Sadly, the company will miss Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York this year, even though it has danced to packed houses in some of those cities on previous tours. Nor does it plan to visit Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Nottingham is the nearest venue for us, and Durham for the Scots and Northumbrians.
It is important to note that Ballet Black is more than a touring company. It has a Junior School with classes in West and East London and an associates programme. One of the teachers is Cassa Pancho, and I am proud to say that I once attended her class at the Barbican. I could barely keep up as I was by far the oldest member, but I learnt a lot from her. Ballet Black also offers online classes and makes some great films.
Through these and other activities, Ballet Black makes a valuable contribution to the cultural and social life of this country.
Ballet Black Pioneers (Then or Now and Nina: By Whatever Means) The Kowry 1 Nov 202320:00
Having missed the start of Then as Now in York on 13 June 2023 as a result of acute traffic congestion in that city (see Ballet Black Takes York By Storm9 July 2023) I was determined to arrive on time for the start of Ballet Black's Pioneers double bill at the Lowry. I arrived at the theatre car park for an 8pm curtain rise while The Archers were still on the radio. Normally, I can park on the second or third floor of the multistorey but this time every floor was full. I climbed and climbed until I found myself tracked in a queue of cars in front of me and at the back. There I stayed until just after 20:00 when the queue miraculously started to flow downstairs towards the exit.
Had I known that the Lowry would be full I would have driven straight to Media City which is a 5-minute walk from the theatre. Plenty of spaces there and a clue as to what had happened at the theatre car. park There was a notice addressed to football spectators about parking charges. The Lowry is about a mile from Manchester United Football Club stadium where parking spaces are either scarce or deare. Whatever the cause, football spectators strayed into our space on the night that beautiful Ballet Black was in town.
Perhaps the reason I was able to park so easily in the Media City car park is that many MUFC fans have yet to discover it. I am told that a "Welcome to Manchester" sign used to be displayed at Maine Road whenever City played United because United fans come from anywhere but Manchester. I think there may be some truth in that story because I have noticed MUFC shops in Liverpool and Dublin airports but not in Manchester. If I followed football (which I don't) I would support City over United as I was born in Didsbury, I understand that United were playing Newcastle and that the Magpies won. "Serve them bloody right," I thought,
My antipathy towards United was more aesthetic than nativist. I was reminded of Jeremy Bentham's remark in The Rationale of Reward that "the game of pushpin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry." Total nonsense, of course, but what can you expect from someone whose glass-cased, mummified remains continue to confront visitors to the University College London nearly two centuries after his death. I am with John Stuart Mill on this one. Football is the modern successor to pushpin. Folk may call it "the beautiful game" but its value does not come close to ballet.
I arrived in the auditorium at just about the same point in Will Tuckett's Then as Nowas it had reached in York when I was admitted there. It is an extraordinarily beautiful work as can be seen from the video on the BBC iPlayer. Unfortunately, as I have yet to see the work on stage I can't review it properly. But readers can get a very good taste of it from the recording which I heartily commend to them.
However, I did see Nina: By Wahtever Means again and that saved the day for me. This was danced with the same energy as in York and was received equally enthusiastically but as I knew what to expect I focused on the individual performances. Isabela Coracy's role as Nina is pivotal. She threw every milligram of her being into that performance. Once again her repetition of the word "power" with clenched fists was mesmerizing. Her final cry "That's it" unleashed a tsunami of applause. Nina was my last chance to see Sayaka Ichikawa whose departure I shall miss greatly (see Cassa Pancho's announcement on Instagram on 21 Oct 2023). She danced Nina's piano mistress. As always she danced with flair. She is a delightful dancer and Cassa's tribute says it all. There were great performances by Ebony Thomas as Nina's husband, Helga Paris-Morales as the young Nina and Taraja Hudson. It was also good to see the piece's choreographer Mthuthuzeli November take a role.
Ballet Black has recruited a lot of new dancers whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting. They include Acaoã de Casto, Megan Chiu, Bhungane Mehlomakulu, Mikayla Isaacs and Love Katiya. They have added sparkle. Their company is a great national treasure which has come of age this year. It will launch a whole new tour called "Heroes" from the Hackney Empire with Mthuthuzeli November's The Waiting Game and a new piece by Sophie Laplane on 22 March 2023. Not long to wait!
Copyright 2023 English National Ballet, Licence Standard YouTuve Licence
Readers of this blog will know that I have a particularly high regard for Sarah Kundi. Although I must have seen her several times when she was with Northern Ballet she first came to my notice through the YouTube video of Depouillage in which she danced with Jade Hale-Christofi. It was that film that led me to Ballet Black (see Ballet Black's Appeal12 March 2013). When I saw her dance for the first time in "Dopamine (you make my levels go silly)" and War Letters at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre on Saturday 18 May 2013 I was bowled over (see Why Ballet Black is Special20 May 2013).
When Ballet Black came to Leeds 6 months later, Sarah Kundi had left the company. As I said in Ballet Black is Still Specialon 7 Nov 2013, I enjoyed Ballet Black's performance in Leeds at least as much as their show in Tottenham but I did miss Sarah Kundi. I did not have long to wait because I found out that she had joined MurleyDance which performed in Leeds on 1 Dec 2013 (see MurleyDance Triple Bill2 Dec 2013).
Sarah Kundi did not stay long with MurleyDance and there were reports that she had been offered work with Victor Ulate in Spain (see ByeBye and All the Best10 June 2014). Happily, English National Ballet offered her an appointment while she was dancing in Romeo and Juliet in the Round (see Saved for the Nation17 July 2914). She remained with that company for the rest of her career picking up the emerging dancer award and triumphing as Lady Capulet (see Congratulations to Sarah Kundion 20 June 2018) and Hortensia in Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella (see Cinders in the Round13 June 2019).
She announcedher retirement on Facebook at the end of English National Ballet's latest season in the Royal Albert Hall and I shall miss her greatly. She was blessed with an expressive countenance that made her a remarkable actor as well as a fine dancer and a physique that gave her an aetherial appearance on stage. Those are qualities that not all principals possess and it is why there were many times that I enquired whether she was in the cast before looking up the leading artists.
Although it is unlikely that we shall ever see her on stage again, Sarah Kundi is not lost to dance. I was delighted to see the Royal Ballet School's announcement that she has joined its staff. There she will pass on her skills, knowledge and experience to promising students. I have had the good fortune to meet her at the stage doors of the Palace Theatre in Manchester and the Albert Hall as well as interview her over Zoom for the Stage Door. I can report that she is as graceful and charming to her fans as she is magnificent on the stage.
I have to thank her for the many years of pleasure that she has given me and no doubt countless other balletgoers and wish her well in her new career as a teacher.
In Ballet Black Takes York By StormI recalled some of the great shows that Ballet Black had performed and added that none has impressed me more than their performance of Nina: By Whatever Means at York Theatre Royal on 23 June 2023. It will therefore come as no surprise that the ballet's choreographer Mthuthuzeli November and its leading lady Isabela Coracy are in the running for Black British Theatre Awards. More details about the Awards and how audiences can participate in the process are available on the BBTA Nominations Form. The closing date for nominations is 1 Aug 2023.
Another bit of good news is that Ballet Black has recruited 4 new dancers. I have no information about them other than that they come from Brazil, India, South Africa and the USA and that Ballet Black has appealed for accommodation for them. When I do know who they are I shall ask the press spokesperson for their photos and bios and I shall write up about them here.
The accommodation that the company seeks is: "short term (a few months while they get settled) or for the length of a season (September to July). I thought the best place to start would be with our own mailing list! Are you able to help? If so, please could you get in touch with some details:
location (it needs to be in London, accessible for travelling to work in Marylebone each day)
type of space: room, flat, house
rent and any other charges
are pets allowed? One dancer has two lovely cats!."
Talking of pets, Vlad the Lad (now a very self-assured young man excelling at sports, music and school work) loved Dogs Don't Do Ballet (see Woof 12 Oct 2014). Thatshow sparked in him a love of theatre which will stay with him forever. I am sure that the work also inspired crowds of other children across the United Kingdom to appreciate dance and in some cases even study it. I do hope the company will revive the ballet one day for another generation of children. Of course, it will be hard to recast Madame Kanikova with her dancing, smiling eyes, the adorable Anna, her Obamaesque dad, Miss Polly with her hip flask and of course the star of the show, Bif the red setter. Having said that, Chris Marney would find plenty of talent in Ballet Black's current membership. They might interpret the roles quite differently,
Anyone with suitable accommodation that could be let to a dancer should contact Cassa Pancho and not me through the contact page of the company's website.
Ballet Black Then or Now and Nina: By-Whatever Means 23 June 2023 19:30 York Theatre Royal
I have followed Ballet Black for several years and have seen some great ballets by them including Chris Marney's War Letters, Arthur Pita's A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Cathy Marston's The Suit and Christopher Hampson's Storyville. Every one of those works was impressive but none has impressed me more than their performance of Nina: By Whatever Means at York Theatre Royal on 23 June 2023.
Nina was created by Mthuthuzeli November. Having seen his ingoma for Ballet Black and Wailers for Northern Ballet I came with high expectations. Often that leads to disappointment because high hopes are rarely equalled but on this occasion, they were greatly exceeded. November is one of Ballet Black's Senior Artists. He first came to my notice on 2 May 2015 when he appeared with Londiwe Khoza on Ballet Centrak's tour (see Dazzled3 May 2015). I have been following him ever since. I particularly enjoyed his performance as the wolf in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Red Riding Hoodas did my friend. Joanna Goodman, who also reviewed the show (see Sexy Wolf Stole the Show!5 March 2017).
In Little Red Riding Hood November showed he was an actor as well as a virtuoso, but that is by no means an end to his talents. He is a composer contributing the score as well as the choreography to Wailers. He also created some of the music for Nina and designed its sets. In the Q&A that followed the performance, we learned that the idea for a ballet on the life of Nina Simone had been his. Dramaturge and librettist can also be added to his catalogue of accomplishments.
The ballet started with the young Simone as a child in rural North Carolina. It followed her training as a classical musician in New York and the debut of her career as a nightclub singer. Simone suffered mental distress at various stages of her life which Alves called her "demons" in posthumous correspondence in the programme notes. Those dark periods were represented in the ballet too.
Simone was much more than an outstanding artist. She was one of the drivers of political and social change that I witnessed first-hand as a graduate student in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. That was the climax of the civil rights movement but there were also protests against the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the beginnings of the women's movement. In a maelstrom of change, Simone stood firm and tall.
In casting Isabela Coracy as Simone, November practically brought Simone back to life, A scene that haunts me is of Coarcy with her clenched fist in the air as the dancers swirl around her to chants of "power". That is how I remember Simone in real life.
The audience exploded in applause. We Brits are not the most demonstrative - particularly not those of us who live in Yorkshire. At the reverence, every single member of the audience rose to their feet. I was hoarse from cheering and my hands throbbed with clapping. I think we all felt that we had seen something special that night,
Nina was the second part of a double bill that night. The first was Will Tikett's Then or Now. I shall not attempt to review it because I missed the start owing to acute congestion on the way into York city centre. What I saw of Then as Now I liked a lot Happily there will be another chance to see the double bill in the Autumn as the company will dance again in Watford. Norwich, Durham and the Lowry.
Ballet Black Say it Loud and Black Sun York Theatre Royal 11 Oct 2022 Lowry Salford 1 Dec 2022 20:00
I once attended an interview in which Cassa Pancho was asked about the early days of Ballet Black. She had created the company's first ballet but did not think that she would ever make another. Happily, that has not turned out to be the case. She and the dancers have given us Say It Loud, a glorious celebration of the company and its achievements over the last 20 years. It is the first part of a double bill that has been touring the country since March.
In her programme note, Cassa Pancho divides the work into chapters as though it were a book, The first chapter consisted of voces populorum. One that sticks in my memory is "Shouldn't all ballet should be like this". But there were more negative ones about the company's name, the ethnicity of its members and why it doesn't;t do more about knife crime. My favourite chapter was Mthuthuzeli November.'s "Welcome to London" which he danced with panache. That city may be expensive, congested, overpowering and for some even threatening but it's the company's home. There was a change of mood with Lord Kitchener's "If you're brown". But it was followed by hope: "We love ballet because ballet loves us back".
The second ballet, Gregory Maqoma's "Black Sun", was very different. Only to be expected, perhaps, because, as Ebony Thomas explained, one of the strengths of Ballet Black is that "no two ballets are the same." Black Sun was more than ballet. Indeed, it was more than theatre. It was akin to an act of worship. The climax of the piece started with drumming, followed by incantations from November and then cries, soft at first, then louder, from Isabela Coracy. It was a moving experience.
I became a fan of Ballet Black even before I saw them on stage. I was captivated by Sarah Kundi and Jade-Hale Christofiin Dépouillement. When I actually saw the company for the first time at the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham in 2013 I was enchanted. I am still under their spell nearly 10 years later. Every year Ballet Black seems to get better and better. In my estimation, this was their best season yet. I only wish I could have seen Mthuthuzeli dance Welcome to London in Stratford or the Barbican because I think the response of a London audience would have been ecstatic.
Every year that I have watched Ballet Black, Cira Robinson has been in the company. She is one of my all time favourite ballerinas. I admire her work very much. Sadly Ballet Black's season at the Lowry will have been Cira Robinson's last with the company. However, she is not leaving ballet and, even better, she is not leaving this country. She has taken up an appointment as Artistic Director of Yorkshire Ballet Seminars (see Yorkshire Ballet Seminars Facebook page 1 July 2022). I congratulate her and wish her every success.
The last time I saw Ballet Black on stage was just before the pandemic, They have recruited four very promising young dancers since then: Alexander Fedayiro, Taraja Hudson. Helga Paris-Morales and Rosanna Lindsey. I saw some of them at the Lowry and was very impressed. I wish them well.
Ballet Black will begin a new tour starting at the Barbican from 8 to 12 March 2022. It will be a double bill entitled "Ballet Black Pioneers". It will consist of Will Tuckett’s Then Or Now and MthuthuzeliNovember’s By Whatever Means. I am very much looking forward to it.
Since Northern Ballet moved its improvers' class from Wednesday to Tuesday in September I have had to make the heartbreaking choice between joining my improvers class in Leeds or my pre-intermediate class in Manchester. Neither of those classes is to be missed. Northern Ballet is not taking any new registrations at the moment. However, you can sign up for KNT's in Manchester by following the instructions in the last paragraph of Dancing Outdoors in Castlefield on 2 June 2021.
Since the London Ballet Circle has started its "In Conversation" interviews on Tuesday evenings my heart has often been broken three-ways. They have had some really interesting guests recently. This Tuesday they will welcome Cira Robinson of Ballet Black, one of my all-time favourite ballerinas. Here she is in conversation with Helen Pickett last September (see YouTube Helen Pickett and Cira Robinson20 Sep 2020). You will probably have to join the Circle to get a link to the interview but you can join online at https://www.tlbc.org.uk/.
And this Thursday my heart risks shattering to smithereens because the Dutch National Ballet plans to live stream Beethoven on 8 June 2021 and David Dawson's Four Seasonson 15 June 2021 at 19:15 our time. Tickets can be obtained from the box office at +31(0) 20 625 54 55 or through the website ay www.operaballet.nl.
Standard YouTube Licence Ballet Black (Triple Bill (Pendulum, Click! Ingoma) Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds 16 Nov 2019 19:30
I suppose that a company that has danced at Glastonbury is pretty well made. There is not much that a blogger or even a critic can say that could be of much consequence. It does not, however, hurt to repeat what I said to Cassa Pancho, the company's founder and artistic director, as I was leaving the auditorium. This year's triple bill is the company's best programme ever.
Last Saturday's programme was the same as the one that I had described as "stunning" in March. As I described the three works in some detail in my review pf that performance it is unnecessary for me to do so again. However, there was one important difference between the show in March and Saturday's. The Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre is very much smaller and more intimate than The Barbican. There is no gap or barrier between the front row and stage. When the seats are removed the theatre becomes a rehearsal studio. The audience is very close to the dancers. Having twice danced on the Stanley and Audrey Burton's stage, I can say that the dancers are very aware of the audience's proximity.
Mthuthzeli November took advantage of that intimacy in leading the audience to the coalface as his dancers slowly approached stage left with the house lights still lit. As those house lights dimmed the beams of light from the lamps on the miners' helmets focused on the audience. Trapped! The danger, the darkness, the monotony, the pain of the mine was palpable. Heightened, of course, by the cruelty of apartheid on the surface as well as under the ground. Ingoma is an impressive work. November had already captured our hearts as the rakish wolf spinning his tail in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Little Red Riding Hood. He has now captured our minds with his choreography. Nobody will be surprised that he has been commissioned to create a new baller for the company's next season at The Barbican (see Beautiful Ballet Black's 2020 Season8 Nov 2019).
Seeing Martin Lawrence's Pendulum for a second time, I noticed similarities and parallels with Ingoma, particularly with the score which resembled a heartbeat. It was opened by two of the company's strong young dancers, Ebony Thomas and Marie Astrid Mence. Mence spent a year with Phoenix Dance Theatre where she became an audience favourite. We still miss her. Their pace and the complexity of their movements increase as the heartbeats quicken. It is an almost mesmeric experience.
Click! by Scottish Ballet's Sophie Laplane is just pure joy. Each of the dancers in different brightly coloured suits performs solos or duets to Snapping Fingers and other snappy music carefully arranged by Kenny Inglis. All the company's dancers except Alexander Fadayiro were in the piece. Cira Robinson, magnificent in red, Isabela Coracey resplendent in yellow et cetera et cetera. In many ways, this work displays the essence of Ballet Black, its exuberance, its energy and its diversity.
In my preview of the new season, I mentioned the recruitment of Fadayiro, his training and career with New Adventures. On Saturday I saw him for the first time. He appeared only in Ingoma as one of the miners and it was possible to see him properly only at the reverence but he performed well. He appears to be very strong and cuts an impressive figure on stage. I look forward to seeing more of him in future.
I was very lucky to get a ticket for Saturday's show. I was #13 on the waiting list and held out very little hope of seeing the company again this year. Their performances in Stratford and Leeds were sold out weeks ago. That may be because of their appearance at Glastonbury - though I have to say that Saturday's crowd did not strike me as the sort of folk who go to Glasto - or it may be because they gave fewer performances this evening. Either way, it is good to see that they have developed a very loyal following not just in London and with one ethnic group but among the whole population and across the nation.
Standard YouTube Licence
Beautiful Ballet Black has been so successful that it sold every seat in the house for its performances at Stratford and Leeds. I am on the waiting list at the Stan and Audrey but at #13 I am not holding out much hope of getting one for their show next week.
I shouldn't grumble because I saw their wonderful performance of The Suitat Sadler's Wells on 30 Oct and the triple bill at The Barbican in March which I described as "stunning". Moreover, I have just received an email which I believe to have been sent to all Friends of Ballet Black alerting me to the sale of tickets for the launch of the company's new season at The Barbican between the 26 and 29 March 2020. Two new ballets will be presented by the company's Mthuthuzeli November and the Royal Ballet's Will Tuckett. November created Ingoma which is one of the works on the current tour while Tuckett has contributed Depouillementwhich attracted me to Ballet Black in the first place.
I also note from the email that Ballet Black has acquired a new dancer, namely Alexander Fadayiro. I am not sure whether I have had the opportunity to see him dance. I do not remember him in The Suit but I could well be mistaken. However, I see that he has danced with New Adventuresand that he trained at the Central School of Ballet.
If you love Ballet Black as much as I do I would strongly recommend its Friends Circle. The subscription is only £40 a year which is about the cost of an extra theatre ticket. Friends are invited to rehearsals and often have an opportunity to discuss the work with the artists after the show. I cannot attend many of those events as they take place in London but it is a practical way to support the company, acknowledge its work in the past and promote its values and aspirations.
Finally, there is the merchandise page. I bought the "I ❤ Ballet Black" tee-shirt the first time I saw the company at the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham in 2013 and I have worn it proudly everywhere there are balletomanes from Taynuilt in Argyll to Trecate in Piedmont. I have made it my business to make folk aware of the beauty in many senses and at many levels of Ballet Black.
Standard YouTube Licence Birmingham Royal Ballet and Ballet Black (A Brief Nostalgia, The Suit and Nine Sinatra Songs) Sadler's Wells 30 Oct 2019 at 19:30
As a fully paid-up Friend of Ballet Black and a big fan of Birmingham Royal Ballet and Cathy Marston, I decided to nip down to London on Wednesday to see their combined triple bill. I say "nipped" with some caution. It was easy enough to get down to the Smoke but coming back was quite a different matter. The East Coast mainline has deteriorated considerably since its re-nationalization by LNER and it is now a shambles. It took an hour for the 23:30 from King's Cross to amble from Doncaster to Leeds by way of Pontefract and goodness knows where else with the result that I arrived home at 04:00 yesterday morning.
Happily, the show made it all worthwhile. I arrived at Sadler's Wells just in time for a talk by Kit Holder of Birmingham Royal Ballet, Tom Harrold who had composed the score for the first work, A Brief Nostalgia, and Cassa Pancho, founder and artistic director of Ballet Black. I am very glad that I did because Tom's talk prepared me for A Brief Nostalgia and helped me appreciate it properly. He explained that he was a Scottish composer living in Manchester and this commission had been his first work for the theatre. The ballet was a collaboration between the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Queensland Ballet. The companies had chosen Jack Lister, to choreograph the work and Tom described their long-distance collaboration. Lister had wanted to express a mood that is expressed in Portuguese by the word saudade. Deborah Jones's programme note described it as "a delicate, complicated feeling that has melancholy and pain built in but also has room for the beauty of remembering emotions, people or objects of personal value." She added that an American academic had offered "a word for 'the presence of absence," as an apt translation.
In the questions and answers that followed, a member of the audience asked why the ballet was entitled "A Brief Nostalgia". I guess he meant why a ballet addressing such a nuanced and complex topic should have been given such a prosaic title. Tom could not really answer the question but warned that it was quite a "dark ballet". "Oh dear!" I thought to myself as I remembered what The Suit is all about. "Happen we are in for a right barrel of laughs."
The piece when it came to be performed was not too bad. It was certainly not as miserable as a marital breakdown and a suicide. For a start, I liked the score and I was even more impressed with the lighting design for shadows on the sets exaggerated the dancers' line and movements. There were also some dramatic moments such as when the cast dashed in and froze in arabesque. It was the lighting which actually punctuated the phases of the ballet. It began at ground level while the later scenes lit up the space above the artists' heads.
The work that I had come primarily to see was The Suit. I am a big fan of Ballet Black both for their outstanding artistry but also for their work in bringing ballet to every section of our community including those that have not been represented in ballet proportionately. I am also a fan of Cathy Marston having seen her Jane Eyre and Victoria for Northern Ballet and Snowblind for the San Francisco Ballet recently and, of course, The Suit at least four times. Of her works that I have seen live, The Suit is by far the best in my humble opinion. However, I have seen a lot of videos of her work in Berne which I should like to see on stage.
It is one respect a very depressing work. It starts happily enough with Philomom, the husband, José Alves, and Matilda, his wife, Cira Robinson in marital bliss. The alarm clock sounds and Philemon has to go to work. He gets up, shaves, showers and dons a suit with the rest of the cast playing washbasins, showers, wardrobes and mirrors. He says goodbye to his wife still in her nightie and absent-mindedly leaves his briefcase behind. The next few minutes show his commute to work. He meets all sorts of folk such as stylish ladies like Isabella Coracey and Sayaka Ichikawa, one of whom earns a wolf whistle. and little old ladies bent double over their walking sticks such as Marie-Astrid Mence, in real life probably the youngest members of the troupe. Suddenly, it dawns on him that has left his case behind. He returns to the house and finds it is not all it should be. Matilda is still in bed but she is not alone.
Philip Feeney's music changes dramatically from regular rhythms to sounds more akin to sirens. He freezes. His home is shattered. Momentarily he is broken. When he recovers his composure he is a changed man. Matilda may have deceived him but she must have been bored looking after the home while Philemon was in the city. When good-looking Simon, Mchuthuzeli November, paid her attention it would have required a lot of resolve to resist him.
Simon had darted out of the house in his underwear leaving his suit behind. It was through that suit that Philemon exacted his terrible revenge. For the rest of the marriage, he tortured his wife with the garment forcing her to treat it as an honoured guest even taking it for walks around the neighbourhood. Everyone would have known that she had erred. She felt scorn and shame. For a brief moment, there seems a to be a chance of reconciliation but his anger gets the better of him and he shoves her away.
She wanders the home desolate and then spots the tie. She wraps it around her neck connecting the end to a beam. There then follows one of the most chilling scenes possible in theatre. That beautiful woman perishes before our eyes and then rests lifeless. I had seen that ballet four times and know that Cira springs back to life for the curtain call but I can't help shaking and feel the tears welling up in my eyes. No, this is not a comfortable ballet to watch. In fact, it is shocking. But it is compelling watching.
We needed cheering up and that is just what we got with Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs. Each of the girls is beautifully dressed and coiffed wearing heels instead of pointe shoes. Karla Doorbar who accompanied James Barton in his last performance with the company wore the most scrumptious costume. Before the show Kit Holder told the audience that this was to be Barton's last appearance with the company and invited us to give him an extra burst of applause which we did. I was sad for a while but then overjoyed to learn that he has not retired but is on his way to Glasgow to join Scottish Ballet. Readers will tire of my saying that that was the first company that I got to know and love. They will know that I am an even bigger fan of Scottish Ballet than I am of BRB, Far from saying goodbye I look forward to seeing more of him in his new company.
I have never really listened much to Frank Sinatra but I have heard a lot of his music in lifts, waiting rooms and on the telephone waiting to be put through to the right extension in the course of a lifetime. There is something comforting in the banal and the artists of the Birmingham Royal Ballet made us forget the horror of the previous piece with their wit, their charm and their virtuosity. Although the ballet is called Nine Sinatra Songs we actually got eight for My Way is played twice. The first time with three couples - Rachele Pizzillo, Emma Price and Yaoquian Shang with Rory Mackay, Edivaldo Souza da Silva and Alexander Yap. The second time was the finale with the whole cast.
I have followed Ballet Black for as long as I have kept this blog and seen them grow. Watching them perform in one of the world's premier dance auditoriums with de Valois's foundation I thought they had come of age, Interestingly one of the audience members had reminded me of their appearance of the pyramid stage of Glasto. That must have earned them a lot of fame but I think the shows at The Hippodrome and Sadler's Wells would have given them even more kudos.
Later this month Ballet Black will perform Pendulum, Click! and Ingoma in Oxford, Stratford, Leeds and York in the next few weeks, I described that triple bill as stunning when I saw it at The Barbican earlier this year. I recommend it strongly.
Standard YouTube Licence Ballet Black, Triple Bill (Pendulum, Click! Ingoma) Barbican Theatre, 17 March 2019 15:00
I see a lot of dance every year and one of my highlights every year is Ballet Black. I usually see them in London (whenever I can get a ticket because they perform to packed houses) and again when they go on tour. I have come to expect a lot from them and they have never failed to meet my expectations.
Their matinee at the Barbican last Sunday was stunning. I mean that quite literally and I was not the only one. Neither the family to my left nor the one to my right could get up after the performance. We just sat still coming to terms with what we had seen on stage. When we found the strength to move I clambered up the stairs and slumped into the first unoccupied chair. There I stayed for a couple of hours until I was forced to sprint to the Circle Line to avoid being marooned in London.
I had brought my Chromebook with me with a view to reviewing the triple bill while it was still fresh in my mind but when I tried to write it I found it was just too soon. The words would not flow. However, I did make notes. I wrote that Mthuthzeli November's Ingoma was the mostimpressive new work that I had seen in a while. It is a work of considerable substance. It is all the more remarkable in that it was created by one so young.
According to the programme, Ingoma means "prayer" in Xhosa. In this case the Lord's Prayer though I had guessed that before I read the note. The performance began with the house lights burning. Two miners came on stage carrying their equipment. They were joined shortly by the rest of the cast dressed identically irrespective of gender. November mentioned two strikes in his programme note: one in the 1940s that had been suppressed brutally by the authorities and a more recent one at Marikana in post-apartheid South Africa which was also put down violently. While I think there was more to the ballet than that there was a scene where Ebony Thomas seemed to fall to a rat-tat-tat that reminded me of automatic gunfire.
For me, the most moving part was the women's dance in the last phase of the piece. It was danced with considerable energy by the company's four female members dressed identically in light blue smocks and head ties. Having lived through the 1984-1985 miners strike 7 miles from Barnsley I can attest how it was the women who kept the coalfield communities intact - and indeed still do even though the mines are long gone. Having been married to an African for 27 years I was reminded of my sisters in law, strong, fierce women. Just as in the choreography. It took a lot of courage to be a miner and perhaps, even more, to be married to one. There were always threats of accidents. pneumoconiosis and poverty even when the men were not on strike. All of that fierceness and passion came through in that dance.
The piece was greeted enthusiastically even in London which never had mining and has now lost its heavy industry. I think ti will strike a chord when it goes on tour. It may have been set in South Africa but it will speak to folk here in a way that few other works can. This is not the first time Ballet Black has moved me. It did so the first time I saw Chris Marney's War Letters at the Bernie Grant Centre and it did again last year with Cathy Marston's Suit. But I don't think the impact of those ballets was anything like as great or as longlasting as Ingoma.
Because he had created and staged Ingoma we did not see much of November this year. That was a shame because he has the habit of stealing shows as he did with Little Red Riding Hood (seeBallet Black Triumphant7 March 2017). I have been following him since 2015 when he was with Ballet Central (see Dazzled3 May 2016). He appeared in Pendulum, the first ballet of the evening, with Sayaka Ichikawa. With music by Steve Reich this was a revival of a work that Martin Lawrence had created for the company in 2009. The work starts in silence and then a gentle heartbeat cuts in. It gathers pace until it becomes compelling. This is a thrilling work amplified by those dancers' vigour.
The middle work was Click! by Scottish Ballet's Sophie Lapllane whom I have long admired. It shows her sense of fun. Jose Alves, Isabela Coracy, Marie Astrid Mence, Cira Robinson and Ebony Thomas are in primary colours. The piece opens with some dialogue:
"Eddie consulted his therapist because he could not stop clicking his fingers,
The therapist asked Eddie why he thought he was clicking his fingers,
'To keep the tigers away' he replied.
'But Eddie there are no tigers here within 6,000 miles of here.'
'I know' he replied, 'It works pretty good.'"
Ballet Black can make us laugh just as easily as it can make us cry, This was our chance to laugh before Ingoma.
A sixth star of Click! was David Plater, the company's lighting designer. I have never mentioned him before and I should have done because he is a genius. Nowhere did his genius shine more brightly than in Click! I love that piece and can't wait to see it again.
The company will tour Cambridge, Northampton and Bristol next month before venturing to Cambridge, Derby and Birmingham in May and Edinburgh in June (see Upcoming Performanceson its website). It has not announced a date just yet but it usually comes to Leeds in November. I shall see the company at least a couple more times this year. This will be a season we shall long remember.
Standard YouTube Licence
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a very big fan of Sarah Kundi. Sarah led me to Ballet Black and later to MurleyDance. For a while I feared that she would leave the country (see Bye Bye and All the Best10 June 2014) and was overjoyed when I found that she was saved for the nation for she had been offered a job with English National Ballet.
Although she spent the last four years as an artist of the company she has performed some important roles. One that impressed me particularly was as Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (see Manchester's Favourite Ballet Company29 Nov 2015), I wrote:
"But the casting that delighted me most was to see Sarah Kundi as Lady Capulet. I have followed that dancer ever since she danced in Leeds. It was she who led me to Ballet Black and through MurleyDance to Richard Chappell. She is tall and elegant with the most expressive face. An actor as much as a dancer, yesterday's role was perfect for her. It is an important one in Nureyev's production for it is Lady Capulet who forces her daughter to take desperate measures. How I clapped at the curtain call. I fear my "brava" roared from the middle of the stalls would have been drowned out by everyone else's applause by the time it reached the stage. Had this show been in London I could have tossed flowers at her."
On the last occasion that English National Ballet performed in Manchester Gita Mistry, Helen McDonough and I actually met Sarah. It was just after she had danced Effie's confidante, Anna, in La Sylphide (see Always Something Special from English National Ballet: La Sylphide with Song of the Earth18 Nov 2017). As the performance was just before Daiwali, Gita had made her a little sweet for the festival.
It was therefore a particular pleasure to read in Promotions and new dancers joining the Company for the 2018-19 seasonon ENB's website that Sarah had been promoted to first artist for the new season. I am sure that all the contributors to Terpsichore will join me in congratulating Sarah and wishing her well. I will definitely be in the audience at the Opera House when the company returns to Manchester in October with Manon and at the Empire when it dances Swan Lake in November. In fact, maybe one of those shows could be Powerhouse Ballet's first outing.
Author Superhasn Licence reproduced with kind permission of the copyright owner Source Wikipedia
Ballet Black Double Bill (The Suit and A Dream within a Midsummer Night's Dream) 16 May 2018 19:30 Nottingham Playhouse
Ballet Black received a well deserved standing ovation last night. Such appreciation is commonplace in many parts of the world but not in this country - at least not outside political party conferences. There were whoops and cheers from the audience as well as claps. Ballet Black are obviously doing something right.
Yesterday's performance was very polished. As I said in my review of the company's performance at the Barbican, I had been worried that Damian Johnson might be irreplaceable but José Alves has performed the male lead roles in both The Suit and A Dream within A Midsummer Night's Dream admirably. Like Johnson he dances with authority but he does so in his own way and just as impressively.
I particularly admired his performance as Philemon in The Suit. Returning home to pick up his briefcase he finds his wife in bed with Simon. His countenance is like a book. First the disbelief. "Is this actually happening?" The the shock as he collapses to the floor. The surge of anger that leads to the cruel humiliation of Matilda. The role of Philemon was created for Alves and it is hard to imagine anyone else dancing it as well.
The wife was danced by Cira Robinson who is truly a ballerina in the traditional sense and I think this is her finest role. It would be impertinent of me to compliment her on her virtuosity or her dramatic skills for, as I say, she is a ballerina. What do I mean by that? The best way of putting it is that in most performances the artists portray their character but a truly fine artist - a ballerina - can become that character. And so it was last night as Tilly was pushed beyond endurance. My body shook as that beautiful woman in a simple blue dress convulsed and then hung still. Tears were welling up uncontrollably even though I knew she would snap back smiling and full or life for the curtsy just seconds away.
Seeing The Suit for a second time I noticed some interesting touches that I had missed before like dancers representing mirrors, wash basins or items of furniture. By focusing on details such as old lady crossing the street and bumping into passers by, Marston seemed to conjure a crowd. Mthuthuzeli November danced Simon, the owner of the suit. The rest of the company danced the chorus, commuters and passers by.
The Suit was a chilling but compelling work that left our emotions raw. Pita's Dream applied the balm. Yesterday must have been the sixth or maybe seventh time that I had seen that work and it never fails to charm me. I always find something new. Whereas The Suit focuses on Philemon and Tilly, everyone has an important role in Dream. Robinson was Titania, of course, and Alves became Obron. Isabela Coracy amused us as Puck in her scouts uniform and green beard liberally scattering her glitter and dragging dancers by their legs around the stage. Sayaka Ichikawa and Marie-Astrid Mence charmed us as Helena and Hermia. Their Demetrius and Lysander were November and Ebony Thomas. Grunting and swaggering small wonder the girls preferred each other. November also played the one role that Shakespeare never envisaged, namely Salvador Dali in the quest for his missing moustache.
Ballet Black are about to visit Scotland where I took my first ballet class and was introduced to what is now Scottish Ballet. One of their venues is Dundee Repertory Theatre which is just 12 miles from St Andrews where there is a Dance Club of over 100 members that I helped to found nearly 50 years ago (see St Andrews University Dance Club's 50th Anniversary Gala5 May 2018). Should any of those students still be in town on 6 June 2018 I strongly recommend their crossing the Tay to see this show.
Fifty years after that first class at St Andrews, I attended class with the undergraduates of Ballet West (see Visiting Taynuilt4 May 2018). A few days before my visit Scottish Ballet held a workshop at Taynuilt when they visited Oban to dance Highland Fling. Taynuilt is quite a trek from any of the venues where Ballet Black are to perform but I do hope that at least a few of the excellent young men and women I met last month can make it to Dundee, Inverness or Glasgow.
My next opportunity to see Ballet Black will be on 19 Nov when they will return to The Lowry. They can expect a very warm welcome there
Ballet Black The Suit and A Dream within Midsummer Night's DreamBarbican Centre 16 March 2018, 20:00
After seeing extracts of Cathy Marston's The Suit and Arthur Pita's A Dream within Midsummer Night's Dream at Ballet Black's rehearsal studios on 25 Feb 2018, I wrote that I was confident that this year's tour would be Ballet Black's most successful yet (see Visiting Friends - Ballet Black at Home 7 March 2018). And so it has proved. I don't think I have ever seen them dance better. I don't think I have ever seen their audience more thrilled.
I was led to Ballet Black by Sarah Kundi whom I admired greatly when she danced in Leeds. When she left Ballet Black I was desolate. How could the company be the same without her? But it did and became even better (see Ballet Black is still special7 Nov 2013). A few years later it lost another of my favourite dancers, Kanika Carr with her beautifully expressive face and laughing eyes. Again, I felt bereft but the company recruited beautiful new dancers and was stronger still. And then Damian Johnson, my male dancer of the year for 2017, returned to the United States. How could Ballet Black ever recover from his departure? For a moment I feared they couldn't (see Ballet Black post Johnson - Still a good performance but something was missing19 Nov 2017). But it has for last night's performance was outstanding. Walking back to my hotel I realized that Ballet Black is like a living thing, greater than the sum of its parts and capable of regenerating itself even after it loses an important member.
Cathy Marston's The Suit is based on Can Themba's short story which was made into a powerful film in 2016 and stage play, Briefly it is about a husband who punishes his wife's infidelity by treating her lover's suit as though it were a living guest placing it at the table for meals and taking it outside for walks. The wife can endure only so much of this humiliation before she hangs herself on her lover's tie. Set in apartheid South Africa her oppression is compounded by the repression of the state. The austerity under which even highly educated Africans were obliged to live was represented by skeletal furniture and a percussive score. Particularly effective was the crumbling wall of sound that accompanied the mind shattering discovery of a stranger in the marital bed.
The wife, Matilda or Tilly, was danced by Cira Robinson. Perhaps her finest performance in any ballet and certainly the most dramatic. José Alves was Philemon her husband. Another stunning performance. Simon, the lover, the owner of the suit was Mthuthuzeli November. The rest of the company danced neighbours in Sophiatown. In the programme they are described as a "chorus". The use of a chorus is a technique that I noticed in Jane Eyre, the other Marston ballet that I have seen recently. The choreographer will no doubt correct me if I am wrong, but I think it is the balletic equivalent to Greek drama. I find it very effective.
After that stage suicide - not the first I have seen in the last few months (Las Hermanas in Northern Ballet's MacMillan Celebrationand English National Ballet's Le Jeune Homme et la Mort in Tamara Rojo at Last! Le Jeune Homme et la Mort and La Sylphide) we needed a bit of cheer and Arthur Pita provided it with A Dream within A Midsummer Night's Dream. This was the fifth time that I have seen that ballet and I love it. I love Isabela Coracy's playful Puck in boy scout uniform, Titania's infatuation with Bottom (November), the delicious girlishness of Hermia and Helena (Marie Astrid Mence and Sayaka Ichikawa) and Oberon's grunting with his butterfly net. Alves danced Oberon beautifully, with gravitas tempered with levity. I love the music and although I am still not sure how Salvador Dali fits into the story I love him and his moustache too. In this staging of the work November glides in with a Dali dead. I love the music, particularly the Yma Suma and the stately Handel with the girls in classical tutus at the beginning and the end.
I had originally planned to see the double bill tonight and had a ticket for the centre stalls but on learning of the talk I asked the theatre to exchange it for whatever it had for yesterday so that I could attend the discussion. Actually I did very well for I was in the centre of row B of the gallery commanding a great view of the stage with the most vocal and appreciative section of the crowd. I am so glad that I stayed for the talk because Cira Robinson was magnificent. She spoke about her art with passion. I have always admired her. Yesterday my respect increased 200%. But there was another treat. Arthur Pita was in the audience and he spoke how Shakespeare had inspired his Dream and his love for every piece of the score.
Finally, on the way out to Silk Street I spotted some of the dancers. If they read this review they would have known how much I loved last night's performance. But yesterday I could tell them in person and that was so much more satisfying.
Author Geoffrey Skelsey Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International Source Wikipedia
The day before I left for Amsterdam while the Beast form the East was still stalking its lair I visited Ballet Black for a rehearsal of extracts from Arthur Pita's A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cathy Marston's The Suit which the company will present at the Barbican between 15 and 17 March 2018. Every performance of that show is now sold out but the company will take it on tour to Newbury, Hatfield, Bristol, Nottingham, Inverness, Dundee and Exeter in Spring and no doubt Leeds and other venues in the North in the Autumn (see the Performances page of Ballet Black's website).
Pita's Dream is already a favourite with audiences and critics. I raved about it in 2014 when I saw it no less than 4 times in London, Southport, Nottingham and Leeds (see Extra Special - Ballet Black at the Linbury 26 Feb 201427 Feb 2014 and the links to other reviews and articles). The Suit also promises much with music by Philip Feeney and designs by Jane Heather. As I don't want to spoil the anticipation of either ballet, all I will say at this stage is that Cira Robinson delighted me again as a regal Titania and Isabela Coracy as a playful Puck, Marston's work is dramatic and I was reminded of Jane Eyre and Rochester in the duet and the demons from Marston's work for Northern Ballet in the extract that was performed for us.
The rehearsal took place in Ballet Black's new studios at The Feathers Association in Lisson Grove. That's not a part of London that I know well and as Hull Trains delivered me to King's Cross with a couple of hours to spare I explored the neighbourhood. It is largely residential with few places to eat though I managed to find a cafe a few hundred yards from the studios that served some excellent Moroccan specialities for a very reasonable price. The Feathers is positioned on a bridge above the railway tracks leading to Marylebone station from which the above photo must have been taken.
The visit was a special event for Friends of the company. If you are not already a Friend, Thandie Newton, the company's patron, lists some of the benefits of membership:
"Internationally recognised for its vital message of giving black and Asian dancers the professional opportunities they merit based solely on their talent and dedication, Ballet Black continues to amaze. As a Friend, you will be making a valuable contribution to the sustainability of this small yet hugely significant company and will support its ongoing commitment to aspiring dancers and to its ever increasing and loyal audience. In return, Ballet Black will welcome you behind the scenes to watch Company rehearsals under the exceptional eye of Artistic Director, Cassa Pancho as well as with acclaimed guest choreographers. You will receive quarterly newsletters to keep you up-to-date about news, events and performances so you will never miss out."
After the show, the company invited us for tea and biscuits in their office where the dancers joined us. It was very pleasant to see them all again. The only one I did not already know was Ebony Thomas who had impressed me in Leeds in November and I took the opportunity to introduce myself to him.
I am confident that this year's tour will be Ballet Black's most successful yet. I shall watch the show on Friday 16 after which there will be a post show talk. The next day there will be an open rehearsal and workshop as part of the Barbican OpenFest. According to the blurb:
"Cassa Pancho (Artistic Director of Ballet Black) will conduct a Ballet Class for all ages on the Barbican Freestage, prior to Ballet Black's open rehearsal and performance on Saturday evening in the Barbican Theatre. This workshop is free and open to all, no prior experience necessary."
Author Jynto Reproduced with kind permission of the author
Ballet Black Dopamine (You make my levels go silly), Captured, Red Riding Hood 18 Nov 2017 Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre Leeds If anyone is interested, the photo above is a model of a molecule of dihydroxyphenethylamine or dopamine. It appears above because I can't use a lovely photo of José Alves and Marie-Astrid Mence in Michael Corder's House of Dreams that I received just after I had published my review of Ballet Black's triple bill in Nottingham and which I had been saving for my review of their performance in Leeds.
I should begin this post by congratulating Damien Johnson on joining the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Washington DC. I wish him every success with that company. Damian was my Outstanding Male Dancer of last year. Ironically, the last time I saw Ballet Black coincided with Damien's tenth anniversary in the company (see All Hail to the Lone Star Dancer23 June 2017). Had I known in June what I know now, I would have queued at the stage door to shake his hand as he was one of the most exciting dancers on the British stage. He is an American so I suppose it is only right that he will now delight audiences in his native country as he delighted us. I am told by David Murley who attended the Red Riding Hood workshop in February that Damien is a good teacher. I had several opportunities to attend one of his classes. I now feel like kicking myself for letting those opportunities slip.
I surmise that one immediate impact of Damien's departure is that the company no longer had a second man for House of Dreams. It substituted Dopamine (you make my levels go silly) which is a duet. It was danced beautifully by Cira Robinson and José Alves. I had last seen it four years ago when José partnered Sayaka Ichikawa on a previous visit ti Leeds (see Ballet Black is still special7 Nov 2013). The rest of the programme proceeded as advertised with Martin Lawrance's Captured and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Red Riding Hood. It was a good performance. Ballet Black retains excellent experienced dancers and has a very promising recruit in Ebony Thomas. Mthuthuzei November wowed us with his flirtatious virtuosity as he had wowed the Nottingham Playhouse and the London Barbican. Sayaka was an excellent Red Riding Hood adding a soupcon of fun and naughtiness to her veneer of innocence. Grandma was as funny and dazzling on pointe as ever. The cast danced their hearts out and they were rewarded with hearty applause.
Yet something was missing and that something was Damien. Ballet Black has lost some fine dancers in the past such as Sarah Kundi and Kanika Carr who seemed irreplaceable at the time but it always recovered stronger than ever. The company will no doubt get over the loss of Damian in time but he will be the hardest gap to fill.
This is Ballet Black's last performance in the North. They will appear in Portsmouth on the 21 which seems to be the last stop on their current tour. If you live or happen to be in Hampshire or Sussex on that day I urge you to see them. They will then work on their 2018 season which will include a revival of Arthur Pita's A Dream Within a Midsummer Night's Dream. The company was recently nominated for the best creative artist in the Black British Entertainment Awards. They have recently achieved National Portfolio funding from the Arts Council England. They are still a fine company and those like me who wish to support them can do so by subscribing as a Friend.
Last year we were lucky enough to see Ballet Black for two days in Sale, one at the Lowry appropriately on Manchester Day, two days in Leeds and again in Doncaster. They also performed in Glasgow where they were much appreciated.
We shall see very much less of Ballet Black in the North this year. Nothing at all in the North West, a region of over 7 million people and only two days in Leeds on 17 and 18 Nov for the whole of Yorkshire and the North East with a combined population of over 8 million. However, Ballet Black are visiting Oxford, Enfield, Harlow, Canterbury, Watford, Stratford East and Pompey and they started their tour at the Barbican in London.
Save for their visit to the Stanley and Audrey Burton in November, the nearest they come to us will be the Nottingham Playhouse on 22 June 2017 and Derby on 15 Nov 2017. Ballet Black occupies a particularly warm spot in my affection but Heaven know's how I am going to make it to Nottingham on Thursday evening when I shall be at the Birmingham Royal Ballet's press night at the Hippodrome tomorrow and a breakfast meeting at Daresbury near Runcorn at 08:00 on Friday morning.
Ballet Black, you have a lot of fans in the Northern Powerhouse. Do come and see us a little more often.
(c) 2017 David Murley: all rights reserved Reproduced with kind permission of the author
Ballet Black, Red Riding Hood Workshop, Barbican Pit Theatre, 25 Feb 2017 David Murley
On Saturday the 25th February 2017, Ballet Black held a workshop, or Weekend Labs referred to by the Barbican. Aside from my own excitement of getting to dance some of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s steps, there was the unexpected, the unseen. What was going to happen? How many people were going to turn up? Were only students going to be present? Was it going to be a positive and encouraging environment? Etc. Despite graduating from college 15 years ago, all of these thoughts still run through my mind.
Red Riding Hood Workshop
(c) 2017 David Murley: all rights reserved Reproduced with kind permission of the author
The morning started off with ballet class by the incomparable Damien Johnson, a senior artist with Ballet Black. The group who turned up for 9h30 on an overcast Saturday morning was an intimate one comprised of six. We were three women and three men. Essentially perfect. Johnson did not waste any time and put us all through our paces, offering positive corrections and beautiful enchaînements to execute. Lopez Ochoa arrived smiling during pirouettes exercise in the centre. Although we were only six, you could feel the concentration level in the studio magnify and thicken. With an intensified level of concentration, the rest of centre flew by and before we knew it we were put into male/female couples to learn some of Lopez Ochoa’s choreography from her creation Red Riding Hood for Ballet Black’s newest Triple Bill Premiere at the Barbican commencing on the 2nd March 2017.
We had the opportunity to learn snippets from three different scenes from Lopez Ochoa’s creation. The first scene was when the Wolf meets Red Riding Hood. The second was the Wolf’s solo and some partner work with one of the lady wolves. Lastly, was a brief outtake when Red Riding Hood goes to visit Grandma. What all of us took away from the workshop is the Wolf has some serious moves! Fluid, stylish, sensual, rhythmic and hypnotic the Wolf winds, twists and jêtés his way from one of the stage to the other causing the other characters to swoon and faint upon first gaze. Not to mention, oozing his way around Red Riding Hood effortlessly tempting her. Unsurprisingly, the Wolf wins, and Red Riding Hood is well on the pathway to growing up.
Throughout the course of the workshop, Lopez Ochoa was engaging, positive, uplifting and encouraging. Lopez Ochoa interacted with all six of us and spent quality time giving us what would appear to be a semi-private lesson. Invaluable. We received lots of attention. Despite having left school years ago, I learned so much, which is undoubtedly awesome, hands down inspiring and humbling. The atmosphere was professional, and all involved in the workshop had a cohesive energy. For me, it felt like we were specially selected from somewhere beyond our control and comprehension. We were all of similar mind set and similar approach. The Weekend Lab flowed with ease. Honestly, the six of us lucked out numbers wise. Another two couples would have easily changed the dynamic.
In my opinion, the six of us were an interesting, knowledge thirsty, personable and undoubtedly artistic group of individuals. Two of us were professional dancers, having already graduated. However, I was at one end of the spectrum having completed my training 15 odd years ago, and she graduated from Central School of Ballet last year. We had two dancers still in training. One was in full-time training at Central School of Ballet and the other was in the midst of her Textile and Biology A-levels and studying dance at DuPont School of Dance in Leicester. The remaining two workshop participants were non-dancers. One the midst of her studies at The Royal College of Art currently focusing on sculpting and the other remaining gentleman who dances at the weekend for his own pleasure. Everyone gave their best that day, and danced to the fullest of their abilities, and no doubt like myself, learned something too. Aside from us Weekend Lab participants being receptive to the experiences that lie before us that day, the welcoming attitude, professionalism and preparation from Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Ballet Black dancers Damien Johnson and Mthuthuzeli November tremendously helped the day unfold to be what was a delightful, fun-filled and an educational success.
I, personally, would love to see Ballet Black hold another Weekend Lab/workshop. If they do, I highly recommend you attend and savour the experience. They are a company to be valued and cherished.
