Ballet Cymru at Theatr Clwyd - "Llongyfarchiadau"

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Ballet Cymru Giselle Theatr Clwyd, Mold, 8 July 2025  20:00

I have been following Ballet Cymru for well over 12 years, and have seen some great shows including Romeo a Juliet at the Riverfront on 5 Nov 2016 and Child's Christmas in Wales and Tiger Eggs at the Pontio Centre in Bangor on 1 Dec 2018. Last night's performance of Giselle by Ballet Cymru at Theatr Clwyd in Mold was exceptional.  I think it was the best performance by Ballet Cymru of anything that I have ever seen them do.  It was also one of the best performances of Giselle by any company that I can recall in 65 years of ballet going.  Over that time, I have seen some of the world's best artists in that ballet.

I described Darius James and Amy Doughty's new production in Ballet Cymru's Giselle 3.0  and The Days I went to Bangor - Ballet Cymru's Relaxed Performances.  James and Doughty have stripped Giselle to its essentials, emphasising its drama in much the same way as David Dawson did with Scottish Ballet's Swan Lake (see Empire Blanc: Dawson's Swan Lake, 4 June 2016).  That places a lot of responsibility on the virtuosity and storytelling capabilities of the artists who dance the three principal characters, Giselle, Albrecht and Myrtha.  Happily, Gwenllian Davies, Kamal Singh and Jakob Myers were more than equal to the challenge, and they were supported brilliantly by the rest of the cast.  The result was an exciting but also very polished performance.

Yesterday, the title role was danced by Gwenllian Davies.   I first saw her in Romeo a Juliet in 2016 and wrote:

"One of the reasons why I loved the show so much was Gwenllian Davies's remarkable performance as Juliet. Davies is in her first year with the company and this is her first job. Consequently, she is barely older than Shakespeare's Juliet. As I told her after the show, I have seen some of the world's greatest dancers in the role including Lynn Seymour and more recently Alina Cojocaru and Viktoria Tereshkina, but never have I seen a more convincing Juliet. Davies danced with passion and energy and, for a while, I Slovak saw in that talented young artist what Shakespeare must have imagined."

Since then, Davies has danced with the Opera Baltic Ballet in Gdansk, where she performed Giselle as well as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the offering in The Rite of Spring.   Her performance as Giselle impressed me even more than her performance as Juliet.   

It comes as no surprise to learn that Singh attended the Vaganova's Russian masters' programme in 2019 because he dances like a Russian.   He showed enormous strength and achieved great elevation - virtuosity tempered with consummate grace.  One of the tests of a male dancer is the degree to which he enables his partner to shine.  In that respect, Singh was a perfect partner for Davies.  Singh is also an accomplished dance actor, projecting all the emotions from arrogance to repentance.

The queen of the wilis is one of the great female roles.  Until yesterday, I would have regarded the idea of a male Myrtha as absurd.  Yet Jakob Myers somehow made it work.  Not only that, he injected another level of horror into that role.  In a romantic tutu, he appeared as something unnatural - indeed diabolical.  Myers is also a virtuoso, and I had been impressed with his performance as Albrecht in Bangor.  Yesterday he gave me the creeps, which I believe to have been his and the choreographers' intention.

Everyone in the cast danced well, particularly Isobel Holland in the peasant pas de deux and Sanea Singh as one of Giselle's friends in Act 1.  Holland is also an artist I have followed for a long time and I am now a fan of Sabea Singh.

The ballet was danced to Adolphe Adam's score recorded by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Mogrelia.  The sets and costumes were designed by Darius James, and the lighting by Chris Illingworth.  

The evening began with a performance of a dance routine by schoolchildren from Ysgol Tŷ Ffynnon in Shotton called Finding Peace. Accompanying programme notes stated that the dancers would explore the vast emotions that Giselle experienced from love and happiness to anger and devastation. They would take the audience on a journey of trust, heartbreak and betrayal to eventual peace. Their performance was offered under the Duets scheme, which I mentioned in my review of Ballet Cymru's performance in Bangor. As I said in that article, it is a project that deserves the widest possible support.

This was the first time that I had visited Theatr Clwyd since its extensive renovation.  It is a very impressive undertaking.   It is not completely finished.  For example, a new restaurant to be run by Bryn Williams is expected to open later in the year.  As it was not available yesterday, a friend and I visited a very good gastro pub just a few hundred yards from the theatre called Glasfryn.   Although the traditional industries of Northeast Wales were mining, steel making and heavy industry, there is also some spectacularly beautiful countryside with a lot of historic buildings and archaeological sites to visit.  Yesterday we visited Chirk Castle, which is just over 20 miles from Mold.  Other places in the neighbourhood that are worth visiting are Flint Castle, Erddig Hall and the city of Chester.

Ballet Cymru's New Giselle

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Ballet Cymru is touring the United Kingdom with a new production of Giselle.  It opened in Newport on 16 May 2025, and the company will bring it to Bangor on 13 Jun and Mold on 8 Jul 2025.  The opening night was reviewed by Molly Stubbs for The Nation (see Dance Review: Ballet Cymru's Giselle, 20 May 2025).

If I am not mistaken, this is Ballet Cymru's third version of the ballet.  They had one in the early days of the company when they were known as Ballet Gwent.  They created a new version with a score by Catrin Finch in 2021.  It opened in Lichfield and I reviewed it in Giselle Reimagined  9 Jul 2021).  I also saw it in Leeds and Newport.   

In their latest version, they appear to have reverted to Adam's score, banished the zombies and restored to the stage Myrthe and her wilis resplendent in their romantic tutus.   While I liked Darius James and Amy Doughty's reimagining much more than I enjoyed Aktam Khan's, I do not like change for change's sake.   If the live performance is anything like the trailer, we are in for a treat.   I shall be in the Bryn Terfel auditorium on Friday and my write-up will appear soon afterwards.

Giselle Re-imagined

Lichfield Cathedral

Author Nina-no Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Source Wikimedia

 

Ballet Cymru, Giselle Livestream from Lichfield Cathedral, 8 July 2021 19:30

Ballet Cymru is not a big company.  If one consults the dancers' page as I tried to do yesterday because there were several artists in the cast I could not recognize, Ballet Cymru appears to have only four members.  Yet Ballet Cymru is capable of staging major full-length classical ballets and often doing them better than many bigger and better-resourced companies.  its Romeo a Juliet is one of the best and its Cinderella is definitely the best - much as I admire the Hampson and Wheeldon versions for Scottish Ballet and HNB.  

Those productions are successful because Darius James and Amy Doughty rethink those ballets for a small cast on the road. They are innovative without being gimmicky.  Their works are of our time yet remain anchored in the classical tradition.  Most importantly, though their artists are from Australia, Bermuda, Italy and Yorkshire, the company is unmistakably Welsh.  Here are two examples of how they work.   If a score does not quite work for them they have the courage to commission a new one.  As often as not, that commission will go to a Welsh composer such as Jack White or Catrin Finch. Another example is how they tell a story.   Romeo a Juliet is set not in renaissance Verona but post-industrial Newport.   The brawl between Montagues and Capulets in Act 1 takes place in the pedestrian underpass to the River Usk.  It is broken up not by a duke but by flashing blue lights.  

James and Doughty applied that formula to their new Giselle which was premiered at Lichfield Cathedral last night.  Although I saw it only on screen I have no doubt that it was a spectacular success.  The camera caught the front row of the audience who rose to their feet at the curtain call. Standing ovations are de rigeur in some parts of the world, but in Lichfield they are rare.  I know that city well because I attended prep school there.

As I knew that James and Doughty had commissioned Finch to write the music I was surprised to hear the opening notes of Adam's overture but it was quickly followed by percussion as the cast entered the stage and shortly afterwards (and my memory may be playing tricks on me here) Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn.  As I tweeted last night Finch's arrangement of Adam with her own work and traditional Welsh airs was one of the reasons for the ballet's success.

The ballet followed the familiar story but with some modern twists.  There are not too many peasants in Newport these days so there was no peasant pas de deux.  Fox hunting is illegal in Wales so there was no ducal hunting party.  Young Welsh women can learn about the men they encounter from their smartphones nowadays so there was no petal picking. But there was still a Giselle danced by Beth Meadway, an Albrecht (Andrea Battaggia), a Hilarion (Yasset Roldan), a Berthe (Hanna Lyn Hughes) and a Bathilde (Natasha Chu).  Other artists, described in the cast list as "friends", were  Robbie Moorcroft, Joe Powell-Main, Madeleine Green, Jakob Myers, Sanea Singh and Jethro Paine.  Chu and Lyn Hughes also appeared in the crowd scenes. 

We at Powerhouse Ballet hold all the dancers of Ballet Cymru in high regard but we have a particular affection for Meadway. She taught us In my craft or sullen art at the Dylan Thomas workshop when Ballet Cymru visited Leeds (see More than a Bit Differently: Ballet Cymru's Workshop and the Launch of the Powerhouse Ballet Circle  29 Nov 2018 Terpsichore).  She also gave us one of the best online company classes ever last year.   Above all, she is a North Country lass - just like most of us.  I already knew that she could dance but I had never seen her act before.  She is at least as good an actor as she is a dancer.  She did not just dance Giselle.   She made us believe that she was Giselle.

Tall and dashing, Battagia was cast well as Albrecht. It was easy to see how Giselle's head was turned by him.  He did not carry a sword but he did have some sort of ID that he carelessly left in a wallet in his coat pocket.  I have always felt a bit sorry for poor old Hilarion.  If anyone deserves to die it is Albrecht and in Dada Masilo's version, he does (see  A Brace of Giselles 15 Oct 2019 Terpsichore).  James and Doughty stick to tradition and he perishes in a horrible way. Roldan danced his role with verve and passion.   The choreography gives him opportunities to demonstrate virtuosity and he took full advantage.  Berthe seems even younger than her daughter which may be why she is described in the cast list as "Giselle's friend".  There is a poignant moment as Berthe comforts Giselle when she first experiences heart trouble.   It is also Berthe who tries to revive Giselle at the end.   

In any production of Giselle, there is a contrast between acts 1 and 2.   In this production, the contrast was marked by the absence of pointe work in act 1.  The women wore soft shoes and turned on demi.  In the spirit world, Myrtha and Giselle were on pointe.  No doubt to emphasize their lightness like Taglioni in La Sylphide or Grisi in the first Giselle.  The wilis were the scariest I have ever seen.   The friends in act 1 became spirits in act 2.  They, therefore, included men who were particularly threatening.   They crawled over their graves like serpents.   No graceful arabesques or penchés.   They were led by Isobel Holland.   The tension between Holland and Meadway was palpable.   Holland like Meadway is an excellent actor. She also taught us at our Dylan Thomas workshop.  We at Powerhouse know that she is delightful in real life but as queen of the wilis she was grisly and venomous.  

The set was simple but robust which will be ideal for touring.   Essentially rectangular slaps with reflective surfaces. As in their other ballets. Ballet Cymru relied on projectors to create scenery or change mood.   One background - ancient Celtic and Latin crosses - was simultaneously beautiful and unsettling. All credit to the lighting designer, Chris Illingworth.  Congratulations also to the costume designer, Derek Tudor.  Myrtha's was stunning.   The women's skirts with their layers of material must have been a joy to wear.

I look forward to seeing this show on stage very much.  A screen is all very well but it is two dimensional and ballet has depth.   If Ballet Cymru ever offers this choreography as a workshop we should love to learn it.   Once this third wave has subsided we shall learn the Coralli-Perrot-Petipa version of the dance of the wilis but the James and Doughty version would be such fun.

Le Corsaire Intensive

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One of the grandest ballets in the classical cannon but least performed here is Le Corsaire. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to a score by Adolphe Adam for the Ballet of the Paris Imperial Opera House in 1856 it was extensively revised by Marius Petipa for the Imperial Russian Ballet in St Petersburg. All the versions that are danced today in Russia and elsewhere derive from Petipa's revival. The ballet is in the repertoires of a number of companies including that of the English National Ballet. I saw it in the Palace Theatre on 14 Feb 2014 (see English National Ballet's Le Corsaire - a Valentine's Day Treat 16 Feb 2014).

As you can see from the synopsis on the Bolshoi's website it is a thrilling action-packed story based loosely on Lord Byron's poem. There are some great roles for the leads Conrad and Medora as well as the treacherous Birbanto and Gulnare, the beautiful slave girl. If there was any ballet the repertoire of which I would love to learn it would be this one. And there is an opportunity to do just that on15 April 2017 when Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy will present a full day intensive workshop in the studios of the Dancehouse Theatre on  Oxford Road in Manchester for KNT.

This will be Jane's fifth repertoire intensive. I have attended all the previous ones and I can't recommend them too highly, For an idea of what to expect, see my report of The Nutcracker intensive last October in Sugar Plum for an Hour 30 Oct 2016. The day starts with gentle floor exercises on Pilates mats, gears up with a 90-minute class which is exactly like Jane's Wednesday evening class in Leeds which is, to say the least, challenging. Then wall to wall rehearsals with an hour's break for lunch concluding with a show before our principal, Karen Sant at about 16:00, Now, however fit you may think you are, I guarantee that you will leave the Dancehouse knackered. Knackered but happy because you will have achieved a lot.

The fee for the intensive is £60 and places are filling up like nobody/s business. To book your place call Karen on 07783 103 037, send her an email on info@kntdanceworks.co.uk or contact her through Facebook.

If you are lucky enough to get in I am as jealous as hell because I have to take a raincheck this Easter. I have not seen my family in London for yonks and my grandson manquḗ, Vlad the Lad, is growing like mushrooms on steroids. This Easter we shall be celebrating Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, Vlad's birthday, my birthday and mothers' day plus Easter all rolled into one. I can't leave them hanging around on their tod all day while I pretend to be Gulnare on one their precious visits.