Modern Films Coppelia BBC 2 18:15 27 Dec 2022 and iPlayer
On the evening of 27 Dec 2022, the BBC broadcast Modern Films' Coppeliain the UK. Readers who missed the transmission can still catch it on the iPlayer. It was choreographed by Ted Brandsen and has much in common with his production for the Dutch National Ballet which I reviewed in Brandsen's Coppelia on 12 Dec 2016. The main differences are that the score is by Maurizio Malagnini and not by Leo Delibes and it is very much shorter. Most of the dancers are or were in the Dutch National Ballet and some of the designs seem to be the same.
DePrince introduced me to the rest of the Junior Company which included some outstanding dancers. Through them, I got to know the rest of the company which has given me enormous pleasure over the last 10 years. Some of its members have become dear friends and acquaintances and I have made many more friendships among its regular ballet-goers. I am therefore grateful to her not only for her performances but also for the introduction to the company and its fans.
DePrince is now in Boston which is a lot further away. Modern Films' production was one last chance to see her with members of the Dutch National Ballet. She danced Swan, the lead role in the film. Traditionally the heroine is called Swanhilde though, in Brandsen's stage production, she is known as Swantje. Daniel Camargo who has also crossed the Atlantic but was formerly a principal of the Dutch National Ballet danced Franz. Dr Coppelius was danced by Vito Mazzeo. Swan's friends were Nancy Burer, JingJing Mao and Sasha Nukhamedov, Franz's were Timothy van Poucke, Sam Sjouke and Edo Wijnen and Igone de Jongh was the ballet teacher. Darcey Bussell, one of the few cast members not to be in HNB danced the mayor. Floor Eimers, Giovanni Princop and Rachel Beaujean were also in the film.
I enjoyed it more than Scottish Ballet's Coppelia but not as much as English National or Birmingham Royal Ballet's or indeed Ted Brandsen's stage version. I think that is because all those companies retain Delibers's score which contributes so much to the ballet. It was lovely to see DePrince again as well as other members of HNB. I am not sure that I would have liked it as much had the cast come from any other company.
Scottish Ballet CoppeliaTheatre Royal, Glasgow 25 May 2022 19:30
Scottish Ballet has specialized in reinterpreting the classical repertoire ever since Peter Darrell's Beauty and the Beast. Sometimes it has been spectacularly successful, as with David Dawson's Swan Lakeor Matthew Bourne's Highland Fling. Others such as Krzysztof Pastor's Romeo and Juliet less so. Despite excellent performances by Rishan Benjamin as Swanhilda and Thomas Edwards as Dr Coppelius which saved my evening, I regret to say that Morgann Runacre-Temple and Jessica Wright'sCoppelia did not work for me.
Coppelia is not a story that needs to be reworked. It is basically Pygmalion which has fascinated human beings since classical times. Ted Brandsen has set it in modern dress but kept the story intact in his Coppelia. As my readerswill gather from the synopsis, Runacre-Temple and Wright have transplanted Dr Coppelius to Silicon Valley. Instead of an eccentric old codger with a workshop full of automatons, Coppelisu is the founder and CEO of the sinister startup NuLife.
The conventional Coppeliawould not have retained its popularity for more than 150 years had it focused on Dr Coppelis's experiments. Audiences like the lovely mazurkas of the first act, the humour of the village girls' overtures to Dr Coppelius's doll. Swanhilda's increasing exasperation with Franz as he flirts with the doll, the mugging where Dr Coppelius loses his house keys, the break-in by Swanhilda and her girlfriends to the workshop, the girls' nervousness, the cacophony when Swnhilda sets off the toys as she makes her escape, the charming dance of the hours of the last act and of course a delightful pas de deux at the end.
There is none of that in Runacre-Temple and Wright's work. It was essentially about Coppelius and his interview with pant-suited investigative journalist Swanhilda, A voice-over asks Coppelius how he deals with his critics. "Do I have any?" asked another voice which made me smile as I was already thinking about this review. There were lots of lights and screen images, a percussive score with the occasional echo of Delibes and snatches of dialogue such as "This table does not exist." Everything was packed into a single 80-minute act. Altogether. I found it heavy going.
Now I have to say out of fairness that most of the audience seemed to love the show. There was a standing ovation which was the first I have ever seen in Scotland. But it was not a simultaneous rising as I had seen in Leeds the previous week but a phased one like the opening night of Akram Khan's Giselle or at the Lowry after Sir Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet. In a phased standing ovation unlike a spontaneous one, audience members rise to their feet because others have done so and they feel they should or maybe they just want to see the stage at the curtain call,
Now I want to end my review on a positive note because I have followed Scottish Ballet ever since they were in Bristol and I love them to bits. This was the first time I had seen them live since lockdown and I had been looking forward to the show for weeks. For me, the evening was saved by Benjamin and Edwards. Particularly Benjamin. This was the first time I had noticed her. She is still listed simply as an "artist". I am not sure when she joined the company but I think her future is bright. She reminds me a lot of Michaela DePrince. She commands the stage in much the same way.
There were good performances from Evan Loudon who danced Franz and Amy McEntee, Xolisweh Richards. Roseanna Leney, Noa Barry, Urara Takata, Grace Horler, Melissa Parsons, Aisling Brangan, Hannah Cubitt, Nicholas Vavrecka,, Rimbaud Patron, James Garrington, Harvey Evans, Andrea Azzari., Ben Thomas, Ishan Mahabir-Stokes. Joel Wright and Jamie Reid as lab technicians. Franz was not quite the same role as in the conventional Coppelia. Reed was also the cameraman.
As I said above I don't think it is necessary to update Coppelia because the challenge of artificial intelligence has existed since 1870 if not from the ancient Greeks. However, if Scottish Ballet wants to modernize that gorgeous work it need look no further than one of its own board members.
Author Jean Raoux Pygmalion in Love with his Statue
A show to which I am particularly looking forward is Jess and Morgs's Coppeliafor Scottish Ballet. It will be premiered at next year's Edinburgh International Festival and then go on tour. It is described as a "deliciously dark comedy of mischief and mistaken identity, reinvented for the digital age." It addresses the question: "What happens when you fall in love with a machine? How can we compete with the perfection of the unreal?"
The idea of a human being falling in love with an artefact is not a new one. I remember translating the story of Pygmalion from Ovid's Metamorphoses as an unseen when I was at secondary school. The reason why that story is relevant now is that it is possible to create a robot with some human and animnal characteristics. In Japan, robots that respond to touch, sound and light are already being used in nursing homes (see Don Lee Desperate for workers, aging Japan turns to robots for healthcare25 July 2019 LA Times).
In Saint-Léon's ballet, Franz's infatuation for a doll that sits on a balcony all day holding a book upside down is secondary. The love story is between Franz and Swanhilda although one wonders just how long that marriage will last if Franz is already eyeing other women, breaking into Coppelius's workshop and accepting a drink from the old boy he has just burgled and whom he had previously roughed up on his way to the pub. What will he be like when he is in his forties and Swanhikda's left at home to look after the kids?
Jess and Morgs's production should be different. It promises to "test the boundaries of dance, theatre and film in this distinctive new adaptation of the classic ballet, blending location and real-time filming with projection and live performance." Jess and Morgs have already produced The Secret Theatre which I reviewed in Scottish Ballet's Secret Theatre on 22 Dec 2020. They have also created Cinderella Games for English National Ballet based on the ballet that Christopher Wheeldon created for the Dutch National Ballet and English National Ballet. They discuss their work for ENB on Chat with the Creatives: Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple | English National Ballet14 July 2020.
It is interesting that Jess and Morgs describe themselves as film makers and choreographers. The pandemic has brought a lot of suffering but there have been a few compensations. One of those is the development of dance film as an art form in its own right. It is to be hoped that that development continues when the emergency is over.
Standard YouTube Licence Royal Ballet CoppeliaRoyal Opera House and Cinemas 10 Dec 2019 19:30
For me, this conversation between Merle Park, Darcey Bussell and Marianela Nuñez was the high point of Tuesday's live screening of Coppelia. Park was at the height of her career when I first took an interest in ballet. I saw her many times in many toles and admired her greatly. It was good to see her again after many years and even better to see her name on a cast sheet again as one of the principal coaches.
There were other interesting discussions during on Tuesday night. The conductor, Barry Wordsworth, spoke about the score. The wardrobe mistress explained how technology had transformed costume preparation and maintenance over the years. At one time the flower on a bodice had to be painted by hand. Nowadays it can be printed out by computer. Members of the corps spoke about rehearsals and how their ballet master coaxed our their best Those conversations are the one big advantage of live streaming, Even though Bussell said on Tuesday (as has been said before) that the cinema audience have the best seats in the house it is not really true. Ballet is three-dimensional and screens can only accommodate two and there can be no two-way communication between artists and audience as there is in theatre. The insights that can be gleaned from conversations and interviews.
Nuñez danced Swanilda on Tuesday and I think that is a role that suits her well. I had long admired her virtuosity in roles like Kitri but I had never seen her bring a character to life in the way she did in that performance. Coquettish and playful but also with a heart. Her facial expressions when the Burgermeister tried to reconcile her and Franz after she had caught him flirting with the robot in the window of Dr Coppelius's workshop.
The principal male role in Coppelia is not really Franz who saves his entrechats and tours en l'air to the very end but the inventor, Dr Coppelius. A lot of people think he is too much over the top but having run inventors clubs and pro bono patent clinics in the North of England for nearly 20 years I can testify that folk like Dr Coppelius really do exist. Gary Avis, a brilliant character dancer, represented him perfectly.
I have to say that I am not really sure about the morality of this ballet. It seems to celebrate elder abuse. It surely can't be right for the local toughs to rough up the old body on his way to the pub. Or for ladettes to break into his laboratory and set off his robots as they make their escape. Or indeed for Franz to climb into his premises through the window. Or, worst of all, Swanilda tearing pages out of his lab books. Never mind! The old chap is compensated at the end, albeit by the local aristocrat and not by Swanilda. And he is generous enough to raise a glass to Franz and Swanilda at their wedding,
Although Arthur Saint-Léon who created the ballet in 1870 may not have envisaged it, the interaction of humans with humanoid robots is very much a topic for our times. At two recent conferences, one on copyright last week and the other on life sciences the week before, there were no less than five presentations on artificial intelligence and whether a machine can invent things for which patents can granted or create works of art in which copyright subsists.
Returning to the ballet, Vadim Muntagirov danced Franz with his usual flair and grace. In the first act, I enjoyed Mayara Magri's peasant dance. In the dance of the hours, Claire Calvert was a delightful Aurora and Annette Buvoli an angelic Prayer. I must also congratulate Mica Bradbury, Isabella Gasparini, Hannah Grennell,Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Romany Pajdak and Leticia Stock who danced Swanilda's friends. They are on stage almost as long as Swanilda herself and their dancing is barely less demanding. At one point in the first act, they have to follow each movement of Swanilda exactly. In the transmission, Nuñez traced the start of her career in Coppelia to her first performance as one of Swanilda's friends and it is obvious why.
This was one of the Royal Opera House's better live streamings. In this show, the programme maker made much better use of Darcey Bussell. The Royal Opera transmissions are still not quite as good as the Bolshoi's and they won't be until they engage a presenter as knowledgeable and personable as Ekaterina Novikova. But it was still a good show.
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Northern Ballet is promoting its revival of David Nixon's ballet The Three Musketeerswith thius animated film. It is still early days but I think it is a great idea.
The Dutch National Ballet has been doing that sort of things for years. Here is its animation of Giselle
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La Bayadère
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and Ted Brandsen's Coppelia:
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Other companies do it well too. Here's the Canadian National Ballet's Onegin.
Though not strictly an animation I rather like this office parody by Houston Ballet:
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Dangerous things snakes. Especially if you are a pigeon.
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I had a splendid day at the Dancehouse yesterday dancing in Jane Tucker'sCoppelia Intensive with my classmates from KNT and Northern Ballet Academy plus two new friends from Birmingham and Harrogate with whom I have much in common. As readers of this blog know, I have attended Jane's intensives on Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère and The Nutcracker and have enjoyed them all but this was by far the best.
There were several reasons for that. The first is that I know Coppelia very well and love the story. Unlike most other 19th century libretti, this story is years ahead of its time. It addresses issues of artificial intelligence and robotics which are now very much in the news with Elon Musk's call to ban killer robots (see Elon Musk leads 116 experts calling for outright ban of killer robots20 Aug 2017 The Guardian). Secondly, I have seen some lovely productions of the ballet in the last few months at all levels from Manchester City Ballet's in The Dancehouse last December to Ted Brandsen's triumph in Amsterdam. Thirdly, I was dancing with people I know and like under the guidance of one of my favourite teachers. I felt just so lucky and privileged. Small wonder I wore the widest of wide grins for most of the day.
Jane's classes are never easy and the second day of the intensives are particularly hard because that is the day for consolidation and learning. It began with floor exercises on our towels and Pilates mats. We followed with a full 90-minute class which is very similar to the ones we do in Leeds. I think everyone in Northern Ballet Academy and a lot of the regulars at the Dancehouse is used to Jane's warm up, particularly the abrupt turn on a sixpence half way through the run but she still manages to catch the odd punter out. It was a fun class with a brisk barre, lovely adagio, lots of chaînés and even some temps levés at the end,
After a 15 minute break which I regret to say I spent on the blower when I should have been stretching or at least relaxing we were into our first bit of repertoire. That turned out to be Zwaantje's (or in most productions Swanhilde) dance after she and her ladette pals break into Dr Coppelius's den, discover that Coppelia is nothing more than a robot and Zwaantje swaps clothes with the android. As Jane had taught the dance to the others the day before she offered to coach me. However, on the first run through I found that I could keep up. Images of Celine Gittens and Anna Ol flooded back.
The next dance, Frans's (or Franz's) solo was much more difficult for me as it requires two tours en l'air from a standing start, a fouetté and more than a few grands jetés en tournant. I had a go at one or two of these but they quite zonked me out and I had to sit out the last exercise. Happily, we had two Franses - David and Sam from KNT - and they both did very well. At least in my eyes.
Finally, we rehearsed the village scene from Act I. Jane had also taught that dance to others the day before. Again I was more or less able to pick it up though I made tons of mistakes. From time to time I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror and I was grinning like the Cheshire cat. I have had a lot on my plate lately and this day off for ballet was just so liberating.
The class continues today. I wish I could have joined it. It will end with a show before Karen which I am sure she will applaud heartily. Jane Tucker runs these courses during the Autumn half term, Easter vacation and the summer. If you have never attended them, do yourselves a favour and sign up. It wasn't just I who had had a whale of a time yesterday.
Birmingham Royal Ballet. Coppelia, Hippodrome, 16 June 2017, 19:30 When I last reviewed a performance by the Birmingham Royal Ballet of Sir Peter Wright's Coppelia, I described it as "sensational" (see Sensational 6 March 2015). Having seen the ballet again on the company's home turf the only way I can describe the performance is "even more sensational." Maybe that should not be surprising for who better to perform one of Sir Peter's greatest productions than Sir Peter's company.
I made up my mind to attend the ballet last night at the very last moment after a pig of a journey home. I had driven to London the night before to take delivery of a massive set of instructions that could not be carried on the train. While down there, I attended a chambers' garden party that continued until after midnight and two conferences, one of which began with a volley of emails between 05:00 and 06:00 and a phone call shortly before 07:00. I left Plumstead where I had parked my car and cleared the river after an epochal wait for the Woolwich ferry. There was heavy traffic on the North Circ and the M11. Congestion outside Cambridge on the A14. As the A14 leads eventually to the M6 the idea of breaking my journey in Birmingham occurred to me. I called the Hippodrome on the off-chance that they might still have space and was told that they had one isolated seat in the centre of the rear stalls. I grabbed it. After battling with more traffic all the way into Birmingham, I rolled up at the theatre hot, bothered and exhausted with 15 minutes to spare.
Dropping by the Hippodrome was one of the best calls I have ever made. The performance was magic. It was just what I needed. I had not had time to study the cast list but I knew we were in for a treat when I glimpsed the unmistakeable hair of Koen Kessels. He had conducted the orchestra of the Dutch National Ballet in Ted Brandsen's Coppelia last December. Nobody seems to understand Delibes's score better than Maestro Kessels. The curtain rose to Peter Farmer's village somewhere in Mitteleuropa. Nao Sakuma appeared. I started to clap but nobody followed. Nor did anyone clap Joseph Caley when he entered the stage. Clearly, the balletic tradition of welcoming the male and female leads with a brief burst of applause that happens in almost every other theatre in the world is not followed in Birmingham. That is surprising because all of Birmingham Royal Ballet's principals are good.
Sakuma was a gorgeous Swanilda. I loved the way she threw her book at Caley after catching him making eyes at the humanoid on the balcony across the square. "Sukkel" hissed Swanilde in Het's animation. How she gave him the hardest of hard times when the ear of wheat did not appear to rattle. How she led her pals into Dr Coppelius's workshop while he was in the pub recovering from his mugging. How she dared the faintest of faint hearts to approach Coppelia. How she coaxed the deluded doctor into believing his spell had worked as she sought to rescue her dopey (even at the best of times) boyfriend. And above all, I loved the final pas de deux in "Peace"which ends the ballet on a high. Whenever I see Coppelia I always wonder how long that marriage will last. Surely, such a brave, resourceful, spirited girl could surely have done so much better.
Of course, she falls for Franz because he is a hunk. The handsomest lad in a very small village in the middle of nowhere. Girls find him attractive and doesn't he just know it. After blowing kisses at a robot, he flirts with the leader of the czardas. Caley, whom I am sure is nothing like Franz in real life, fills the role perfectly. Even after nearly losing Swanilda he is silly enough to break into Coppelius's workshop. Good job there was no copper around (see R v Collins[1972] 2 All ER 1105, [1973] 3 WLR 243, [1972] EWCA Crim 1, 136 JP 605, 56 Cr App Rep 554, [1973] QB 100, a case that has entertained every law student in England for nearly 50 years). The silly twit deserved everything that happened to him. But Franz can dance. And how he can dance. All those great tours en l'air and entrechats and the final lift that left Swanilda dangling across his back in a curious sort of fish dive.
Dr Coppelius is a juicy character role and it was performed exquisitely by Michael O'Hare last night. Scorned as slightly screwy by the Burgermeister (Jonathan Payn) and the villagers when loud bangs and smoke erupt from his laboratory, he is surely more sinned against than sinning. Does he really deserve to be roughed up by the louts or have his home ransacked by girls on a hen night? I can quite see why he sought compensation from Swanilda's dowry.
We had a stellar cast last night. Many of my favourite dancers came on stage: Delia Mathews as Prayer and also one of Swanilda's friends along with Arancha Baselga, Karla Doorbar, Reina Fuchigami, Alys Shee and Yaoqian Shang; Rory Mackay as the publican and Old Father Time; Ruth Brill with Lewis Turner in Betrothal and earlier in the mazurka and czardas; William Bracewell in the call to arms with yet another favourite Brandon Lawrence from Bradford. Everyone in the cast was good and I congratulate them all whether I have mentioned them or not.
There was loud applause at the reverence but, sadly, no flowers. In another auditorium and perhaps at a different time the stage would have been ankle deep in cut flowers throw after a show like that. A massive bouquet of my county's reddest roses, then, to Sakuma. Flowers, too, for each and every lady soloist. Indeed, each and every lady who appeared on stage. And a resounding cheer for each and every one of the men who partnered them so gallantly. "You are so lucky to have this company in your city," I said to a lady who was at the ballet for the first time. "The Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the great companies of the world." How I wish it could have made its home in Manchester instead.
Sarah Lambert (no relation as far as I am aware but one never knows) has drawn my attention to a very generous offer by the Birmingham Royal Ballet to Birmingham's LGBT community. She writes:
"For a while now I've been working informally with BRB on extending participation in ballet and to this end they work with various community groups. The latest initiative is an amazing offer to the LGBTQI community. They are putting on a taster workshop in one of their wonderful studios and led by one of their Principal dancers. Anyone attending will also get a free ticket to a matinee theatre performance of Coppelia on the same day immediately after the workshop. SO far we have twelve people signed up, but we can go up to 20."
Particulars of the offer have been posted on Birmingham LGBT's website by Ros Gammie who is the charity's administrator and sports activator who will allegedly answer correspondence in Latin and Runes as well as English.
The taster and matinee take place on 15 June 2017 and the timetable is as follows:
10 am, arrival at Birmingham Royal Ballet Reception (next to Hippodrome Stage Door), Thorp Street B5 4AU
10.30 am, 90-minute Ballet taster session
12.30 pm, tour of Birmingham Royal Ballet building
1 pm, hour lunch break
2 pm, performance of Coppélia at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Sarah adds that she worked with both Ros Gamey of the Birmingham LGBT Centre and Kasia Krause of Birmingham Royal Ballet to make this happen. She posted the following announcement on a Facebook ballet group:
"We can now take up to 20 people for the workshop and free ticket to Coppelia, so if you haven't signed up, you still have a chance. The class will be led by one of BRB's principal dancers, so how cool is that? The chance to dance in one of Birmingham Royal Ballet's wonderful studios in a class led by one of their principal dancers... And then seeing a performance of Coppelia, all for free. It doesn't get any better than that!
If you're unsure because you're a total beginner and you're nervous, remember this is a totally safe space for all trans and LGBQI people, and how often can you say that of a beginner ballet class? Also I will be there, and believe me, there's no-one more of a novice than I am!"
I think Sarah may be a bit modest there. I have never met her but we are connected on Facebook and she tells me that she attends classes at Elmhurst and the DanceXchange in Birmingham which sounds pretty high powered to me.
Sarah has also offered the following invitation to her friends in the Facebook Group who are members of the LGBT community in Birmingham:
"We could all meet up in Izzi and Jess's board gaming cafe in the LGBT Centre for tea and cake; it's going to be amazing! http://cakesandladderscafe.co.uk/"
I saw Birmingham Royal Ballet's Coppelia when it visited the Lowry in 2015 with Tyrone Singleton and Celine Gittens in the lead roles. Their performance was sensational, hence the title of my review of 6 March 2016. I hope to see the ballet again on Saturday, 17 June 2017.
I congratulate both the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Birmingham LGBT on this initiative. I hope that the visitors to the company will enjoy their visit, perhaps consider adult ballet or other dance classes and support the company with donations and patronage. I hope that the company will continue to reach out to all communities of the third city of this nation.
YouTube Standard Licence The Australian Ballet, Coppelia, 12 Dec 2016, Sydney Opera House
Yesterday, I sacrificed my Wednesday evening ballet class at Northern Ballet Academy to see a performance of Coppeliaby the Australian Ballet that had been recorded at the Sydney Opera House on 12 Dec 2016. Because of the time difference between Sydney and Leeds I did not expect it to be a live performance. We or the Australian performers and audience would have to get up at some unearthly hour for that to be possible and what would be the point as it would still be images on a screen rather than the interaction between artist and audience which make live performances so precious. Nevertheless, I did expect it to be more like an encore screening of a live performance by say Pathé Live or the Royal Opera House rather than just another ballet film.
The film was distributed by CinemaLive which describes itself on its About Us page as "leading producers and distributors of Event Cinema, reaching thousands of screens worldwide, allowing fans to see world-class music, theatre, opera, arts and other special live events at their local cinema." The company was founded in 2008 and holds a number of industry records including the highest grossing music event at the British and Irish box office which happened to be André Rieu: Christmas with André. Although CinemaLive resisted the temptation to flood the screen with gushing twitter messages and irritating presenters that mar other some of their competitors' transmissions they still have a lot to learn about filming ballet.
The screening started with an aerial view of Sydney with the camera zooming into the Opera House followed by a greeting from Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo who danced Swanilda and Franz in the performance. After a few words from each of them, they turned and walked towards the theatre arm in arm at one point. We saw them again in the interval when the artistic director, David McAllister and others spoke about the importance of Coppelia in the history of the company. McAllister explained that the ballet was the last work that the late Peggy van Praagh had created for the company. One of those who had helped to stage the ballet in 1979 spoke of the applause on the first night with the observation that "they seemed to like it."
Not everyone likes the story of Coppelia but I do, possibly because it is an early essay on the social consequences of robotics and artificial intelligence. Birmingham Royal Ballet has a great Coppelia (see Sensational6 March 2015) which I am glad to see that it is re-staging at Birmingham and Bristol in June and July (see the company's website). So, too, does English National Ballet (see Coppelia in Oxford2 Nov 2014). But I think my favourite is Ted Brandsen's where Zwaantje (Swanilde) works in a juice bar, Franz in a gym, Dr Coppelius runs a chain of beauty clinics and Coppelia has to do more than read a book and make a few jerky movements (see Brandsen's Coppelia12 Dec 2016). Van Praagh's Coppelia is of the traditional kind set in Galicia with lots of peasant dancing and a pageant staged for the presentation of a new bell. One interesting feature that I noticed in van Praagh's version was that Dr Coppelius possessed some kind of hypnotic power that reduced Franz to his knees in act I. All the rest of the story was there including the listening to the ear of corn for a rattle. The only bit that does not appear in the Australian story is the burgomaster's compensating Dr Coppelius for the wrecking of his laboratory and his invitation to the wedding reception.
Kondo and Guo danced well in the performance, particularly the pas de deux in the last act. I do not recall seeing them in either Cinderella or Swan Lake when the Australian Ballet visited London last year (see Ratmansky's Razzamatazz 24 July 2016 and The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake - Murphy won me over17 July 2016). The absence of a cast list with more than three names on it (one of the many things CinemaLive has to learn) means that I cannot be sure whom I saw in the recording but I think I recognized Robyn Hendricks who had danced Odette in Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake in Prayer. The Australian Ballet is a magnificent company with an abundance of talent that shone through despite everything yesterday evening.
I have a very soft spot for Australia having spent three glorious holidays there during which time I attended an opera at the Sydney Opera House and a concert at the Melbourne Arts Centre. There is a great appetite for the arts in Australia and an almost evangelical zeal to bring them to every Bruce and Sheila in the outback as well as the great opera houses of the world. Some of my best teachers have been trained in Australia and an attribute that they have in common is an exceptional eye for detail. There are fine companies in Brisbane and Perth as well as the Australian Ballet. My colleague Amelia Sierevogel is about to start a work placement with the Australian Ballet and the Australian Opera as part of her degree course in costume design at Huddersfield. She has promised us reviews and articles on her adventures on the other side of the world.
Ripon Dance Academy Dance! Dance! Dance! Ripon Grammar School, 2 April 2017, 18:30
Today's New York Times features a charming 360 degree video of children in New York auditioning for the School of American Ballet. Almost every one of those children will have been taught pliés and tendus at a local dance school. We saw Sergei Polunin's first teacher in Danceron 3 March 2017. Local dance schools are very important and deserve to be supported by those who value dance. That is one of the reasons why I drove half way across Yorkshire to see the annual show of the Ripon Dance Academy in the assembly hall of Ripon Grammar School last Sunday.
The performance took place in the assembly hall of Ripon Grammar School whose old boys include Richard Hammond and Bruce Oldfield. Not perhaps the best venue because it was pretty full by the time I arrived a good 20 minutes before the curtain rose and as all the seats were on the same level it was impossible to see the dancers' feet. I took an aisle seat about 2 two-thirds of the way back from the stage which enabled me to see the dancers on the periphery of the stage who tended to be the younger or least experienced ones but not those taking the leading roles who took centre stage.
The show was organized in three parts called "acts" and between each act there was an interval that allowed the audience to stretch to stretch one's legs. The show was compered by a gentleman whose name I have been unable to find in the programme. He had mentioned something about refreshments in the intervals which had apparently earned him the displeasure of his wife for none were on offer. I don't think anyone minded for it was a fine evening and it was relief enough to stand and walk around the auditorium, foyer and forecourt.
Act 1 started with a modern jazz routine called One Short Day. It was followed by "What is this feeling?" from Wicked. The singers whom I believe to have been Amelia Noakes and Sofia Robinson had pleasant voices and good stage presence. Children in the preparatory and primary ballet classes danced the Ugly Duckling to Danny Kaye's vocals and Cinderella though not to Prokofiev. In this they were led by an adult whom I guess to have been one of their instructors. The choreography seemed to incorporate some of the exercises that they would have learned in class which they seemed to remember well. Next was a tap routine by the youngsters, Everything Old is New Again.
My favourite piece in the first act was Five Guys Named Moe who turned out to be four girls, Amelia Dodds, Matilda O'Brien, Shannon O'Brien and Gaby Simmonds and one guy, Elliot Hutchinson. All danced well but I was particularly impressed by Eliot who seemed to show real promise though he has got to learn to smile a bit. Indeed, all the dancers have got to smile. Only my colleague, Amelia Sierevogel, seemed to be enjoying herself but she is an undergraduate whereas most of the others were teenagers or young children.
The preparatory and primary tap dancers performed the Mickey Mouse March delightfully in their Minnie Mouse costumes. They earned some of the loudest applause of the evening. The show group rounded off the first act with extracts from Mary Poppins.
The whole of the second act was given over to extracts from Coppelia though a version that did not seem to have a Franz or Swanhilda. Eliot, however, danced Dr Coppelius, a role which required him to do so lifting as well as some awkward assemblés and chaînés. Four scenes were danced - the flower scene, the presentation of the doll, the girls' trespass in Coppelius's workshop while he is in the pub and a finale. Students of all levels performed in this act and they were all good.
Act three started with another musical, Join the Circus, by the Show Group. Elliot plus the girls in the grade 4, 5 and intermediate classes danced an Egyptian Ballet. I had hoped we might get a rare performance of The Pharaoh's Daughter by Petipabut it turned out to be from Nixon's Cleopatra. Or at least it was Schönberg's music. I am not sure about the choreography. The boys (who were in the minority in this cast) danced a vigorous Mission Impossible. More freestyle from the seniors in Lose My Breath. Then Fame from the grade 4 tap dancers, Trolls by the preparatory, primary and grade 1 modern students in delightful costumes with some impressively spiky headgear, Music by the grades 2, 3 and 4 modern jazz students and a reverence by the entire cast.
The cast was rewarded by enthusiastic applause. The principal, Carole Cundale, gave a short speech thanking all who had participated in the show including some of her classmates from some of her own childhood classes who had trekked up from London. Everyone got a goody bag of some kind. The compere and technicians were shiny's blue and the women's were multicoloured.
I noticed in the programme that Amelia Sierevogel had assisted Cundale with the costume design. They deserve special credit for the costumes were splendid. Delightful dirndls and flowing skirts for Coppelia which must have been such fun to wear and the lovely trolls and Minnie Mouse outfits for the younger children. Everything in the production worked well. All who took part whether cast, front of house or back stage did a great job and deserve congratulations.
As she is about to go to Australia for her placement as part of her degree course I waited for Amelia to appear. I commended her on her performance and also on the costumes. She introduced me to her teacher, Laura Murphy, who told me that the Academy was not yet 4 years old but had already placed students in vocational schools.
It seems well supported by the community. Ripon is not a big place yet the fair size auditorium was pretty full, I am not sure that I saw any stars of the future but we certainly saw some very promising children and young people who had obviously worked hard and had been trained well. I hope those kids and their instructors will be encouraged in their endeavours by this review. Above all I hope they learn to smile.
Standard YouTube Licence In 2016 I saw no less than five versions of Swan Lake, three of Romeo and Juliet, and two each of Giselle, The Taming of the Shrew, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia as well as Makarova's La Bayadere andRatmansky's Cinderella. I saw new full-length ballets by David Bintley, Ted Brandsen and Cathy Marston. I took another look at Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale andDavid Nixon's Beauty and the Beast and found that I liked them rather better second time round. I attended performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of China and NDT2 as well as shows by Ballet Black, Phoenix Dance Theatre and Rambert. I attended the Dutch National Ballet's gala for the new ballet season in Amsterdam, Ballet Cymru's debut in the Wales Millennium Centre, one of the first performances of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's tour and a brilliant charity gala by some of the world's best young dancers in Italy. I saw Matthew Bourne's transposition of The Red Shoes to the stage. I watchedfine student performances by Ballet West and Northern Ballet School.
The performances of Swan Lake that I liked best were English National Ballet's Swan Lake in the Round at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 June 2016 (see Swan Lake in the Round13 June 2016) and David Dawson's for Scottish Ballet in Liverpool on 3 June 2016 (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake4 June 2016). The one I liked least was Nixon's for Northern Ballet, mainly for its libretto and changes to the score, though there was some excellent dancing by the cast (seeUp the Swannee 17 March 2016). I had not expected much of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake for the Australian Ballet and was pleasantly surprised (see The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake - Murphy won me over17 July 2016). On the other hand, I was less than overwhelmed by the Bolshoi's despite the virtuosity of Anna Nikulina as Odette-Odile and Ruslan Skvortsov as Siegfried, possibly because I had arrived at Covent Garden confidently expecting it to be best in class (see Grigorovich's Swan Lake in Covent Garden31 July 2016). Again, changes to the libretto including the quite unnecessary anonymization of Siegfried as "the prince" and Rothbart as "the evil genius" and the rather dowdy designs disappointed me.
The three productions of Romeo and Juliet that I saw last year were by the Birmingham Royal Ballet (see A Good Outcome from an Unhappy Event - Singleton's Fine Performance6 March 2016), Northern Ballet (see Romeo and Juliet after the Shrew15 Oct 2016) and Ballet Cymru (see A Romeo and Juliet for our Times7 Nov 2016) and I liked them all. I suppose the winner on points was Birmingham Royal Ballet simply because that company is so powerful in every department and at every level but the most memorable was Ballet Cymru's largely for the remarkable performance of Gwenllian Davies. I wrote in my review:
"One of the reasons why I loved the show so much was Gwenllian Davies's remarkable performance as Juliet. Davies is in her first year with the company and this is her first job. Consequently, she is barely older than Shakespeare's Juliet. As I told her after the show, I have seen some of the world's greatest dancers in the role including Lynn Seymour and more recently Alina Cojocaru and Viktoria Tereshkina, but never have I seen a more convincing Juliet. Davies danced with passion and energy and, for a while, I saw in that talented young artist what Shakespeare must have imagined."
Every so often one spots a dancer with what I call the wow factor. Michaela DePrince had it when I first saw her in Amsterdam in 2013 and described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 201325 Nov 2013). Davies has the wow factor too.
As Cranko is my favourite choreographer of all time and The Taming of the Shrew is my favourite of his ballets I had expected the Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of that work to be one of the highlights of the year (see Looking Forward to 201630 Dec 2016). It was indeed one of those highlights but, to my great surprise and delight, I found a version that I like even more. That was Jean-Christophe's for the Bolshoi (see Bolshoi's Triumph - The Taming of the Shrew4 Aug 2016). I was in the Royal Opera House for the premiere of that production in the United Kingdom and wrote:
"The Bolshoi Ballet has always been respected in this country but until last night I don't think it has ever been loved. There are many reasons for that, not least the fact that the company was seen as an instrument of Soviet soft power during the cold war coming to London as it did in the year the tanks rolled into Budapest. That may have changed with the London premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot's The Taming of the Shrew for the audience really warmed to the show. Standing ovations are quite rare in the Royal Opera House but when Maillot appeared to take a bow several members of the audience (including yours truly) felt compelled to rise."
If I was slightly disappointed by the Bolshoi's Swan Lake that company more than made up for my disappointment with Shrew. There were brilliant performances by Ekaterina Krysanova as Kate, Vladislav Lantratov as Petrucchio. Olga Smirnova as Bianca, Artemy Belyakov as Kate and Bianca's father and Georgy Gusev as Grumio.
I think I saw the best Giselle ever in April with Cuthbertson in the title role and Bonelli as her Albrecht (see Cuthbertson's Giselle3 April 2016). I wrote:
"I am not a newbie when it comes to ballet. I have seen Giselle many times by several different companies with some of the world's greatest ballerinas in the title role. The best compliment that I can pay to Cuthbertson is that she unlocked the ballet for me much in the way that Ulanova appears to have done for Sir Peter. Yesterday I saw not a ballerina dancing Giselle but Giselle herself and for the first time I really understood the ballet which has far more substance than I had previously supposed."
I had been expecting something special from English National Ballet when I attended the premiere of Akram Khan's Giselle and although the production was not without its merits it simply did not live up to its hype (see Akram Khan's Giselle28 Sept 2016)
On 11 Dec 2016 I saw Ted Brandsen's Coppelia which in the running for my ballet of the year with two other HNB candidates, Brandsen's Mata Hari and Makarova's La Bayadere. Having seen David Nixon's Swan Lake and Akram Khan's Giselle I approached the Music Theatre somewhat gingerly. I wrote:
"I am usually pretty scathing about updates of well-loved ballets as readers of this blog well know. I don't like bikes on stage in Swan Lake. I bristle at shillelagh-wielding wilis. As I said in Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia10 Dec 2016, Coppelia already addresses contemporary themes like coming to terms with artificial intelligence, low-level youth crime and elder abuse so why update it? With all these thoughts in mind, I was a little apprehensive as I entered the Music Theatre auditorium yesterday afternoon. I need not have been. Brandsen had made some changes to the story and he had set the scene int the present, but those changes were changes for a reason rather than change for change sake."
It turned out to be excellent and I recommended it as the best Christmas show within easy travelling distance of most parts of the British Isles. Immediately before I flew to Amsterdam I was reminded of the traditional version by Manchester City Ballet's performances on the 9 and 10 Dec 2016 (see Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia10 Dec 2016).
Brandsen's Mata Hari was quite different. It was a study of the life of the Dutch adventurer and exotic dancer who was executed for espionage after a travesty of a trial in 1917 (see Brandsen's Masterpiece14 Feb 2016). Brandsen cast Anna Tsygankova as Mata Hari and she danced that role magnificently. I wrote:
"As Anna Tsygankova stood alone on stage for her curtain call after last night's performance of Ted Brandsen'sMata Hari every single person in the Amsterdam Music Theatre or Stopera rose as one. She would have got a similar standing ovation anywhere - even snooty old London - for her portrayal of the life of the tragic adventurer and dancer (Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" MacLeod) was compelling It is not often that one sees theatre like that in any medium and I think the sounds and images of that performance will remain with me for the rest of my life."
There were also strong performances by Artur Shesterikov, Casey Herd, Roman Artyushkin and other members of the cast. Brandsen commissioned Tariq O'Reagan to compose a beautiful and haunting score, Clement & Sanôu to design the sets and Francois-Noël Cherpin to create the costumes.
"There were gasps, sighs and murmurs from members of the audience as the image of Nikiya appeared momentarily before a disconsolate Solor. Nobody tried to shush them. They could not help themselves. The scene was just so beautiful. I've seen a lot of ballet in my time but I can't (for the moment at any rate) think of a more beautiful production than the Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere."
That production was created by Natalia Makarova who had created that work for American Ballet Theatre and staged it for the Royal Ballet. Solor was danced by Josef Varga and Nikiya by Sasha Mukhamedov.
The new full-length ballets that impressed me most were Brandsen's Mata Hari, Maillot's Taming of the Shrew, Dawson's Swan Lake, Bintley's The Tempest and Marston's Jane Eyre. I have already discussed the first three above. The Tempest appeared not long after Akram Khan's Giselle and was somewhat overshadowed by it which is a shame because I found Bintley's a stronger and much more satisfying work (see The Tempest 9 Oct 2016). Immediately after seeing it, I wrote:
"I think it is my favourite work by David Bintley so far. In fact, I can't remember a time when I was as excited as I am now about a new British full length ballet since the days of Sir Frederick Ashton."
I described Bintley's choreography as "sparkling" and there were strong performances by Iain Mackay as Prospero, Jenna Roberts as Miranda, Joseph Caley as Ferdinand. Mathias Dingman as Ariel and Tyrone Singleton as Caliban. It was perhaps no more than was to be expected of a company that I have already described as "powerful in every department and at every level" but it was still impressive.
"With one enormous break between 2004 and 2011 I have been following Northern Ballet ever since I returned to the North in 1985. The company has given us some lovely ballets over the years - Cinderella, A Christmas Carol, A Simple Man and, more recently, Madame Butterfly and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In my humble, rustic and simplistic opinion the company's golden age was 20 years ago. At least I thought so until this evening for tonight I saw them perform Jane Eyreat Richmond. I was reminded of their glory days which I never thought I would see again."
Northern Ballet lost some of its costumes in a flood and two of its "premier" or principal dancers took leave of absence this year. It launched its new season with Wuthering Heights and Maillot's Romeo and Juliet which it had last run in 2015 and has revived Beauty and the Beast which I liked somewhat better second time round (see Much Less Beastly - Indeed Rather Beautiful18 Dec 2016). It may be that Northern Ballet will have a better year next year with three new full-length ballets. I certainly hope so.
With so much excellence it was difficult for us to select a ballet of the year, choreographer of the year, male dancer of the year et cetera but we had to try. I listed by nominations in November (see The Terpsichore Nominations5 Nov 2016). Tomorrow I announce my first set of awards for young male and female dancers, choreographer of the year and so on,
"Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the Royal Ballet's Nutcracker" exclaims the Royal Ballet's trailer. The Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Ballet seem to agree for they are staging the ballet too (see The Good Nutcracker Guide31 Oct 2016). There are, of course, alternatives. The Royal Ballet itself is staging The Sleeping Beautyfrom today as well as The Nutcracker on other days and there is also The Red Shoes at Sadler's Wells which I reviewed when it was at the Lowry in the metropolitan borough of Salford in the county of Greater Manchester (see Red Shoes Bourne Again3 Dec 2016) and The Red Shoes Second Time Round4 Dec 2016).
Outside London Scottish Ballet are dancing Hansel and Gretel in Edinburgh which will be wending its way around Scotland early in the New Year before making an appearance in Newcastle where I hope to see it and Belfast in February. I saw the ballet in 2013 and enjoyed it very much (see Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel23 Dec 2013). Elsewhere in England Northern Ballet's Beauty and the Beast is in Leeds (see Much Less Beastly - Indeed Rather Beautiful18 Dec 2016) and Ballet Theatre UK will resume their tour of England with Romeo and Juliet after Christmas.
From my Pennine eyrie just to the east of Manchester the great continental cities are nearly as accessible as London and in many cases rather less expensive when you get there. I have already expressed the view that the Dutch National Ballet's Coppelia at the Music Theatre in Amsterdam is the best Christmas show within reasonable travelling distance of Manchester (see Brandsen's Coppelia12 Dec 2016 and Pictures of Coppelia15 Dec 2016).
Our contributor Mel Wong who has spent the last 15 months in Hungary is now back in the UK - for the time being at any rate. She is working on an article on Ballet Eifman which we look forward to reading.
In a circular announcing that today is the fifth anniversary of the formation of BalletcoForum, Simonetta Dixon of that forum wrote proudly that "a real community has been established" and "friendships have been forged through BalletcoForum." I can certainly attest to that. Mel is one of those I met in that way. Linda Morris is another. Aileen is a third. Helen or Don Q Fan is one more. Michelle Richer yet another. And, of course, last but not least, Janet McNulty. There are several others who are friends on Facebook and followers on twitter. Today also happens to be the third anniversary of my subscribing to the forum. Although I have had the odd run-in with a moderator and a heated exchange of views with subscribers from time to time I always read my daily email from BalletcoForum with interest. Well done them and long may they continue.
Wishing all my readers around the world a merry Christmas and happy New Year.
Photo: Altin Kaftira (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved Reproduced with the kind permission of the company
Dutch National Ballet, Coppelia, The Music Theatre, Amsterdam, 11 Dec 2016, 14:00
On Monday I reviewed the Dutch National Ballet's performance of Ted Brandsen's Coppelia. On Tuesday I received these lovely photos of the performance from the company's press manager, Richard Heideman. Many thanks to him and the company for making these available to me.
I mentioned this production to our teacher and fellow members of our adult ballet class at Northern Ballet Academy yesterday after suggesting something from Delibes's Coppelia as an alternative to Minkus's La Bayadere. Our teacher led us to believe that Coppelia may not have been her favourite ballet. I replied that she might well change her mind if she could see Brandsen's. As it may not be possible for her to arrange a trip to Amsterdam before the end of the year I offer this article to her and also to my classmates in Leeds. It's a thank you to her for all that she has taught me this year and also to my classmates for their excellent company,
Frans and Zwaantje
Photo: Altin Kaftira (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved Reproduced with the kind permission of the company
Frans and Zwaantje
Photo: Altin Kaftira (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved Reproduced with the kind permission of the company
Frans and Zwaantje
Photo: Altin Kaftira (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved Reproduced with the kind permission of the company
Frans and Zwaantje
Photo: Altin Kaftira (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved Reproduced with the kind permission of the company
Frans and Zwaantje
Photo: Altin Kaftira (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved Reproduced with the kind permission of the company
Frans and Zwaantje's Wedding
Photo: Altin Kaftira (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved Reproduced with the kind permission of the company
Frans and Zwaantje in the final pas de deux
Photo: Altin Kaftira (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved Reproduced with the kind permission of the company
