News from Ballet Black

 

In Ballet Black Takes York By Storm I 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).  That show 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.

Chelmsford Ballet's Seventieth Anniversary Show

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing

Author: Willliam Blake
Source Wikipedia, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Chelmsford Ballet Company A Midsummer Night's Dream 20 March 2019 19:30 Chelmsford Civic Theatre

It is very hard for me to review a performance by the Chelmsford Ballet Company objectively because I am an associate member of the company. As I live in Yorkshire I cannot participate in its performances but I have attended all its shows since 2014 and even one of its AGMs.  I am very proud of my connection with the company.   I have come to expect a lot from the Chelmsford Ballet and its dancers have always delivered.   This year's show was no exception.

The evening was in three parts:  it opened with preparations for Hippolyra's wedding to Theseus. It then switched to Coppelia starting with the dolls' scene.  That comprised the whole of the first act.  The second act was a transposition of the play without Pyramus and Thisbe. A computer-generated graphic flashing the years back to 1949 indicated why Coppelia had been substituted for the play within a play.  Coppelia had been the company's first full-length ballet so there was no need for a lion, wall or even a man in the moon which would not have been easy for a choreographer transpose into dance.  There are also some parallels between Hermia and Swanhilda in that Franz makes a pass at the strange new girl reading a book upside down.  Is that is reading too much into the juxtaposition of Athenian wood and Swabian village?

Although I love Coppelia I enjoyed the second act much better than the first.  It told the story beautifully.  It started with the quarrel over the changeling boy and continued with the troubles of the lovers, Puck's blunder, Titania's infatuation with Bottom and the final reconciliation.  I think Annette Potter was right to include Coppelia into the 70th-anniversary production though it might have been better to have Midsummer Night's Dream with an extract of Coppelia as part of a double bill.

There were some memorable performances.   Andrew Potter danced both Dr Coppelius and Oberon.  James Fletcher was a hilarious Botton.  Olivia Riley was a splendid Puck.  Women can often dance that role at least as successfully as men as Isabela Coracy has shown in Arthur Pita's version for Ballet Black. Titania, the fairies, lovers all danced well and all deserve congratulations.

I have already mentioned the computer-generated graphics. Whoever created them for Chelmsford Ballet is a genius. I am surprised he or she has not been snapped up by New Adventures years ago.  I think that artist's best work was the overgrown palace in The Sleeping Beauty.   The other things the company does particularly well are the costumes. They were gorgeous.  Particularly the fairies' tutus and in some cases headgear.

Wednesday's opening night was attended by both of the company's patrons,  Doreen Wells and Christopher Marney.  Readers of this blog will know I have always been one of Marney's fans. Wells, who danced with what was then called the Touring Company, was one of the big names when I began to follow ballet. She was and remains one of my favourite dancers. The city's lord mayor was in the audience resplendent in her chain of office.  It was, altogether, a very good evening.   Well worth the long drive from Holmfirth.

Half a show is better than none

Stratford Circus Theatre

Author Andy Roberts
Licence Creative Commons 2.0 Generic

Ballet Central Black Swan et cetera  14 July 2018 19:30 Stratford Circus Theatre, Stratford, East London 

Ballet Central is the touring company of Central School of Ballet.  Its members are final year students on the degree course. Many of my favourite dancers and two of my favourite living British choreographers, Chris Marney and Kenneth Tindall, trained there.  Its tour of the UK during the second quarter of the year is one of the highlights of my calendar.

The lucky old South saw a lot of Ballet Central this year.  But their only appearance north of the Trent this year was in Leeds on 29 April and that was the day that Scottish Ballet danced Highland Fling in Gurn and Effie Land and the evening before I had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend class with Ballet West in Taynuilt and the 50th anniversary gala of the St Andrew's Dance Club which I helped to found many years ago.  I couldn't possibly miss all that even for Ballet Central.

I had hoped to see Ballet Central in London but alas alack the last train north by our wonderful, renationalized railway now leaves King's Cross at 22:00.  I tried ticking them off on twitter and you can see where it got me:

Unfortunately we're limited in terms of the number of services we can run, as the majority of track and line maintenance takes place at night. I appreciate this is frustrating if you want to visit London and avoid staying the night. ^JC

— London North Eastern Railway (@LNER) July 15, 2018

The Stratford Circus Arts Centre is a delightful theatre which reminds me of the Linbury but it is at least half an hour's trek to King's Cross whether you take HS1 from Stratford International or the tube. The tube was particularly awkward on Saturday because Bank was closed.  I looked into minicabs and black cabs but they could have been help up in traffic.   The only safe way to make the rattling Donny Choo-Choo was to

leave the Circus at 20:29 

without the chance of a shine.

Never mind!  Half a show was better than none and the but of the show that I did see was well worth the journey.

Wendy McDermott described the show in an excellent review when it visited Leeds (see Ballet Central in Leeds 31 May 2018).  I saw Jenna Lee's Black Swan and the extracts from Wayne McGregor's FAR and Kenneth MacMillan's Valley of Shadows.   I missed Christopher Gable's Cinderella which is one of my favourites in Northern Ballet's repertoire that I long to see again.  I felt so cheated as I left the theatre during the interval.   I have never walked out of a show before. Not even a bad one. To leave a good show was nothing short of heartbreaking. Although I am not a big fan of Sir Matthew Bourne's The Sleeping Beauty - the curtain climbing baby gives me the creeps - I would have loved to have seen the fairies' prologue once more.  

I comforted myself with the thought that I had at least seen Jenna Lee's Black Swan.   I like Lee's work a lot. I had enjoyed her ballroom scene from Romeo and Juliet  last year (see Triumphant 1 May 2017).  Her Black Swan combining scenes from the film and the ballet is even more ambitious.  It opened with a bad tempered ballerina banging her pointe shoes on a table thereby interrupting Philip Feeney who was at the piano playing Tchaikovsky.  The ballet continues with rehearsals and performance and ends with the removal of yesterday's black swan by her successor.   An interesting touch which might be followed in other Swan Lakes is the presentation of a white feather.  Even more dramatic perhaps than the flickering Odette in the seduction scene.

Like Wendy I saw Ayca Anil as the black swan. Wendy was impressed by Anil's technique and I agree with everything that Wendy said about that.  However I also thought she was a pretty good dance actor as was her prince, Saul Kilcullen-Jarvis.  He represented a very complex character, a bit like the prince in David Dawson's version.  The action flashed back to the ballet with clips from act 1 and act 3.  Echoes of familiar choreography and music as well as some innovation.  The entrance of the black swans with their arms in open 5th was particularly effective.  

Dante Baylor's costume designs, especially the red headdress for the women and the geometric piping of the prince's doublet were impressive.   There was a lot - probably too much - for the senses to take in on seeing this ballet for the first time.  I would love to see it again.

 In FAR - Company Wayne McGregor - 2010 - Behind the Scenes McGregor explains how he drew inspiration from Diderot's Encyclopedia and, in particular, his drawings of the human nervous system. Diderot showed how it was the brain that made the body work.  The brain is represented in McGregor's piece by an array of tiny lamps representing neurons.  Those neurons control movements of the body which are sometimes convulsive.  Ballet Central showed two scenes from an hour long work.  There was a duet by Rita Lee and Aitor Viscarolasaga Lopez and a group scene with Rishan Benjamin, Aoibh Ní Riain Broin,  Hitomi Nishizawa,  Hikari Uemura, Olivia Van Niekerk, Harris Beattie, Thomas Harden and Kevin Memeti.  Not an easy piece to dance, I should have thought, particularly with Ben Frost's multilayered score.  Again, I need to see this work again - and perhaps more than once - to appreciate and understand it fully.

The extract from Valley of Shadows was a beautiful dance for four: Mical Klara Coxill, Saul Kilcullen-Jarvis, Jamie Wallis and Scot Baldie set to Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence. This scene shows the Finzi-Contini family in the seclusion of their garden before their lives are shattered by deportation to a concentration camp in Germany.  Wendy referred to sad and dark undertones and that is because we know what happened to the family.

Knowing that I would have to leave early to catch the rattling Donny choo-choo I booked a seat in the balcony which would have allowed me to slip out before the end of the performance with minimum noise and fuss.  It allowed me to spot who was in the audience and I spotted more than a few friends and acquaintances.  That made it even harder to leave the theatre.

Finally a message for Heidi Hall and Chris Marney.  There are approximately 25 million people who live north of the Trent and we can't all squeeze into the Stan and Audrey on a Sunday night.  We have some lovely theatres such as the Keys and Aldridge at the Lowry, the Atkinson at Southport, the Waterside in Sale, the Cast in Doncaster, the Library in Sheffield and indeed the Lawrence Batley here in Huddersfield.  Do stay with us a little longer when you go on tour next year.

Chelmsford Ballet Update

River Chelmer

Author Roy Gray
Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
Source Wikipedia

Folk in the rest of the UK tend to be very unkind about Essex even though there is much to admire in that county. For a start it possesses some beautiful countryside as you can see from the photo of the River Chelmer from which Chelmsford derives its name. Also, it has one of the nation's oldest ballet companies of which I am proud to say I am a non-dancing associate member.

In order to graduate from associate to dancing member one has to be accepted at an audition which takes place once a year.  Those who are accepted are considered for the annual show in March as well as special events and workshops.

This year's auditions will take place on 24 June 2018. There are three classes of membership and the criteria are as follows:

"GENERAL DANCERS
Age 13 years on 1st September in the year of the audition and holding a Grade 2 Ballet certificate (or above) or be working at an equivalent level.
SENIOR DANCERS
Age 13 years on 1st September in the year of the audition – Female dancers should be working “en pointe”.
JUNIOR DANCERS
Age 10 years and not more than 12 on 1st September in the year of the audition and holding a Grade 2 Ballet certificate (or above) or be working at an equivalent level."

Those who are accepted for any grade of membership are expected to show a reasonable degree of commitment to the company.  Obviously I can't do all that from Holmfirth but I would have applied for general dancer membership like a shot had I lived in Essex. Those who can make the grade and offer the required level of commitment should apply by completing and lodging this application form before 10 June.

If you are accepted at the audition you qualify for all sorts of fun things like workshops with Ballet Central and Sir Matthew Bourne's company, New Adventures.   Ballet Central's took place on 22 April and was aptly described in the notice to members as a "perfect after show treat." You can say that again. I am green with envy.

Chelmsford's joint patron is none other than Chris Marney who was a magnificent Count Lilac in Bourne's production of The Sleeping Beauty and is now Artistic Director of Ballet Central.  The dancers from Chelmsford Ballet have an opportunity "to sample innovative and exciting repertoire and work on story telling and characterisation in dance" on Sunday 8 July 2018. The blurb from Chelmsford (appropriately on a lilac background) states:

"This is an amazing chance to participate in a workshop specifically tailored for the Chelmsford Ballet Company, which will allow all grades of dancing members an opportunity to understand the process of narrative dance and to work on characterisation."

Finally a note to my fellow Northerners. We could do this sort of thing if we ever get Powerhouse Ballet off the ground.  In the short term Karen Sant has offered us a day's intensive training in Manchester, Ballet West a week in Scotland and Terence Etheridge a fantastic experience in Cornwall. We have got Northern Ballet and Phoenix on our doorstep. They would almost certainly be willing to help. We have excellent links with all the other leading companies in the UK and even beyond.

But in order to get off the ground we need a full class of dancers in Huddersfield on Saturday 26 May 2018 at 15:00.  You have the opportunity of a FREE 90-minute class with Jane Tucker, one of the best teachers in the business, for which you would have to pay £7 plus a £5 registration fee in Leeds or £15 in Manchester. Opportunities live this do not grow on trees.

All that was missing from this Evening's Performance was a Ballet by Marney ......

This evening's performance by Ballet Central of its mixed programme at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre was a triumph and I said so on twitter.

But just one thing was missing - a work by Christopher Marney. Last year we had War Letters (see Images of War: Ballet Central's "War Letters" and other Works 29 April 2016), Scenes from a Wedding the year before that (see Dazzled 3 May 2015) and in 2013 anon (see Central Forward 22 March 2013). But not this year.

So, here is a gift to everyone who attended the show to turn a great evening into a perfect one.  A charming extract from Chris's ballet, The Carnival of the Animals, which he created for the Chelmsford Ballet Company in 2015. In my review of the ballet, A Delight Indeed, 22 March 2015 I explained:

"Marney did not create a new version of The Carnival of the Animals. He made a ballet about a company that was about to dance The Carnival of the Animals. A young stage hand longed to dance - perhaps because of his longing for its principal dancer performed beautifully by Wallis. But when he tried to lift her - dainty though she is - he found that pas de deux work was not quite as easy as it looked. According to Tim Tubbs's programme notes the ballet was set in the 1930s - the heroic early days of the English ballet after Diaghilev had died but before the Second World War when endless touring by the Vic-Wells Ballet won the hearts of the nation to this originally foreign art form. There were a few animals - foxes perhaps - and a yapping lap dog quite invisible to all but the dancers but clearly another dog like Bif which could do ballet (see Woof 12 Oct 2014 to understand the reference) - but the main characters were people. Quildan the stage hand, Wallis his sweetheart and principal dancer and Pettet her mother"

As you probably guessed, the stagehand was Stephen Quidlan and Jasmine Wallis was the dancer.

The person who uploaded the film to Vimeo was Marion Pettett. She is the Chair of the Chelmsford Ballet Company of which Chris is joint patron and I am a non-dancing associate. Marion graciously permitted me to embed the film into this blog and I am enormously grateful to her. I should add that Marion appears in the film clad in red.

I need to spend some time on my write-up in order to do justice to Chris and Ballet Central. It will appear towards the end of the day or maybe tomorrow.

Last Chance to see Ballet Black in the North

South Yorkshire

Crown Copyright
Creative Commons Licence
Source Wikipedia

Ballet Black are coming towards the end of their national tour with the triple bill that David Murley saw at the Barbican (see Ballet Black at the Barbican 22 March 2016) and I saw at the Lowry and Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre (see Ballet Black made my Manchester Day 20 June 2016 and Never Better: Ballet Black in Leeds 18 Oct 2016). The company usually makes an appearance in Leeds but this year they have spoilt their fans in the North with performances of Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale (see As Fresh as Ever: Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale 7 May 2016 and I never tire of Dogs Don't Do Ballet 8 May 2016) as well as those I have already mentioned and their forthcoming visit to the CAST theatre in Doncaster on 2 Nov 2016.

As I mentioned in my review of Northern Ballet's Madame Butterfly (Nixon's Masterpiece) on 22 May 2015 CAST is  "a £22 million municipal theatre that opened in 2013 (Ian Youngs £22m Cast theatre opens in Doncaster 6 Sept 2013 BBC website)" and is one of the plushest performing spaces I know. It has attracted not just Northern Ballet but also Wayne McGregor and other dance companies. This will be Ballet Black's debut in Doncaster and tickets seem to be selling well (see the "Book Tickets" page on the theatre's website).

In my humble opinion, this year's programme is the company's best ever with works by three of my favourite choreographers including Christopher Marney (artistic director of Ballet Central) whose work reminds me so much of John Cranko and Christopher Hampson of Scottish Ballet who was my joint choreographer of the year for 2015 (see Highlights of 2015  29 Dec 2015). All the works in this year's programme are sombre. Storyville which charts the destruction of a beautiful young woman is particularly sad. But they are also very beautiful.  Ballet Black is a company that delivers the sort of works that Luke Jennings seemed to be calling for on Front Row  on Monday which I discussed in Of Bikes and Buses 25 Oct 2016. I can't imagine why nobody on the programme mentioned that.

Ballet Black's remaining performances of the triple bill will be in Exeter, Watford, Harlow and Lichfield. Soon they will begin work on a new programme which will open at the Barbican on 2 March 2017. I gleaned the following details from the Barbican's website:

"A four-hander characterised by intricate detail and propulsive energy, Captured ebbs and flows to the fiery emotion of Martin Lawrance’s edgy choreography, set to a Shostakovich string quartet.
Celebrated British choreographer Michael Corder, whose glittering versions of Cinderellaand The Snow Queen have been seen across Europe, creates the evening’s second abstract piece for four dancers.
South Bank Sky Arts Award-winner Annabelle Lopez Ochoa turns a popular fairy tale on its head, as she gives her short narrative ballet a surprising twist. This time, the Wolf will regret ever meeting Red Riding Hood."

Those who like Ballet Black may wish to consider the company's Friends scheme. Membership does not cost much and it provides opportunities to get to know the company better.  Friends receive an occasional newsletter and invitations to attend events like the rehearsal of Marney's To Begin, Begin at the Barbican (see Ballet Black's First Friends' Event: A Rehearsal with Chris Marney 14 July 2016).

Images of War: Ballet Central's "War Letters" and other Works

The Green Howards at the Battle of Anzio

Author Sgt. Radford, No. 2 Film and Photographoc Unit
Source Wikipedia

Ballet Central, Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre, 28 April 2016

When I first saw Chris Marney's War Letters for Ballet Black nearly three years ago I wrote:

"War Letters, which took up the whole of the second act, brought all the dancers together. It opened with the voice of Kwame Kwei Amah reading the words of a soldier's letter to his sweetheart rejoicing at their love. The mood changed with a poignant pas de deux between a wounded, gassed or shell shocked soldier in pyjamas and his lover who arrived with smiles and left with a broken. Next came a dance to the music of Glenn Miller. Four soldiers met four girls on the dance floor. Three of the girls were asked to dance but the fourth was ignored. She tried to attract the boys' attention but to no avail. The second reading came from Thandie Newton comparing throwing off a lover to the loss of a heavy coat - but then regretting the loss of warmth. This analogy was taken up by the choreographer as the boys tried to lend her their overcoats. The scene ended with the girl shrouded with the soldiers' coats. Finally, there was the voice of the wartime radio presenter John Snagge announcing "Victory in Europe". The last scene is of the artists together which I reproduced in my previous post. Home came the boys nursing their injuries. This was not the first ballet on the horror of war but I still found it a very moving work."

I saw the same company dance that work again in the Stanley and Aubrey Burton Theatre six months later:

"Christopher Marney's War Letters is a very moving piece and it resonated with the audience in Leeds last night even more than it had done in London. Possibly because it was danced in poppy season. Two movements brought many including me close to tears. The hospital visit to a seriously wounded soldier and the Winter coat. Beautiful choreography giving every dancer an opportunity to show what he or she can do."

 Yesterday I saw the young dancers of Ballet Central dance that work and found the work even more poignant than before. I think it is because the dancers are so young - exactly the age of so many of the boys who were called up and the girls who were left behind - and the painstaking attention to detail. The boys wore British uniforms and the girls wore their hair exactly as their grandmothers (or even their great grandmothers) would have done. I was born well after then end of the second world war but remember bomb sites, amputees and even some rationing. I was reminded of my parents' reminiscences of war. This performance spoke to me in a way that previous ones had not done.

All credit then to the artists: Holly Girdham, Emma Hancox, Mai Ito, Mia Lambuschagne, Seren Williams, Valerie Yeo, Jaspar Arran, Cian Hughes, James Parratt, James Roxby-Brwn, Mark Samaras and Joseph Vaughan. I particularly enjoyed Mai Ito's performance of the girl on the side, a role that Kanika Carr created for Ballet Black. Mai Ito danced that charmingly - playful at one moment, petulant the next, and always flirtatious.

Although it was the chance to see War Letters again that excited me it was not the only work that delighted me. I enjoyed all the works that the company danced last night but three impressed me in particular: Christopher Gable's Celebration which opened the show, Sharon Watson's Repetition (2) Change and the Pas de Trois from Paquita which rounded off the first part of the show.  Of those three works it was Celebration that I enjoyed the best, possibly because it had been created by Gable.

I first saw Christopher Gable when he was with the Royal Ballet. Many years later I saw him in Gillian Lynne's A Simple Man for Northern Ballet. He was artistic director when I started to follow Northern Ballet and created my favourite ballets for that company.  Celebration, a gorgeous classical work reminded me of all that.  After the dancers had presented themselves there was a delightful pas de deux, a virtuoso piece by the men, a joyful succession of duets and so on.  The music was provided by the composer, Philip Feeney, in person. The work was staged by Carole Gable who is Central's ladies' ballet tutor and rehearsal coach.

Carole Gable also staged the Pas de Trois which was performed skilfully by Mai Ito, Kanami Dano and Mark Samaras to Minkus's music.  This requires virtuosity and grace from each of those three young dancers which they displayed in abundance.

Like her TearFall which I reviewed in The Phoenix Soars Over London 13 Nov 2015 Watson's Repetition (2) Change was a science lesson as well as dance. Two sets of dancers, some male others female, clad in almost identical red and black gowns, wove around each other in seemingly random patterns. According to the programme notes "the fascinating intricate world of DNA is placed under the microscope" in this work. I could not quite work out was whether the red and black dancers were supposed to be different letters of a sequence, DNA and RNA or something else. Watson was in the auditorium but I did not get a chance to ask her. I was however gratified to find that the piece had been sponsored by Susan Dalgetty-Ezra of the London Ballet Circle. The work was staged by our very own Sandrine Monon of Phoenix.

The other works that I enjoyed were Leanne King's duet Insinuare danced by Elizabeth Medway and Joseph Vaughan to Feeney's music and Sara Matthews's energetic Superstruct, also to a score by Feeney.

It was a very good programme though perhaps a little less ambitious than last year (see Dazzled 3 May 2015). Also, while there were many impressive young dancers nobody stood out in the way that Mthuthuzeli November did last year. On the other hand War Letters was wonderful. In performing that work think I saw Central at its very best last night. The company will move on to Uppingham, Newbury, Chipping Norton, the Royal Automobile Club, Bridport, Eastleigh, Margate, Wedmor, Bristol and the Stratford Arts Centre.

PS

Delighted to announce @chrismarney appointed as our new Artistic Director https://t.co/X1OXeSwPVY Photo: Kate Parkes pic.twitter.com/oC2c2E0e4s

— Ballet Central (@balletcentral) April 25, 2016

This news couldn't have been timed better. I write about the Ballet Central's tour only this morning (Ballet Central's Only Performance in the North 25 April 2016).

Congratulations to Chris upon his appointment which must be one of the best jobs in British ballet and congratulations to Ballet Central on its excellent artistic director. I really can't think of a better man for the job.

Looking forward to welcoming the company to my stamping ground (literally) all the more.

Review: McQueen at St James Theatre, London

McQueen is a creative review of the life of tragic fashion designer Alexander (Lee) McQueen (Stephen Wight), as told to Dahlia (Dianna Agron), a fictional girl who apparently breaks into his house (or does she?) because she needs a dress. Like Lee, Dahlia is directionless and clinically depressed. He takes her on an adventure through his life story, in one night, during which time he makes her a dress which brings out her unique beauty – helps her see who she really is. There are various hints, but we are never actually told this.

The story is a vehicle, perhaps an allegory for McQueen’s artistic principle that fashion is the purest form of self-expression – how you dress (or in Lee’s case, the dresses he designs) expresses what you are. When Lee doesn’t have creative inspiration, he loses his way.

In a series of scenarios from his life, Lee effectively turns himself inside out to his mysterious intruder and they help each other through the night.

Why is this review appearing on Terpsichore, a blog about dance? Well, many of the scenes include dreamlike sequences where a group of dancers depict mannequins, wearing McQueen’s stylishly eccentric creations. The mannequins are his muses and Terpsichore is the muse of dance. David Farley’s production design and Christopher Marney’s choreography were striking from the first scene. I loved the opening sequence, where at some points it was hard to differentiate between dancers and mannequins. The dancers were all well cast, as they looked like living mannequins and they moved together beautifully as a group, with points of choreographic interest – posing and turning with lifts and exquisite silhouettes at different parts of the stage. Their skill belied the challenge of working with a relatively small space and a busy, changing set. In a later, party scene, the mannequins appear again, now representing beautiful party people – models perhaps – dancing and swaying around the stage in couples and formations, drawing Lee and Dahlia deeper in to the night.

The staging was perfect, and the lighting created and intensified the atmosphere, which was dark, but somehow optimistic. I found a balcony scene overlooking London particularly striking. Another fabulous creative device was when Lee fits a beautiful dress onto Dahlia on stage, transforming her from an obsessive fan to a late night muse who helps Lee find the inspiration that keeps him alive. This was so impressive – a nice detail was that he left one pin in the shoulder strap.

A lively, exquisitely designed production with fantastic set and production design, beautiful dancing and choreography and some excellent acting including a great Isabella Blow cameo from Tracy-Ann Oberman is let down by a plot full of holes. Here are just a few. Who is Dahlia? Is she real, or imaginary? Is she his alter ego? There are many references to her being already there, a doppelganger etc. Well if she is, it’s a bit bizarre that she’s an ‘I want, I want’ person, when Lee himself was obviously an ‘I get, I get’ person. Also if she is part of him, how come he has to tell her his life story? She’d already know all of that!

Dahlia makes a lot of suggestions that she is part of Lee, or his alter ego, but a lost American girl seems a strange alter ego for a talented, tortured designer at the height of his fame.

The reason the plot holes are so easy to spot is that the play is set between Isabella Blow’s suicide and Lee’s own. By this time his talent was globally recognised and he was at the pinnacle of his career. The programme included a useful timeline of his life, so when you read the programme, you wonder about the inaccuracies in the play. For example, Lee wasn’t ‘made’ by Isabella – he was a successful tailor before he was accepted to study on the MA course at St Martin’s and she bought everything in his graduate show. While in this play Isabella claims to be his Svengali, in reality she was a catalyst for his second career.

The play makes no reference to Lee's time at St Martin’s or his widespread recognition - including as British designer of the year – and only touches lightly on his serious issues with drugs.

The theme of self-harm and suicide – Dahlia gives no reason why she is so troubled – is treated lightly given Lee’s actual demise. The play ends on a possibly optimistic note, which is a plus point. Dahlia says she has had the best night of her life, which suggests that she is an individual in her own right. If she signifies part of Lee’s character, surely wandering around London reminiscing about his past to an imaginary friend is unlikely to be the best ever night for an internationally acclaimed fashion designer.

Even if you excuse the plot holes as artistic license, the wordy script made several scenes feel unnecessarily long. I would pick out in particular the scene in Lee’s dying mother’s house which could have been cut to less than half the length to get the message across. This was towards the end of the play and there was a distinct shuffling among audience members – the seats are not particularly comfortable.

Overall it was an entertaining show. The staging was beautiful and Stephen Wight was genuinely convincing as Lee McQueen. It helps that he really does look like him. He delivered his lines well – even the clunky ones – and he was on stage for the entire 1 hour and 40 minutes. Dianna Agron, however, was less impressive. At first I tended to agree with some critics who wrote that her acting seemed wooden, but her obvious professionalism throughout made me think that this is how she had been asked to portray the character Dahlia who would have fitted nicely into Twin Peaks.

And there was indeed a David Lynch quality about McQueen. The acting was generally pretty good, and I liked Tracy-Ann Oberman’s excellent take on Isabella Blow, though again half the number of words would have got the message across. I particularly liked her wafting around elegantly in the background of the dance sequences and other scenes.

I also have to declare a personal interest in McQueen, the play. My friend Amber Doyle is the dance captain, and I go to her ballet classes, so I was anticipating some excellent dancing. And I was certainly not disappointed. The perfect stylish dancing and choreography was one of the very best things about this show. I also felt that some reviewers were a bit harsh about the actors, particularly Stephen Wight, who I thought did a good job with an unwieldy script.

McQueen’s problem is that it is a hybrid – it’s not a musical, and a contingent in the audience who had come to see Agron based on her performance in Glee must have been disappointed that her only bit of singing is a few snatches of Billy Joel’s ‘Always a woman to me’, a song which I unfortunately associate with the John Lewis ad a few years ago.

McQueen is not a biography either, because it’s highly selective – it misses out important facts about McQueen’s life and influences and half the story is about an imaginary character, or doppleganger. Nor is it a ballet, either although much of the story is told in the dance sequences. All this means reviewers struggle to place it.

McQueen is an entertaining, beautifully staged tribute to a tortured and sadly missed talent and it successfully captures the strange and wonderful world of fashion – its creativity and its cruelty. It’s been described as self-indulgent, but what is fashion – and indeed much art too – if it is not self-indulgent? That’s the beauty of it! If you like fashion and dance, you’ll like McQueen.  I did.

NB, The image, by photographer Sam Mardon, shows the theatre’s special McQueen cocktails. This is because I had asked a contact at the theatre whether it was ok to take photos at any point and was told roundly that anyone with a camera would be escorted out. Having read some mainstream reviews I had considered putting a camera in my bag to facilitate an early exit! I’m glad I didn’t. The photo was taken on an iPhone before the show.

McQueen is at St James Theatre, London until 27 June. https://www.stjamestheatre.co.uk/theatre/mcqueen/

 

 

A Delight Indeed

On Wednesday Leanne Shipp tweeted

@jelterps Jane, you're in for a delight on Saturday in Chelmsford with @Ballet_CBC! Loved both pieces but esp Carnival by @chrismarney!
— Leanne Shipp (@ShippLea) March 18, 2015

She was so right. Any company would have been proud of yesterday's double bill.  As it was performed largely by dancers who do not yet make their living from dance it was all the more remarkable.

Note my terminology. I did not say "amateur" deliberately. There was nothing amateurish about the show. Everything was polished. Not just the dancing (which was perhaps not so surprising since several members of the cast were either at, had been to, or were on their way to, top ballet schools) but the direction, stage management, sets, costumes, lighting - even the glossy programmes. All the more impressive when it is considered that the production was completed in a year on a limited budget and much of the set painting and costume making would have been done by the members themselves.

There were two one act ballets yesterday evening - Annette Potter's Pineapple Poll based on John Cranko's choreography and a new ballet by Christopher Marney called Carnival of the Animals. The works complemented each other perfectly for Marney has much in common with Cranko. Pineapple Poll was created early in Cranko's career and while Marney has created a string of successful ballets for Ballet Black, Ballet Central and others it has to to be remembered that he is still a very young man (see Christopher Marney 16 March 2014). If, as I fervently hope, he lives to a ripe old age and his career maintains its present trajectory Carnival will be regarded as an "early Marney". I can foresee school and university teachers yet unborn setting essay questions like "Pineapple Poll and Carnival - compare and contrast" to the grandchildren of yesterday's corps de ballet.

For those who do not know the Cranko ballet there is a good synopsis in Wikipedia. There are five key roles: Pineapple Poll, Jasper the pot boy, Captain Belaye, Blanche his bride and her aunt, Mrs Dimple. Jasper falls in love with Poll but she has eyes only for the captain. She steals on board his ship with her friends to attract his attention but he has eyes only for Blanche and she is so disappointed when the captain leads Blanche and Mrs Dimple on board HMS Hot Cross Bun. However when Jasper enlists as a midshipman Poll finally takes an interest in him and the ballet ends happily with Mrs Dimple representing Britannia. With music selected and arranged from the works of Sir Arthur Sullivan it was a great patriotic romp.

Captain Belaye was portrayed majestically by Andrew Potter. Readers of last year's review of The Nutcracker will remember that he was Drosselmeyer. Jasper was danced by Stephen Quildan whom Jessica Wilson has interviewed recently in Dance Direct (see Stephen Quildan – Educating Experiences 13 March 2015). He displayed great virtuosity - I couldn't help clapping one particularly difficult jump even though I shouldn't have done - but also he expressed loving, longing, disappointment and despair so eloquently. Scarlett Mann was a delightful Poll - coquettish, determined, devious but still delightful whether selling trinkets on the quayside or marshalling the crew of the Hot Cross Bun. Also attractive was Megan McLatchie as Blanche. However, for me the star of the show was Marion Pettet as Mrs Dimple - and Britannia. Last year she was Frau Stahlbaum. A wonderful actor as well as an accomplished dancer and a great chair of the Chelmsford Ballet Company.

The Carnival of the Animals was written by Saint-Saëns which is best known for The Swan. That piece upon which Fokine created The Dying Swan for Anna Pavlova never fails to move me even when I hear it on a DVD player or over the radio. There are many reasons for that - some personal - to which I alluded in my review of Northern Ballet's Sapphire gala last week (see Sapphire 16 March 2015). Last Saturday Javier Torres presented a new interpretation of Saint-Saëns's music and last night we got another. A pas de deux between Quildan and Jasmine Wallis which was also lovely. Typical Marney.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Marney did not create a new version of The Carnival of the Animals. He made a ballet about a company that was about to dance The Carnival of the Animals. A young stage hand longed to dance - perhaps because of his longing for its principal dancer performed beautifully by Wallis. But when he tried to lift her - dainty though she is - he found that pas de deux work was not quite as easy as it looked. According to Tim Tubbs's programme notes the ballet was set in the 1930s - the heroic early days of the English ballet after Diaghilev had died but before the Second World War when endless touring by the Vic-Wells Ballet won the hearts of the nation to this originally foreign art form. There were a few animals - foxes perhaps - and a yapping lap dog quite invisible to all but the dancers but clearly another dog like Bif which could do ballet (see Woof 12 Oct 2014 to understand the reference) - but the main characters were people. Quildan the stage hand, Wallis his sweetheart and principal dancer and Pettet her mother.

Again, Pettet stole the show for me as the bossy, fussy but affectionate mother but she was not the only star. Quildan with a foot in a bucket one moment and fumbling the ballerina the next - showed that he can amuse an audience as well as amaze it. Wallis was an adorable ballerina. Everybody in that show danced well. Jessica Wilson (the blogger who interviewed Wilson and danced Harlequin last year) and Jenni Stafford as the ballerina's friends, Georgia Otley and Amelia Wallis (Clara in last year's show) as playful school kids, Hannah Cotgrove, McLatchie again and Carly Parry as the domestics and Mann, April Goulding and Darci Willsher as the company's dancers. It must have been such a thrill for them to work with a dancer of the calibre of Marney and one which each and every one of them richly deserved.

I loved The Nutcracker but this double bill was even better. "What are you doing next year?" I asked Marion Pettet when I congratulated her after the show. "Not sure" was the answer. I suggested La Sylphide at first because ir is a ballet in a British setting which should be danced by a British company. But then I remembered their wonderful young women dancers (some of whom I have mentioned above) which is the company's strength. Wouldn't they be splendid in the entry of the shades in La Bayadère?

London Ballet Circle's Guests

Ernst Meisner

Photo Robin DePuy

(c) Dutch National Ballet 2014

Reproduced with kind permission of the Dutch 

National Ballet

One event that I am not going to miss come hell or high water or even a brief to the Court of Justice of the European Union is the visit by Ernst Meisner of the Dutch National Ballet to the London Ballet Circle at The Dining Room, 1st Floor, Civil Service Club, 13-15 Great Scotland Yard, SW1 on 20 July 2015 at 19:30.

I have written a lot about Ernst and earlier this month I had the pleasure of meeting him in Amsterdam; but here is some more information about him, some of which I didn't know:

"After winning the Eurovision competition (no, not the song contest!) Ernst gained a place at The Royal Ballet Upper School then joined the company in 2000. After 10 happy years with The Royal Ballet dancing soloist roles Ernst put together a gala show for Kent County Council in Dartford, an experience he much enjoyed. He later got the chance to participate in the Rural Retreat for future leaders and got the opportunity to shadow Ted Brandsen, artistic director of Dutch National Ballet. Ernst left Covent Garden in 2010 and danced several seasons with Dutch National Ballet and when the company decided, two years ago, to set up a Junior Company, Ernst was appointed its Artistic Co-ordinator. He now choreographs works not just for the Junior Company but also for the main company.

Ernst, who also teaches at the Amsterdam International Summer School, has been inspired by LBC's work with student dancers and has very generously given us a two week scholarship to the Amsterdam International Summer School to award to a talented young dancer. We record our gratitude to Ernst and his colleagues for their kindness and greatly look forward to our evening with him and to hearing more about his work and life in dance."

I admire Ernst Meisner most for his choreography. Embers which was danced by Thomas van Damme and Nancy Burer on 6 Feb 2015 is a real gem (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 6 Feb 2015). There is a video of the pas de deux in Amsterdam Central Station which is beautiful until someone announces a train departure over the tannoy or perhaps a late departure of an incoming service, leaves on the line, the wrong sort of snow or even a cow on the line in the closing seconds of the ballet just as they would at Waterloo. Ernst's Junior Company are dancing at the Linbury in June. Don't miss them!

Another must see event will be the talk by David Bintley, artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, who comes from Huddersfield.  I'm coming all the way from Huddersfield to see Mr Bintley too.  It was after all his company's Miracle in the Gorbals which was my favourite ballet in 2014 (see My Personal Ballet Highlights of 2014 28 Dec 2014) and it has some of my favourite dancers. He is speaking at the same venue on 11 May 2015 at 19:30.

There are also talks by Li-Cunxin on 2 Aug 2015 and Sir Peter Wright on 13 April 2015 at the same time and in the same place.

Two trips I would love to make if I lived in London are to Chelmsford Ballet's rehearsal of Pineapple Poll and Carnival of the Animals at CYGAMS HQ Recreation Ground, Meteor Way, Chelmsford CM1 2RL on 8 March 2015 between 10:15 and 12:30 and to Central School of Ballet at 10 Herbal Hill, Clerkenwell Road, EC1 on 19 May 2015, 13.45 for 14:00. Central is where Kenneth Tindall and Chris Marney trained as well as Paul Chantry and Sarah Kundi so it is very special for me.

But the best reason for supporting London Ballet Circle is the help that it gives young dancers and I can do no better than quote the treasurer:

"The Circle has made four visits to various ballet schools for both rehearsals and performances, and also the annual visit to the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School, a visit to the ROH workshop at Purfleet and one to Ballet Rambert. It has made donations to the schools for general purposes and has also provided scholarships for two students to attend The Yorkshire Ballet Summer School and one to attend the Ballet Cymru Summer School. The Circle also continues to award the De Valois and Broderick Prizes to students of The Royal Ballet School. This year was the first year the Sir Peter Wright Prize was awarded to a student at Elmhurst School.

The total of all the above mentioned was £6155.00, scholarships amounting to £2930.00 and donations, following members’ visits, to £3225.00 (English National Ballet School, Rambert, Central School of Ballet, Yorkshire Ballet Summer School, Ballet Cymru, Dance Teachers’ Benevolent Fund following the visit to the ROH workshop at Purfleet)."

The Circle's beneficiaries have included Xander Parish and his sister Demelza, two of Yorkshire's finest, so it is not just a London institution.

Chelmsford Ballet Company's Cast

Although you can see from the little map in the inset how far I live from Chelmsford I am very proud to be a non-dancing associate member of the Chelmsford Ballet Company. As I said in The Chelmsford Ballet  15 Dec 2013 this is one of the oldest companies in the United Kingdom.  It describes itself aptly as "an amateur company who set professional standards for all [its] work, involving professionals in [its] productions, courses, and other teaching and workshop opportunities." Last year I attended its opening of The Nutcracker  at the Civic Theatre in Chelmsford and I was delighted (see The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy 20 March 2014).

Between the 18 and 21 March 2015 the company will dance Pineapple Poll by John Cranko (one of my all time favourite choreographers) and Carnival of the Animals by Chris Marney (one of my favourite living choreographers whose work reminds me so much of Cranko's). In its newsletter  the company described Pineapple Poll as follows:

"Poll, a comedy ballet of sailors and their sweethearts, is full of fun – originally choreographed in 1951 by the celebrated John Cranko. Captain Belaye and the HMS Hot Cross Bun arrive in Portsmouth and the sailors head into town for the pretty girls and the local inn. Fun ensues as Poll and the girls, Jasper the pot-boy, sailors, Blanche, her Aunt and Captain Belaye plot to capture their hearts’ desire."

Everyone is familiar with the Dying Swan from Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals but Marney promises a new twist:

"Marney's Carnival of the Animals, a first for the company, is set in a 1930s theatre. The young stage hand falls for a dancer in the corps de ballet of a touring company: humour and romance ensue as he sets about joining the show to win her hand. This piece is accompanied by the beautiful music of Camille Saint Saëns, Poulenc and Strauss."

The company has cast Stephen Quidan and Jasmine Wallis in the principal roles.  According to the newsletter, Quildan graduated from the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and is now with Peter Schaufuss and is an associate with Ballet Black.He will dance Jasper in "Poll" and the starstruck stage hand in "Carnival." Wallis is a dancing member of the company and studying at Central which just happens to be where Chris Marney trained. She will be the dancer in Matney's production.

Last year every performance was sold out and they seem to be going very well this year. If you want to see the performance book your tickets on-line on the Civic Theatre's website.

Catching them young

The combination of colour, drama, movement and music often set to a familiar fairy story can capture a child's imagination. Once captured the experience can lead to a lifetime's pleasure unless soured by compulsory ballet lessons on a Saturday morning in a draughty church hall.

In contrast to other children's media, ballet sends out some positive messages. It is the one art form in which women have always enjoyed at least equality with men. Great for the self-confidence of girls who may not want to dance on stage but have ambitions in other fields: see how ballet works for kids from a rough neighbourhood in Nairobi in What can be achieved by a good teacher 3 March 2013. Ballet also sends messages for boys in that women are to be cherished and respected - not insulted, molested or ravished. How a ballerina stands en pointe or turns on pirouette contains useful lessons on mechanics and mathematics for both genders. Getting kids moving in a studio instead of slouching in front of the telly or a tablet with a milkshake and burger would save the NHS billions. Perhaps most importantly of all ballet - unlike Disney animations - is palpably real. Dancers may do wonderful things with their leaps and turns but they are still human beings - in many cases just a few years older than their audience.

So how to get a young child hooked on all this positivity? The great Spanish educationalist St Ignatius de Loyola is reputed to have said "Give me a child to the age of 7 and I will show you the man". The problem with ballets like The Nutcracker and Cinderella is that they last too long for the under sevens. The answer is to choreograph a ballet for that age group and that is something that English National Ballet has done spectacularly well with its My First Ballet series. Last year it was Coppelia which I reviewed on 14 April 2014 and this year it is Swan Lake. Vlad the Lad who will be four in December and is the nearest I have to a grandson said it was "awesome" which is a big word for a three year old. He enjoyed the show so much that he even sat through a performance in which his real less-than-fairy-more-like-hippo-godmother had the time of her life in Leeds.

But Vlad was even more impressed by Chris Marney's Dogs Don't Do Ballet for Ballet Black and he actually had the pleasure of meeting Mr Marney as well as Cassa Pancho. She is the nearest he will ever get to meeting a fairy godmother in that she made possible the wonders that took place before his very eyes. Bless you Chris and Cassa and all your wonderful dancers, particularly Madame Kanikova whose predicament with the French horn was of real concern to Vlad.

So what else can children of Vlad's age see? My beloved Northern is touring the nation with elves and the shoemaker building on its success with Three Little Pigs and The Ugly Duckling.  Birmingham Royal Ballet is presenting First Steps: a child's Coppelia to kids in Edinburgh and Manchester in the Spring. Just across the North Sea Ernst Meisner's The Little Big Chest for the Dutch National Ballet seems to have been a runaway success in Amsterdam - easier to reach and cheaper to stay in than London for many of us in the UK. For slightly older children there is the Royal Ballet's The Mad Hatter's Tea Party and maybe Chantry Dance's The Happy Prince.

If I have time I will arrange a resource page of children's ballet's with reviews and information about prices, times and venues.

Post Script

22 Nov 2014   After watching The Happy Prince in Halifax on Thursday I ran into Paul Chantry and Rae Piper in the Square Chapel bar. I told them that I had enjoyed the show and would have loved to have taken Vlad the Lad to see it at the Wells but their performance would take place way after his bedtime. They replied that they intend to take the show into children's theatre in the next few months so I should be able to take him to see it. I will blog the dates, times and venues of those performances just as soon as I hear about them.

Also I have some good news for Northern kids. Cassa Pancho tweeted that Ballet Black are coming back to Leeds shortly with Dogs Don't Do Ballet so I shall let you all know when they are coming.