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It is quite impossible even for the most died in the wool balletomanes to watch World Ballet Day from start to finish without a break. I had a jolly good stab at it but even I had to eat and sleep and take a ballet class in Manchester. I have spent much of the last two days trawling through the footage looking at some of the bits I missed. Even so I have barely begun to scratch the surface.
As I said on Wednesday, the best bit of World Ballet Day for me was the Dutch National Ballet's rehearsal of La Bayadere (see Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere - the Highlight of my World Ballet Day6 Oct 2016). My only regret is that we did not see more of them. The Dutch have produced three of the greatest choreographers of our time - Rudi van Dantzig, Toer van Schayk and Hans van Manen - and have two of the world's greatest dance companies, the Dutch National Ballet and the Netherlands Dance Theatre. The two guest slots offered by the Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi were far too short.
It was the young Dutch dancer, Bart Engelen who led me to the Norwegian Ballet (see The Norwegian Ballet11 Aug 2015) and it was that company that offered the most spectacular lift of the day. The Artistic Director, Ingrid Lorentzen, showed us:
I have been fascinated by Ekman ever since I saw the trailer for his Swan Lake:
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"Humans dressed as swans!" Now if you are going to jazz up Swan Lake that's the way to do it. It was great to see him in the flesh.
But the piece de resistance came in The Nutcracker pas de deux immediately after the fish dive when Carreño turned Correa upside down and somehow suspended her on his back 4 feet in the air. "My!" exclaimed Ms, Lorentzen who has the most delightful smile and infectious giggle, "More exciting than opening presents." And she was right.
The Norwegians were dancing at the same time as my beloved Scots who had nurtured my love for ballet when I was an undergraduate at St. Andrews some 50 years ago. I turned to them in the hope of catching Bart who is part of Nasjonalballeten UNG which seems to be a special youth wing of the company. The director explained that they were on tour and dancing in Kristiansund.
I am quite hooked by the Norwegians. I would love to see their Nutcracker but even if I don't make it Oslo between 1 and 23 Dec I should be able to make Paris in March where they will dance Swan Lake at the Theatre des Champs Elysees.
Not literally, perhaps, because we didn't have the manpower for a street brawl or time for the Mercutio v Tybalt or Tybalt v Romeo showdowns but we did have a go at modified versions of the Dance of the Knightsand Juliet's solo yesterday. Following the success of KNT's Swan Lake intensive last summer (see KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 118 Aug 2915, Day 219 Aug 2015 and Day 320 Aug 2015) Karen Sant arranged for Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet to return for two intensive workshops on Romeo and Juliet. Gita and I attended the beginners' intensive yesterday. A more advanced one takes place today.
Yesterday was something of a reunion for there were a lot of familiar faces from the Swan Lake intensive including a contingent from Liverpool who are among the jolliest and pleasantest people I know. I had occasionally seen some of those dancers at KNT's Saturday class but this was the first time since August that we had seen them all and it was good to renew acquaintances. This time we had a small party from Yorkshire which would have been bigger had I mentioned this workshop sooner to my classmates on Jane's Wednesday evening improvers' class in Leeds. Several had expressed interest when I told them about Swan Lake and a few asked for details of this course which was why I published Dance Like A Knight - Romeo and Juliet Intensiveson 24 March 2016, but by that time the course was fully subscribed.
The day began with a warm up session on our pilates mats starting gently with angels' wings and building up to more challenging floor exercises including full sit ups as well as some useful foot exercises. We then had a full 90 minute class which started with the Ichino style cardio exercise which all the teachers in Leeds employ in one form or another. Jane's starts with a walk, develops into a run with an about turn when the class least expects it, skipping facing out, skipping facing in, jumping Jacks, calf stretches and balancing on one foot which I can never accomplish on my right leg and seldom on the left. Class followed the sequence in Leeds with one or two modifications. We even had a go at the Descent into the Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère which I would love to master. It looks easy enough from the stalls but I assure you it isn't. Especially not the arabesque penché or the 360 degree pivot in arabesque which I can't do for toffee. Having said that, I don't think I was quite as bad yesterday as I had been in Jane's last class in Leeds but she may well beg to differ.
Between the end of the class and lunch we learned a modified version of the Dance of the Knights. Jane divided us into two groups. As we were stage right I guess we must have been Capulets which is great because it put me on the same side as my heroine, Sarah Kundi, in English National's excellent staging of Nureyev's version of the ballet in November (see Manchester's Favourite Ballet Company29 Nov 2015). The piece started with the chaps, Simon and Tyson, who are both a pleasure to watch, and then we women proudly strode across the stage in our heavy brocades carrying our masques snarling silently at the Montagues who were approaching us. On reaching our destination we did some glissades, chassés, pivot turns and lunges including changing places with the row in front.
Bart Engelen, Full Moon
Photo Michel Schnater (c) 2015 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved Reproduced with kind permission of the company
I have seen lots of versions of Romeo and Juliet - Lavrosky's, MacMillan's, Deane's, Pastor's, Nureyev's, Maillot's. James's and Job's since I started this blog - but there is one other ballet which is set to Prokofiev's music that I just couldn't get out of my mind. That was Milena Siderova'sFull Moon which had been danced by Norwegian National Ballet artist Bart Engelen when he was with the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet. Here's a photo of Bart and here's what I wrote about his performance:
"Milena Siderova's Full Moon was such fun. The music to Romeo and Juliet boomed across the auditorium but there was no sword fight, crowd scene or bedroom pas de deux. Just Bart Engelen clutching a cushion. Engelen is a beautiful young man. Tall and muscular, blond and slender. He contorted himself into all kinds of shapes as Ed Watson did in the first act of Winter's Tale."This pillow has such a force" explained Siderova in the film. "You can't let it go". I wondered why the company had placed this work immediately after Swan Lake and then it dawned on me. Siegfied saw Odette by moonlight and she was also under a force, namely Siegfried's spell that she could not let go. And why Romeo and Juliet? Well it is a good tune but perhaps the lovers were sent to their fate by a force that they could not let go."
It was very hard to suppress a fit of the giggles as Jane gave us our directions and I had to apply all the powers of concentration to think Capulets and Montagues and keep a straight face. Bart and Madame Siderova you have a lot to answer for.
After lunch we polished that dance before exchanging our brocades for Juliet's chiffon ball gown. Jane set the scene.
"You are 12 years old. This is your first ball. You are so excited you can hardly contain yourself. All eyes are on you. You want everybody to be you."
Now, although I have no personal recollection of what it was like to be a teenage girl I am old enough to remember Hooray Henries and debs. As I went to school in London I even knew some. I remember Henley, Wimbledon and the season, all of which was recorded in Jennifer's Diary. I imagined myself as one of those giddy, giggly girls who used to rain cut flowers on stage from the balcony at Covent Garden.
Juliet's piece is fast and furious and no way could I keep up as I am old enough to have been Juliet's great grandmother. I saw Fonteyn dance Juliet towards the end of her career when she was close to my age but she had been dancing all her life and was an exceptional talent. We started on demi pointe literally shaking with excitement and shot into a temps levé followed by a balancé turn then another temps levé. There were soutenus and chaines. It was a glorious and exhilarating experience for me.
Jane coached Simon and Tyson on Romeo's variation and then gave us all a final run through before our show.
We performed in front of our dear colleague, Yoshie Kimura, and our teacher, Mark Hindle, who were a very discerning if somewhat over generous audience. I think all of us gave it our best shot and we were very, very happy with the day.
Jane gave us a final cool down on our mats plus some tips about hot baths and cold plunges and sent us on our way. Altogether it was a great day. I am very grateful to Jane for giving the course, Karen for organizing it, Mark for assisting Jane, Yoshie for watching and encouraging us and all my companions for their excellent company.
Tomorrow they will perform Fresas ("Strawberries"), a new ballet by Juanjo Arques on Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights in 's-Hertogenbosch which was the artist's home town.
The above triptych hangs in the Prado in the choreographer's capital city. A neat link between the Netherlands and Spain.
Bart is now with the Norwegian National Ballet. I am sure I speak for everyone who saw him in London in wishing him a happy birthday and continued success in his career.
That building was opened in 2008 which must make it one of the newest and most advanced performing spaces in the world. I have not visited Oslo since the opera house was constructed so I have no personal knowledge of the building but I am very impressed by the pictures and description on the Norwegian Opera and Ballet's website. There is a short video of the building on YouTube. I shall certainly take a guided tour of the building on my next visit to Norway.
That may come soon because I am tempted by the new programme which includes box office staples like Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, Giselleand The Nutcrackeras well as Anna Karenina, a new work by Christian Spuck to a score by Rakhmaninov, Lutoslawski, Tsintsadze and Bardanashvili. According to the company's website the Norwegian Ballet
"focuses greatly on new works created especially for the company by choreographers like Alexander Ekman, Liam Scarlett and Choreographers in Residence Jo Strømgren and Alan Lucien Øyen."
Now I have heard of Ekman and I know Scarlett but Strømgren and Øyen are completely new to me and I am curious. A chance to seen Øyen's work will come with Back to the Futurewhich opens on 16 Oct 2015. Also on my wish list is Jiří Kylián’s Black and White.
The company that Bart will be joining has some British dancers like Philip Currell, Lindsay Craig from Preston and Natasha Jones. Its principals include Currell and the Cuban dancer Yoel Carreño. The company made a good choice when they recruited Bart Engelen. I wish him and the Norwegian ballet all the best and I look forward to seeing them in the new season.
Jump is described as "the fan club of Dutch National Ballet" for children. It brings young fans into close contact with their favourite dancers. Members receive invitations to workshops, guided tours, and other events.
The website contains information on choreography, music and other matters. There are interviews with the company's dancers photos, and videos. I have already mentioned Edo Wijnen's video on pirouettes in A Really Useful Video on Pirouettes22 Nov 2014.
Every year there is a special Dance Day. This year it took place on 27 June 2015 at the Stopera or Music Theatre in Amsterdam which happened to be the day in which I was in town for Cool Britannia (see Going Dutch29 June 2015. Had I known about it in time I might have taken a luck. That probably explains why they had no Michaela DePrince t-shirts in kids' sizes at the merchandising booth in the evening. I had hoped to get some for Vlad the Lad and my teacher's daughters.
There are some lovely shots of the Stopera in the above video. The Junior Company seems to have given a show. There are shots of Bart Engelen struggling with his pillow to the music of the Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet which I am sure the young audiences would have loved (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet8 Feb 2015).
Although the website is in Dutch there seems to be no reason why kids from other countries should not join it. Membership costs less than a tenner (€12.50 or £8.97) a year,
Having danced with the Royal Ballet for 10 years Ernst Meisner is very well known and very well-liked by British audiences. In 2010 he returned to the Netherlands and joined the Dutch National Ballet as a grand sujet. He is now Artistic Co-ordinator of a group of exceptionally talented young dancers within Dutch National Ballet known as “the Junior Company”.
I had admired the works of Rudi van Dantzig and Hans van Manen for many years but I started to follow the Dutch National Ballet only recently. I am now a Friend of that company and am getting to know It better. I was led to the National Ballet by the Junior Company and have written a lot of articles about both of them in Terpsichore. Noticing my interest in the Dutch National Ballet in general and the Junior Company in particular Ernst Meisner kindly agreed to help me write this feature by answering my questions and introducing me to the new members of the Junior Company.
As there is a lot of material I have divided this feature into a number of posts. The first is on Ernst Meisner’s work with the Dutch National Ballet. The second is on the Junior Company. The rest of the feature consists of interviews with each of the new members. I asked each of those dancers:
how he or she had started to study ballet;
where he or she had trained;
whether there was a dancer or choreographer who had inspired the new member and if so who it was;
whether a teacher had inspired the new member and if so who;
the member’s greatest achievements to date;
the roles he or she had already danced;
the ballets or roles that the member wished to dance;
the new member’s favourite dancers and choreographers;
the member’s immediate ambitions;
his or her long term ambitions such as choreography, teaching or another career outside ballet; and
the member’s interests outside ballet such as sports, music, film and other performing arts.
I am very grateful to Richard Heideman, Press Manager of the Dutch National Ballet, for putting those questions the dancers on my behalf.
If you want to meet Ernst Meisner you will have a chance to do so in March when he talks to the London Ballet Circle. I understand from Susan Dalgety of the Circle that the date of his talk has not yet been fixed, I shall post details of the date, time and venue of his talk as soon as I learn them.
Bart comes from Houten in the Netherlands. He took up ballet because he loves dancing. He was already taking one class a week but wanted to do more. He made enquiries and found out about the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam. He spent 2 years at the Academy and then studied at the Koninklijk Conservatorium (Royal Conservatory) in The Hague.
Bart didn’t really have a particular dancer or choreographer who had inspired him. He explained:
“Every dancer and choreographer has his or her own ways and that’s what I like to see.”
As for inspiring teachers, he replied: “
I’ve had class from many inspiring dancers and former dancers but one dancer whom I will always remember is Katarina Wester.”
He added:
“The last two years of my study in The Hague she was my teacher. Next to the beautiful dancer she is, she is also a greatly inspiring woman with so much love for dance and a very positive vibe.”
When I asked him what was his greatest achievement to date, he replied: “Being with the Junior Company!!!” Notice the triple exclamation marks. At school he had danced the Sleeping Beautypas de deux, the pas de trois in Swan Lake, the pas de six in Napoli as well as a lot of modern pieces such as Said and Done and Sad Case by Paul Lightfood and works by Jorma Elo and Martha Graham.
I asked Bart which ballets and roles he wished to dance. He said he would love to dance Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. He also hoped to dance in Swan Lake. He also loves the works of Hans van Manen and Balanchine who are among his favourite choreographers together with Paul Lightfoot and Rudolf Nureyev. His favourite dancers are Marcelo Gomes, Diana Vishneva, Anna Tsygankova, Vito Mazzeo and David Hallberg,
When I asked about his immediate ambitions he replied “dancing and going out with his friends.” As for the longer term he was not really sure: “Hopefully I will have enough time to think about this. He would like to work with the Dutch National Ballet participating in the shows behind the scenes. Also he would love to become a ballet master and rehearse with the other dancers.
As for his interests outside ballet, he likes shopping, eating and drinking with friends, going out and being lazy on the couch in front of the TV.
I look forward to seeing Bart on stage and wish him well in everything he does.
