Up to t'Smoke

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Usually at this time of the year Northern Ballet takes a slot at the Linbury. Joanna Goodman saw them there last year and reviewed their performance in Mixed Programme with a Sweet Centre 14 May 2015. Unfortunately the Linbury is closed this year but Londoners can still see them in the capital.

On Mondayon 23 May 2016  Javier Torres will be the guest of honour at the London Ballet Circle. I will be in the front row of the audience to hear him speak.

Between 31 May and 1 June Northern Ballet will dance Jane Eyre at the Richmond Theatre. I am giving a talk on IP law and fashion in London on the 2 June so I will be in the audience on the 1st. My parents moved to Surrey from Manchester when I was very young and I spent most of my childhood and adolescence in that part of England. It is a lovely theatre overlooking the Green and I have fond memories of pantomimes in that auditorium.

One of the performances by Northern Ballet that I most enjoyed last year was Jonathan Watkins's Northern Trilogy and, in particular, Yorkshire Pudding.  For me that was one of the highlights of the Sapphire gala (see my reviews in Sapphire 15 March 2015 and Between Friends - Northern Ballet's Mixed Programme 10 May 2015). Watkins will be London Ballet Circle's guest on 6 June 2016. Here is a video of Watkins from last year (see Jonathan Watkins on Working with Northern Ballet).

After that interview Watkins created 1984 which I don't like anything like as much (see My First Impressions of 1984 12 Sept 2015, Watkins on 1984 14 Sept 2015 and 1984 Second Time Round  24 Oct 2015). However, Londoners will get the chance to judge for themselves as it will be at Sadler's Wells between 24 and 28 May 2016.

Batley and Leebolt

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I have just received the following email from Mr Alex Wright, Development Officer: Friends, Patrons & Legacies of Northern Ballet:

"Dear Miss Lambert
Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley
As valued supporters of Northern Ballet, we wanted you to be amongst the first to know that at the end of the season, Premier Dancers Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley are to take a leave of absence from the Company to pursue new opportunities.
The pair, who have formed a dynamic dance partnership under the directorship of David Nixon OBE, will return as Resident Guest Artists to perform in Northern Ballet’s Wuthering Heights at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in September, and our tour of Romeo and Juliet from September to October.
Artistic Director David Nixon said: ‘Martha and Tobias have had an extraordinary journey with Northern Ballet from very young dancers in the corps, to the leading artists they are today. Through their hard work and commitment they have made a significant contribution to both my work and the Company as individuals and as a creative and inspirational partnership. There comes a time, especially when a dancer has been in the same place for a long time, that artists need to go out and discover new things which will enrich them and take them to new heights. Both Martha and Tobias are at this place in their lives and I respect their decision to broaden their life experience. This is not about saying goodbye forever and I am therefore pleased that they will both still be doing some performances with the Company next season. We all wish them the very best.’
We are delighted that there will be opportunities to see both Martha and Tobias perform with Northern Ballet throughout 2016, and I hope you will join me in wishing them well with their future endeavours.
Best wishes
Alex"

Mr Wright does not specify what those new opportunities are and I have been unable to find out despite scouring all the usual on-line publications and social media but whatever they are doing I should like to offer my congratulations to Mr. Batley and Ms. Leebolt and wish them both well for the future.

While on the subject of Northern Ballet I should also like to mention that Javier Torres will be the London Ballet Circle's guest on 23 May and choreographer Jonathan Watkins will be the Circle's guest on 6 June 2016 (see 70 Years of the London Ballet Circle 10 May 2016).

70 Years of the London Ballet Circle

National Liberal Club

Author Debonairchap

Source Wikipedia
Creative Commons Library

I have just returned from a most delightful evening at the National Liberal Club. The occasion was a talk and party to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the formation of the London Ballet Circle. The Circle must have been formed just a few weeks after Sadler's Wells Ballet danced The Sleeping Beauty at Covent Garden (see The Sleeping Beauty (1946) Royal Opera House Collections On-line) and like the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School it owes much to its first patron, Dame Ninette de Valois.

I can't tell you what was said in the discussion because a rule similar to the Chatham House Rule applies to meetings of the London Ballet Circle but I can say that many of the great names of British ballet contributed to that discussion or were in the audience to hear it. Before the discussion began, our chairperson, Susan Dalgetty Ezra announced that Kevin O'Hare and Cassa Pancho had been appointed Vice-Presidents of the Circle. The latter announcement delighted me so much that I clapped so vigorously that a lady in the front tow turned round to see who was responsible for the racket. Cassa Pancho and her delightful dancers are among my very favourite people in the arts. Indeed anywhere.

At the party I met some of my heroes and heroines. There was Dame Beryl Gray whose company's performances of The Nutcracker in the Festival Hall every Christmas attracted me to ballet when I was very young. Sir Peter Wright whom I had met for the first time in Budapest on 17 April was there too. So, too was Dame Monica Mason, one of my all time favourite ballerinas. Also, Gary Avis, the best Drosselmeyer ever, as gracious and handsome off stage as he is on it. I wish him all the best with Dance for Suffolk which I hope to review in Terpsichore. Last but not least Cassa Pancho whose company I had seen twice at the weekend and I take this opportunity to congratulate her.

There were warm words for great names who were not there. Among the people I spoke to Ernst Meisner's occurred more than once. As one of his fans, it was gratifying to note the enormous affection as well as respect with and in which he is held in this country.

To start its next 70 years The London Ballet Circle has arranged two Borealian treats. It has invited Javier Torres to speak on 23 May 2016 and Jonathan Watkins who created the delightful Northern Trilogy and 1984 for Northern Ballet will speak on 6 June. I shall be there to cheer them on.

1984 Second Time Round

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Northern Ballet, 1984, Palace Theatre, Manchester, 17 Oct 2015, 19:30

As I had expected, I liked Northern Ballet's 1984 very much more the second time around. There are two reasons for that. The first is that I knew what to look out for having seen the show in Leeds on 11 Sept 2015 (see My First Impressions of 1984 12 Sept 2915). The second is that Isaac Lee-Baker and Dreda Blow came very close to my picture of Winston Smith and Julia.

There is only so much that the senses can absorb when one attends the theatre.  The first time I saw the show I concentrated on the plot in order to understand the ballet rather than the sound and movement through which the story was expressed.  There was a lot of movement in this ballet - the choreography, of course, but also spectacular electronic displays on a massive "telescreen". Knowing the sequence of the ballet I was better able to appreciate Jonathan Watkins's choreography, Andrzej Goulding's telescreen, Simon Daw's sets and costumes, Alex Baranowski's score and some exquisite dancing.

Lee-Baker as Smith and Blow as Julia were perfect casting in my recollection of Orwell's novel. Smith is a young chap, very impressionable and somewhat naive - the sort who might have been turned by Stalin had he worked in the Foreign Office in the late 1940s rather than the Ministry of Truth in 1984. Such a role requires a young dancer but one with considerable ability. A role tailor made for Lee-Baker who had triumphed as Friar Lawrence in Maillot's Romeo and Juliet earlier in the year (see Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good way 8 March 2015) and as Wilson in Gatsby last year (see Northern Ballet at its best: The Great Gatsby in Bradford 16 Nov 2014).

As I recall the novel, Julia is a temptress and I intend it as a compliment when I say that Blow was a very sexy lady. She is another dancer that I began to appreciate for the first time in Romeo and Juliet.  When I saw her as Juliet I wrote:

"Casting Blow for the role was an inspiration. She was a perfect Juliet. Playful and feisty. Loving but conflicted. Brave but fearful. Blow is elevated to my pantheon of favourites."

Julia is a very different role from Juliet but Blow was an excellent choice. She is perhaps Northern's best actor. She was sultry. She was seductive. She was my idea of Julia.

The third leading character in Watkins's ballet is O'Brien, the senior apparatchik who tricks Smith and Julia into dropping their guard and then betrays them. Javier Torres danced that role in September and he was excellent. He saved that show for me on that occasion.  Last Saturday it was Ashley Dixon who was a very different O'Brien but no less convincing. He projected menace and oiliness even in the privacy of his apartment when entertaining his young quaries with a silent telescreen.

It was good to see some of my favourites in the company - Hiranao Takehashi as Charrington, Jeremy Curnier as O'Brien's assistant, Victoria Sibson as the lead female prole and Rachael Gillespie, Abigail Prudames and Mlindi Kulashe who danced in the crowd scenes as party faithful and proles but still shone - as did all in the cast last Saturday night.

Orwell's satire is not an obvious choice for a ballet. In the Q & A that followed the show in Leeds on 11 Sept 2015 Watkins was asked why he had chosen that work as the subject of a ballet. He replied that

"he had read the book as a teenager and had been affected by it. He had contemplated how it could be translated into dance for some time. The same had happened with the Ken Loach film Kes which he first saw about the same time. That film resonated with him because it was set in the area in which he had spent his childhood. Last year he had the chance of stage it for The Crucible in Sheffield. By staging Kes and 1984 he had achieved two longstanding ambitions."

As you can see from the synopsis Watkins followed Orwell pretty faithfully. The sets, costumes, music, choreography, dancing came together beautifully. I don't think that this will ever be one of my favourite ballets but it it one that I now understand, appreciate and recommend.

The company will perform 1984 today in Sheffield for one last time in the North before they take it to the rest of the country. I had hoped to see it in Sheffield with Giuliano Contadini and Antoinette Brooks-Daw in the leading roles but they were dancing on the nights when Jane Tucker teaches the improvers and I was due to see Rambert at The Alhambra. Perhaps I can catch that cast at Sadler's Wells in May. Londoners tend to like Northern Ballet perhaps even more than we Mancunians and I am sure they will enjoy this show.

Watkins on 1984

The world in 1984

Author MichaelsProgramming

Source: Wikipedia

After Northern Ballet's performance of 1984 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on Friday Jonathan Watkins agreed to answer questions from members of the audience.  The session took place in the Quarry auditorium where the ballet had been informed.

I had read up about Watkins earlier in the year because I liked his A Northern Trilogy and seen a number of videos in which he had appeared on YouTube. I was aware that he came from South Yorkshire, that he had trained at the Royal Ballet School and that he had danced with the Royal Ballet between 2003 and 2013. It occurred to me that Ernst Meisner, one of my favourite choreographers, would have been one of his contemporaries.

The session was opened by a lady whose name I forget but who I believe must have been Selina McGonagle for she introduced herself as Northern Ballet's Director of Learning. As she was chairing the session she reserved the right to ask the first question which was on how the concept of the ballet had changed since her first discussion with Watkins about the ballet several months ago. Watkins replied that there had been change largely to reflect the input of the dancers whom he praised very highly and the other members of the creative team. I got the impression that he had an outline in his mind but the ballet had developed organically.

As the chair had warned us that we had time for only 3 or 4 questions I stuck my hand up next.  As I said in My First Impressions of 1984 12 Sept 2015 the ballet had a very retro feel and I asked him whether that was intentional. I am not sure whether he asked for amplification or whether I volunteered it but I was thinking specifically of Miracle in the Gorbals and Job. Watkins knew Job but not Miracle even though it had been re-staged recently by Gillian Lynne.  He replied that that had not been his intention but he had been exposed to many influences through his training at the Royal Ballet School and his work in the company. If he was influenced  by anything it was the cinema. He mentioned several films that he admired including Kes which he had translated into dance and the Lego Movie. Indeed he mentioned the Lego Movie several times in different contexts in the Q & A.

The next question was on why Watkins had chosen 1984  and whether he had any other works in the pipeline. He replied that he had read the book as a teenager and had been affected by it. He had contemplated how it could be translated into dance for some time. The same had happened with the Ken Loach film Kes which he first saw about the same time. That film resonated with him because it was set in the area in which he had spent his childhood. Last year he had the chance of stage it for The Crucible in Sheffield. By staging Kes and 1984 he had achieved two longstanding ambitions. He did have other projects in mind but he did not want to announce what they were for the time being.

A lady behind me congratulated him on his love scenes which she described as "erotic". He acknowledged her praise and remarked that those are scenes that many people like best.

He was asked about his collaboration with the composer and whether he specified the music he needed. He confirmed that that was the way he worked.  He described the music as "a character in itself."

A gentleman congratulated him on his use of colour.  Watkins replied how the colours of the party members and proles had been chosen. They started with brown and developed into orangey reds.

A lady with a North American accent who was there with her daughter mentioned her daughter's amazement that the story had been told without a spoken word. I couldn't help reflecting that was the whole point of ballet and indeed all dance drama.  Watkins accepted that praise graciously.

He was asked several detailed questions about the transposition of the story and the characters from the book, why there were no children in the ballet and how he had maintained the tension of the story in the ballet. The last question prompted him to ask whether the audience felt he had maintained tension and he was told that he had.

All in all I found Watkins a very likeable chap with a good sense of humour. Because my senses were still overwhelmed by the marvellous gala I had seen in Amsterdam three days earlier (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 13 July 2015) I probably didn't do justice to his work. Indeed it is unlikely that I would have done justice to anybody's work. Maybe I should have stayed away until Amsterdam had worn off but then I would have missed this Q & A with Watkins.

My First Impressions of 1984

George Orwell, Author of 1984

Source Wikipedia

Northern Ballet 1984 West Yorkshire Playhouse, 11 Sept 2015


In many ways Jonathan Watkins's 1984 was a howling success. Literally for there were whoops and cheers from the audience as well as lots of clapping. Several individuals rose to their feet.  And it was easy to see why for Watkins pressed all the right buttons.  Act I ended with just about the most explicit sex scene I have ever seen in ballet. The bedroom scene in Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet is demure in comparison.  A lady in the audience described that scene as "erotic" in the question and answer session with Watkins that followed the show and she was right. There were also brilliant visuals with the telescreens and an easy listening score from Alex Baranowski. Not quite sex, drugs and rock and roll but the nearest you can get in classical ballet.

No wonder this ballet has received such positive reviews:

"This is gripping storytelling" according to The Stage

"Northern Ballet's terrific new production" gushes The Guardian

"...an ambitious, compelling and, ultimately, moving new ballet" says The Telegraph.

And the tweets on the first night from members of the audience whose opinions I trust were even more generous.

So why aren't I searching my vocabulary for superlatives? I desperately want to do so because I love Northern Ballet and its dancers. Knowing how hard any dancer has to work from my feeble efforts at the barre I feel the deepest gratitude for their just stepping onto stage. I also have warm feelings towards Watkins - particularly after seeing his Northern Trilogy at The Sapphire gala and the mixed programme (see Sapphire 15 March 2015 and Between Friends - Northern Ballet's Mixed Programme 10 May 2015). There was definitely excellence in the choreography and the dancing by Tobias Batley, Martha Leebolt, Javier Torres and the ensemble. I have already commended the designs and score. And yet I left the West Yorkshire Playhouse asking myself "Is this it?"

It is horrible to write such things for I feel disloyal to the art form, company and dancers I love. I felt very much the same after seeing Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale for the Royal Ballet the first time (see Royal Ballet The Winter's Tale 14 April 2014) but eventually warmed to it after seeing it in the cinema and on TV (see The Winter's Tale - Time to eat my Hat 29 April 2015), I hope the same will happen with 1984 after I see it again in Manchester with the Swiss friend who brought the ballet to my attention (see Für Andrea - more Information on 1984 26 July 2015). Like The Winter's Tale the advance publicity that this ballet has received raised my expectations to impossible heights. I was also spoilt on Tuesday by watching some of the best dancers in the world at the Dutch National Ballet gala in Amsterdam and actually speaking to some of them at the party afterwards.

Another thing that bugged me is that 1984 was launched in the week that remotely controlled unmanned aircraft despatched two British citizens in Syria on the orders of the Prime Minister (see Cardiff jihadist Reyaad Khan, 21, killed by RAF drone 7 Sept 2015). That news followed by reports of surveillance by GCHQ (see GCHQ's surveillance of two human rights groups ruled illegal by tribunal 22 June 2015 Guardian) and the WikiLeaks revelations made me think that Big Brother has actually arrived. We even have telescreens nowadays for every laptop is equipped with a webcam and microphone. Orwell's novel was a satire of the increasingly authoritarian state of the 1940s where such things as targeted drone strikes and data mining were impossible but we are there now so why not update 1984 as a modern satire?

Watkins's ballet had a very retro feel. Indeed I was reminded of Gillian Lynne's re-staging of Helpmann's Miracle in the Gorbals  (see A Second Miracle 23 Oct 2014) and Ninette De Valois Job). I asked Watkins whether that was deliberate in the Q and A after the show. He replied that he knew Job but not Miracle in the Gorbals and if he was inspired by anything it was the cinema. He mentioned the Lego Movie several times in the session as well as Ken Loach's Kes which Watkins has also transformed into dance (see Kes on Jonathan Watkins's website).

Setting the ballet in 1948 rather than the present seemed to me to be a missed opportunity; but then who am I to say or even think such things. It was entertaining. As I said, there was excellence in the show. The folk who attended the Q & A took it at face value and really enjoyed it.  Don't let my reservations put you off seeing it.

1984 and All That - Northern Ballet's New Season

Sellar and Yeatman's 1066 and All That is one of the books that we all read at school.  George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is another. Jonathan Watkins's arrangement of Orwell's novel for Northern Ballet opens to a full house at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on 5 Sept 2015 is the company's big ticket production for the new season. Northern Ballet has released this hour long video on YouTube with talks by Watkins, David Nixon, rehearsals, a pas de deux by Tobias Batley and Martha Leebolt and more.

After Leeds the production tours Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Southampton culminating in a season at Sadler's Wells between 24 and 28 May 2016. My favourite venue for anything in Northern Ballet's repertoire is West Yorkshire Playhouse because it feels like the company's home. It is a stone's throw from Quarry Hill and the auditorium is so intimate. I have seen some lovely shows there in the past, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream on 14 Sept 2013 (see Realizing Another Dream 15 Sept 2013). Unfortunately, the West Yorkshire Playhouse season clashes with the Dutch National Ballet's opening gala in Amsterdam and professional commitments in London (see Triple Dutch 4 July 2015). If any of my readers would like to review the opening night I should be very grateful.  I will catch the ballet in Manchester or Sheffield with my Swiss friend who first dew it to my attention even though she does not go a bundle on ballet (see 1984 28 Feb 2015 and Für Andrea - more Information on 1984 26 July 2015).

Another new ballet in Northern Ballet's repertoire is the children's ballet Tortoise and the Hare which is choreographed by Dreda Blow and Sebastian Loe. Blow spoke briefly about her work for children in the panel discussion on narrative dance in ballet on 20 June 2015 (My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015). She told a delightful story about one child's reaction to one of her ballets. Although I had already admired her as a dancer I warmed to her ever more. Tortoise and the Hare opens at The Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds on 22 Oct 2015. It will also be performed in Southampton on 6 May 2015.

Elves and The Shoemaker another children's ballet choreographed by Daniel de Andrade to music by Philip Feeney is touring Hull, Nottingham, Canterbury, Manchester, Woking, Newcastle and Bradford. I saw it in Huddersfield on 11 April 2015 and reviewed it in The Ballet comes to me 12 April 2015.

Also coming to Hull is Madame Butterfly which I described as Nixon's Masterpiece in my review of the opening night in Doncaster. Another popular Nixon ballet Wuthering Heights which I saw in Sheffield on 18 March 2015 is coming to Canterbury in October and Bradford in November. Northern Ballet's take on The Nutcracker where the Stahlbaums become the Edwardses is coming to The Grand between 16 Dec 2015 and 2 Jan 2016 after touring Woking, Newcastle and Norwich. I saw it twice and sort of half reviewed it in my IP law blog for solicitors and patent agents in Manchester and Liverpool (Cracking Nuts - Copyright in Choreography 24 Nov 2011 IP North West). Even more liberties are taken with Swan Lake which is coming to Leeds, Norwich and Milton Keynes in the new year. I saw it in Leeds with my late spouse first time round. We both regarded it as interesting in the sense of "May you live in interesting times".

Für Andrea - more Information on 1984

I mentioned my Swiss friend Andrea who is into just about everything except ballet in 1984 on 28 Feb 2015. Last September she emailed me this link with the words: "This is one ballet I might actually want to see." I promised to look out for it and give her the dates as soon as they were announced which is what I din in February.

Now I can give her so much more information because Northern Ballet have recently posted the trailer to YouTube that you see above. They have also posted the story, photos, touring schedule and lots of other information about the ballet to their website. We now know that Tobias Batley and Martha Leebolt will dance Winston Smith and Julia and there will probably be at least one other cast. Also, meine liebe Andrea, Sie haben die Informationen. Wollen Sie diese Ballett sehen? Oder nicht?

I had some misgivings about whether Orwell would translate into dance but it is the same choreographer who made us laugh at Albert and the Lion in Sapphire. If anyone can pull this off it is Jonathan Watkins. So we await the first performance with bated breath. Where next for Watkins and Northern Ballet? Wigan Pier perhaps.

Mixed Programme - with a sweet centre

Northern Ballet’s Mixed Programme, Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House

Northern Ballet is known for storytelling, and last night’s programme mostly lived up to this reputation. The Mixed Programme too lived up to its name: the five ballets designed by five choreographers each told a different story. 

Angels in the Architecture – Mark Godden’s Shaker-inspired choreography to Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring (which includes the song ‘Lord of the Dance’) – featured six couples, with brooms and chair as props. The girls’ flowing circle dresses were particularly lovely – pretty, elegant and used to great effect choreographically as the dancers pulled them over their heads in different ways and I loved the creative use of the Shaker chair which had apparently inspired the piece. Personally, I wasn’t too sure about the brooms – I understand the motif, but there were a couple of times where they seemed to confuse the pattern of movement.

Christopher Hampson’s Perpetuum Mobile to Bach’s violin concerto in E Major was a beautiful classical piece which did not have a clear narrative – at least not one that I could discern – but followed the patterns of the music. I liked the way the dancers’ skill and dynamism brought this set piece to life as they leapt joyfully across the stage.

After the first interval, Little Monsters offered a complete change of tone with Dreda Blow and Isaac Lee-Baker doing marvellous things with Demis Volpi’s choreography. This was a fresh, innovative interpretation of Elvis Presley’s music, about as far away stylistically from 1950s cliché as you could get.  I thought it worked perfectly, making the most of the dancers’ exquisite physiques and energy. The theme was a love story, told in three songs, and it was both entertaining and emotive. I can still picture the resonant simplicity of ‘Are you Lonesome Tonight?’ with the two dancers who had been so closely entangled and engrossed with each other in the first two songs – ‘Love me Tender’ and ‘I want you, I need you, I love you’ – standing apart, each in their own spotlight.

A Northern Trilogy was perfect too, in a different way, offering a sensitive and entertaining take on the company’s northern roots, with Jonathan Watkins’ clever and cute interpretation of Stanley Holloway’s monologues, ‘Yorkshire Pudden’, ‘One-Each-A –Piece All Round’ and ‘The Lion and Albert'. As well as the dancers’ accomplished and enthusiastic performance and the straightforward storylines overlaying some deeper themes, the costumes and lighting accentuated the bitter-sweet sentimentality of these pieces. Yorkshire Pudden was lit in a way that suggested a sepia photograph, while the fresh brightness of ‘The Lion and Albert’ evoked images of the mid-20^th century seaside holiday and managed to include humour without descending into pantomime.  Everyone in the auditorium was smiling – the programme had been designed with a sweet centre.

The final and most ambitious piece was Kenneth Tindall’s The Architect. This was highly original – and dazzling. I hardly know where to start. It was also the most obscure narrative of the programme, a cryptic version of the biblical creation scene with Adam and Eve – well, multiple Adams and Eves and a few pounds of apples. A beautiful opening sequence with what seemed to be Adam and Eve chasing a single apple set the scene for a dramatic sequence around birth and creation. There then followed a complex sequence involving several apples being passed mouth-to-mouth between the dancers while Adam had his own apple routine. This was certainly different, but I was a bit distracted from the tango-like ambiance by all the apples. In the final sequences a single apple, this time suspended above the dancers, provided a focal point for some clever and quite acrobatic group sequences enhanced by darker lighting design. Personally, I preferred the sections where there was just one apple in play, as it were.

I may have picked at a couple of details, but I was hugely impressed. It was a pretty tall order to create a contemporary ballet that balanced biblical narrative with biological symbolism and it looked amazing and the demanding choreography showcased the dancers’ extreme athleticism and flexibility. It also showed what an excellent company Northern Ballet are, particularly in the group sequences that expanded and contracted around the single, suspended apple. There were also some wonderful partner and individual pieces.

This was my first experience of Northern Ballet and I will definitely find opportunities to see them again. I love their originality, their clear identity and the way their work can be appreciated on multiple levels. I felt that their excellent dancing spoke for itself and didn’t need embellishing with complex staging. Having said that, it would be interesting to see The Architect performed in a bigger space.

Further Reading

10 May 2015  Between Friends - Northern Ballet's Mixed Programme (The Mixed Programme in Leeds)

Between Friends - Northern Ballet's Mixed Programme

The Architect - Trailer from Kenneth Tindall on Vimeo.

Northern Ballet, Mixed Programme, Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre, 9 May 2015

Every Spring Northern Ballet presents a programme of short ballets to its public in Leeds and London. For me that programme is the highlight of the year because the company is at its best.  Not all the works in the programme are new but they are always fresh as the dancers seem to delight in performing them. That delight is picked up and reciprocated by the audience which makes these shows very intimate and very precious.

This year is special because it is the 45th anniversary of the formation of the company which it celebrated with the Sapphire gala (see Sapphire 15 March 2015). The company included three of the works from that gala in the programme.  They were Jonathan Watkins's A Northern Trilogy, Daniel de Abdrade's Fatal Kiss and Demis Volpi's Little Monsters.  They formed part of the first act which was crowned with Christopher Hampson's Perpetuum Mobile. Top of the bill was Kenneth Tindall's The Architect  which I had seen last year (see Jane Lambert A Wonderful Evening - Northern Ballet's Mixed Bill 21 June 2014 23 June 2014 and Mel Wong Kenneth Tindall - The Architect of Ballet 21 June 2014).

It was lovely to see the first three ballets in the intimacy of the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre. A Northern Trilogy is a pas de deux by Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley, a solo by Kevin Poeung and a narrative by Leebolt and Barley joined by Hannah Bateman, Dreda Blow and Isaac Lee-Baker to Stanley Holloway's Yorkshire Pudden, One-Each A-Piece All Round and The Lion and Albert. The  opening pas de deux was danced "with Heavenly magic ...... As light as a maiden's first kiss", the solo proudly "as any gentry" and the Lion and Albert with love. I enjoyed A Northern Trilogy when I first saw it at The Grand but I relished it in the the company's own theatre.

The same is true of the other ballets, particularly Fatal Kiss danced passionately by Lucia Solari and Javier Torres.  Since the gala I have seen van Dantzig's 5 Tangos performed by Scottish Ballet which is also to the music of the tango composer Astor Piazzolla (see No Mean City - Accessible Dance and Ballet 26 April 2015) which helped my appreciation of de Andrade's work. The dance represents a life which ends in a full frontal kiss on the lips that means death.

Little Monsters is danced by Dreda Blow and Joseph Taylor to three Elvis songs. In Love me Tender we see only Blow's arms which grab Taylor's body first his upper body then his legs like a clamp as she appears about to devour him. It is love all right but love in the sense of "I'd love a tender steak" rather than "I love him tenderly."  By contrast, in "Are you Lonesone Tonight" the dancers were apart and almost disconnected.

Christopher Hampson's Perpetuum Mobile was the only work I had not seen before and what a surprise and delight. Choreographed to Bach's Violin Concerto in E Minor it has joyful leaps for the men and turns for the women.  It is exhilarating to watch but demands much from the dancers. The company did Hampson proud. Batley and Leebolt were brilliant, of course, but so too were Lucia Solari, Abigail Prudames. Ayami Miyata, Kevin Poeung, Isaac Lee-Baker, Sean Bates and Rachael Gillespie. I love to see Gillespie dance and I don't think I have ever seen her dance better.

Even though he created it last year The Architect is Kendall's first show as an independent choreographer and it was impressive. Tindall spoke about the show immediately after the matinee performance. He explained how he wanted to explore the story of Adam and Eve but tie it in with science. He referred to the double helix of the male dancers' costumes representing DNA.  Do we carry Adam's disobedience in our DNA? The words of Milton* sprang to mind:

"Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe..."

That prompted a question from me about the characters on the chests of the male dancers which reminded me of DNA sequencing. Tindall confirmed that the allusion was deliberate.

Gillespie was in The Architect and again it was a joy to see her.  But the others were great too: Antoinette Brooks-Daw, Abigail Prudames, Jeremy Curnier, Matthew Topliss, Mlibdi Kulashe and Matthew Koon who joined Miyata and Lee-Baker. The lighting and the set design were like extra dancers particularly in the last scene when humanity combined to grab the apple. The ballet was striking. Even better second time round.

This show is on its way to The Linbury with the substitution of Mark Godden's Angels in the Architecture for Perpetuum Mobile. Angels in the Architecture is a gorgeous ballet that I saw in the 2013 Mixed Programme (see Angelic - Northern Ballet's Mixed Bill 9 June 2013). It has the same music and even some of the same choreography as Martha Graham's Appalachian Spring. I would have liked to have seen that too though I wouldn't have missed Chris Hampson's ballet for the world.  London is in for a treat.

Further Reading

14 May 2015  Joanna Goodman Mixed Programme - with a sweet centre (the Mixed Programme in London)

* An old boy of my school as it happens

Sapphire

This year marks the sapphire anniversary of the formation of Northern Ballet so the company celebrated yesterday with a magnificent gala at the Grand Theatre in Leeds. Four new works were premièred by the company and dancers came from Australia, Germany, Russia and London. There have been only three other occasions when I have seen such an array of talent from around the world. They were the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School gala at Sadler's Wells on 29 Sept 2013, the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School gala at the Grand Opera House in York on 30 July 2007 (when incidentally I saw Xander Parish and his sister Demelza for the first time) and a gala for Sir Frederick Ashton's retirement on 24 July 1970. Artistically it was a glorious evening to which the audience duly paid homage by rising  as one at the end.

We saw 13 works last night:

• Sapphire by David Nixon danced by Giuliano Contadini, Kevin Poeung, Nicola Gervasi, Sean Bates, Joseph Taylor, Matthew Koon, Mlindi Kulashe, Filippo Di Vilio, Luke Francis and Riku Ito;
• Fatal Kiss by Daniel de Andrade danced by Lucia Solari and Javier Torres;
• Shift by Christopher Bruce danced by Sandrine Monin, Carmen Vasquez-Marfil, Vanessa Vince- Pang, Andreas Grimaldier, Ben Mitchell and Sam Vaherlehto of Phoenix Dance Theatre;
• A Northern Trilogy by Jonathan Watkins danced by Martha Leebolt, Hannah Bateman, Dreda Blow, Kevin Poeung and Isaac Lee-Baker;
• A Dying Swan by Michel Descombey danced by Javier Torres
• The final pas de deux from Alexei Ratmnsky's Cinderella danced by Lana Jones and Adam Bull of The Australian Ballet;
• The pas de deux in The Great Gatsby by David Nixon danced by Tobias Batley and Martha Leebolt;
• Little Monsters by Demis Volpi danced by Dreda Blow and Joseph Taylor;
• The final pas de deux from John Neumeier's version of The Nutcracker danced by Alexander Trusch of the Hamburg Ballet and Lucia Solari;
• Kenneth Tindall's We Never Said by Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley;
• Ballet 101 by Eric Gauthier danced by Xander Parish of The Mariinsky Ballet; 
• The pas de deux of Siegfried and Odette in Anthony Dowell's Swan Lake danced by Daria Klimentova and Vadim Muntagirov of the Royal Ballet; and
• The Charleston scene from The Great Gatsby by the whole company led by Hannah Bateman and Giuliano Contadini.

They were all good but for me there were three highlights.  

The first was seeing Klimentova and Muntagirov together again. I never thought I would ever see that beautiful ballerina again especially after her last performance at the Royal Albert Hall and certainly not with Muntagirov after he left English National Ballet for The Royal Ballet. The last time I had seen then was in The Nutcracker at the Coliseum just before Muntagirov announced his departure (see Cracking! 14 Dec 2013). Theirs was one of the great partnerships of ballet and seeing them again together in my own county was like a miracle. That pas de deux  alone made the evening for me.

Next was Torres's A Dying Swan and there's a story behind that. I inherited my love of ballet from my mother. My father, a highly educated, urbane and kindly man, didn't care for it at all. He regarded men's tights and women's tutus as bordering on indecency and the whole art form an instrument of Soviet propaganda. Don't forget I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s when we scrambled the V-bombers on more than one occasion. The Bolshoi arrived in London immediately after Khrushchev had crushed the Hungarian uprising. But my mother had seen Pavlova dance the Dying Swan at the Grand Theatre in Leeds when she must have been a very little girl (see In Leeds of all Places - Pavlova, Ashton and Magic 18 Sept 2013), It made such an impression upon her that she could describe the choreography in every detail.  I have seen Pavlova's performance on flickering film and I know my mother's recollection was accurate. I had longed to see a modern ballerina perform that dance and I did at the Gala for Ghana 4 Feb 2014 when Elena Glurdjidze danced the piece. It was as beautiful as my mother had described and I wept. A few days later I actually met the great ballerina at the London Ballet Circle and told her the story and she seemed to be moved too.

So there was a lot of emotion welling up inside me before Torres took to the stage. At first I was in despair because the cello was almost drowned by sound effects but then it shone through and so did Torres. He was as beautiful and as moving as Glurdjidze. And indeed as Pavlova so far as I can tell from my mother's description and the film. Again I was moved to tears. Now I am a hard nosed barrister specializing in patents and I don't cry easily but I couldn't help myself yesterday. Some of those tears were prompted by my associations with Pavlova and my mother's story but most sprung from Torres's dancing. And when the auditorium exploded with applause at the end of his piece I felt sure it was the latter.

My third highlight was Jonathan Watkins's A Northern Trilogy. Do watch his video for so long as it remains on YouTube. He set three ballets to Stanley Holloway's monologues - Yorkshire Pudding, One Each a Piece All Round and The Lion and Albert. For this Leeds audience it was mother's milk and it was for me too because I had heard those monologues from both parents while growing up in Surrey. Neither my Yorkshire mother nor my Lancashire father ever allowed me to forget that I had been born in Manchester and if ever I inserted an "r" into "grass" or "bath" I was met with a contemptuous "Oh you cockney clod." Bateman, Blow and Leebolt were beautiful  (especially the angel). Lee-Baker made a great Albert and Poeung can do no wrong in my book. I think I liked Yorkshire Pudding best. Why? No reason except my friend Gita, who has joined me in turning Terpsichore into a business and is as Yorkshire as my mum, published a recipe for Yorkshire pudding in Milan, Happy Birthday 3 June 2013 Gita Mistry Food. Gita's first name means Heaven in one of the Indian languages and her Yorkshire pudding really is heavenly.

As this post is already long I will try to canter through the rest but I must say a few words about Kenneth Tindall and Xander Parish.

Tindall is one of the best young choreographers we have and I love everything he has created including the ballet we saw last night. His work appeals to the brain as well as the heart. We Never Said depicts two mannequins in jeans and jackets who come to life to music by The XX, In the programme notes Tindall quotes an anonymous poem:

"My love for you is statuesque, come let us dance like we're made of stone."

Batley and Leebolt were magnificent.  As it happens I met Tindall in the foyer before the show and he said a few words about his plans which are exciting.  I shall be featuring him and his work later this year.

Xander Parish is not only a great dancer he is also a very kind man. I saw him dance Romeo when the Mariinsky visited London (see Reet Gradely: Romeo and Juliet, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House 29 July 2014 31 July 2014) and Joanna Goodman and I were lucky enough to meet him at the London Ballet Circle a few days later. Because proceedings take place under something like the Chatham House Rule I can't say anything about his talk but I think I can give two instances of his kindness.  First, he lifted one of his younger admirers as I had seen him lift Tereshkina a few days earlier. That young girl who is a promising dance student was thrilled to bits. Secondly, he signed a birthday card for my ballet teacher's younger daughter. I had offered him two cards to sign - one from the shop at Covent Garden for his old company and the other of Martha Leebolt as Cleopatra from our shop at Quarry Hill. And guess what! He chose Martha. My ballet teacher's daughter was as thrilled as the young student he had lifted in London.

Now for Xander Parish's performance. It is always a thrill to see him. He and his sister shone in 2007 and he also shone last night but I do wish he had been given something like Balanchine's Apollo in which role he dazzled London last year. Now don't get me wrong. I had seen Daniel Montero of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company dance Ballet 101 in Amsterdam and London and I like it very much. Parish performed it beautifully though it ended with him flat on his back from his exertions rather than in little pieces as in the Dutch version. But having seen Parish's Romeo I wanted more. So I guess I must save my kopeks and go to Russia after all.

I'm afraid I won't do justice to the rest in this post but hopefully others will follow. Nixon's Sapphire showed off our excellent young men. Lean, sleek and muscular like greyhounds. Do watch this YouTube video. De Andrade's A Fatal Kiss reminded me of Tango and Buenos Aires and the novels of Luis Borges. Shift was Bruce at his best. Jones and Bull were magnificent. Australians are perfectionists as I know from personal experience having been taught by one. It was great to see a bit more of Gatsby again both the Charleston and the pas de deux. Little Monsters to the music of Elvis Presely oozed sexiness and menace. Blow's Juliet wowed me last Saturday and now I am yet another of her devoted fans.  And having seen just a little of Neumeier's The Nutcracker and Trusch I want to see more.

There is just one thing that worried me about last night and that is that there were empty seats even in the front stalls. Gita managed to get a good seat at a good price towards the rear of the stalls a few hours before the show. Also it was not the usual ballet going crowd. There were some faces I recognized such as students from my Over 55 class and, of course, Janet McNulty of Balletco Forum from Liverpool but not many. I felt I was one of the younger ones and as I was at Ashton's retirement gala I am no stripling.

That and the fact that there were rows of empty seats on Thursday for the last night of Romeo and Juliet troubles me about Leeds. According to the authoritative Globalization and World Cities Research Network Leeds is only a gamma city on its classification of cities whereas even Manchester where Northern Ballet began is a beta and London together with New York is an alpha plus. How long can this mid-size town support a company of the quality of Northern Ballet? in his speech before the show Nixon mentioned that all the shows in London are fully booked whereas yesterday's gala and next week's Wuthering Heights are certainly not. Had the gala taken place at The Wells, The Coliseum or even The Albert Hall it would have been sold out for months. It makes me wonder for how much longer Northern Ballet can afford to remain Northern?

Further Reading

Nick Ahad   Dancing to music of time 15 March 2015 Yorkshire Post

Not all my mates are balletomanes. I have a Helvetic friend in Golcar who is into cats, Dr Who, politics, mobile phones, brisk walks in the country, English literature, German conversation, cheese, meat free cooking  - you name it she knows about it - a real polymath - just about everything except ballet. So imagine my joy and surprise when she identified a ballet that she would like to see.

That ballet is 1984 by Jonathan Watkins to a score by Alex Baronowski which Northern Ballet will dance in  Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester and Sheffield this Autumn. I can't tell you much about it. Here is a quote from Northern Ballet's website:

1984

"Winston Smith lives in a world of absolute conformity, his every action is scrutinized by Big Brother. However, when Winston meets Julia he dares to rebel by falling in love.
Based on George Orwell's masterpiece and created by Guest Choreographer and former Royal Ballet dancer Jonathan Watkins, 1984 will change the way you think about ballet.
With a brand new score from Tony nominated Composer Alex Baranowski played live by Northern Ballet Sinfonia, see this iconic classic reimagined for a modern audience.
Tickets for the World Première at West Yorkshire Playhouse are on sale from Friday 27 February by calling 0113 213 7700."

I am eager to learn about the casting.

Who will dance Winston Smith? Poeung perhaps? Or maybe Broadbent or Bates.  Or possibly Watkins will bring on some of the younger talents like McCaig.

And who will be Julia?  My choice would be Bateman or Gillespie.

Tindall would have been an obvious choice for O'Brien but he will leave the company on 2 May 2015 (see Kenneth Tindall 28 Feb 2015).

Northern Ballet promises that "1984 will change the way you think about ballet". It has already done that with someone I know.