Ballet Cymru - Even Better than Last Year

Author Sian Trenberth Photography Ltd
© 2019 Ballet Cymru: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

Ballet Cymru (Three Works: Wired to the Moon, Divided We Stand and Celtic Concerto) Pontio Centre, Bangor 30 Nov 2019, 19:30

In my review of 12 Dec 2018, I described Ballet Cymru's Dylan Thomas programme as "the company's best work ever" but I think this year's triple bill was even better.  I say that because Dylan Thomas's words as read by Cerys Matthews eclipsed the dance whereas this year the focus was on dance. 

The three works that Ballet Cymru could not have been more different: Celtic Concerto, an exquisite classical work by Darius James and Amy Doughty, Patricia Vallis's cotemporary Divided We Stand and Charlotte Edmond's innovative Wired to the Moon. The company performed all three works with flair. Ballet Cymru is undoubtedly a company in the classical tradition but it can shine in other styles as well.

In my preview of Ballet Cymru's appearance in Bangor, I linked to a YouTube film of the company's inaugural performance of Celtic Concerto in Newport in 2013.  Readers will appreciate the beauty of Catrin Finch's score, the exuberance of the choreography and the elegance of the costumes and lighting.  The women in black tutus and the men in matching leotards.  The cast has changed since then with highly talented young recruits like Beau Dillen, Joshua Feist and Oliver Wilkinson-Smith.  I first saw that work at Sadler's Wells exactly four years ago. I like it even better now than I did then.

I saw Divided We  Stand in Made in Wales on 22 March at the Dance House in Cardiff.  That was the end of course performance of the Pre-Professional Programme.  If I am not mistaken, Patricia Vallis has added to that work.  There is dialogue and real needle in some of the duets.  The choreographer trained in Rotterdam and New York which explains why I was put in mind of both NDT and Joffrey by her work.  Everyone danced well but there was an exchange between Alex Hallas and Beth Meadway that seemed to express perfectly the message that I drew from the work, namely a new harmony eventually emerges from confrontation.  The score was by Henry Purcell that suited the narrative precisely.  

In the programme, Wired to the Moon is said to have been inspired by functioning systems and how they respond to changes in their environment and shows us "how technology is an extension of our world and in this increasingly interconnected works we must exist in balance." Well, maybe. To me, the work seemed to have more in common with tide and beaches. There was a beach on the front page of the programme, some of the artists removed their trousers as if preparing for a swim, white boxes on stage suggested crests of waves or breakwaters. For a while, I was puzzled by the title then I realized that the moon actuates our tides and I suppose that it is a kind of system.  Katya Richardson's score was dramatic and Eleanor Bull's designs were thought provoking.  The dancing was, of course, superb.

I enjoyed all the elements of the triple bill, perhaps Celtic Concerto and Divided We Stand slightly more than Wired to the Moon because I had seen the first two works before and understood them better.  Although the company performed all three works equally well I think Celtic Concerto showed the artists to their best advantage.  They are a classical company and it is in that style that they are (in my eyes at least) most beautiful.

I saw the show with a member of staff of M-SParc and her 12-year-old daughter.  My guest's daughter had studied ballet for a while but she had previously seen only one live performance.  She was thrilled by Ballet Cymru and delighted to meet Darius James, Patricia Vallis and the cast after the show.  Several of the dancers asked whether she would like to dance professionally to which she said she would.  She told me that she would resume her classes with renewed enthusiasm.  She was not the only young student to have been inspired by Ballet Cymru. Just before the performance, pupils from the local schools performed a curtain-raiser in the foyer.  I missed most of it but I caught a scene on the balcony and those students were very good. Alex Hallas, who had rehearsed them, told me that quite a few of the children including several boys intended to join local classes. 

Most if not all major ballet companies in the UK have associates and outreach programmes but none seems to be as close to their local communities and young people from those communities as Ballet Cymru.  When I told Patricia Vallis what my guest's daughter had said to me, she replied: "That is such wonderful news! That is one of the reasons why we do what we do!"  It is yet another reason why I love Ballet Cymru so.

Ballet Cymru at the Bangor Pontio Centre

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Ballet Cymru has commissioned Charlotte Edmonds to create a new ballet called Wired to the Moon. to a score by Katya Richardson with sets and costumes by  Eleanor Bull,  It will be performed at the Pontio Centre in Bangor together with Patricia Vallis's Divided We Stand and Darius James and Amy Doughty's Celtic Concerto on 29 Nov 2019.  I saw Divided We Stand in Cardiff earlier this year (see Made in Wales 29 March 2919) and Celtic Concerto at Sadlers Wells (see Ballet Cymru in London 1 Dec 2015). I can recommend the evening for those two works alone.  Having seen Edmunds's Fuse for the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company and her contribution to Northern Ballet's Tell-Tale Steps I think we can expect a very special evening.

The Pontio Centre is more than a theatre as I said in The Pontio Centre: A Resource for Inventors, Designers and Makers in North Wales 14 Dec 2018 NIPC Inventors Club. There is also a cinema, restaurant, students' union, bars and cafés and, most importantly, the Hwb which is the Pontio innovation area.  According to the Centre's website:

"Pontio Innovation is about equipping individuals and businesses with the tools they need to succeed in the modern economy. With a focus on transdisciplinary working and rapid prototyping, the Co-Lab, Media Lab, Hackspace and Fablab areas are equipped with cutting-edge technologies. It will boost the University’s cross-disciplinary teaching programmes and encourage collaborative work between students, staff and local businesses,"

Like the Menai Science Park (M-SParc) which I shall be visiting earlier in the day to give a talk to local entrepreneurs, inventors and creatives it is an initiative of Bangor University. New knowledge-based businesses are sprouting are springing up on both banks of the Menai Strait.

Many of the folk who have migrating or returning to Bangor and Anglesey will be attracted by the combination of coastal, mountain and pastoral landscapes that make Northwest Wales one of the most beautiful corners of the planet, but they also require the arts.  That is why the Ponto Centre's facilities supporting regular visits by Wales's classical dance company and other world-class performing artists are crucial to the social and economic development of Northwest Wales.

Welcome Back! Junior Company returns to the Linbury

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Dutch National Ballet Junior Company Young Talent Festival Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House 5 July 2019, 19:45

Last night I dashed down to London to welcome the Dutch National Ballet, Junior Company back to the UK. I have been following them since 24 Nov 2013 when I first saw them at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam.  They visited London for the first time in 2014 (see And can they fly! The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company at Covent Garden 30 May 2014) and again in 2015 (see Junior Company in London - even more polished but as fresh and exuberant as ever 7 June 2015). Since then the Linbury has been closed for refurbishment.  Last night they returned as part of the Royal Ballet's Young Talent Festival.

I went to Amsterdam in 2013 to see Michaela DePrince whom I had first mentioned in April 2013 - several months before she joined the Junior Company,  I saw her at the Stasshouwberg and was impressed:

"I had come to Amsterdam to see Michaela dePrince about whom I have written a lot. She appeared as Diana in Diana & Actaeon a ballet originally choreographed by Agrippina Vaganova for the Kirov in 1935. Soviet ballet was athletic and spectacular requiring enormous virtuosity. I had seen something of dePrince's virtuosity in her YouTube videos but she is even more impressive in real life. She is quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while."

But I was also impressed by the other 11 dancers. I have followed their careers and those of their successors ever since. I have seen many performances by several cohorts of the Junior Company but I don't think I have ever seen the Junior Company dance better than they did last night. 

More satisfyingly, the audience loved them. London sees a lot of dance - possibly more than any city in the world with the possible exception of New York - and balletomanes in our national capital do not easily rise to their feet for anything. I have always stood up for the Junior Company but in London, I have often been the only one. Yesterday I was joined by others and there was certainly a lot of noise even from those who had remained seated.

The programme started with Ernst Meisner's No Time Before Time.  That is one of my favourite ballets from one of my favourite choreographers of all time. Meisner's work touches my emotions in a way that only one other work has ever done.  When I see Embers, for example, my eyes begin to water, I start to sniffle, my body begins to tremble. I deploy every single sinew to control myself.  Only Fokine's Dying Swan has the same effect on me and that is at least partly because of its association with Pavlova.  No Time before Time is exuberant and makes me want to join the dancers on stage. It has a beautiful score by Alexander Balanescu that echoed tin my brain all the way back home to Yorkshire. Lasr night's cast interpreted it differently from those who danced it at Lausanne and the Meervaart in 2016. Perhaps more sensitively and delicately but equally delightfully. 

The next work was Charlotte Edmonds's Fuse which I had also seen at the Meervaart in 2016.  Set to Armand Amar's Dam in China and Paddy Fields it begins with three dancers who appear to be bound to each other with their bonds behind their back. As the music changes from vocals to percussion the dancers appear to break free.  In a short speech before the show, Ernst Meisner explained that the idea for Fuse had originated on the Linbury stage the last time the Junior Company had visited London.  They had been so impressed with Edmonds's work that the company had invited her to create a work for the Junior Company in Amsterdam.  In a short video which was shown before the piece was performed Edmonds reflected on the encounter between different cultures, interests and traditions. "Fuse" in this context appears to mean the result of mixing rather than the ignition of explosive (though it could also have meant that). The first time that I saw that ballet, I wrote:  "This was the first time I had seen Edmonds's work and I look forward to more." Since then I have seen more at Northern Ballet's Tell Tale Steps 2 and I look forward to her work with Ballet Cymru.

Daniela Cardim's Cardim's What got you here was the only work that I had not seen before.  It was a thought provoking piece but one that was not entirely bereft of humour.  There was a commentary which started with a celebration of the genetic accident that each individual represents but continued with the chilling thought that well over 99% of all life forms  that have ever existed are now extinct. There was an exchange of finger pointing that seemed to result in a realization that any responsibility for such mass-extinctions is pretty widely shared. There was the interesting discussion of the circularity of time and movement. If a traveller started in a straight line to travel to the end of the universe he would eventually return to his starting point.  More disturbing was considering what would happen if we knew the world would be destroyed within 4 years by the explosion of a neighbouring star,  Would farmers bother to plant crops or deliver them to stores?  The work ended dramatically with the dancers pointing accusingly at the audience before retracting their fingers and directing them to themselves.

An interval followed Cardim's work in which members of the audience were equipped with tiny red and green torches for Juanjo Arques's Fingers in the Air.   That was a work I had seen at the company's fifth anniversary show on 15 April 2018 (see  "In the Future" - Junior Company's Fifth Anniversary Performance 17 April 2018).  This time the commentary was in English. The audience was asked to vote on whether the men or women should dance, whether we wanted to see solos or duets and whether we wanted the dancers to perform with or without lights.   It did not matter because at the end we were shown what we had been missing but the audience voted for the women, duets and lights. The site of the whole company dressed in the same black leotards was compelling.  Arques was in the audience. I greeted him just before his piece started. It happened to be his birthday, What a way to celebrate!

The last work was Hans van Manen's In the Future.  I had seen that work in the fifth anniversary show and also at last September's gala.  Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, two new movements were added to In the Future.   According to the programme notes, these were Winter and The Sound of Business which were part of David Byrne's Music for the Knee Plays album.  I enjoyed Winter and the Sound of Business but I would have preferred to see them as separate pieces. Each of those works is a complete work itself in words and music as well as dance.  It was, however, a spectacular way to end a very successful evening and a triumphant return to London.

The Junior Company will perform again tonight at 19:45. I do not know whether tickets are still on sale at the box office but if they are and you can reach the House in time I strongly recommend this show,

The Terpsichore Titles: Outstanding Young Choreographer

Cristiano Principato

Photo Robin dePuy
(c) 2914 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

There is a lot of great, young choreographic talent here and overseas. For the last two years Northern Ballet has been showcasing some of it at its Tell Tale Steps choreographic workshops in Leeds (see My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015 and Tell Tale Steps 2 17 June 2016). One of the participants in last year's lab was Charlotte Edmonds who had created Fuse for Ballet Bubbles at the Meervvart.

I described Edmonds's work as the most polished and dramatic which was not surprising given her talent and experience. Having also been impressed with Fuse, I thought she would be a shoe-in for my outstanding young choreographer title.

But then I went to Italy and saw Palladio.

Palladio was one of several works created for the Gala for Alessia at Trecate by Cristiano Principato who is one of the Dutch National Ballet's most talented young dancers.  This is what I wrote about his ballet in From Italy with Love on 1 July 2016:

"In the video about the ballet Cristiano explains that it is about a young girl who breaks her heart but recovers and moves on. It explores her sadness but then her strength as she creates new relationships. Cristiano cast all the Amsterdam dancers in this piece including himself. This is a very sophisticated work and quite a remarkable piece for one so young. Though completely original I could see the influence of Meisner - but not just Meisner for I was also reminded of Jerome Robbins. Balanchine and Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane. Most choreographers' early works are quickly forgotten but I don't think this will be one of them. I think it will be performed time and again, I might add that I think it will be popular in England as Cristiano's choreography is well suited for dancers trained in the English style."

Cristiano created that work before his 21st birthday which makes it all the more impressive.

Given a fair wind this talented young gentleman can look forward to great things. He is, of course, a fine dancer but he can also direct and manage. At Trecate he acted as artistic director, choreographer, principal dancer, lighting engineer - you name it he did it. Don't be surprised if he ends up running one of the world's great ballet companies or opera houses one of these days.

There was one other new work that I saw just before I went to Italy which I really should mention. That was Small Steps created by Cara O'Shea who is one of my teachers at the Northern Ballet Academy. Small Steps is about the Kindertransport which rescued large numbers of Jewish children from Nazi Germany.  I saw it at the Leeds CAT end of term show and wrote in Small Steps and other Pieces - Leeds CAT End of Term Show 2 July 2016:

"Small Steps was a very beautiful work and I was profoundly moved by it for two reasons. The first is that the dancers were about the same age as the children who were sent abroad. They looked so bonny but also so lost and vulnerable. The second is that Cara chose very appropriate music - Arvo Pärt's Für Alina and Spiegel im Spiegel, Lee Holdridge's Into the Arms of Strangers, the intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Paul de Senneville's Marriage d'Amour. The ballet explored the conflict in the parents' minds and the pain of separation. Although she challenged her dancers her choreography was restrained and sombre - and as I have said before profoundly beautiful."

Cara is a fine teacher who is loved and respected by each and every one of her pupils - none more than me - but she is also a talented dance maker. I hope we shall see more from her.

Tell Tale Steps 2

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Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre, Northern Ballet, Tell Tale Steps 2, 16 June 2016


I really must congratulate the panel and choreographers on last night's Tell Tale Steps 2. As you can see from the above recording, the discussion was focused and instructive and each of the choreographers' offerings was original and interesting.  As readers can see what happened for themselves I shall not describe the content. Merely my thoughts on it.

The panel discussion was chaired well and all the panellists made a valuable contribution.  Though there were no opportunities for asking questions the panel did discuss the one topic I wanted to raise, namely the reinterpretation of existing ballets (see To Boldly Go - Northern Ballet's Sleeping Beauty Tale 16 July 2016). Geraldine Morris who danced with the Royal Ballet between 1963 and 1971 said that ballets evolve constantly and that there wasn't much left of Petipa or even Ivanov by the time she performed Swan Lake. I found that surprising because we all have our favourite bits which in my case are the cygnets, Legnani's 32 fouettés and the divertissements and, in particular, the Neapolitan dance but I defer to her vastly superior knowledge of the subject. Also, having looked up the history of the ballet I find that these were post Petipa. Mary Brennan gave a good example of a ballet that had changed (albeit in a different context) when she spoke about Mats Ek's Giselle the second Act of which is set in a psychiatric hospital (see Giselle - Mats Ek on YouTube).

Something new that I learned about Giselle from Dr Morris is that William Thomas Moncrieff staged a melodrama at the Theatre Royal Sadler's Wells entitled Giselle or The Phantom Night Dancers based on Gauthier's story withing weeks of the ballet's premiere in Paris. A rare example of drama taking its lead from the dance instead of the other way round.

The panel discussion was good in another way. In all the years I have been following Northern Ballet I have hardly exchanged more than 2 sentences with David Nixon. Last night I heard more of substance from him than in all the previous years put together. He spoke about his art and inspiration and, in particular, about his performance of Siegfried where Nixon portrayed the prince as a young man which was something of an innovation. I couldn't help reflecting that that is exactly what David Dawson had done in his Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet which I saw two weeks ago (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016). I haven't liked everything that Nixon has created. I am not a big fan of his Swan Lake or his Beauty and The Beast but I really warmed to the man last night. Mary Brennan said that she would take his Midsummer Night's Dream together with Mat's Ek's Giselle to her desert island (see Realizing Another Dream 15 Sept 2013). While I am not sure I would go that far. Nixon's Midsummer Night's Dream is certainly one of my favourite works.

I enjoyed all the choreographers' works. They were asked expressly not to offer complete works for the purpose of the lab which is understandable but I do hope that they don't leave their creations in limbo for each of them deserves to be staged.  The most polished and most dramatic of the works was Charlotte Edmonds's which is hardly surprising as she is already a highly respected choreographer. There was drama too in Carlos Pons Guerra's Birds and some brilliant characterisation with the avian head movements. My favourite work was Morgann Runacre-Temple's "New Coat" with some brilliant miming.

Particularly pleasing was to see the work of two of Northern Ballet's most experienced dancers, Tobias Batley and Lucia Solari. This was the first time I had seen Batley's work and I hope it won't be the last. I especially liked his first solo based, I think, on Charles Trenet's Boum Boum but his Lady Godiva was good too.  Solari showed considerable promise too with her ballet based on the life of Lili Elbe, the first trans-woman to undergo a form of gender reassignment surgery. From my perspective this subject matter was a little too close to the bone for as I said when I reviewed Gwyn Emberton's Five Women Wearing the Same Dress in MurleyDance Triple Bill 2 Dec 2013 which also dealt with transsexuality, gender identity disorder is certainly not a bundle of laughs. Also, the condition is nothing like the depiction in The Danish Girl. Having said that there was some excellent choreography in which I think I detected more than a hint of influence from Demis Volpi's Little Monsters.

I was really impressed by the dancers' enthusiasm for the project. Some of the company's most experienced members, such as Martha Leebolt, Hironao Takahashi and Giuloano Cortadini, played leading roles in the various pieces and contributed greatly to  their success.  Last night was an altogether higher plane to last year's effort. Well done all round!

Charlotte Edmonds's Fuse danced by the Dutch National Ballet

Photo Michel Schnater

Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet

All rights reserved

Reproduction licensed by the company

One of the more interesting events of last year was Northern Ballet's Tell Tale Steps. That was a day at the Stanley and Audrey Theatre which began with company class, continued with a discussion on the future of narrative dance and finally a performance of the works of several of the choreographers. I attended part of the event and reviewed it in My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015. There is also a film of the day on the "About the Lab" page of Northern Ballet's website.

The company has just announced a similar event for this year called Tell Tale Steps 2 Narrative in Ballet. It will take place in the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre on 16 June at 18:00. The format for the event will be different from last year which is probably a good thing:

Tell Tale Steps 2

"First, hear a panel of leading arts professionals discuss the delights and difficulties of creating narrative in dance. Then share with five emerging choreographers the results of their research into how to create a narrative through dance. Following a three week residency at Northern Ballet, the choreographers demonstrate, with dancers from the company, how they have investigated the building blocks of dance narrative, creating characters, a sense of place and drama.
The five selected choreographers have been supported in their research by David Nixon OBE, Artistic Director of Northern Ballet and mentors from Dance, Theatre, Film and Literature.
The choreographers are Lucia Solari, First Soloist at Northern Ballet; Morgann Runacre-Temple, Freelance Choreographer and Choreographer in Residence at Ballet Ireland, National Ballet of Ireland; Tobias Batley, Premier Dancer at Northern Ballet; Charlotte Edmonds, Freelance Choreographer; and Carlos Pons Guerra, Choreographer and Artistic Director of Denada Dance."

Of course I know about Charlotte Edmonds and have seen the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company perform her Fuse in Ballet Bubbles quite recently (see Fuse 22 Feb 2016 and Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2016) but this will be the first time I will have seen any work from Tobias Batley. I turned to The Choreographers page to learn more. There is plenty of info on his dancing but nothing on his choreography. I shall be interested to see what he will do. Lucia Solari is another Northern Ballet dancer whose work I look forward to seeing.

Tickets for the event cost £6 to £12 and can be booked on-line through the theatre's website.

Fuse

Belle Beasley with Thomas van Damme and Antonio Martinez in Fuse

Photo Michel Schnater
Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet
All rights reserved

Reproduction licensed by the company

Another great photo from the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's matinee performance at the Meervaart Theatre on 14 Feb 2016 which I reviewed in Ballet Bubbles on 16 Feb 2016. This photo shows Belle Beasley with Thomas van Damme and Antonio Martinez Cegarra in Charlotte Edmonds's Fuse.

Two other bits of news about the Junior 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.

The other news is that it Bart Engelen's birthday. Bart wowed the Linbury last year with his solo performance of Full Moon (see Junior Company in London - even more polished but as fresh and exuberant as ever 7 June 2015).

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.