Last Monday's Romeo and Juliet - a Cinematic as well as a Balletic Triumph

Author Russ London Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

Royal Ballet Romeo and Juliet Cinema 14 Feb 2022 19:30

Last Monday's screening of the Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet was quite different from previous ones and all the better for it.  Gone were the gushing tweets from cinema audiences around the world and the presenters' platitudes.  In its place were interviews with Edward Watson and Leanne Benjamin with Dame Darcey passing on her wisdom and experience to Anna Rose O’Sullivan. Exactly how I want to see one of the greatest ballerinas of my lifetime.

Not only that but there was very clever camera work that caught O'Sullivan's ecstasy in the balcony scene or James Hay's pain after his stabbing by Tybalt. I noticed details in the screening that I had missed before. Consequently, I learned a lot about the ballet on Monday even though I had been watching MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet on screen as well as on stage since the 1960s. 

Although I must have seen them many times I had never really noted Anna Rose O'Sullivan or Marcelino Sambé until now,  but I am a fan of both of them now.  There is something about O'Sullivan that reminded me of Antoinette Sibley.  Sambé is very different from Dowell but I think we may have seen on Monday the start of a partnership between him and O'Sullivan which will be remembered like that of Sibley and Dowell.

There were two other dancers who particularly caught my eye who happen to be my all-time favourite Drosselmeyers.  One was Thomas Whitehead who danced Tybalt with menace earning what appeared to be isolated pantomime villain boos at the reverence as well as cinema vibrating roars. The other was Gary Avis who danced Juliet's well-meaning dad, puzzled and exasperated by his teenage daughter's apparent inability to grasp in Paris a dishy, decent husband and a comfortable future. 

All in the cast danced brilliantly, James Hay as Mercutio, Nicol Edmonds as Paris, Kristen McNally as Lady Capulet, Philip Mosley as Friar Lawrence, Romany Pajdak as the nurse.    There were also Prince Escalus, harlots, mandolin dancers, knights and their ladies and the street folk of renaissance Verona.  All deserve commendation but if I mentioned more names this would look less like a review and more like a telephone directory.

Nevertheless, my review must acknowledge three of the creatives: Laura Morera who staged the show, the conductor Jonathan Lo who first came to my notice at Northern Ballet, and the late Nicholas Georgiadis whose designs remind me of the work of Leon Bakst.  If there was a weakness in the screening it was that the richness of Georgiadis's sets did not always come through. That always seems to be a problem with ballet on film.

Last Monday happened to be my birthday.  It was a delightful day with calls and cards and presents.  But the screening was definitely a high point.  So many thanks for that, Royal Ballet.  

Readers who missed the performance have a second chance on Sunday.   

Ann Maguire Gala 2017

On Sunday 3 Sept, my friend Erin and I attended the Ann Maguire Gala 2017 at Leeds Grand Theatre. The money raised by the ticket sales went towards the Ann Maguire Arts Education Fund less the essential running costs. All the performers and stage crew volunteered to be part of this event. 

But this event was not just any old dance gala.  No. It was an incredible opportunity for us to feast our eyes upon dancers from the Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Ballet Boyz. The repertoire consisted of choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, Frederick Ashton, Liam Scarlett, Will Tuckett, Alastair Marriott, Steven McRae and Christopher Wheeldon.

As one who does not have a lot of money, this was an opportunity for me to see some of my favourite dancers.

I was so incredibly excited!

Erin and I filled with excitement for the night's event. 

The show began with an introduction by Wayne Sleep.  I was surprised to see how small he is in real life

The first act included

• the second movement pas de deux from Concerto,
• a piece enitled simply New Work, 
• the White Swan pas de deux, 
• Quizas, 
• Aeternum pas de deux and 
• Voices of Spring.  

I shan't go into detail about every piece of the programme, but will instead talk about the pieces that have stuck in my mind since Sunday night.

Quizas was a new piece choreographed by Will Tuckett, to the track of the same name by Nat King Cole and Shigeru Umebayashi. It was performed by Laura Morera and Ricardo Cervera. It has a very latin vibe to it but was still balletic.  I truly found myself falling in love with it. I just wanted to get up and dance with them. It looked so incredibly fun! And, of course, effortless, much to the credit of the dancers.

Ashton's Voices of Spring was performed by Yuhui Choe and recently promoted Alexander Campbell. It was so beautiful to watch. It left me feeling like I was dreaming at the end of the act!

The second act opened with a musical medley of songs from Les Miserables and West Side Story performed by Leeds Youth Opera.

Act two included

• Debussy's Clair de Lune performed by Edward Watson,
• Christopher Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour pas de deux,
• Asphodel Meadows - second movement pas de deux
• Northern Ballet's 1984 by Jonathan Watkins- the final pas de deux
• Steven McRae's famous tap piece Czardas
• Meditation from Thais pas de deux, and 
• Le Corsaire - pas de deux.

Clair de Lune was one of my favourite performances of the whole night. It was very simple and elegant. Watson executed the most incredible attitude turns (believe me when I say from my own experience they're hard). His ending position which was a plié in second, left Erin and me breathless for he did not move at all - for what seemed like forever. Not even shaking!

Czardas by Steven McRae was so much fun. He was accompanied on the stage with violinist Vasko Vassilev. Both artists were truly incredible to watch.  I would love to watch this over again and again.*

Le Corsaire pas de deux was performed by Akane Takada and Benjamin Ella. Akane did all 32 fouette turns perfectly and Benjamin flew across the stage with his incredible jumps. It was a truly a delight to watch. It left the audience on such a high note!

Finally, the night concluded with a thank you from Wayne Sleep and Emma Maguire (the daughter of the late Ann Maguire and event organiser) followed by, of course. the curtain call. each of the performers was given a single red rose.  I was left feeling overwhelmed and happy to have watched such a wonderful night of performances.

Myself with Edward Watson

Erin with Alexander Campbell

The night, however, did not end there for Erin and I decided to go to the stage door after the performance. We were fortunate enough to meet Alexander Campbell, Steven McRae, Fumi Kaneko and Edward Watson. All of whom were lovely, and we had enjoyable conversations with them. We found out that the stage was raked, which made us gasp even more. We sadly did not meet any of the other artists due to having to catch a train back to Huddersfield from Leeds and it was quite late. But I still cannot believe we met some of our absolute favourite dancers, let alone watched them perform. It will be a night I will remember for the rest of my life!

Amelia x

* You can.  He performed it on World Ballet Day and a video of his performance is right here (Ed).

BBC Young Dancer Ballet Final

I don't usually watch a lot of television. Not even when there is ballet on the box. But I made an exception tonight because I had recently seen Oscar Ward and Uyu Hiromoto in Ballet West's Swan Lake in Greenock (see Ballet West at the Beacon 13 Feb 2017). As it happened I saw a lot of other familiar faces in the programme such as Samira Saidi, Ed Watson, Cassa Pancho, Darius James, David Nixon, Shobana Jeyasingh, Jonathan Barton and Natasha Watson. I even glimpsed Janet McNulty in the audience. There were also a lot of familiar places such as the Riverfront Theatre in Newport, Taynuilt and, of course, the Lowry.

There were five fine young dancers:  Ryan Felix, Jade Wallace, Rhys Antoni Yeomans, Uyu Hiromoto and Oscar Ward. Each of their performances thrilled me and I would have hated to have had to pick a winner. I loved Jade's typewriter dance, Oscar and Uyu's pas de deux, the solo that Natasha Watson created for Oscar but someone had to win and Rhys was indeed a worthy winner.

Rhys will compete with the winners of the contemporary, street dance and South Asian dance. If it was difficult to choose a winner from five ballet finalists I have no idea how one could possibly compare a street dancer with a South Asian dancer. Just for once I think I got some real value from my licence fee.

Ed Watson: more than just an outstanding dancer - a really good bloke

Ed Watson signing a calendar after his talk

Photo Jane Lambert

(c) 2015 Jane Elizabeth Lambert, all rights reserved

On Tuesday evening I listened to Edward Watson in conversation at Danceworks. He is a principal of the Royal Ballet and ipso facto an outstanding dancer but he across across as a very likeable young man. He showed a sense of humour. He answered questions directly and thoroughly. He rewarded his fans (of which I am one) by signing their autograph books and calendars, posing for photos or (as in my case) shaking hands.

Watson explained that he started dancing to keep his sister company. Their studio was what his interviewer called a "rinky dink school in Bromley". From there he progressed to the Royal Ballet Associates though not without setbacks for he failed his RAD Grade 1. However, that did not prevent his progressing to White Lodge. His talent was recognized and anyway the school wanted more boys.

White Lodge is a boarding school and he was not particularly happy there for his first two years. His teachers included Pauline Wadsworth, Linda Goss and the late Anatoly Grigoriev who taught him "the heavy stuff". Watson said that nothing came easy to him and that it took some time to "grow into his body". Ballet wasn't a vocation in the early years - just something that he liked to do. From White Lodge he progressed to the Upper School and from there to the Royal Ballet. On being asked what his parents thought about his training he replied that he did not believe that they gave any thought to it at all. He was one of 4 and his parents encouraged all their children to pursue whatever career they wanted.

Watson's first solo role was in Kenneth MacMillan's The Judas Tree just before the Royal Opera House closed for refurbishment. That was a strange time for the Royal Ballet as it performed at different venues throughout London. It was around that time that he was given his first principal role in My Brother My Sisters, another MacMillan ballet.  It was also approximately when he started to work with Wayne McGregor who had been introduced to the Royal Ballet through Deborah Bull's Artists Development Initiative. Shortly afterwards Watson was promoted to soloist.

At this point the interviewer observed that "people don't realize how technical you have to be to Romeo, Manon etcetera." Watson replied that it was not that he was not classical it was just that he did not do classical. He could not, for example, imagine himself dancing in Swan Lake.  The interviewer noted that some of the music to which Watson dances is difficult. Watson explained that he recognized sound adding "something settles to sound" and though it might sound weird it was an "atmospheric thing". He gave The Rite of Spring as an example where things look as they sound.   Watson's big moment came when he was cast as Romeo. As it is a physically demanding role he hired Hugh Craig as a personal trainer to increase his strength and stamina.

In 2011 Watson danced in Arthur Pita's "The Metamorphosis" which is based on a work by Kafka. Pita spend a week reading Kafka in order to discover the characters.

Watson was asked about the choreographers he has worked or will be working with. He mentioned Wayne McGreogor, Wendy Whelan, Arlene Philips, Arthur Pita and Christopher Wheeldon. He has engagements at The Linbury and in New York City.

At that point questions were invited from the floor.

A gentleman asked Watson to describe his daily routine. He replied that a typical day might consist of class for 10:30 to 12:00, rehearsals from 12:00 to 17:30 and then perhaps a show. However, his routine did vary. Sometimes he would do pilates, for example.

I asked him how he felt when manipulating his face and body in all the shapes depicting jealousy in Act I of The Winters Tale. "Not easy at first" was the reply but he eventually got used to them.

Another gentleman said that he had been told by Watson's teacher that he was the most outstanding choreographer of his year. "Not true" was the reply. Everybody had to study choreography at the Royal Ballet School but he had no ambitions in choreography.

He was asked how he prepared for a role. He replied that he did a lot of work when he was asked to dance Mayerling.  He travelled to Vienna and visited the graves. He read voraciously and watched every performance he could.

He had been described as a "dance actor". He disavowed the description. "Straight acting is difficult" he said. "I'm a dancer and not an actor." Someone suggested he might train for the stage. He agreed that was a possibility.

Someone asked whether there was a role he still wanted to dance. "Not really" he replied. He had danced just about every role he had wanted to perform.

Another asked about personal setbacks. He mentioned injuring himself in The Song of the Earth and falling flat on his face in Giselle.

He was asked whether there were any dancers who had inspired him when he was young. He replied that he had never seen a ballet before he joined the Royal Ballet School.  He was impressed by Anthony Dowell and Wayne Eagling. The interviewer interjected that the role of male dancers had evolved tremendously over the years. Watson agreed adding that they can now be anything.  Young dancers nowadays are much less patient than his generation had been. They had a lot of enthusiasm and energy which was on balance a good thing.

The interviewer asked what he hopes to do when he retires from full time dancing. He had no plans beyond staying in the profession. Coaching was one possibility. Being a ballet master was another.

He was asked whether he got on well with the other principals and to the surprise of at least some of the audience he said he did. He shared a dressing room with Thiago Soares but it was rare for them to use it at the same time.

On being asked whether he wanted to say anything at the end of the interview he simply thanked everybody for coming,

Lesley Osman proposed a vote of thanks and we all clapped enthusiastically.

Almost everyone in the audience formed a queue to shake his hand. He had a kind word for each of us. Some of his fans asked him to sign autograph albums. Others asked him to pose for photos. He accepted the adulation with enormous grace. I thought to myself as I started my long drive back to Yorkshire: "what a really good bloke,"

If ever I came back to London .............

................. I think I'd spend a lot of my time in Danceworks. I doubt if I'd ever get any work done. My long suffering clerk would suck his teeth and lament "We see less of you now than when you were in Yorkshire, Miss."

Because there is so much happening at that studio.

First, there is a talk by Ed Watson on 10 Feb 2015 between 19:15 and 20:45. I'm also giving a talk that earlier day (though on a very different topic at a different venue) but I shall be in town so will be able to hear him. Tickets are now sold out but there is a waiting list. Here is a link to the Royal Ballet's YouTube clip on The Winter's Tale where he discusses his role as Leontes.

Secondly, there is a new absolute beginners class for adults between 17 March and 6 May 2015 with Franziska Rosenzweig which covers the following:

• Posture and placement work
• Improve core strength
• Basic steps
• Turning
• Footwork combination
• Improve muscle tone in a long lean elegant way
• Improve flexibility, all while dancing!
• Barre work with basic easy to follow exercises to focus on correct technique
• Centre practice, including:
• Port de Bras
• Adagio
• Waltz
• Preparation for Pirouettes
• Allegro

The full course costs £129.50.

For advanced dancers, the same teacher is running a 5 week repertoire course on the solo in La Esmeralda

Thirdly, there are 7 new classes at Danceworks: pilates, strala yoga, Latin, contemporary and more.

You can book tickets for Made in Dagenham at The Adelphi for £25 through Danceworks website. That's a bargain even by North Country standards.

Akram Khan is also running a 2 day workshop in April.

The full timetable is here.

Probably just as well that I live 200 miles away.

Post Script

5 Feb 2015   Yesterday I found myself at a networking event in Upper Grosvenor Street which is not much more than an few grands jetés away from Balderton Street so I moseyed on over to pay Danceworks a visit. There were some very nice people of the front desk who invited me to take a peep at the classes. There seemed to be street, jazz and some kind of stretching exercises while I was there. They all seemed a lot if fun. Had I brought my shoes and leotard I would definitely have joined in. Had I not had a train to catch I would have bought myself a Danceworks t-shirt and leggings from Selfridges and danced in bare feet. I am looking forward to returning on the 10 Feb to see Ed Watson and to taking my first class on Sunday 15 Feb.

The Winter's Tale - Time to eat my Hat

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I am just about to place a couple of hats in the microwave. One is The Winter's Tale which I damned with the faintest of praise in Royal Ballet "The Winter's Tale" 14 April 2014. The other are the Royal Opera House's HDTV transmissions which I described as "good quality hamburger" in Giselle and I was even less polite about Don Quixote. Tonight I floated out of the Huddersfield Odeon after watching the HDTV transmission of The Winter's Tale with a smile from ear to ear.  Act I, which had dragged last time, simply flew for me.  The tension was palpable.  Act II, which had saved the ballet for me the first time I saw it revealed fresh delights. Act III with the triple reconciliation was sublime.

Now this is how I should have felt on 12 April 2014 when I saw the same show in Covent Garden. This is the reason why I think I got it this time but not then.  Act I, the longest of the three Acts, is crucial to the appreciation of this ballet and the key to appreciating that Act are the contortions of Leontes's body and the expressions on his face. These were prominent on screen but I missed them entirely when I was in the House.  It may be that the interviews before the show - particularly the one with Watson - were helpful for they alerted the audience as to what to look out for.  Wheeldon had remarked how Watson could turn his body into the most remarkable shapes to express his anguish and so he did. Those contortions and facial expressions exerted enormous tension.  In the second interval Wheeldon had described his cast as "actors who dance" rather than the converse. Leontes's build up of jealousy and loathing until his explosion of rage exemplifies those qualities magnificently.

Having cracked Leontes's emotions I found myself appreciating the other features of Act I. The complex textures of Joby Talbot's score, Bob Crowley's designs and Natasha Katz's lighting.  I even got to see the bear.  Its muzzle, which was so clear on screen, was just a length of cloth when I saw it live.  I was already looking forward to Act II but I found new detail in the dancing, new rhythms in the score and best of all the expression on Lamb's face when McRae asked her to marry him. I had also liked Act III on 12 April but this time I took in Cuthbertson's final pas de deux with Watson properly. As an expression of love it was simply beautiful.

I noticed from the tweets that I was not the only one who enjoyed the transmission more than the live show. This was a particularly good broadcast, much better than Giselle or Don Quixote.  I think this is a ballet that does work well for cinema but I also think it is a work that needs to be seen more than once to be appreciated properly.

I love the Royal Ballet very much having followed it for nearly 60 years. I love the House more than any other theatre in the world.  I love all the dancers who have ever trod its boards. It is so good to be able to write this review.

Royal Ballet "The Winter's Tale"

"Pursued by a Bear"  Royal Ballet "A Winter's Tale" 12 April 2014

I expected so much of The Winter's Tale.  I had been looking forward to it for months. A new work by Christopher Wheeldon based on Shakespeare by a fine choreographer for our national company with a stellar cast. It should have blown me off my feet.  Well I quite liked the show but blown off my feet? I wasn't.

Perhaps my expectations were too high.  Had I thought about it more I would have concluded that Shakespeare is very difficult to set to ballet.  I can think of only two ballets based on Shakespeare that really work. One is Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet and the other is Cranko's Taming of the Shrew (see "Stuttgart Ballet's "Taming of the Shrew" - well worth the Wait"  25 Nov 2013). Northern Ballet's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" also works but only because Nixon has gutted the play and written his own plot based on a post war touring company's train journey to Edinburgh (see "Realizing Another Dream" 15 Sept 2013). Had I thought more about the topic I would have reminded myself that A Winter's Tale is one of Shakespeare's least performed and least read plays and that is for a reason.  It is best known for the stage direction for Antigonus: "Exit pursued by a bear."  A Winter's Tale is not one of Shakespeare's best works and it is very difficult to get into.

And so it was on Saturday with the ballet.  Now I have to say that I was not in the most receptive frame of mind when I entered the Royal Opera House. I had a horrible journey down to London and I had been working late throughout the previous night. I had skipped breakfast and had only a light lunch.  Consequently I was tired and hungry. Had I not paid a lot of money for my ticket I would have gone straight to bed. Moreover, the reason that I had to work through the night was that I had spent a couple of hours in Huddersfield town hall listening to the Choral's performing one of the most memorable concerts I have ever attended or am ever likely to attend.  It may be that anything after that concert was going to be an anticlimax.

I say all this because Act I left me quite cold. Well perhaps not quite cold because Edward Watson and Lauren Cuthbertson are always exciting and Bob Crawley's designs were impressive, especially the galleon in full sale. But the story was very heavy going and the accompanying music by Joby Talbot did not help.  The ballet is very long.  It starts at 19:30 and ends at 22:30 and the longest bit is Act I which lasts 49 minutes.

Act II is very different.  Set around a gnarled moss covered tree there is a festival with exuberant dancing accompanied by the most infectiously vibrant music.  Perdita danced by Sarah Lamb and Florizel by Stephen McRae fall in love.  They are spied on and discovered by Polixenes, king of Bohemia, who threatens to kill them but they set sail to Sicily with the king of Bohemia in hot pursuit.  Little details like the fact that Bohenia is landlocked don't seem to have bothered Shakespeare or even Wheeldon.   However there is such a thing as poetic licence and this is a case where it applies.  Nevertheless, this is is the best bit of the ballet and that is possibly because it is the part that owes least to Shakespeare.

The final Act like the first is set in Sicily with a chastened Leontes (Watson) visiting the graves of Hermione and their son.  The Act ends with his visiting a statue of Hermione who suddenly springs to life Don Juan style - oh brother - but she, her daughter Perfita and Loeontes reconcile in a most beautiful pas de trois which prompted the lady next to me to fish for a tissue and even I found moving.

So did this ballet live up to expectations? Well not exactly. But it was not bad.  I want to see it again but I want to take a break before I do.  It will be broadcast on HDTV to cinemas around the nation on 28 April.