BRB2 in Nottingham

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BRB2 Carlos Acosta's Classical Selection Theatre Royal, Nottingham, 28 April 1930

Nearly 10 years ago I was in Amsterdam for the first performance of the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013  25 Nov 2013).  I had come to see Michaela De Prince about whom I had heard a lot.  She did not disappoint me, but she was not the only artist who impressed me.  The other members of the cast were super talented too. Several are now principals in the Dutch National Ballet and other companies.

The Junior Company has greatly strengthened the Dutch National Company by attracting some of the world's best young dancers,   Because of its success I urged British companies to set up their own junior companies.   The Central School of Ballet set up Ballet Central to tour the South, Ballet West had a company that toured Scotland and Northern Ballet had Manchester City Ballet which gave several excellent performances in the Dancehouse.  But that was not quite the same as the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company as none of those student companies was associated with an established company.

I first learned about BRB2 when I attended An Evening with Ashton at Elmhurst.  That was a master class on Ashton's Rhapsody given by Lesley Collier.   Ashton had created that piece for Collier and  Mikhail Baryshnikov and the dancers Collier taught were Frieda Kaden and Oscar Kempsey-Fagg,  Carlos Acosta introduced them as members of BRB2, Birmingham Royal Ballet's junior company (see An "Evening with Ashton" and the Launch of an English Junior Company 30 Jan 2023).

The company is now on tour.   According to the programme, their debut was in Northampton on Tuesday 25 April 2023.  Nottingham is their second stop.  Their next will be Peterborough on 3 and 4 May, London on 13 and 14 June and finally Wolverhampton on 24 June.  When I visited Elmhurst someone told me that Northampton would be the best place to see them because they would have a live orchestra.  Had it been possible I would have been there.  Sadly, barristers tour at least as much as ballet dancers and I had a breakfast meeting in Colwyn Bay at 09:00 the day after their Northampton show.  Even without an orchestra, BRB2 were impressive.  I would have trekked down the M1 to see them again tonight had Powerhouse Ballet's company class not been scheduled for this afternoon in Salford.   I will try to catch them again at the Linbury or elsewhere on the tour. 

The format of last night's show was very similar to the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's.  Except for Majisimo which was the finale the show consisted of solos, duets and pas de deux. The first part consisted of four very well-known works plus Carlos Acosta's bolt-on of  Descombey's Dying Swan to Fokine's which he called Dying Swans.  The second part of the show consisted of seven less familiar works.  Two of the works that I saw yesterday were also in the Dutch National Ballet's opening performance, namely the pas de deux from Act II of Swan Lake and Diana and Actaeon.

The show opened with an empty stage except for a travelling barre and other touring paraphernalia.  One by one the artists walked on stage.   They limbered up as if preparing for class.   Two of them, Kaden and Kempsey-Fagg, peeled away and approached that front.   A backdrop fell to hide the other dancers and they performed Rhapsody just as Collier had taught them at Elmhurst.  They had impressed me even in the master class.  Yesterday they were polished and confident and executed the piece with flair. There could not have been a better start to the show.

The backdrop was lifted to reveal the company again.  This time Olivia Chang Clarke appeared in a romantic tutu and Eric Pinto-Cata in a kilt to dance the pas de deux from La Sylphide. Their piece turned out to be the high point of my evening.  That may have been partly because I love Bournonville's ballet very much and know it well but credit must also go to the dancers.  Pinto-Cata was the perfect James with his powerful tours en l'air and Chang Clarke was a delightful sylph, playful and flirtatious.  I almost wept at the thought of what Madge's shawl would do to her.

Maɨlȅne Katoch and Mason King followed with the pas de deux from Act II of Swan Lake. Interestingly, Katoch had written on her web page that her dream would be Odette-Odile because she finds it interesting to be able to interpret an ethereal and delicate swan and then a mischievous swan.   It must have pleased her to have been given a taste of her dream role so early in her career.  I am sure it will not be long before she performs the whole role.  King partnered her gallantly.  Not hard to envisage him as a principal in the not-too-distant future.   

I had seen Javier Torres perform Descombey's Dying Swan at Northern Ballet's 45th anniversary in 2015 and had admired the work greatly (see Sapphire  15 March 2015).   I would have enjoyed watching it again in its original form and I am sure that Jack Easton would have danced it magnificently.  I would have enjoyed Fokine's Dying Swan even more for the reason I gave in to Sapphire.  I am sure that Regan Hutsell would have danced it exquisitely.  Combining the two works and their music to create a solo did not work for me.   I had to switch between the two alternately as though I was watching two separate ballets at the same time. That way I appreciated Easton and Hutsell's considerable virtuosity.

Diana and Actaeon had been the highlight of my evening in Amsterdam because De Prince and Sho Yamada displayed exceptional virtuosity.   The ballerina enters the stage to Pugni's punchy music practically jumping on pointe.   I had described De Prince as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" and she will always be my Diana just as Antoinette Sibley will always be my Titania.   Beatrice Parma's interpretation was softer, more delicate, more Ashtonesque perhaps? Enrique Bejarano Vidal was spectacular.

Part 2 opened to a blue background with several dancers seated around tables.    There is a suburb of Buenos Aires near the cemetery where Eva Peron is buried called La Recoleta which is famous for its cafes.   As the second piece was Gustavo Mollajoli's A Buenos Aires to Astor Piazzolla's music I was transported there.   

However, the second part began with Ben Stevenson's apocalyptic End of Time danced hauntingly by Lucy Waine and Kempsey-Fagg to Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata in G Minor.   Stevenson started his career with the precursor of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and he did great things in Houston including sheltering Li Cunxin according to Mao's Last Dancer. 

Kaden and Easton were the first couple to leave the table to dance A Buenos Aires.   They were followed by Hutsell's spirited Je ne regret rien tIt io Ben van Cauwenbergh's interpretation of Edith Piaf's famous song.  She was followed by Vidal's Les Bourgeois also by van Cauwenbergh.   He tottered around the stage clutching a bottle executing unusual jumps and turns to Jacques Brel's music prompting loads of laughs from the audience.   As bouré is another word for "drunk" in French I quipped on Twitter that he gave a whole new meaning to pas de bourrée.  It is however very difficult to clown successfully in ballet and those who can carry it off are abundantly talented.

I enjoyed Acosta's Carmen much more than his Dying Swans.   Chang Clarke reminded me a little of Zizi Jeanmaire who will always be my Carmen though I had seen her only on film.  Wearing her hair loose she danced the pas de deux with Cata passionately.  it was one of my favourite pieces from Part 2. My other favourite from Part 2 was Will Tuckett's Nisi Dominus danced by Lucy Waine to Montiverdi's Vespers.  Sacred music does not often fit well with ballet for many reasons but Tuckett's choreography seemed to work well with the score.

The evening finished with Kaden, Vidal, Katoch and King together with Rachele Pizzillo, Ryan Felix and Ava May Llewellyn in Jorge Garcia's Majissimo to Massenet's music.  The piece focused on each of the artists to demonstrate his or her skills and strengths.   It was a good way to round off a very successful evening.

Carlos Acosta and Kit Holder, BRB2's artistic coordinator, are to be congratulated.  The company could not have made a better start.   One of the strengths of the Dutch Junior Company is that they draw heavily on their heritage as well as their talented up-and-coming choreographers.   There is always a van Manen and van Dantzig in their repertoire as well as new works by Ernst Meisner and  Milena Siderova.  The Birmingham Royal Ballet also has a rich heritage. In future, I would like to see a little more Ashton and maybe some MacMillan, Peter Wright and Bintley as well as perhaps pieces by Holder himself and other young choreographers.   

Now that two of Europe's leading ballet companies have junior companies it is likely that a friendly rivalry between the two will spur them both to even greater achievements.   But I also hope there will be more than rivalry.  I would love to see what BRB2's artists would make of In the Future or No Time Before Time. The Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company remains my first love.  I will continue to support it in any way I can.   But I can now take pride in an excellent English junior company.  I shall follow, encourage and support it too. 

An Evening of Music and Dance

Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Author JimmyGuano Licence CC BY-SA 4.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Birmingham Royal Ballet  An Evening of Music and Dance  Symphony Hall, Birmingham 11 Feb 2023  19:30

If there is one thing that riles a Mancunian it is the proposition that the city of a thousand trades somehow rakes precedence in the national pecking order.   When propounded by a southerner our usual riposte is "Oh I always thought the second city was London." But to be fair, Birmingham has some great institutions not least of which are the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Symphony Hall.

An opportunity to enjoy them both occurs every February in An Evening of Music and Dance.  That is a concert by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia with contributions from artists of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and students of Elmhurst Ballet School.  It is one of the rare occasions when the audience can see the orchestra on stage.  I imagine that it must be a liberation for the musicians to escape from the orchestra pit and share the limelight with the dancers they support for the rest of the year.

According to the Birmingham Royal Ballet's website, the programme was "hand-picked" by Carlos Acosta and Paul Murphy which perhaps explains the preponderance of works associated with the Spanish-speaking world.    The programme was as follows:

• Rossini The Barber of Seville: Overture
• Howard/Nunes Interlinked pas de deux
• De Falla El amor brujo: Ritual Fire Dance
• Rachmaninov/Ashton Rhapsody pas de deux
• Granados Goyescas: Intermezzo
• Pugni//Petipa/Vaganova Diana and Actaeon pas de deux
• Chabrier España
• Tchaikovsky/Petipa/Wright Swan Lake: Act III pas de deux
• Albéniz Tango
• Bizet/Acosta Carmen pas de deux
• Ginastera/Fajardo Estancia, Danza dek trigo and Malambo 
• Drigo/Petipa/Vaganova Le Corsaire pas de deux

The evening was compered by Marverine Cole.

The first ballet was Juliano Nunes's Interlinked, Pas de Deux to Luke Howard's score of the same name.  According to the programme notes it was created for On Your Marks, a triple bill to celebrate the Commonwealth Games which were held in Birmingham last summer.  It was danced by Tzu Chao-Chou and Brandon Lawrence, two very graceful but also very muscular dancers.  I stress muscular because they were clad in what appeared to be romantic tutus.  According to the programme the costumes and choreography do not distinguish between male and female performers often turning balletic conventions on their heads.  For me, that was a distraction but it was still possible to appreciate the virtuosity of the dancers. 

Having attended An Evening with Ashton at Elmhurst on 24 Jan 2023 I was particularly looking forward to Ashton's Rhapsody Pas de Deux. Ashton had created Rhapsody for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lesley Collier in August 1980 on the occasion of the late Queen Mother's 80th birthday.  At Elmhurst, Collier had coached  Frieda Kaden and Oscar Kempsey-Fagg so her tips and recollections were fresh in my memory.  It had been a direct link with Sir Frederick himself.  The dancers who performed that piece at Symphony Hall were Max Maslen and Beatrice Parma. Throughout the piece, I recalled Collier's instructions to Kaden and Kempsey-Fagg such as "Lift her but not too high".  Altogether, it was a rare and precious moment.

Diana and Actaeon is a spectacular piece.  It begins with the entry of Diana practically jumping on pointe.  Actaeon joins her on stage with massive leaps It was choreographed by Agrippina Vaganova to the music of Cesare Pugni. The only time that I had seen the work before was when I watched Michaela DePrince for the first time.  I was bowled over both by her and the choreography (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013).  Tyrone Singleton and Sofia Liñares danced this piece at the Evening of Music and Dance.  Their interpretation was quite different.  Elegant, fluid and lyrical and while still exciting their performance was somehow, a little more restrained.  

There was an interval between Diana and Actaeon and España.  The first ballet of the second half of the show was the seduction scene from Act III of Swan Lake.  That pas de deux was performed exquisitely by Brandon Lawrence and Céline Gittens. Gittens is one of my all-time favourite ballerinas. Odette-Odile is one of her most impressive roles.  Her execution of Legnani's 32 fouettés was the high point of my evening.  In the full-length ballet, the piece is followed by pandemonium as Rothbart and his daughter exit the stage.  It is the last that audiences ever see of Odile.  As this was a concert, there was a reverence after the performance at which Gittens acknowledged her applause with the most enchanting smile.  I could not help thinking that she was much too nice for Odile.

Liñares returned with Lachlan Monaghan to dance the Interlude from Carmen which Carlos Acosta had choreographed for himself and Marienela Nuñes while he was still a principal with the Royal Ballet.  I had previously associated Carmen with Zizi Jeanmaire and to a lesser extent Maya Pliesetskaya though I had only seen them on film.  Acosta's version is based on one of the most haunting parts of Bizet's score.  It will be interesting to see the work in full.

Students from Elmhurst performed Danza del trigo and Malambo from Alberto Ginastera's Estancia which were choreographed by Sonia Fajardo.  According to the programme notes, the composer wrote Estancia for American Ballet Caravan whose choreographer was George Balanchine. The rhythm of Malambo is infectious.  The artists threw themselves into the work.  it was the most exuberant performance of the evening.

The finale was Drigo's pas de deux  from Le Corsaire.  Although most of the score had been composed by Adolphe Adam I learned from the programme notes that Marius Petipa had incorporated music by other composers including Ricardo Drigo.  I also learned that Vaganova had created a pas de deux on Drigo's work which was performed by Riku Ito and  Yaoqian Shang.  Only English National Ballet includes Le Corsaire in its repertoire.  It is a work that would suit Birmingham Royal Ballet well.

This was a very interesting programme.   I was introduced to three composers, namely Ricardo Drigo, Alberto Ginestera and Luke Howard and two new choreographers, namely Juliano Nunes and Sonia Fajardo.   It was also good to meet the Elmhurst students some of whom will join the Birmingham Royal Ballet and other leading companies.   It was my first visit to Symphony Hall and I look forward to returning, perhaps for a concert by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra which I have so far heard only in recordings and broadcasts.   

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.