Cinders in Sunderland

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Birmingham Royal Ballet Cinderella Sunderland Empire 15 Mar 2025 14:00 

Between 6 Feb and 12 Apr 2025, the Birmingham Royal Ballet took Sir David Bintley's Cinderella on a nationwide tour.  I caught it at the Sunderland Empire on 15 March 2025.  I had already reviewed it in Bintley's Best on 2 Mar 2017.  I wrote in that article that I liked everything that I had seen of Bintley's work, but I thought Cinderella was the best.  That is still my view now. 

The reason I admire the ballet so much is that it tells the Grimm brothers' story (with a few variations) through Bintley's spectacular choreography to Prokofiev's beautiful music with John Macfarlane's sumptuous designs and David Finn's ingenious lighting. The Cinderella Relaxed Performance YouTube video is a good introduction to and overview of the ballet.   In Cinderella: An Interview with Sir David Bintley. Sir David confirms Mark Monahan's programme notes that Sir David agreed to create the ballet if Macfarlane agreed to do the designs. Monahan reports: "Lo and behold, John said yes."  Readers will recall that Macfarlane designed Liam Scarlett's Swan Lake, a recording of which I mentioned in Swan Lake at the Leeds Showcase on 30 May 2025.  The importance of those designs is explained in Cinderella: John Macfarlane's Designs.

In his programme notes, Mark Monahan observed that many choreographers had created versions of Cinderella, but it was Sir Frederick Ashton's for the Royal Ballet that "cast the longest shadow". It was important to Bintley that his company's Cinderella should be distinctive.  One important difference is that Bintley's stepsisters are danced by two young women, whereas Sir Frederick and Sir Robert Helpmann danced the stepsisters in the tradition of the English pantomime dame. As the stepsisters' video shows, those young women were quite beastly to Cinderella and, sometimes, even to each other. Ashton and Helpmann were absurd but far from menacing.  Bintley retained the fairy godmother, tradesmen and seasonal fairies (or at least the seasons) in his ballet, introducing also a frog coachman and lizard attendants.

Beatrice Parma danced the title role with flair and grace.  One of the most satisfying moments in the show is when she momentarily turned on her tormentors with a broom.  Others were, of course, her arrival at the ball, her duet with the prince, her producing the missing slipper and her final dance with the prince. Enrique Bejarano Vidal was an impressive prince with his sweeping lifts and powerful jumps.  Isabella Howard was a dazzling fairy godmother.  Having seen Oscar Kempsey-Fagg at An Evening with Ashton on 24 Jan 2023 in Elmhurst Ballet School, which I discussed in An "Evening with Ashton" and the Launch of an English Junior Company on 30 Jan 2023, it is good to see his progress in the company.

Sunderland has a beautiful Edwardian theatre capable of accommodating an audience of 2,200.  It was opened by Vesta Tilly in 1907.  It has a massive stage and excellent acoustics.  It is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Sid James and Vesta Tilly.  Neither spectre appeared on my visit.   Sunderland has a population of just over 277,000.  It used to be known for shipbuilding.  Nowadays, it is better known for making Nissan cars.   It has a university, a football club and beaches.

Mack and Mair and Adams too at the Liverpool Empire

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English National Ballet Swan Lake Liverpool Empire 1 Oct 2022  19:30

On the last day of its season at the Liverpool Empire, English National Ballet cast Brooklyn Mack as Siegfried and Natasha Mair as Odette-Odile.  it was the first time those artists had performed those roles with English National Ballet though Wikipedia states that Mack had danced Siegfried with the Washinton Ballet and Mair's website states that she had danced Odette-Odile in Moscow and Turkey.

It is always interesting to watch a dancer perform one of the great classical roles for the first time, particularly at the Empire whose audiences can be loud and demonstrative.  I am glad to say that the crowd loved them.  Several gave them a standing ovation. In the lift of the multistorey next to Lime Street station, a lady purred "Didn't you just love them" eliciting ascent and contentment.

Mack is an American.  He trained at the Kirov Academy in Washington DC. He danced with Joffrey Ballet, Orlando Ballet, the Washington Ballet and American Ballet Theatre before joining English National Ballet in 2015.  He is listed as a guest artist on the company's website rather than as a principal or soloist.  He is exciting to watch as the early clip shows;  muscular, athletic and tightly self-controlled.. He was particularly impressive in the solo part of the pas de deux of the seduction scene of the third act.

Mair is from Vienna.  That is where she trained and began her career.  A clue as to what may have drawn her to England is that her favourite role is Lise in Ashton's La Fille mal gardée.  it is not hard to imagine her excelling in that role from her monologue in Natascha Mair: our new Principal dancer | English National Ballet.  The roles of Odette and Odile are quite different and not all ballerinas can carry off both with ease.  Mair is one who can.  Delicate and vulnerable in the white acts and hard as nails in the black, she is as accomplished an actor as she is a dancer.

Mack and Mair danced in Derek Deane's production of Swan Lake which has been in the company's repertoire for quite some time.  I have seen it several times and know it well.  It has several features that I love like the prologue where Odette is turned into a swan and the Neapolitan dance which Wayne Sleep and Jennifer Penney made their own.  It provides plenty of opportunities for virtuosity in such roles as the pas de trois in act 1, the petits cygnes in the second and the divertissements in the third.   Actually, one artist other than Mack and Mair who did stand out in the show and that was Precious Adams.  She worked hard in Liverpool as a lead swan in acts II and IV and princess in act III,   She was recently interviewed in The Guardian under the headline: Precious Adams on balancing ballet and computer science: ‘you don’t want to be 45 with zero credentials’  

 

 This was the first live performance by English National Ballet that I had seen since the 70th anniversary gala on 18 Jan 2020 just before the pandemic.  It was reassuring to see it back on tour apparently in good shape.  It will soon get a new artistic director (see  English National Ballet announces Aaron Watkin as new artistic director  The Guardian 24 Aug 2022),   If the Semperoper Ballett's class and rehearsal of David Dawson's Romeo and Juliet are any kind of indicator, ENB will be in very good hands.

English National Ballet's Swan Lake: Kanehara conquers the Empire

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English National Ballet Swan Lake Liverpool Empire 23 Nov 2018, 19:30

There are a lot of shows that call themselves Swan Lake but unless they turn on the impersonation of Odette, the deception of Siegfried and the breaking of the spell they are not Swan Lake.  You can strip out all the divertissements, have swans of both or either gender, dispense with feathers and tutus, dump them in a tank of water and even substitute a Kalashnikov for a crossbow but so long as you have an Odette-Odile danced by the same artist it will still be Swan Lake.  Take her away and it is something else even if you keep cygnets and feathery white tutus.   It may still be a good show (and many of them such as Graeme Murphy's are) but give it another name.  Monkeying with such a perfect piece of theatre really makes my blood boil far more even than stick toting wilis in disused garment factories

On Friday I saw a very good Swan Lake at the Liverpool Empire and what made it good was the performance of Rina Kanehara in the lead role.  Where did she come from?  I must have seen her before as she is a soloist but she has never grabbed my attention as she did on Friday night.  She was a lovely Odette. As delicate as Dresden porcelain.  As light as a lily.  And I felt that she was living Odette and not just dancing it.  How could she possibly change into the imperious, scheming, seductive magician's daughter of the black act after just 20 minutes interval?

But change she did.  When she reappeared in her black blue flecked tutu she was magnificent.  Clearly, she was the same woman but quite a different character and she seemed to live that role too. She was very strong, robust and as indestructible and flexible as wire appearing to deliver Legnani's 32 fouettés effortlessly.   The English National Ballet has a star in Kanehara and I will seek out her performances from now on.

A good Odette needs a good Siegfried and the company produced one in Ken Saruhashi.  Like Kanehara he is a soloist though it appears from his biography that he has danced leading roles before.  He is tall, slender and very strong.  He lifted Odette as if she were weightless and some of his jumps in the betrothal pas de deux drew my breath away.  The crowd loved him.  I heard loud Russian type growls from behind me in the auditorium, the sort you hear regularly in live streaming from Moscow or even occasionally in Covent Garden but hardly ever outside London.

A lot of dancers impressed me on Friday night and it would be invidious to single out any for special praise. It was good to see Jane Haworth as Siegried's mum and Michael Coleman as his tutor and master of ceremonies again.  I liked Erik Woodhouse, Anjuli Hudson and Adela Ramirez in the pas de trois.  Ramirez was also one of the cygnets with Alice Bellini, Katja Khaniukova and Emilia Cadorin all of whom were good.  Hudson delighted me with her Neapolitan dance in Act III where she was partnered by Barry Drummond.  This is a delightful piece which I am sure Sir Frederick Ashton created for the Royal Ballet for it has all his hallmarks on it.  In fact, I remember Wayne Sleep in that role with (I believe) Jennifer Penney.  The Royal Ballet no longer seem to do it and it is good to know that our other great national company does.  Finally, I congratulate Isabelle Brouwers and Tiffany Hedman as lead swans.  I noticed Skyler Martin whom I remember from the Dutch National Ballet and it is good to welcome him to these shores.

English National Ballet's website quotes The Sunday Express in describing the production as "One of the best productions of Swan Lake you are likely to see."  I don't agree with that newspaper on much but I think that its dance critic was right on this point.  I have seen a lot of Swan Lakes in nearly 60 years of regular ballet going including Liam Scarlett's and the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's with Denis Rodkin this year but this is definitely the best Swan Lake of those three and one of the best of all time. I like Peter Farmer's designs and the ENB Philharmonic under Huddersfield trained Gavin Sutherland. I always give him a cheer for that though I would anyway as he is good.

Altogether it was an excellent show in a fine auditorium with an appreciative crowd.  This is not the first time I have seen an outstanding Swan Lake at the Empire.  David Dawson's very different but equally good production for Scottish Ballet was performed there (see Empire Blanc: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2916).  The Empire's audience seems passionate about dance and quite a few rose to their feet at the curtain call.  I think that the crowd lifted the dancers on Friday.  It was everything a night at the ballet should be.

A Liverpudlian Whittington

A 19th Century Panto: Dan Leno and Herbert Campbell in Babes
 in the Wood, 1897

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Dick Whittingon, Liverpool Empire 26 Dec 2015

The first taste of ballet for many Brits is not The Nutcracker or Swan Lake in the Royal Opera House or some other great theatre but a Christmas pantomime in the local rep, town hall or community centre. A pantomime is a bit like a Christmas pudding in that it has just about everything thrown in (see the trailer for Dick Whittington at the Liverpool Empire)  A typical production is based loosely on a fairy tale or other popular story. There is a lot of singing and dancing, slapstick comedy including a lot of topical jokes some of which are quite blue and a great deal of shouting from the audience. No matter what the title of the entertainment there is always a man dressed as a woman known as "the dame", a villain, a comic, a principal girl and a principal boy who is also often played by an attractive young woman (see Pantomime Wikipedia).

Although pantomimes are performed in other English speaking countries they are most popular in the UK. They are part of the British Christmas like crackers, turkey with all the trimmings, mince pies and Christmas pud.  I remember my first pantomime very well. It was Babes in the Wood at the Palace Theatre and starred George Formby. My parents, Northern exiles, were terrified of my becoming what they called despairingly a "cockney clod" with whining vowels, an inability to distinguish between "f" and "th" and a regrettable tendency to insert an "r" into phonetically clear words like "grass" and "class". No doubt they reasoned that a dose of Formby would remind me of my Mancunuan roots but I am afraid that the only impression that he made on me was that he was not very funny because he was always laughing at his own jokes.

However, I was enchanted by the fairy who danced on pointe in a brilliant tutu.  Ballet in England has plenty of overlaps with pantomime. Think of Widow Simone in Ashton's La Fille mal gardée, villains like the Mouse King and Rothbart in The Nutcracker and Swan Lake and the sword fights in Romeo and Juliet. Some ballets like Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty even share the same plot. And in the Liverpool Empire's Dick Whittington  my ballet teacher, Mark Hindle was in the cast.

My excuse for watching the show was that I was hosting Christmas this year for a little lad from London who can run like the wind and leap like a frog. We were badly delayed by a partial closure of the M62 which required a detour into central Manchester to pick up the M602 from Salford and arrived just as Dick and his cat were about to be banished from London for (allegedly) purloining Sarah the Cook's life savings. On the way back to Liverpool the Fairy Fazakerley (Sally Lindsay) revealed Dick's future in a dream on Whittington Hill. Thrice Lord Mayor not of London but of the infinitely greater city (at least in the view of the audience and no doubt also that of the indomitable Janet McNulty) of

LIVERPOOL.

Dick (Kurtis Stacey) enlists on board the Good Ship Lollipop which belongs to the father (Pete Price) of the lovely Alice (Leanne Campbell). The ship is wrecked off the coast of Morocco by a storm conjured up by the wicked King Rat (Warren Donnelly) and the audience are treated to a 3D cinema animation of the ocean deep. Sarah (Eric Potts) is stranded on the beach in her underwear. "I'm glad to see you again" says Dick "but perhaps not so much of you" when the adventurers are reunited. Fortunately she finds pantaloons and turban as the company belted out Jai Ho. Gita who once danced Bollywood on the stage of the West Yorkshire Playhouse was in her element. Morocco was infested with rats, a problem that Tommy the cat (Hayley Goold) resolved in no time. There was an epic sword fight in which King Rat escaped the fate of Tybalt. Dick won the lovely Alica and the company took its bow.

There was plenty of good dancing in various styles. Most of the dancers came from Dolphin Dance Studio which hosts KNT Danceworks in Liverpool where Mark HIndle used to teach for part of the week. Having danced with KNT in Liverpool Town Hall (It's not every Class that you can use Lord Canning's Eyes for Spotting 9 Sept 2014) and also with students from Liverpool in the Swan Lake intensive (see KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 1 18 Aug 2015) I was so proud of those young men and women. Their choreographer, Beverley Norris-Edmunds, deserves an enormous bouquet  for her trouble.

My guests and I met Mark after the show. He graciously accepted our praise and my thanks for all that I had learned from him. My little grandson manqué performed his act for him. Mark told his parents that he should try ballet which is what I have been saying for ages. Perhaps they will act on the advice now they have heard it from a pro rather than a doting granny.

Yesterday was the first time that I had set foot in the Liverpool Empire. It is a splendid theatre. Arriving late we were shepherded into row Q of the stalls but still had a magnificent view. The acoustics were excellent. When Idle Jack (Liam Mellor) invited four children on to the stage we heard  them perfectly. Incidentally, one of those children (a little girl called Summer) was as entertaining as any member of the cast. She wielded a drumstick at Mellor with real attitude as Jack gently teased her. Scottish Ballet is coming to the Empire with David Dawson's Swan Lake between 1 and 4 June. I shall be there and if you want to see a really good show in one of the best auditoriums in England so, too, will you.