Wuthering Heights

Top Withens, the inspiration for Wuthering Heights

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Northern Ballet, Wuthering Heights, The Lyceum, Sheffield, 18 March 2015

On Saturday Northern Ballet acknowledged its northernness by performing Jonathan Watkins's A Northern Trilogy (see Sapphire 15 March 2015). It did so again last night at the Lyceum in Sheffield with David Nixon's Wuthering Heights. I've seen quite a lot of Northern Ballet lately: two performances of Romeo and Juliet on 7 and 12 March 2015 (see Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good way 8 March 2015 and Leebolt's Juliet 13 March 2015), the Sapphire gala on 14 March 2015 and a rehearsal and performance of Wuthering Heights yesterday.  I enjoyed all those performances but the one that I appreciated most was last night's Wuthering Heights.

That is probably because I attended the rehearsal and a discussion in The Crucible bar afterwards. I have only read Emily Brontë's novel once and that was decades ago. While I acknowledge its greatness this sort of work is not my favourite literary genre.  I read the book purely out of homage to its author and deference to its reputation and not because I wanted to. I found it very hard going and was glad to reach the end.  I much prefer her sister's work, particularly Shirley and Villette not to mention the work of other contemporary authors.  Because Wuthering Heights was not my favourite novel I was not tempted to see the ballet on the previous times it had been performed. I have to confess that I put off buying a ticket until after I had seen the rehearsal and it was entirely on the strength of the rehearsal that I decided to stay for the evening. Had I come to last night's performance without seeing the rehearsal and attending the discussion I would have been unprepared and might not have understood the choreography and enjoyed the evening as much as I did.

The ballet's synopsis is not quite as I remember the novel and not as I had expected it to be.  I had feared that it would start with Cathy's tapping at Lockwood's window and that it turn out to be somewhat other worldly and creepy like Giselle.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it was nothing like that. There was a momentary projection of Cathy's image in the first scene but that was no more spooky than the flickering image of Odile in Act III of Swan Lake. No. The ballet is a lot more subtle than that. It is very much about relationships - between Cathy and Heathcliff and Edgar; Cathy and Heathcliff and Hindley; Heathcliff and Cathy; and Isabella and Heathcliff and Hindley. It is also set in two timelines - the childhood of Cathy, Heathcliff and Hindley and their adulthood - with plenty of flashbacks. As a result Nixon has created a young Cathy and an adult Cathy and a young Heathcliff and an adult Heathcliff.  There are scenes when the young Cathy danced with adult Cathy and the young Heathcliff with the older Heathcliff. The ballet ends with the adult Heathcliff kneeling in the falling snow beneath a single spotlight with the young Heathcliff and Cathy playing around him. It was very arresting.

There are, of course, other major roles for Hindley, Edgar Linton, his sister Isabella and Ellen Dean.

In the rehearsal young Heathcliff was danced by Kevin Poeung, adult Heathcliff by Isaac Lee-Baker, young Cathy by Rachael Gillespie, adult Cathy by Dreda Blow, Hindley by Mlindi Kulashe, Edgar by Nicola Gervasi, Isabella by Jessica Morgan and Ellen by Victoria Sibson.  From where I was sitting in the middle of row R of the stalls it appeared that we got Jeremy Curnier as young Heathcliff, Tobias Batley as adult Heathcliff, Rachael Gillespie again as young Cathy, Martha Leebolt as adult Cathy, Hironao Takehashi as Edgar and Hannah Bateman as Isabella in the evening performance and that was confirmed in the cast list.  But the cast list said that Jeremy Curnier was also Hindley which can't be right and that "Samantha Moore" was dancing Ellen. I have never heard of a Samantha Moore but I do know Pippa.  Clad in a mop cap and 19th century garb I could not recognize her positively but the role required a strong character dancer which Moore proved herself to be par excellence when she danced the nurse in Romeo and Juliet a few days earlier. I can't think who else it might have been*.

Yesterday I enjoyed watching Gillespie twice.  I have raved about her many times already and probably embarrassed her to distraction for which I apologize profusely but she is one of three graces of British ballet who delight me in a very special way (see Not too sure about Fairies but I certainly believe in Rachael Gillespie 21 Dec 2014). The others are Ruth Brill of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Sarah Kundi of English National Ballet. I don't know what it is about those artists. None of them is yet a principal though I am sure that is only a matter of time but when one of them dances I float.  Sibley had that effect on me 40 years ago though surprisingly not so much Fonteyn. Among male dancers Xander Parish delights me in a very similar way as does Damien Johnson of Ballet Black.

Yesterday evening I saw three of my other favourites, Batley, Leebolt and Bateman and they all danced magnificently. So, too, did Takahashi who in my humble opinion expressed considerable nobility as Edgar. In the discussion in The Crucible Janet McNulty who must know the ballet very well described him as "a wimp" and that was the consensus but that was not how Takehashi's danced him. It was difficult to get into the ballet in the rehearsal because there were occasional stops and starts and corrections but I am sure I shall be delighted by Lee-Baker and Blow when I see them. Sibson was an impressive Ellen in the rehearsal as was Moore or whoever danced Ellen in the evening.

The evening performance moved a lady in the centre of the front row who looked very like Janet McNulty to rise to her feet and she was joined by her companion. "Good old Janet", I thought. "The dancers deserve it" and I stood up too. I don't know who else did but I am sure there would have been some more.

So yesterday's pleasure was quite serendipitous. In case you are wondering why I decided to stay in Sheffield when I had many other commitments it was a combination of attractions. First, there was Claude-Michel Schönberg's score for which Nixon created spectacular lifts and jumps. Some of those lifts were quite innovative and I guess very uncomfortable for the ballerinas. Both Cathy and Isabella were grabbed by the throats and bundled like laundry in pas de deux with Heathcliff. Returning to the score I found it enchanting from the opening oboes. Next there was the choreography that I have already described. Blow and Lee-Baker had been magnificent and I was eager to see what Batley and Leebolt would make of it. Then there were Ali Allen's sets and David Grill's lighting. I have lived in the Pennines for 30 years among the royds, below enormous skies and know the sudden and sometimes dramatic changes of colour of heath and sky. Rarely have I seen such faithful re-creation of nature on the stage.

I did not think I would like this ballet but I did and I am now quite hooked on it. I am not sure I can get to see it while it is still in Sheffield but I will certainly follow it on tour.

Finally, I would like to commend Joanne Clayton of the Friends of Northern Ballet for arranging the discussion after the show. As I was at the box office I missed the introductions of the speakers. One was a gentleman and the other a lady. They certainly know the novel well and also the choreography. They alerted me to details that I had missed in the rehearsal. I looked out for those details and understood their significance in the evening. We need more events like that in the North. There are plenty in London organized by the London Ballet Circle, Danceworks, the London Jewish Cultural Centre and others. I had contemplated organizing some myself but had been deterred by the fear that nobody would turn up as we have a different culture in the North and a much smaller audience for ballet. Joanne Clayton's success has made me think again.

*Someone who knows a lot more about Northern Ballet than me has just sent me a DM to confirm that Samantha Moore is Pippa Moore and that there is some history.

Kenneth Tindall - The Architect of Ballet

Well, this is certainly exciting! My first contribution for this blog will be a review of the most impactful ballets I have seen so far this year, danced by one of my favourite companies!  I was one of the privileged audience members at Northern Ballet's Company HQ on Wednesday 18th July 2014 to watch the first cast of the 'Mixed Programme 2014/15'. It was also the premier of Kenneth Tindall's 'The Architect' (more on that in a second!) and turned out to be one of the most special and memorable nights of my life.

Before I get on to reviewing the three pieces in the programme (Lar Lubovitch's Concerto Six Twenty-Two, Hans van Manen's Concertante and Tindall's The Architect) I have to say that the company are in superb athletic form right now. It was a real thrill to be able to see them up close in the intimate setting of the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, and its stripped back atmosphere added extra impact to the lighting and set designs used so cleverly in the 3 pieces. This programme really highlights the gifts and strengths of the Northern Ballet and gives them access to work that is beyond the usual boundaries of narrative classical ballet. It also provided moments of real maturity for the younger dancers, particularly Kevin Poeung who clearly put so much GRAFT into his performance in The Architect. The performances I saw last night were just as thought-provoking as dance theatre but lost no amount of classicism or emotion. I feel incedibly proud of  this Yorkshire-based company, they really do belong on the world's stage and this programme will hopefully be their launchpad onto it (they will be bringing the programme to the ROH Linbury in 2015)

Concerto Six Twenty-Two

I'm not personally much of a Lar Lubovitch fan, I find his movement language just a little too on the safe, bland side and many elements of this piece don't really grab and sustain a hold on my attention. It didn't generate in me much of a response above critical appreciation of his work, the mental assimilation of the techniques he used and of course the appreciation for the dancers.

However, even though this piece isn't to my taste the company performed it with such lightness and carefree exuberance. It genuinely was a joy to see them dance and they all managed to convey a sense of true joy at dancing with each other. Hannah Bateman (aka Mrs Tindall!) and Dreda Blow in particular were visions of springtime loveliness. Concerto is a natural fit for the elvish and sprightly Rachael Gillespie, she looked like she was having the time of her life dancing it. Matthew Topliss deserves credit for maintaing the energy and elevation in the Allegro/Rondo pieces and the Adagio PDD between Guiliano Contadini and Matthew Koon was my highlight from this piece.

Concertante

I'm a big fan of Hans van Manen, Nederlands Dance Theatre and Het National Ballet, so I had very high expectations for the performance of this piece. Which, as it turns out were actually exceeded! Contemporary pieces like these that are the lifeblood of European companies can be hard for British ballet companies to master. Not only is the movement itself more extreme than typical classical ballet repertoire, it also requires a subtle intensity, as apposed to 'mannered' performance. Mastering these elements make the diffference between a piece that is well presented to a piece that is performed authentically and hits the mark.

Watching the Northern Ballet dancers performing Concertante I found myself being pulled in, so that I no longer had any awareness of where I was or even WHO these dancers were. It was a prime example of ability of art to be a catalyst for complete transcendence, and the company carried this all the way into and beyond Tindall's Architect. The movement language in this piece is gorgeous, and very 'me', and my favourite moments were 'That' duet between Tobias Batley and Hannah Bateman and Martha Leebolt's duet with Giuliano Contadini. Bateman mesmorised me with her challenging, questioning eyes. Batley was everything that you love and everything that you hate about intense relationships. Leebolt, for me, is so much more than a dance actress and in Contadini she had the perfect partner to really express her true artistic ability.

The Architect

Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know that I have been raving on and on about this piece for weeks!  Kenneth Tindall is a true creative, his ideas and movement language are incredibly unique in the UK and the sheer facility of the Northern Ballet dancers gives him full reign for making his creativity a reality. In Architect, I was given everything I wanted and more! I spoke about being pulled into Concertante, well with The Architect Tindall and the 9 dancers performing it reached out with their own hands and pulled me in to the piece from my insides. They didn't let go, either, I'm still having random conversations with myself about some of the themes and ideas that I've seen in the piece and I still feel that I was privy to a very great 'Becoming' (to borrow from Thomas Harris!).

Movement-wise Tindall threw so many contrasting but highly effective influences into the piece and I've never seen the company dance, interact and perform anything like it before. He gave them a truly 'meaty' piece of work, pushing them to their limits as atheltic dancers and as emotional creatures. The set and the lighting design (Chrisopher Giles and Alastair West, respectively) were spectacular, carving out space and increasing the intensity, and perfectly integrated with the movement language to holistically make this piece gobsmacking. Costume-wise, who knew a unitard could be so impactful and emotive?! The spinal designs on the backs of the male dancers really connected with me, and the visceral red 'wounds' or wombs on the backs of the female dancers' costumes provocatively hinted at what was to become clear in the piece.

Brutal, ravishingly beautiful and completley immersive, Architect has really cemented Tindall's position as my favourite British choreographer and I hope that one day I will create and dance in works that have a fraction of his impact. This piece was a genuinely collabrative effort, TIndall sculpted his dancers into a new kind of living, breathing organism. All 9 dancers (Hannah Bateman, Martha Leebolt, Tobias Batley, Kevin Poeung, Dreda Blow, Guiliano Contadini, Joseph Taylor, Jessica Morgan, Nicola Gervasi) deserve special mentions, without them all it wouldn't have been what it was!

Cleopatra - Northern Ballet, The Grand, Leeds 6 March 2014

Bust of Cleopatra. Altes Museum, Berlin            Source Wikipedia

To create a ballet set in Ptolemaic Egypt at the time that Rome transitioned from republic to empire covering such momentous events as the assassination of Julius Caesar and the battle of Actium and featuring such important figures from history and literature as Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Augustus and Cleopatra was quite a challenge. Ashton never tried anything like that. Neither did Macmillan though he did tackle historical events in Anastasia and Mayerling. Nor, indeed, did any of the great choreographers of the imperial or soviet eras. The nearest I can think of is Spartacus which was set in the servile wars. David Nixon and Northern Ballet accepted that challenge and I think that they succeeded. I left the theatre quite dazed. Something that rarely happens to me and never before in ballet.  The normal laudatory adjectives - even superlatives - will not do justice to this work so this will be a factual, possibly even clinical, review.

The first thing that impressed me was that an enormous amount of work had been done not just by Nixon but also by the other members of the creative team and indeed Martha Leebolt who danced Cleopatra and for whom the role was created. In the programme she wrote that she had prepared for the ballet by reading lots of books, watching the film and everything on TV that she could find. She took in anything and everything because she was aware that even the smallest detail strengthens a character and makes it more realistic. This is a fascinating period of classical history that has interested me since the age of 7 and I know it well. I actually studied it formally for my A levels in Latin and Roman history and informally before and since. I have visited the temples and seen the artefacts of Hellenistic Egypt in the great museums around the world. Even though a ballet does not have to be a historical document it is clear that considerable trouble was taken to get the history and the artistic details right.

For those who have yet to see the ballet the story and the characters are set out on the company's website. The score, specially composed by Claude-Michel Schönberg, can be downloaded from Amazon or i-tunes or heard by Spotify subscribers through the music page. The stage designs were spectacular and ingenious transporting the audience seamlessly from Wadjet's temple to Ptolemy's palace,  a vessel in full sail, the streets and senate of Rome and back to Egypt. Equally impressive were the costumes from Cleopatra's regalia to the deities of ancient Egypt who appeared in the last scene as Cleopatra's spirit entered the afterlife.

The choreography covered two murders, riots and commotion, a great battle, love scenes of Cleopatra with Ptolemy, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, Cleopatra's confrontation with Octavia and her worship of Wadjet and much more. I cannot begin to describe it all.  There is only so much that the senses can absorb but there are sequences that stick particularly in my memory such as the opening and closing scenes of Cleopatra and Wadjet and the battle of wills between Cleopatra and Octavia.

A stellar cast danced last night.  On stage with Martha Leebolt were her handmaidens Charmian and Iris danced  by Pippa Moore and Antoinette Brooks-Daw, three of the company's best. The other strong female role was Octavia performed by Hannah Bateman yet another star. For me, Octavia's encounter with Cleopatra in which both dancers showed their considerable acting skills was the high point of the evening. As for the men, there were impressive performances by Kenneth Tindall as Wadget, Javier Torres as Caesar and Tobias Batley as Mark Antony.  Everyone danced well from principals downwards.

This is a ballet that has to be seen more than once and probably many times to be appreciated fully. It is to be performed only in two theatres, The Grand in Leeds until 15 March and then The Lyceum in Sheffield between the 25 and 29 March 2014. We have had to wait since 2011 for the return of this work. Goodness knows how long we shall have to wait to see it again.

Post Script

7 March 2914  Reinforcing my impression that David Nixon had done an extraordinary amount of background research, Dolly Williams has displayed some of the costume designs in Cleopatra Fashion Fix. She mentions that David Nixon contributed to these drawings in collaboration with Christopher  Giles. I particularly like the headgear of Apis who was one of the gods who greeted Cleopatra's spirit in the last scene together with Anubis and one other whose identity I struggle to remember.

Further Reading

21 March 2014 Lauren Godfrey "Why I love Cleopatra"

7 March 2014  "Hail the queen of ballets" Derbyshire Times

6 March 2014  "Video: Cleopatra back in region after £1m success of national tour" Yorkshire Post

Life follows Art: the Great Gatsby

Northern Ballet, The Great Gatsby, Leeds Grand Theatre, 7 March 2013

It was poignant watching The Great Gatsby the day that Vicky Pryce was found guilty of perverting the course of justice.   This was a tragedy that Scott Fitzgerland might well have written: the precipitate end of two stellar careers, marital infidelity, passion, revenge, even a motor car driven far too fast - happily no deaths but public disgrace which for many is as bad as death if not worse.

I had an inkling that this would be something special before the show.   There was Ballet News's report of the London preview on the 20 and 21 Feb, a glowing report from someone - herself a dancer - who had seen parts of the show and these words of the lady who sold me my programme: "My high point was Cleopatra but this has exceeded it."   I was not disappointed.  Gatsby is in my very humble opinion David Nixon's best work so far and arguably the company's.

The plot of The Great Gatsby is well known. Those who have not read the novel are likely to have seen the film starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow which Nixon refers to in his foreword to the programme:

"This beautifully written novel first captured my imagination when I was at high school. It was coincidentally the same year the movie with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow premièred and I fell in love with this mysterious man, his unrelenting passion and obsession with re-capturing his one true love."

The ballet sticks pretty closely to the story which results in 16 scenes from opulent Long Island holiday homes to a petrol station just outside New York City.   Those scene changes were accomplished effectively by Jerome Kaplan.   This being a touring company his backdrops were necessarily economical and some almost symbolic;   but time and place were evoked by the costumes which were sumptuous.

The Great Gatsby was set in the jazz age and that required at least some jazz in the score. An art form that began life in the formality of the 17th century French court does not always sit easily with a style of music that sprang from improvisation and syncopation.  Jazz Calendar, one of the first ballets I ever saw and still one of my favourites, married the two effortlessly. The composer of the score for that ballet was Richard Rodney Bennett - then a 32 year old in the early years of a brilliant career whose work Ashton interpreted brilliantly - and it was the same Bennett whose music we heared last night - sadly, as Bennett died last year. There were bits of Jazz Calendar, namely Friday's Child and Wednesday's Child, in the score this evening.   There was other music - symphonic, tango and a brilliant percussion sequence representing the conflict in Daisy's head between Gatsby and Buchanan - blended seamlessly with the popular music of the time.

Gatsby lost Daisy when he went to war.   Nixon conjured flashback by a young Gatsby and Daisy danced tonight by Michela Paolacci and Jeremy Curnier - and sinister looking men in black hats and overcoats to represent Gatsby's unsavoury past.   He introduced the main characters in a prologue - Nick Carraway danced by Giuliano Contadini, Sporty Jordan - Hannah Bateman - Myrtle Wilson (Victoria Sibson) who oozed sex almost to the point of eroticism in a pas de deux with Tom Buchanan (Kenneth Tindall) after he had struck her in public and her hapless husband George (Benjamin Mitchell) and of course Daisy Buchanan (Martha Leebolt) and Gatsby (Tobias Batley).

There is one juvenile role in this ballet, Pammy Buchanan who makes three separate  entrances which is quite a lot for a 7 year old.   Tonight it was danced by Caitlin Noonan whom I had previously seen in Ondine last autumn and as one of the mice in The Nutcracker before Christmas. Francis Xavier is reputed to have said "Give me a boy at 7 and I will show you the man." I don't know whether it is true and it is true whether it works for girls - and one doesn't want to tempt fate - but what can be said with certainty is that this girl has presence.  Also, she loves her art; and I have that on the best possible authority.   Just possibly we have seen a star in the making.

This ballet has been shown first in Leeds and will move on to Sheffield, Edinburgh, Hull, Belfast, Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Norwich and London between now and May.   If you live anywhere near those cities or even if you don't it is as they say of the top restaurants in the Guide Rouge "vaut le voyage" - beaucoup fois.   Now at last I can take to my bed.