of their artistic director but also their artistic coordinator, Kit Holder and three of their colleagues.  The appointment of Holder is an excellent choice.  I recognized his exceptional talent as a choreographer as long ago as 2015.  I wrote in It Takes Three to Tango:

"Kit Holder has choreographed Quatrain for Birmingham Royal Ballet to Piazzolla's The Four Season's of Buenos Aires. Holder is an impressive talent. I first noticed him in Ballet Black's To Fetch a Pail of Water (see Ballet Black's Best Performance Yet 17 Feb 2015) and I was bowled over by Hopper which he created for Ballet Central (see Dazzled 3 May 2015)."

Holder has created plenty of work since then.   

Like the Junior Company, BRB2 will tour to gain stage experience.  They will start in Northampton on 25 April, continue to Nottingham on 28 and 29, Peterborough on 3 and 4 May, Covent Garden on 13 and 14 June and Wolverhampton on 24 June.  The best night to see them is probably their premiere in Northampton on 25 April 2023 when they will perform with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.  Unfortunately, I shall have to miss that show as I have to chair a lunchtime seminar in Gaerwen on Anglesey the very next day but I will catch them in Nottingham (which is the closest venue to my home) and possibly other stages of their tour.

After the masterclass, we were introduced to the former Sadler's Wells Ballet dancer Lynne Wake who had made Frederick Ashton: Links in the Chain for The Frederick Ashton Foundation.  The film contains contributions from Sir Anthony Dowell, Dame Antoinette Sibley and Lynn Seymour who were at the height of their careers when I started to follow ballet.  There are also interviews with Dame Beryl Grey, Dame Gillian Lynne and Henry Danton who sadly died recently. Happily, there are also contributions from dancers who are still with us such as Marianela Núñez and Vadim Muntagirov.

The title "Links in the Chain" reminds me of Clement Crisp's interview of Dame Antoinette which I discussed in Le jour de gloire est arrive - Dame Antoinette Sibley with Clement Crisp at the Royal Ballet School on 3 Feb 2014:

"Sibley spoke about her teachers I realized that every teacher represents to his or students every dancer, choreographer and teacher who has gone before. Sibley loved her teachers and I can relate to that because I love every one of mine. Those who have gently corrected my wobbling arabesques and feeble turns. I texted one of them yesterday after the talk from a restaurant where I ordered - guess what - a steak.

'Oh super jealousy/ she replied.
'Don't be jealous' I responded 'You are also part of the tradition. You live it, I just see it. And you pass on your gift to others.'
'Awwwww Thanku xxxx'
'When I go to class you or Annemarie represent every dancer, choreographer and teacher who ever lived'.
'Aw Jane! I won't be able to leave the room soon'
'I am only paraphrasing Sibley. She should know. Through you I am linked to your teacher who is probably linked to someone at Ballet Russes who is linked to Petipa..
'xxxxx wise woman!.'

As indeed Dame Antoinette is. I learned so much from her yesterday for which I shall always be grateful."

Wake's film celebrated such links. Collier's coaching illustrated another. The exceptionally gifted young men and women who have been accepted into BRB2 and the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company will plug into those links through Kit Holder and Ernst Meisner.