Scottish Ballet to revive Dawson's Swan Lake

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One of the most remarkable performances that I have attended was David Dawson's Swan Lake at Liverpool Empire on 3 June 2016.  My review of that show has turned out to be my most popular post attracting nearly 47,000 hits, over 10 times more than my next most popular article.  The reason I love this work so much is that it is innovative and original but still recognizably Swan Lake (see the synopsis). 

I am therefore delighted to announce that Scottish Ballet has announced that this beautiful ballet is to be revived (see Swan Lake The Classic retold for new Generation on Scottish Ballet's website). The work will open at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh on 9 April 2020 and stay there until 11 April. It will then visit Aberdeen, Inverness and Glasgow finishing at the Theatre Royal on 2 May 2020 (see the Places, Dates and Times page).

The dancers expected to take part in the show include Aisling Brangan, Barnaby Rook Bishop, Claire Souet, Evan Loudon and Thomas Edwards.

This is one of the best productions of Swan Lake that I have ever seen and in Scottish Ballet's brilliant repertoire this work shines brightest.

Danza Contemporánea de Cuba

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In Double Latin  7 Jan 2017 I mentioned the forthcoming tour of the UK by Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. While writing Beautiful Ballet Black 14 Jan 2017 I remembered that Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, who choreographed A Streetcar Named Desire for Scottish Ballet and Little Red Riding Hood for Ballet Black, will also contribute Reversible to the Cuban tour.

The above trailer gives us a taste of what to expect from in the programme. There is a bit more detail including comments from each of the choreographers and two of the dancers in The Spirit of the Cubans | Danza Contemporánea de Cuba UK Tour 2017.

The tour starts at Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on 14 and 15 Feb and moves on to the Lowry 17 and 18 Feb, Theatre Royal Newcastle 21 and 22 Feb, Barbican 23 Feb, Millennium Stadium 28 Feb and 1 March, Theatre Royal Plymouth 3 and 4 March, Brighton Dome 7 and 8 March, Eden Court, Inverness 10 March, Festival Theatre Edinburgh 14 and 15 March and Marlowe Theatre Canterbury 17 and 18 March.

A Room for Dancing

I was not the only blogger in the Silvio Pellico Theatre at Trecate last week. Monica Bragagnoli who describes herself as "a simple but passionate ballet viewer" has a splendid blog called A Room for Dancing. Her latest article features the Gala for Alessia and contains some lovely pictures of the performance (see Gala per Alessia - Cristiano Principati e Giovanni Danzatori - Teatro Silvio Pellico Trecate 28 June 2016).

Other recent posts include the end of year show of La Scala's ballet and music students (see Accademia del Teatro alla Scala - Scuola de Ballo e Orchestra - Milano 13 June 2016), David Dawson's Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet in Inverness 6 May 2016 and the Vienna State Ballet in Vicenza 10 April 2016.

Monica started the review of Gala Les Etoiles which included the Royal Ballet's Thiago Soares and
Marianela Nuñez on 10 Jan 2010. She is an excellent photographer and her photos are exquisite. I have included the publication in my blog roll.

Hampson's Cinderella

The Forth Road Bridge

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I had planned to see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella with a good friend from university who lives in Perth but I received an email from her yesterday calling off our outing because of the horrendous congestion on the roads and railways as a result of the temporary closure of the Forth Road Bridge. She and all the other motorists who have been inconvenienced by those emergency maintenance works may be amused by The Scottish Cinderella though I doubt that she would want her granddaughter to watch it just yet. Some of the language would make even the ratings at the Rosyth naval base blush.

Parents and grandparents in Scotland and indeed the rest of the United Kingdom may prefer to let their little ones watch this trailer or better still take them to see the show which opens at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh tonight. It remains at that venue for the rest of this month and then goes on tour to Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness where I hope my friend will be able to catch it.

This is the ballet that Christopher Hampson created for the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2007 to considerable critical acclaim. Hampson mentioned this ballet when he spoke at the State of the Art Panel Discussion: Narrative Dance in Ballet on 20 June 2015 (see My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015). He described it as a study of grief which is certainly consistent with the synopsis.

This has been a bumper year for Cinderella with productions from Ballet Cymru (Ballet Cymru's Conderella 15 June 2015) and the Dutch National Ballet (Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015) following on from David Nixon's last year (see Cinderella - even better 30 Nov 2014 and Northern Ballet's Cinderella - a Triumph 27 Dec 2013). I liked all those shows but I think my favourite up to now has been Ballet Cymru's. However, Scottish Ballet (or STB as it was called when I first knew it) was the first ballet company that I got to know and love and you know what they say about first love.

In my review of Northern Ballet's Cinderella in Sheffield I commended Matthew Broadbent who amused us all with his antics as a performing bear. Broadbent has now joined Scottish Ballet and it will be very good to see him again.

Returning to the Forth Road Bridge there used to be a permanent tailback across the Forth Road Bridge when they charged a toll - especially after decimalization when motorists had to fish around their pockets or handbags for a half penny as the half crown had ceased to be legal tender. I remember some medical students picked up a skeleton in Edinburgh and plonked it in the front passenger seat of a left hand drive car. They inserted the toll money in the skeleton's fingers and waited for the cashier to collect it. Feeling the bones she looked up and got the shock of her life. Her temper was not improved on being told by one of the students that the motorist had died waiting for his turn in the queue.

Scottish Ballet Costume Appeal

Between 13 Dec 2014 and 14 Feb 2015 Scottish Ballet are touring Scotland and the North of England with Peter Darrell's The Nutcracker. This was a sumptuous production when first performed as  can be seen from the photos on the 1970s web page of the website of the Peter Darrell Trust. Recreating this magnificent ballet does not come cheap and Scottish Ballet are appealing for contributions to the cost of the costumes.

You can pay £35 for a party dress

£70 for a rodent

£150 for a snow flake

£300 for Clara

£500 for the Sugar Plum

£1,000 for the Nutcracker

Whatever you want to

pay for anything else

The contributions received so far have been acknowledged on the costume appeal website and will be recorded in the programme. You can contribute to the appeal by clicking this link and filling out the form.

If you want to see the ballet in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen or Inverness you can click this link here for details. If you want to see it in Newcastle you can click here. I do hope Scottish Ballet will take The Nutcracker to the rest of the UK. It has a lot of fans throughout the country, particularly London where there is a massive audience for dance and Bristol where the company began.

If you want to learn more about this production there are pre-show talks and post show discussions in the theatres where the ballet is performed (see "Get Closer"). There are also films, photos of the costumes and rehearsals and details of workshops for kids and adults in Edinburgh and Glasgow which one little boy in London would just love if he could only get to Scotland.

I learnt to love ballet in Scotland which is why Scottish Ballet occupies a special place in my affections (see Scottish Ballet and Ballet West 3 Oct 2014). I do hope folk will support the costume appeal generously.