Croeso i Ŵyl Dream

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Ballet Cymru Dream Theatr Clwyd 28 May 2022 19:30 and Lichfield Cathedral 8 July 2022 19:30

The words "Croeso i Ŵyl Dream" were projected onto the wall of Lichfield cathedral last night.  They mean "Welcome to the Dream Festival".  An announcer introduced Darius James and Amy Doughty's Dream as part of the Lichfield Festival's Shakespeare celebration. 

The more one studies A Midsummer Night's Dream the more one finds layers of meaning.  Sometimes it takes a derivative work to reveal those hidden layers.  At first sight, Shakespeare's comedy contains multiple unconnected plots but in fact,. the quarrel between Titania and Oberon, the lovers in the woods, the mechanicals' play and indeed Pyramus and Thisbe are connected. They show the border between reality and the magical, or, if you prefer, the imagination, to be a shadowy one.   The choreographers revealed that interconnection in many ways from the casting of Isobel Holland and Robbie Moorcroft as Hermia's mum and dad as well as Titania and Oberon to their ingenious use of Frank Moon's score and Chris Illingworth's lighting and projections.

James and Doughty are not the first choreographers to transpose A Midsummer Night's Dream to dance.  Frederick Ashton,  Jean-Christophe Maillot, David Nixon and Arthur Pita have all created work that had been inspired by the play,  However, James and Doughty are perhaps the first to tell the full story of the play in all its complexity.  They seem to have revisited Shakespeare's text and created a libretto that summarizes every essential.   As Mendelsohn's score would have limited their opportunity to do that they commissioned a new score from Moon.   They did very much the same in Cinderella and that is perhaps their unique contribution to choreography.

Their summary was not a dry and slavish transposition.   They inserted their own humour like the puppy dog pose to represent Helena's infatuation and the space suit and balloon to indicate the man in the moon,  Indeed, just as the fitting of the slipper is the funniest part of James and Doughty's Cinderella, the performance of Pyramus and Thisbe stole the show.   A mop turned into a lion's mane, a dustbin lid transformed into a breastplate and a collage of cereal packets representing bricks on a wall were hilarious. touches.

Although several of my favourite artists in Ballet Cymru seem to have left Ballet Cymru the company retains plenty of talent left.  Moorcroft and Holland performed their roles as king and queen of the fairies regally and as Hermia's parents tenderly.  The super-talented Beth Meadway brought Helena to life in a way that I have never seen before.  I shall be reminded of Meadway whenever I see the play again regardless of medium.   Sanea Singh was an excellent Puck, Kotone Sugiyama an adorable Hermia, and Jacob Hornsey a memorable Bottom.  Caitlin Jones created a new character Lysandia imaginatively,  I also congratulate  Jacob Myers, Samuel Banks and Jethro Paine for their performances as Moth, Cobweb and Mustard Seed, particularly for their mocking adulation of Bottom while he was still a donkey.

Shows often grow as they tour the country and I think that has happened with Dream.   It was already a good show when I saw it in Mold on 29 May but it was even better yesterday.   Darius James told me that it will be performed in Leeds in the Autumn and that he will give Powerhouse Ballet a workshop based on the ballet.   I look forward to both very much indeed.

Nixon - An Appreciation

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On 28 May 2021, Northern Ballet announced the retirement of its artistic director, David Nixon (see David Nixon OBE steps down as Artistic Director of Northern Ballet after 20 years 28 May 2021 Northern Ballet).  He has already held that job longer than any other director of the company. When he stands down at the end of the year he will have been with the company for over 40% of its history.  

Good things have happened to Northern Ballet during that time. The company's move to Quarry Hill will have been appreciated by the artists and technicians but it has also enabled ordinary folk like me to dance in the same studios and occasionally even upon the same stage as the artists. The work of the Academy and the Leeds Centre for Advanced Training are other significant achievements.  There are, of course, adult ballet classes and centres of advanced elsewhere but one of the distinctions of the Academy and the Leeds Centre is whether aiming for a career in dance or simply dancing for fun, all students are trained under the Ichino Technique:

"Under this method, young dancers learn how to cope with the physical and emotional demands of dancing through preventative conditioning, a clear understanding of their individual strengths and limitations and a detailed knowledge of dance technique."

Yoko Ichino, the deviser of that technique, is also Mrs David Nixon.

Nixon is highly regarded as a choreographer.  While I can't say that I have liked all his work he is the author of two masterpieces. One is A Midsummer Night's Dream  which I reviewed as follows in Realizing Another Dream on  15 Sept 2013:

"Perhaps the best way to start this review is at the end. I could not help rising to my feet as the cast took their bows. And I was not the only one. The English, unlike Americans, are very slow to give standing ovations (except at party conferences) and I have only seen other in my lifetime. That was a special evening for Sir Frederick Ashton at Covent Garden in July 1970 when he retired as director of the Royal Ballet. It seems from the tweets and video that Northern Ballet's short season at West Yorkshire Playhouse (6 to 14 Sept 2013) has also been very special."

Nixon's other masterpiece is Madame Butterfly.  In my review I wrote:

"it took my breath away. I have seen a fair selection of Nixon's work and in my humble opinion Madame Butterfly is his masterpiece.

To his credit, Nixon has commissioned major works from his own artists and I have enjoyed these better than many of his outside commissions.  Particularly successful was Kenneth Tindall's Casanova and Daniel de Andrade's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

There has been a lot of speculation about who will succeed Nixon and what he will do next.  I have no idea about either but I know whom I would like to see apply for the role.  I think dance education is very important and two of my favourite candidates are artistic directors of great ballet schools, one in mainland Europe and the other in London.  Both have worked with exceptionally gifted young dancers in the important years between finishing vocational education and joining a company. The other candidate has already been an artistic director.  She has created sensations in San Francisco and London and also worked for Northern Ballet.  As for Nixon, someone on BalletcoForum suggested an important role for him in North America. 

Whether Nixon takes up a new appointment or retires I wish him all the best for the future.

"A Most Rare Vision ...... A Dream"

Ballet Cymru A Midsummer Night's Dream 7 June 2017  19:30

Yesterday I had to make a tough choice between two ballet's derived from A Midsummer Night's Dream. In my local cinema was The Dream by Sir Frederick Ashton, one of my favourite ballets because I shall always associate it with Dame Antoinette Sibley and Sir Anthony Dowell, streamed live from Covent Garden. At the Preston Guild Hall and Charter Theatre was a live performance by Ballet Cymru of Darius James's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

What made the choice particularly hard was that The Dream was to be performed as part of a triple bill with Symphonic Variations and Marguerite and Armand.  Just as I associate The Dream with Sibley and Dowell I shall always associate Marguerite and Armand with Rudolf Nureyev and Dame Margot Fonteyn and Symphonic Variations. Making the choice even harder was the knowledge that Zenaida Yanowsky was due to make her last appearance yesterday.

Much as I love the Royal Ballet and Yanowsky I chose Ballet Cymru without hesitation. In my book, living breathing human beings on stage will always trump images flashed onto a screen. Also, there is a chance of seeing a recording of last night's transmission though, sadly, there are not many cinemas advertising the encore. I think I made the right call because last night's performance was outstanding.

Darius James first created the ballet for the company in 1997. It was an immediate success. The Sunday Telegraph described the dancers as "impressively able" and commended James for making use of "every gift they have." The Theatre Critics of Wales nominated it for the best dance production of 2013. It is not hard to see why for James is a skilled narrator with an exceptionally keen eye for detail and a superb gift for transposing Shakespeare's words into movement.

James understands Shakespeare better than most.  In A Romeo and Juliet for our Times 7 Nov 2016 I described his Romeo a Juliet as James and Doughty's best work yet which shows how a small company of young dancers with modest resources can stage a full-length ballet brilliantly. Other plays that have inspired James are The Tempest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet which I should very much like to see.

Unlike Ashton, who focuses on the quarrel between Titania and Oberon and their reconciliation, James follows the play faithfully. That could not have been easy because the plot is complex. In addition to the quarrel there is the love affair between Hermia and Lysander and Helena's pursuit of Demetrius, Puck's mischief making, Titania's infatuation with Bottom, the mechanicals' performance of Pyramus and Thisbe and the nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta. James's solution is to divide the ballet into three parts. The first part embraces everything except the merchanicals' play and Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. The second part is that play.  The third is a Petipa style pas de deux with Hippolyta in a classical tutu. It may sound bitty when described in words on a page but, in fact, it works very well indeed.

One day Ballet Cymru may have principals, soloists, coryphées and a corps but at present it has twelve young, very able and very ambitious young dancers. All of them had important roles in the ballet that reflected their personalities as well as their respective technical skills. Each and every one of them performed his or her role brilliantly.

Oberon and Titania were performed by Adreamaria Battagia and Gwenllian Davies who had impressed me so much in Romeo a Juliet.  They do comedy as well as they do tragedy. They also doubled as Theseus and Hippolyta. For me, the pas de deux at the end was the high point of the show. Casting Miguel Fernandes was inspired. He is a talented character dancer as well as a splendid virtuoso. Anna Pujol was a delightful Hermia and Robbie Moorcroft a gallant Lysander but it was as Bottom where Moorcroft's brilliance shone through. The company's latest recruits, Miles Carrott and Beth Meadway, were each given two demanding roles which they performed magnificently. Medway touched our hearts as poor spurned Helena and our funny bones as Snug. Carrott excelled as Demetrius and Quince. Natalie Debono was a spirited Peasebottom. Ann Wall, who doubled as fairy and mechanical, was a hilarious man in the moon complete with lamp and dog.

The music for most of the ballet was Mendelssohn which James tells us in the programme is a delight to dance.  No wonder as the score has so many familiar tunes. For Pyramus and Thisbe, however, the dancers provided their own music on tin whistles and kazoo which virtually spoke the words of the play. I was amused by Pyramus's death throes and the Death March that the motley band managed to conjure from their assorted instruments.

As a small touring company Ballet Cymru has to travel light so it relies on projections to create scenery and atmosphere. Chris Illingworth's designs were inspired.  So, too, were Yvonne Greenleaf's costumes. The simple body hugging costumes for the fairies with their fluffy, white wigs worked well. So, too, did the mechanicals' working clothes and, of course, Bottom's ears.

The company will perform A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale on Saturday. A tip to all my classmates at KNT - if you are free on Saturday afternoon or evening. try to get down there.  After Sale the show moves on to Bangor on the 15 June followed by Tewkesbury, Poole, Taunton, Stvenage, Hereford, Basingstoke, Ayr, Porthcawl, Newbury and Lichfield.

Ballet Cymru's The Light Princess

The Rev. George McDonald
Author of the Light Princess

Photo William Jeffrey
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On 19 May 2017 Ballet Cymru will premiere The Light Princess, a new ballet by Darius James and his beautiful dancers, at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport. According to the company's press release of 19 Jan 2017, The Light Princess is based on the story by George McDonald with a score by Catrin Finch.

Although the story has much in common with The Sleeping Beauty it also presciently appears to have a message for our time on drought and climate change. The author was a Congregationalist minister from Scotland who is said to have mentored Lewis Carroll and inspired many other writers including W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. Finch composed the music for Celtic Concerto which I reviewed in Ballet Cymru in London on 1 Dec 2015.

The company is not releasing many details of its new production. In its press release it says:

"Using elements of circus and outstanding classical choreography the story draws inspiration from Sleeping Beauty, telling the story of a princess afflicted by a constant weightlessness, unable to get her feet on the ground, until she finds a love that brings her down to earth.
Featuring ground breaking video projections and stunningly vibrant costumes The Light Princess will transport you to a world of laughter, beauty and wonder."

Following its premiere in Newport, Ballet Cymru will take the work to Bury St Edmunds, Llanelli, Milford Haven, Stevenage and Newcastle under Lyme.

I am also delighted to say that the company is taking A Midsummer Night's Dream to Preston and Sale as well as other venues in every part of the UK which will please their Northern fans greatly.

Realizing Another Dream

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Northern  Ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream  West Yorkshire Playhouse 14 Sept 2013

Perhaps the best way to start this review is at the end. I could not help rising to my feet as the cast took their bows. And I was not the only one.  The English, unlike Americans, are very slow to give standing ovations (except at party conferences) and I have only seen other in my lifetime.  That was a special evening for Sir Frederick Ashton at Covent Garden in July 1970 when he retired as director of the Royal Ballet.   It seems from the tweets and video that Northern Ballet's short season at West Yorkshire Playhouse (6 to 14 Sept 2013) has also been very special.

I was reminded of Ashton's farewell evening in other ways.  That was the last time I heard a dancer speak. Then it was Svetlana Beriosova. I can't remember exactly what she said except that she spoke in French and her voice was as pure and as elegant as her dance. Last night we heard Kevin Poeung who doubled as Puck, an irascible ballet master, and Puck as Robin Goodfellow. Poeung spoke twice in the ballet - in Act 1 in a rehearsal studio which looked remarkably similar  to Northern's own studios (see "Realizing a Dream" 12 Sept 2013 to see how I know) and then at the very end of Act 3.  Poeung uttered the lines we all learned at school. 

"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends."

It appears from a video of a rehearsal which was released at the time of the production that the choreographer, David Nixon, used voice a lot more in rehearsal. I should be interested to know whether he or other choreographers use that technique in rehearsing other works. In Giselle, perhaps, for when she is shown Albrecht's sword and goes mad and dies of humiliation.  Certainly, that technique proved very effective yesterday evening.

When I thought of Ashton I remembered that he had also choreographed Midsummer Night's Dream as had George Balanchine and several other choreographers.  Perhaps not surprisingly Nixon's Dream is very different from Ashton's and indeed Balanchine's as you can see from the synopsis.  It moves from the real to the ethereal and then back to reality again.  Something that ballet can do so much better than most other art forms including cinema if you think of Giselle, Swan Lake and even Nutcracker.   Nixon's version incorporates a chunk of Romeo and Juliet including Prokofiev's music not to mention Brahms (see John Pryce-Jones's video). I have to confess that I have been rather exasperated with Nixon in the past for taking liberties with familiar plots such as "Beauty and the Beast", "Ondine" and "Nutcracker". Even though I had bristled momentarily at Nixon's setting Romeo and Juliet in the 1940s which was nearly 20 years before Kenneth Macmillan staged that work for Nixon's compatriot Lynn Seymour his liberty taking yesterday succeeded brilliantly.

The transition from real to ethereal and back again - in this case, studio to station, a train, the land of dreams, back to another station and a stage in Edinburgh - was quite a challenge for a set designer. It was achieved seamlessly and imaginatively by Duncan Hayter. I loved the train particularly, as it pulled out of the station, and the cramped couchettes and WC.   I thought the sets in Gatsby had been good but yesterday's were even better.   So, also, were the costumes - both those of the mortals and those of the fairies - the best of all being Bottom's ass outfit.

Bottom, danced by Darren Goldsmith, had us in stitches as he pranced with Titania braying as she stroked his ears or gave him a carrot.  "Sounds like my central heating" whispered my companion who has had no end of problems with her plumbing.  Also as a carpenter hopelessly in love with a ballerina (Antoinette Brooks-Daw) - particularly poignant as the ballet was set in the late 1940s when class divisions were so much more rigid than they are today.  Matthew Broadbent as a tailor or dressmaker also made us laugh as he tried to retrieve his dignity when faced down by a supercilious choreographer (Hironao Takahashi) and bullying ballet master.

There was some brilliant choreography for some of my favourite dancers, Kenneth Tindall and Tobias Batley as Lysander and Demetrius and Pippa Moore and Martha Leebolt as Helena and Hermia.  The best bit for me was a pas de trois in Act 2 as Lysander and Demetrius competed to get rid of Hermia in order to pursue Helena.  But there was also brilliance from Takehashi as Theseus, Brookes-Daw as Hippolyta and. of course, Poeung as Robin Goodfellow.

This work is going to Newcastle, Woking and Nottingham this Autumn and in Spring to Edinburgh, Norwich, Milton Keynes and Southampton.  If you live anywhere near those cities and towns do go to see it. There is a charming note in the programme entitled "Tales from Touring". Quoting from Sarah Woodcock's history of the Birmingham Royal Ballet the note observes: "There was nothing like a long tour for welding the already close company into a company cohesive unit."  That must be particularly true of Northern Ballet.  It has matured so much since "A Simple Man", the first time I saw that company.

The programme note refers to "a huge if not totally discriminating audience" in the provinces and I suppose that must apply to me  as this post is less of a review than an encomium.  But I hope that those who know better will forgive me for I do so love Northern Ballet.