Not quite blown away but still a good show - "Swan Lake" with Rodkin and Kolesnikova

Queen's View, Perthshire

Author Peter Hermans
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St Petersburg Ballet Theatre  Swan Lake 23 Aug 2018 19:30

Three years ago, my friend Gita and I zoomed down to London for the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's performance of La Bayadḕre at the Coliseum with Denis Rodkin and Irina Kolesnikova in the lead roles.  I was blown away as you can see from my review which I wrote exactly three years ago.  We returned yesterday full of excitement and anticipation to see the same two dancers in the lead roles in Swan Lake.   We had a great evening but it was not quite as good as the last tune we had seen them.

Technically, Rodkin danced faultlessly.  A powerful virtuoso he never fails to impress.  But he seemed a little bit subdued last night as though he was performing on autopilot.  Koleshnikova, one the other hand, rose in our estimation.  She was much more convincing as Odette-Odile than she had been as Nikiya. The dancer who almost stole the show for us was Sergei Fedorkov as the court jester.  Not only did he wow us with his fouettḗs and acrobatics.  He also raised a laugh and won our hearts with his passage across the stage with a single flower in his suit of a lady from the pas de trois.

By and large I prefer the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet's versions of the traditional Swan Lakes and David Dawson's for Scottish Ballet of the revisions to any of the Russian versions but there were bits that I liked very much indeed.   I have already mentioned Fedorkov's performance which won him Gita's accolade as man of the match.  She likes to think of ballet in sporting terms.  I enjoyed the corps - particularly the arrival of the black swans in the last act - the divertisseements (particularly the cygnets' in act 2 and the Hungarians in act 3 perhaps because I had a go at learning the choreography a few years ago) and the fidelity to the libretto and score.

Talking of the score we heard passages in acts 3 and 4 that we do not often hear in England.  The harp music is particularly lovely.   The production also had gorgeous sets and lighting.   I think I liked them even more than I liked John Macfarlane;s for Scarlett's version.  Particularly the backdrop in acts 2 and 4 which reminded me of the Queen's View of Loch Tummel and the castle in the first scene that resembled Schloss Neuschwanstein in Bavaria.

There was a much more diverse audience than I usually see for ballet in London which can only be for the good.  I guess there were more ballet newbies than usual.   Nobody followed me when I tried to clap Rodkin as he first appeared on stage though there was a ripple of applause for Koleshnikova and the clapping for Legnani's 32 fouettḗs started far too soon and ended far too early but hey ho.  Having said that, it was a very responsive audience and they are the best kind to be part of.

Skeaping's Giselle

Engish National Ballet Giselle Coliseum 22 Jan 2017

Giselle may have been premiered on 28 June 1841 but it is no museum piece. Feudal landowners may be a bit thin on the ground these days but there is no shortage of spoilt wealthy young (and not so young) men who behave just like Albrecht. Nor, sadly, is there a shortage of women who are hurt by them, just as much as Giselle. They may not stab themselves with swords but they suffer in other ways and sometimes their suffering can be fatal.  There is no need to reimagine Giselle.  Leave that to the audience. That's why we are there.

In contrast to Akram Khn's Giselle, Mary Skeaping's keeps Adam's score and what we believe to have been Corelli and Perrot's choreography as varied by Petipa and sets the ballet in the German countryside. I find that helpful for then I can concentrate on the interpretation.  There are lots of possibilities. As Lauretta Summerscales says in her video on how she interprets the iconic role:

"If I do it 50 times, I'm sure I'd still find in that 50th time something new."

If one ballerina who dances Giselle regularly can conjure up her character in 50 different ways, how many more interpretations must there be for those who watch different productions or even the same production with different casts?

Although I bought my ticket before I knew who was dancing, I was glad to see that my Giselle today was Elisa Badenes. I cannot recall ever seeing her before because she dances with the Stuttgart Ballet so I looked her up and found that she had advanced from corps de ballet to principal in a very short time. On the way to London, I tweeted:

A dancer who can leap from corps to principal of @StuttgartBallet between 2011 to 2013 must be a very rare talent indeed. In for a treat!

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) January 22, 2017

She did not disappoint me.  She is a beautiful dancer, graceful. and aetherial. Her arms appear as subtle and as soft as gossamer in the wind.

Her Albrecht was Cesar Corrales who was a thrill to watch. Charming and athletic I can see why Giselle begged clemency from Myrtha and danced with him to keep him alive.  In other productions, I feel Albrecht gets off lightly compared to Hilarion, but not this time.  His jumps were thrilling - especially some spectacular entrechats just before the bell struck 4 where his legs interweaved like shuttles.

Hilarion, danced by Fabian Reimair, projected possessiveness, meanness and jealousy as well as recklessness.  For once I felt he had what was coming to him as Myrtha's wilis tossed him off stage.

As for Myrtha, she was portrayed steely and icily but with authority by Alison McWhinney. This was the first time I had noticed her in a major role but I shall certainly look out for this impressive dancer in future. Her attendants, Zulma and Moyna, danced by Rino Kanehara and Adela Ramirez, were splendid too,

The English National Ballet Philharmonic under Alex Ingram played magnificently from the opening bars of the overture. Adam's score needs an orchestra like them. David Walker's sets and costumes were gorgeous. Alex Ingram's lighting - particularly the flashes at the start of act II - conjured menace convincingly.

Altogether, one of the best performances of Giselle I have ever seen - and I have watched quite a few over the decades.

English National Ballet's other Giselle

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While I acknowledge the merit of Akram Khan's Giselle I am very glad that English National Ballet has revived Mary Skeaping's. Skeaping was the preeminent dance historian of her day, particularly on the early and romantic eras of ballet. I remember her recreations of The Return of Springtime and The Loves of Mars and Venus for the Royal Ballet's former outreach company, Ballet for All. Skeaping's Giselle was, as Luke Jennings noted in his review A Giselle to cry for (The Guardian, 14 Jan 2007)  "the product of several years of research." It is regarded as a particularly pure and authentic production of the ballet.

Skeaping created her version in 1971 and the English National Ballet has re staged it several times since. This production has therefore already stood the test of time and I am confident that it will be re-staged many times over the next 45 years and beyond. One reason for my confidence is that it has a strong, dramatic story in which the tension builds up steadily and relentlessly with its own logic, albeit premised on the strange belief system on which the romantic literature of the early 19th century was based. Another is that it retains Adam's hauntingly beautiful score that have been translated into the most beautiful movements with exquisite designs by David Walker and lighting by David Mohr as Patrick Baldwin's photos on the company's website show. It is easy to understand the critical press acclaim quoted on the trailer.

Would Skeaping's Giselle (or Sir Peter Wright's,  Rachel Beaujean and Ricardo Bustamante's or Yuri Grigorovich's for that matter) have stagnated or become a museum piece had it not been "re-imagined" by a leading contemporary choreographer for our times? I don't think so. As the website of the Dutch National Ballet notes:

"Giselle has no sell-by date. It’s timeless, just like the Night Watch’."

 A few sentences earlier the same web page explained the reason for the ballet's timelessness:

"Giselle is one of the most romantic works of the classical repertoire, but also one of the most challenging when it comes to dancers’ dramatic and emotional empathy. Its lively, colourful first act with the moving mad scene, and the ensuing unearthly, pure ‘white’ act, are still danced all over the world today. It is not without reason that Giselle is known as the ‘Hamlet of dance’."

Now just as there have been many versions of Hamlet over the years, new versions of Giselle are to be encouraged, and where they have merit, welcomed. I mentioned Mats Ek's and Dance Theatre of Harlem's Creole Giselle in Akram Khan's Giselle 28 Sept 2016 but I do not think that any of those interesting re-imaginings will ever divert the stream.

Those like me who have seen Akram Khan's Giselle on tour and yearn for Skeaping's have to make our way to London to see it. I shall be watching it with a friend from my adult ballet class in Manchester. It will be performed at the Coliseum between the 11 and 22 Jan 2017 and tickets are available from the box office and online. I shall review it after the 22.

Ratmansky's Razzmatazz

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Australian Ballet, Cinderella, Coliseum, 23 July 2016, 14:00

I had heard a lot about Alexei Ratmansky but had not actually seen much of his work. I doubted that I had seen any of it at all until Janet McNulty reminded me that Lana Jones and Adam Bull had danced the final pas de deux from Ratmansky's Cinderella at the 45th anniversary gala at The Grand last year (see Sapphire 15 March 2015). In his review of the National Ballet of Canada's Romeo and Juliet at Sadler's Wells (Carrying a Torch for Pure Academic Ballet 22 April 2013 New Your Times) the well kniwn US critic Alistair Macaulay described him as "the most gifted choreographer specializing in classical ballet today."

Ratmansky has created works for the Mariinsky, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Australian Ballet, the Kiev Ballet and the State Ballet of Georgia but, so far as I can recall, not for any company in this country.  Perhaps we just can't afford him - particularly not in these horizon narrowing and increasingly austere and nasty post-Brexit days. In Working with the Master, one of the notes in the programme, Deborah Jones, mentions his arrival at the Australian Ballet's studios in a Ferrari (or was it a Lamborghini?). Certainly a fabulously expensive motor car obviously chosen to make an impression on the dancers and their management.

This show had everything: ocean liners, express trains, a Citroën Traction Avant prowling the poplar trees of Picardy, bushes that morph into metronomes and the most fabulous costumes with men in what appeared to be tutus representing the planets and the fairy godmother in a bowler hat. There were some breathtaking lifts as well as comic clowning by Cinderella's stepmother and sisters, the narcissistic dancing master (reminding me incongruously of Christopher Marney's dalmatian from Dogs Don't Do Ballet), her wino father and his cronies.  Our emotions were tossed everywhere from outrage as the stepmother and her daughters trashed the portrait of Cinderella's mother to elation as the godmother flashed her image everywhere in the kitchen and hoots after said stepmother and stepsisters made one faux pas after another.

Altogether this was a jolly good show. Perhaps not the best Cinderella.  I've yet to see anything that beats Darius James's for Ballet Cymru (see Ballet Cymru's Cinderella  15 June 2015) though Christopher Hampson (see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella 20 Dec 2015) and Christopher Wheeldon (see Wheeldon's Cindereella  13 July 2015) came close largely, I think, thanks to their leading ladies. Bethany Kingsley-Garner was beautiful in her role and Anna Tsygankova amazing in hers.

In praising those dancers, however, I take nothing away from yesterday's cast. Amber Scott sparkled in her dancing as much as her ballgown under the lights. Ty King-Wall was every inch a prince. Amy Harris was a beguiling stepmother. Last week we saw her as Odile (see The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake - Murphy won me over 17 July 2016). Why was that beautiful young woman cast in the villain's role two weeks running? Last week's Siegfried and Odette, Rudy Hawkes and Robyn Hendricks were planets this week. Ingrid Gow and Eloise Fryer, entertained us as the ridiculous dumpy and skinny sisters. I particularly liked their boxing poses. No messing about with those Sheilas. Jasmin Durham delighted us as the fairy godmother. Great character performances also from Steven Heathcote as Cinders's hapless father and Franco Leo as the prince's doddery retainer.

Everyone involved in this production deserves congratulations. Ratmansky, of course. I can quite see why Macaulay wrote what he did. Jerome Kaplan for his fabulous designs. Rachel Burke for her lighting. Wendell Harrington for the ingenious projections. Perhaps most of all Nicolette Fraillon for the gorgeous music that she delivered so well.  I learned a little bit of ballet etiquette yesterday. When the conductor is a lady it is the premier danseur noble and not the principal ballerina who leads her onto the stage to take her bow.

The Australians have now finished their short season in England. They brought their country's sunshine with them just when our poor, dear country needed it most. I shall miss them. Bon Voyage and come back soon.

Queensland Ballet's Bounty

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Two of the highlights of the year were listening to and actually meeting Li Cunxin, the artistic director of the Queensland Ballet at the London Ballet Circle on the 3 Aug 2015 (see Li Cunxin at the London Ballet Circle 5 Aug 2015) and then watching his company dance La Sylphide at the Coliseum the following Saturday (see A dream realized: the Queensland Ballet in London 12 Aug 2015). There are three reasons for that which I explained in Queensland Ballet's La Sylphide - Why it is so special 22 July 2015.

Because the Queensland Ballet is special I was delighted to learn of the A$1.2 million (£568,611.48 or US$ 862,680.00) funding increase that the company has been promised by the Queensland government and a A$5 million (£2.37 million or US$3.59 million) grant from the Ian Potter Foundation.

In a media statement dated 10 Dec 2015 Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, the Premier of Queensland, who is also Minister for the Arts in the state government said:

“My Government is investing an additional $1.2m annually from 2016 for Queensland Ballet to cement its profile in the Asia Pacific region, expand its home base and company of dancers and offer more performances, more collaborations, more international touring and exchanges."

 “Importantly the company will add eight additional dancers by 2020, allowing Queensland Ballet to align with other world-class companies of its size."

“This will give the company more choice in selecting its repertoire and give Queenslanders more opportunities to enjoy high quality ballet.”

The Premier also announced a 50 year extension of the company's lease to the Thomas Dixon Centre where the company is housed. The gift from the foundation will be used to re-design the company's space in the Centre.

Replying to the Premier and Lady Potter who represented the Foundation, Li Cunxin said:

“We have a bold vision for Queensland Ballet to truly connect meaningfully with our audiences and communities in Queensland, Australia, the Asia Pacific and beyond.”

The popular support that the company enjoys was evidenced by the number of Australians who had come to London to support their dancers. They doubled the numbers who normally attend a meeting of the London Ballet Circle and they occupied a whole block of seats in the stalls. It was good to see them and I hope they enjoyed their stay in our country. I also hope it will not  be long before we see the Queensland Ballet again in England.

Anna Tsygankova

Anna Tsygankova danced Cinderella on the last night of the Dutch National Ballet's season at the Coliseum and her performance was a triumph. It was the first time that I had seen her but I will make sure that it is not the last. I hope that the next occasion that I see her will be at the opening gala of the Amsterdam ballet season on the 8 Sept 2015.

Tsygankova talks about her role in Cinderella in the above video that the company has released recently on YouTube.  In it she describes her collaboration  with Christopher Wheeldon which was clearly a remarkable experience. She states how it helped her develop as a dancer.  The video also shows glimpses of her in Don Quixote, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake and other ballets.

The final shots show her at the piano in a building with magnificent views of Amsterdam. She explains how she was brought up in a musical family where her parents practised every single day. From the little I heard she is an accomplished pianist in her own right,

The Dutch National Ballet is one of the world's great ballet companies and it is on our doorstep. Amsterdam is easier to reach than London for many of us in the UK and a good deal less expensive once you get there. There will be quite a contingent from this country at the opening gala. Kenneth Leadbeater has proposed a British chapter of the Friends of the Dutch National Ballet along the lines of the American Friends of Covent Garden and the London Ballet Circle has promoted that idea in its latest newsletter. The Junior Company has enjoyed two successful seasons at The Linbury and I hope we will bring them back to the UK (perhaps to Leeds) notwithstanding the closure of the Linbury.  Tsygankova will be assured of an appreciative audience whenever she steps onto one of our stages.

Blown Away - St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's La Bayadere

Ekaterina Vazem, the first Bayadere

St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, The Coliseum, 23 Aug 2015

This afternoon I saw La Bayadère for the first time. Until then I had seen only the descent of the shades.  La Bayadère is not performed nearly as often as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker or The Sleeping Beauty in this country and I had assumed that there was a reason for that. But I was blown away by this ballet as I was when I saw my first Swan Lake. This ballet has drama, colourful divertissements and spectacular choreography in the last act. I would confidently argue that this is Petipa's best ballet and I long to see it again.

The ballet was performed by St Petersburg Ballet Theatre at the Coliseum. Nikiya was danced by Irina Kolesnikova, Solor by Denis Rodkin, Gamzatti by Natalia Matsak, the rajah by Dimitry Akillinin and the brahmin by Dimchik Saikeev. I had expected much from Rodkin having seen him  in several of the Bolshoi's HDTV transmissions from Moscow. He is even more impressive in real life. When he jumps he seems to hover. I expected less from the other dancers as I knew nothing about them but they were good too. Two other dancers also impressed me: Andrei Federkov who danced the bronze idol and Miho Naotsuko who danced one of the lead shades.

Act 2 of the ballet consists largely of divertissements.  I have already mentioned the idol's dance. I enjoyed them all particularly the drum dance.

There were glitches. The snake dropped out of Nikiya's bouquet several seconds before it was due to bight her. One of the shades faltered in the last act. The sacred fire in act 1 was less than convincing. But none of those slips spoiled my enjoyment of the show. The orchestra played well and the sets and costumes were sumptuous.

The audience loved the show.  I saw my first flower throw in decades. A chap a few rows in front of me in the stalls threw three or four bouquets of carnations at Kolesnikova and Rodkin several minutes before they received their official bouquets from the management.  Rodkin threw one of the bouquets deep into the auditorium. I don't know what the man who had bought the flowers must have thought of that gesture but I think it was an acknowledgement of the applause and as such a charming gesture.

I saw the ballet with Gita. She will post her impressions of this performance shortly. As she is of Indian as well as British heritage I shall be very interested in what she has to say.

Bend it like Cinders - My Take on Cinderella

I saw the evening performance of Cinderella by the Dutch National Ballet's at the Coliseum on 11 July 2015 and loved it. I am aware that not everyone did but I can't see why because for me it was magical.  The dancers were as light as chiffon ribbons. The sets and lighting were ingenious. The costumes were gorgeous. Anna Tsygankova was my idea of Cinderella and Matthew Golding was the perfect prince.

I have been shown some of the criticism of the Dutch production on BalletcoForum and I actually overheard a conversation in which someone boasted of having walked out of the theatre at the first interval because she had better things to do like watch television. What a waste if true! And what nonsense! As for the milder criticism on BalletcoForum I do not see how anyone could have been bored by stars like Golding or Tsygankova and I cannot understand comments that the performance was vulgar or that it was not like Ashton's.

I have not seen quite so many versions of Cinderella as Jane (see the first paragraph of her review of Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015) and in particular I have not seen Ashton's but I do not believe that all new versions of Cinderella have to be like Ashton's to be great.  If all new work in ballet were compared to the those in the past, where would innovation and creativity lie?  Where would be the opportunities for choreographers to explore classic themes with their dancers and add value to them?  I have seen Nixon's for Northern Ballet and Matthew Bourne's as well as Wheeldon's and I enjoyed all three.   All were different but all were good in their own way.  I have yet to see Ballet Cymru's version and I learned that Christopher Hampson is working one for Scottish Ballet at the panel discussion on 20 June 2015. I hope to see that too.

Perhaps the reason for my heresy is that I do not consider myself to be a "balletomane" though I do love ballet as I love all the performing arts. I think the word balletomane must have been coined by Arnold Haskell in his book Balletomania : the story of an obsession which was published in 1934. Now how can anyone take pride in an obsession? I would be worried if I believed that I was succumbing to any sort of mania,

The story of Cinderella has a special resonance for me as it does for many British Asians. We are, of course, brought up on the Western version of the story at primary school and on television like everybody else but we also have our own ancient equivalent of the story which is derived from Sanskrit verse. In our version Cinderella is called Shakuntala. Here is a summary that I found in Indian Cinderella - History for Kids. There are also too many Indian women and indeed women in this country of Indian and Pakistani heritage who are real Cinderellas in that they are brought up in the shadow of their brothers and after marriage their husbands and are thereby denied the opportunity in their own right. That is not to say that all arranged marriages are like that. Most develop into very beautiful relationships but I would hate to be married off in my early teens or told that that I could not have a say in choosing my marriage partner as was of the old tradition years ago. 

I digress into Indian culture because earlier in the day I attended the matinee of Bend It Like Beckham at the Phoenix Theatre. Now that is another type of Cinderella story if you care to think of it.

Triple Dutch

Last Saturday I attended the last performance of the Dutch National Ballet's Cool Britannia at the Stopera (the national opera house and concert hall of the Netherlands which also serves as Amsterdam's town hall) (see Going Dutch 29 July 2015). There are some beautiful shots of that magnificent building as well as glimpses of some of the performances on stage in the video of last year's opening gala.

There are still a few tickets left if you want to attend this year's gala on the 8 Sept 2015.  EasyJet are offering some really good deals from Southend to Amsterdam and if you want a cheap place to stay you could do worse than the Bastion in Amstel. This is the Dutch equivalent of Travelodge in that it offers clean and comfortable accommodation at a reasonable price. I paid 114 euros last week which included an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast.

The hotel  is not situated in the smartest neighbourhood of Amsterdam - local landmarks include a high security prison and a funeral museum - but it is very handy for the Stopera. Take line 51 on the underground (well actually it is more like Manchester's Metrolink than London's tube) from Overamsteal to Waterlooplein both of which are marked on the underground map. You can buy a 24 hour ticket for the buses, trams and metro but not the overground for 7.50 euros. The hotel is also handy for the airport.  Buy a ticket for RAI rather than Central Station which will save you a couple of euros, Then take the underground one stop to Overamstel.  It is actually a good deal less hassle and almost always cheaper to get to Schiphol than Heathrow from most parts of Britain. Prices of meals and accommodation  are more like Manchester than London once you get there.

We have two other treats in store before the gala. The Dutch are coming to the Coliseum with Wheeldon's Cinderella  next week. They have published the casts on their website. There are still a few tickets left for the show but they are selling like hot cakes.

Treat number three will be the visit of Ernst Meisner, artistic coordinator of the Junior Company to the London Ballet Circle on the 20 July. If you want some background on Meisner read Meet Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers 6 Dec 2014.

The best peanut butter comes from the Netherlands and in my humble opinion so too does some of the world's best ballet.

The Dutch National Ballet are coming to London

The Dutch National Ballet are coming to London from the 8 to 11 July 2015 and they are bringing Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella with them. This production was premiered in Amsterdam on December 2012 and won Wheeldon the Prix Benois de la Danse.

This will be the fourth time I will have seen this great company this year. I was lucky enough to attend the opening night of the Junior Company's tout in Amsterdam on the 6 Feb 2015. I look forward to welcoming them again to the Linbury on 6 June 2015. I shall be in Amsterdam again on 27 July for Cool Britannia. 

And there are so many tempting productions afterwards including Hans van Manen Live, Ernst Meisner's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and a new Giselle. 

Also, don't forget that Ernst Meisner is talking to the London Ballet Circle on 20 July,

Li Cunxin and Ernst Meisner at the London Ballet Circle

As I said in Looking Forward to 2015 - My Choices 29 Dec 2014, the visit of the Queensland Ballet to the Coliseum is likely to be one of the highlights of the coming year. They will dance La Sylphde for which I have already bought my ticket. The company has a remarkable artistic director in Li Cunxin who has excelled not just as a dancer but also as a stockbroker. At the AGM of the the London Ballet Circle last Saturday I learned that he will speak to the Circle on 3 Aug 2015 at The Dining Room, First Floor, Civil Service Club, 13-15 Gt Scotland Yard.

The Circle offers a number of prizes and scholarships to outstanding young dancers (see its Prizes, Scholarships and Donations page). At  the AGM we learned of a new one to the Dutch National Ballet. As I mentioned in Meet Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers 6 Dec 2014 Ernst Meisner, the artistic coordinator of the Junior Company will speak to the Circle this year though a date has to be fixed. The latest indication seems to be July.

The London Ballet Circle's home page asks:

"Would you like to meet the world's leading dancers, choreographers and artistic directors? Then why not join the London Ballet Circle and receive invitations to talks, visits and parties hosted by leading figures in dance?"

Well it's true. Last weekend I met one of my all time favourite ballerinas, the artistic director of the company whose mixed bill I saw no less than 4 times last year, my favourite living British choreographer and one of the outstanding young dancers who make my spirits soar. All this for £12 (£2.50 if under 25) and the thought of helping advance the careers of the next generation of dancers. Here's the link to the membership page.

Postscript 26 Jan 2015

According to Queensland Ballet's Facebook page, today is Li Cunxin's birthday. It happens to fall on Australia day which is the national day of his adopted country. I have just seen the DVD of "Mao's Last Dancer" which was enthralling. I shall now read the book. I look forward to seeing La Sylphide and meeting Li Cunxin in August. In the meantime I wish him a happy birthday and I wish him and all Australian nationals and residents a happy Australia day.

Post Postscript 27 Jan 2015

Yesterday it was Li Cunxin's birthday. Today it is Ernst Meisner's.

Here is what his company said on Facebook:

"Wij feliciteren Ernst Meisner met zijn verjaardag!
Ernst zal samen met Marco de nieuwe samenwerking tussen ISH en Het Nationale Ballet regisseren.
Hou je ogen open voor de updates van komende voorstelling "Narnia" waar deze 2 samen met een geweldige cast twee werelden samenbrengen op een manier die je nog niet hebt gezien!
Happy birthday Ernst!"

The only words of which I can be absolutely certain are the last three but I think the gist of the post is that they congratulate Ernst on his birthday and talk about his collaboration with Marco Gerris of ISH in Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, That will be performed at the beginning of May and it looks very promising.

Ernst has posted a nice response in English thanking everybody for putting a smile on his face.

I am looking forward to making his acquaintance at his talk to the London Ballet Circle if not before.

Cracking!

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English National Ballet The Nutcracker The Coliseum 11 Dec 2918, 19:30

One of the pleasures of Christmas growing up in Surrey in the nineteen sixties and early seventies was London Festival Ballet's Nutcracker at the Royal Festival Hall. It quickly became part of the London Christmas like the Regent Street illuminations and the Norwegian spruce in Trafalgar Square.  It would appear from Alistair Macaulay's Nutcracker Chronicles in the New York Times when he set out to see 20 versions across the USA in December 2010 that there is a similar tradition elsewhere though not everywhere for Tamara Rojo writes in the programme for English National Ballet's current production that the first time she saw the work was when she was asked to dance in it for Scottish Ballet. The tradition continues though London Festival Ballet has changed its name to English National Ballet and it is now at the Coliseum and not the Festival Hall.

English National's current version of The Nutcracker is by Wayne Eagling and he has made a few changes to Petipa's choreography and Hoffmann's story such as setting it by the Thames rather than somewhere in Mitteleuropa, casting Clara as a grown woman fusing her with The Sugar Plum Fairy and letting the mouse hang on (literally) into the second Act which I am not altogether sure that I like. Turning Clara into an adult in particular takes away some of the innocence and indeed charm of a ballet which for me and many others is about sweets, toy soldiers and rampaging rodents.

Despite those reservations, I thoroughly enjoyed The Nutcracker on the opening night of its Christmas season. It will be at the Coliseum until the 5 Jan 2014.  It is well worth seeing for Daria Klimentova and Vadim Muntagirov's brilliance, for Peter Farmer's designs, for the sparkling Spanish, Arabic and Russian dances and other divertissements in the second Act and the wonderful character artistry by Junor Souza as the Nutcracker and James Streeter as King Mouse. There are some cute touches like a rat in a kilt in Act 1 (which may become a regular feature in English versions if Scotland votes the wrong way in September), using a mousetrap as a catapult and the substitution of a balloon for a sleigh as a transport to the kingdom of sweets and the land of dreams.

In the last 12 months I have seen Northern Ballet's Nutcracker at The Grand in Leeds, Ballet West's in Pitlochry and now English National's at the Coliseum as well as live streaming of the Royal Ballet's version from Covent Garden last year. Nothing like as many as Mr. Macaulay saw in his marathon but still a fair number. Do I have a favourite? Oh please don't ask me that for it is like asking parents to choose between their children. I love them all. I am just so grateful to every dancer who has ever been on the stage for his or her vocation and for sticking at it through years of training and risking injury to bring unadulterated pleasure to millions like me.

Boston Ballet: "High as a flag on the Fourth of July!"

What better way to spend the 4 July than with Americans? Americans bring a zest to ballet. I first noticed it as a young graduate student when I saw New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. I saw it again when American Ballet Theatre brought Cynthia Gregory and Carla Fracci to Covent Garden as America's gift to the silver jubilee celebrations of 1977. Such zest almost exploded when the Dance Theatre of Harlem came over. There are magnificent companies in Russia, Denmark and, of course, our own country but none of them have excited me as much as those Americans.

On Thursday I experienced excitement again when I saw Boston Ballet at the Coliseum. They danced a quadruple bill:

• Balanchine's Serenade 
• Nijinsky's L'après-midi d'un faune
• Jorma Elo's Plan 2 B, and
• Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements.

Choreographed in 1934 Serenade was the first great American ballet and was tremendously influential in the USA (see Toni Bentley "The Ballet that changed Everything" 3 Sep 2010 Wall Street Journal)   Although it alludes to the great 19th century ballets with a Tchaikovsky score it is nevertheless very American with more than a touch of Hollywood about it.  There is no scenery or props to speak of.   Just the corps de ballet in romantic tutus bathed in blue.  As the curtain rose there was a collective gasp and then spontaneous applause.  To understand why, take a butcher's at Cheryl Angear's photos in "Serenaded  by Boston Ballet" of 4 July 2013 in her excellent blog Ballet News.  I learned today that the planet Mercury has a crater called "Balanchine" because it generates blue rays reminiscent of the lighting and costumes of the ballet. 

On the 4 July the main roles were danced by Kathleen Breen Combes, Dusty Button,Seo Hye Han, Bo Busby and Nelson Madrigal. All danced well but I have to say that I was captivated by Breen Combes. It was the first time I had seen her and she was dazzling.  I was instantly reminded of Fracci when she danced at the Royal Opera House all those years ago.

So far as I know Serenade is not in the repertoire of any British company.That is a pity because it is a lovely ballet. The score is haunting and soaring and accompanies the other worldliness of the blue bathed stage perfectly. I saw the show with a student from my adult ballet class in Huddersfield who had taken class for years yet had somehow managed to reach adulthood without ever having seen ballet on the stage..  I was quite envious of her because I can think of no better introduction to ballet than Serenade.

Leon Bakst's stage setting for Faune

The next work was one that had hooked me onto ballet nearly 50 years ago: Nijinsky's L'après-midi d'un faune. I was drawn to the ballet by the richness of Leon Bakst's design rather than the choreography.   This ballet has been controversial ever since the day it was first performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes just over 100 years ago and it is controversial now. Cheryl Angear, who knows far more about ballet than I ever will, tweeted that it was one of her least favourite works.  It is an unconventional ballet but how can one not relish Bakst's designs, Debussy's score and Nijinsky's choreography.  Anyway the audience on Thursday seemed to love it as much as I did.  John Lam danced the Faun drawing cheers as he entered the stage with a deer like step almost becoming the creature. Ashley Ellis danced the Nymph exquisitely. 

Elo's Plan to B was the only work which we saw on Thursday that had been choreographed specifically for the Boston Ballet and its only recent work. It was first performed in Boston on the 25 March 2011.  No doubt because it is the company's very own work it was danced with particular exuberance.   The score was by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern which I had not heard before. The dancers were Button, Sylvia Deaton, Isaac Akiba, Jeffrey Cirio, Paul Craid and Bradley Schlagheck. They too drew thunderous applause.

The last work was another Balanchine but from the other end of his career nearly 40 years after Serenade,   It was first performed on 18 June 1972 to a score by Stravinsky who had died just one year earlier.   This was the work that showed what this remarkable company could do and just about everybody who had come to London was on the stage. The dancers who impressed me most were Lia Cirio and her brother Jeffrey (see Lia's YouTube interview). There were also strong performances by Misa Kuranaga, Rie Ichikawa, Lasha Khovashvili and Schlagcheck.

This is the company's first visit to London since 1981 and it was a very short season. I sincerely hope they do not leave it another 30 years and that they stay longer when they return. I hate to admit it as a proud  northerner but there is something special about a London audience. I used to go to Covent Garden, the Coliseum and Festival Hall a lot when I was at law school and starting my career because those theatres rub shoulders with legal London. I got to know the regulars and, indeed, probably became one of them. Muriel from Muswell Hill and Ida from Ilford had seen everyone from Ninette de Valois to Rudolf Nureyev and analysed their performances in the minutest detail. When a London audience reacts as they did on Thursday you know you have seen something special.

More on Boston Ballet
Shelby Elsbree "Touring with Boston Ballet" 4 July 2013 The Ballet Bag
Cheryl Angear "Serenaded by Boston Ballet" 4 July 2913 Ballet news
Boston Ballet "In the Press"  Company website
Boston Ballet Facebook page