English National Ballet's Reimagining Classics Panel Discussion

Tamara Rojo
Artistic Director and Lead Principal of the English National Ballet

Author: Erik Doble
Source: Wikipedia
Creative Commons Licence

In Livestream: Reimagining Classics Panel Discussion 9 Nov 2016 English National Ballet's blog, Tamara Rojo said:

"Ballet, and art, has the potential of interpretation and reinterpretation, and this is vital to drive our art form forward. My vision for English National Ballet has been to introduce new works that push the boundaries of ballet, for both the Company and audiences, while at the same time honouring and reinvigorating traditional works that have become so loved over the years.”

The topic was discussed briefly on BBC Radio 4's Front Row by the critic, Luke Jennings, and the Artistic Director of Northern Ballet, David Nixon. I mentioned their conversation in Of Bikes and Buses 25 Oct 2016. I applaud Tamara Rojo's aspiration though I am not persuaded that Akram Khan's Giselle  achieved it (see (Akram Khan's Giselle 28 Sept 2016).

However, there will be an opportunity to consider the topic in more detail tonight in a panel discussion between Tamara Rojo and Gavin Sutherland of English National Ballet, Robert Icke, the Almeida Theatre's Associate Director and Mark Evans of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The event is restricted to Friends and Patrons of the company but the discussion will be live streamed via its Facebook page from 19:30 this evening. Further information is available in the blog article which I have mentioned.

The post adds that although attendance at the meeting is restricted to Friends and Patrons members of the public can ask a question via twitter:

"The discussion will also conclude with a Q&A, so we are asking anyone that has a question for the panel to tweet us using #AskENB handling us in (@ENBallet)."

This is a topic that interests me greatly and I am very grateful to English National Ballet for arranging this discussion and opening it up to the public through Facebook. Readers will know that I mentioned the topic again very recently in my review of Darius James and Amy Doughty's Romeo a Juliet  which is a work that does meet Tamara Rojo's objective in my judgment (see A Romeo and Juliet for our Times  7 Nov 2016). In that review I also mentioned David Dawson's Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet which also got it right and Ted Brandsen's Coppelia for the Dutch National Ballet which I have not yet seen but also seems to work. I do not know whether any of the panellists have seen any of those works or whether any of the creators of any of those ballets can listen to tonight's discussion but I do hope so.

I shall certainly be listening and I may well tweet a question if I get an opportunity. Finally, as I have been following ENB since 1955 I really ought to become one of its Friends soon. I love the company at least as much as I do any other.

Editorial - the Future of Terpsichore

Jane Lambert

I started blogging nearly 10 years ago because I had been commissioned by Gower-Ashgate to write a book for entrepreneurs and small business owners on enforcing intellectual property rights. Writing articles for the blog helped me compile the manuscript for Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights A Concise Guide for Businesses, Innovative and Creative Individuals which was published in 2009.

I continued the blog after I had submitted my manuscript and it became very big indeed with thousands of hits. Some of my posts, such as my case note on the Red Bus photograph case, went viral. I found two kinds of readers: patent and trade mark attorneys and specialist intellectual property lawyers who wanted to discuss every last detail of the latest case or enactment and artists, designers, inventors and business owners who wanted to know about changes in the law that might affect them personally. For the latter group I set up regional blogs such as IP Yorkshire and IP North West.

Ballet scores, choreography notations, performances by dancers and musicians and films and broadcasts of ballets are intellectual assets which the law protects with intellectual property rights. In discussing those rights I found myself inadvertently writing reviews of performances by Northern Ballet for IP Yorkshire and IP North West. Similarly, dance studios are small businesses so I found myself writing about the studio where I took my first dance lessons in Interesting Yorkshire Businesses No. 1: The Base Studios Huddersfield.

Now not every lawyer is a dance fan and few dance fans have any interest in the law - particularly not the very esoteric area in which I practise - so I started Terpsichore in February 2013. That, too, has grown very big and I now find myself writing and tweeting almost as much about dance as I do about the law. As my discussions on legal topics can't be much fun for dancers and I have been told many times that my discussions on dance classes are a bit of a turn off for many lawyers I have decided to separate the two. I will still tweet about great performances and great classes as "nipclaw" just as I will throw in my 5p worth about business, economics, politics and religion on that account but I will channel most of my dance talk through my new "Terpsichore" twitter account and Facebook group.

Over the last two years I have noticed a number of unmet needs for dance fans, dancers, dance teachers, dance schools, dance studios and even dance companies which have given me ideas for small spin-off businesses under the Terpsichore brand. If I ever have time to get any of those projects off the ground I will announce them in this blog and through the new social media accounts.

I should like to wish all my readers a very happy New Year.

Ballet Black: "we don't talk about stuff, we just do it."

Cassa Pancho, Source: BBC Ballet Black opens up dance world 11 Oct 2011

Cassa Pancho, the founder and artistic director of Ballet Black has just posted a very thoughtful and interesting article to her company's Facebook page. It discusses a number of issues including race and ballet which she generally tries to avoid for several reasons, one of which is that Ballet Black does not talk about stuff it just does it. Rather than comment on the article I urge you to read it for yourself.

I should however like to develop one point that Cassa Pancho makes in her article which is that:

"the future lies in young children attending ballet classes around the country, who are not yet old enough to be judged as professionals." 

Now this is true of all dancers and not just those of African or South Asian heritage but Ballet Black helps to promote diversity in ballet in a rather special way. It runs a a junior ballet school in Shepherd's Bush "where children of all colours, creed, shape and gender are welcome" and an associate programme for "vocational dance school, professional dancers, retired dancers, in-between-jobs dancers and people who aren't pros but love ballet and have enough skill to keep up" open to people of every colour which "are taught by people who excel in their field AND are of black or Asian descent." By so doing the company is not just offering inspiration to kids of all classes and cultures through its principal dancers, it is creating an environment in which ballet is perceived less as something that is elitist and European and more as an art form that folk of all races, nationalities, religions, classes and cultures can own.

Ballet Black does great work which deserves the public's support and the public can support that work through the company's Just Giving page.

However, Ballet Black works in an advanced country. As there is no reason to suppose that talent is concentrated in any particular country or ethnic group there must be far more folk with talent that is never developed in countries or communities where there are no ballet schools or even companies than those who rise to the top in countries like the UK where such institutions exist.

One such dancer is Michaela DePrince of the Junior Company of the National Ballet of the Netherlands.  I have written about her in two articles "No Holds Barred" 4 Oct 2013 and Michaela DePrince 4 April 2013. The reason I have taken an interest in her - other than that I have been impressed by the videos of her that I have seen on YouTube - is that she comes from Sierra Leone and that is a country I know better than most as I was married for nearly 30 years to a Sierra Leonean. According to her video she was attracted to ballet by a photo of a dancer that she found in a magazine outside her orphanage and she was given the opportunity to study ballet only by the happenstance that she was adopted by folk from the USA where her talent could be identified and nurtured.

A charity that is working in another African country is Anno's Africa. I blogged about their work in Mathare, a particularly deprived area of Nairobi in "What can be achieved by a good teacher" on 3 March 2013. In that article I wrote:

"In many ways the kids in this class have had the worst possible start in life but in one very important respect they could not have had a better one. Look at the teacher, Mike Wamaya. He is good."

According to Anno Africa's blog the company now has another teacher from the United States who has danced professionally. I have Googled her and found a YouTube video that suggests she is very good.  Would it not be lovely if one of the students from Mathare presented him or herself to Cassa Pancho or indeed David Nixon, David Bintley or Christopher Hampson for audition one of these days!

Anno's Africa also has a Facebook page and a Just Giving page if you are feeling generous but please continue to support Ballet Black and all our other schools and companies as well.