Cork City Ballet's Swan Lake

Andrei Bolotin and Ekaterina Borytakova in Cork City Ballet's Swan Lake

Author Miki Barlok   Copyright  Cork City Ballet 2019: all rights reserved
Licence Reproduced with kind permission of the company

Cork City Ballet  Swan Lake  9 Nov 2019, 14:30 Cork Opera House

I have seen bigger and better-resourced performances of Swan Lake but seldom have I enjoyed a performance as much as Saturday afternoon's by the Cork City Ballet at the Cork Opera House. There are two reasons for that. The first is that Yury Demakov, the choreographer, made the very best of the resources that were available to him not only in casting but also in procuring costumes and a sound recording from Russia. The second is that ballet should be an interaction between performers and audience rather than a passive exhibition and on Saturday it really was two-way communication.  The Corkonian audience seems to know and appreciate its ballet and supported the company with a 100% standing ovation at the end.

This was a traditional Swan Lake without gimmicks except perhaps for the Soviet-style happy ending.  All the characters were there except Benno. The plot was spelt out with stark clarity.  Siegfried pledges his troth to Odette in the second act with his index and forefinger.  He is tricked by von Rothbart into breaking it by making the same pledge to Odile.  In this production, Siegfried manages to redeem himself not by sacrificing his life but by destroying the wicked magician.

For Siegfried, Demakov recruited Bolshoi soloist Andrei Bolotin, a powerful but slick virtuoso.  For Odette-Odile he cast Ekaterina Bortyakova.  I am told that she came from the Moscow State Ballet but I have been unable to find out much about her career. Like Bolotin, she gave a technically flawless performance. In my introduction to Cork City Ballet, I noted that there were no permanent members of the company other than the founder, Alan Foley, Demakov and their immediate circle.  All other artists are recruited on short term contracts.  They were all good but some stood out.  I was particularly impressed by Robert J Thomas, the jester, Andrew McFarlane who danced the pas de trois and the Spanish divertissement and his partners, Nicole Federov and Julie Pochko.

I am nor sure who designed the sets but I liked the castle and hills in the backcloth to act I.  They reminded me of Westmeath though I suppose they could have been some other part of Ireland.   They were certainly nowhere else and that is as it should be for an Irish company.

It is not every company in the world that can persuade its head of state to contribute a foreword to its programme, but that is exactly what President Higgins has done for the Cork City Ballet.  The company will perform The Nutcracker this time next year.  I hope this review will encourage my compatriots to join me in the auditorium for a company that inspires such pride and affection is definitely worth watching.

Ballet West in Malaysia

Performance at the Penang Performing Arts Centre

(c) Ballet West, 2016, all rights reserved

Licensed by kind permission of the company

While Ballet West's alumni Natasha Watson and Andrew McFarlane have been dancing with the English National Ballet in Swan Lake in the Round at the Royal Albert Hall, teachers and students of Ballet West have been holding three days of intensive workshops at Direct Academia International in Penang in North West Malaysia. The party was led by Gillian Barton, Ballet West's Principal, and Jonathan Barton who is Vice-Principal of the School and the principal male dancer of its performing company. Also in the party were Martin Fenton who teaches contemporary, jazz and hip-hop (see the staff page of the Ballet West website) and their students Uyo Hiromoto and Oscar Ward.

Some 150 young dancers from all parts of Malaysia and the Republic of Singapore took part in the workshops. The workshops finished with a performance at the Penang Performing Arts Centre on 12 June 2016. Gillian Barton, who saw the show, remarked:

"The performance was spectacular. Oscar and Uyu ..... performed superbly. I could hardly believe that Jonathan and Martin had only worked with the students for one day plus a few rehearsals. It was such a polished performance. No other teachers could have done better.”

The workshops provided an opportunity to audition prospective students for Ballet West. Two students from Singapore are already there and five others from Malaysia have attended short courses.

Any students from Malaysia or Singapore who find their way to Taynuilt will get an opportunity to obtain performance experience by dancing in one of the full length classical ballets which the performance company stages at various auditoriums around Scotland each year. In 2017 the company will dance Swan Lake at the following venues on the following dates:

• Stirling, Macrobert 20 and 21 January
• Helensburgh, Tower Digital Arts Centre 27 January 
• Paisley, Paisley Town Hall 28 January 
• Oban, Corran Halls 9 February 
• Glasgow, SECC 11 February 
• Greenock, Beacon Arts Centre 12 February 
• Livingston, Howden Park Centre 16 February 
• Edinburgh, EICC, 18 February.

Ballet West last performed that ballet in 2014 and I saw it in Pitlochry on 1 March 2013 (see Swan Loch - Ballet West's Swan Lake, Pitlochry 1 March 2014 3 March 2014). It was a beautiful production with an Odette and an Odile danced by the same person, a Siegfried, cygnets, Legnani's  32 fouettés, all the usual divertissements and not a single bike to be seen. 

It is probably too late for Ballet West to do anything about it for the coming tour but maybe they could consider adding The Dancehouse in Manchester or the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds to their touring schedule in future years. After all, Isaac Bowry who came from Manchester and Andrew Cook who came from Leeds contributed considerably to their 2014 production. If they can make it to Penang they can surely find their way to the North of England.

A Cause for Double Celebration at the Robin's Nest

Natasha Watson

Copyright 2016 Ballet West: all rights reserved

Reproduced with kind permission of the Principal

One doesn't need much of an excuse to visit the Robin's Nest bur if one has something to celebrate there are far worse ways of doing so than indulging in one of that establishment's cakes and pastries (see the photo of a slice of their sponge cake in Taynuilt - where better to create ballet? 31 Aug 2013 before Gita devoured it). I fancy that quite a lot of folk in Taynuilt will have had something to celebrate today because Natasha Watson and Andrew McFarlane have just been hired by English National Ballet (see Ballet West's home page). Hearty congratulations to both of them.

As I said in Thinking Out Loud About Ballet West on 8 Feb 2016 that ballet school must be one of the most remarkable educational institutions in the United Kingdom. These are not many institutions that can cultivate excellence in alumni like Watson and McFarlane while making dance accessible to a large section of the general public through its associate programmes, summer schools and outreach work.

Of course, such an enterprise requires facilities and the 2016 tour programme reports a £1.2 million project to build new studios on its site at Taynuilt:

"In addition to meeting the needs of the students the new studio complex will provide rehearsal space for Ballet West's full scale classical productions which tour Scotland and internationally. It has the potential of being used as a performance space and will open up all Ballet West's facilities for greater use by the local community."

Just what's needed to burn off the calories after a slap up tea at the Robin's Nest.

To help pay for this project Ballet West has appealed to the public for support and one can do so n many ways. One can slip them a few quid through their website or one can become a patron, sponsor a dancer or, if you have a business, you can become a corporate sponsor or benefactor.  If you want to find out more, call Ballet West on +44 (0)1866 822641 or email balletwest@btconnect.com.