Gavin McCaig in Conversation with his Friends

Gary Sutherland / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Not far from Taynuilt lies the port of Oban from where McBrayne ferries depart for Mull on the way to Iona.  I had passed through the port countless times but never bothered to stop until two years ago when I attended a performance of Highland Fling at the Atlantic Leisure Centre. It was then that I discovered that there was a lot more to Oban than a waystation to or from the Hebrides. Some of the best fish and chips in the United Kingdom are to be had in the city's many chippies.  For anybody wondering why I call Oban a city, it is because it has two cathedrals including Sir Gilbert Scott's magnificent St Columba's by the seashore.  However, the most impressive landmark in the whole of Oban is the colonnade on Battery Hill known as McCaig's tower.

I had a question about the tower up my sleeve in case I ran out of things to say when I interviewed Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet for Stage Door on Sunday but I didn't need it for the conversation flowed like water. Gavin McCaig is a very interesting chap as well as a very congenial one. I had interviewed him for Terpsichore soon after he had joined the company in 2014.  He has come a long way since then and while he might not have reached the very top of the greasy pole he has certainly gained considerable elevation.

I began the interview by asking him whether the success for which he must have aimed when he was at ballet school had turned out to be all that it was cracked up to be.  Disarmingly he replied that he had not set his sites on any particular outcome when he was at ballet school. There is stiff competition to enter any company particularly one in the UK.  His ambition was simply to get a job in ballet.  He had begun to follow Northern Ballet when he was at the English Ballet School.  He remembered trips to Woking and other theatres within the vicinity of London. Joining Northern Ballet was everything he could have hoped for.

I mentioned some of the roles in which he had impressed.  John Brown in Cathy Marston's Victoria in which he had been shot and St John in Jane Eyre which is another Marston work.  I had followed the company to London to see it in Richmon in 2016 and pronounced it the best work form the company that I had seen in 20 years.  He seemed well suited to Marston's choreography, I suggested.  He said that he enjoyed working with Cathy Marston for whom he had a particular regard.  I agreed mentioning how much I had admired Snowblind when the San Francisco Ballet came to London and how much I was looking forward to seeing what she makes of Mrs Robinson.

However, he had excelled in other choreographers' works.  I mentioned his performance as Athos in The Three Musketeers in which he had particularly impressed me.  While accepting the compliment he drew my attention to a role that I had not mentioned. Early in his career, he had been one of Friar Lawrence's acolytes in Jean-Christophe Maillot's Romeo and Juliet.  The friar and his acolytes were on stage when the curtain lowered and it was an exceptionally moving experience as the orchestra played the last few barres of the score.  I mentioned that I was a fan of Maillot having also seen the Bolshoi's performance of his Taming of the Shrew.  I asked whether he had visited Leeds.  Gavin replied that he had and that he had spent 3 days there.

In his interview in 2014, Gavin had expressed an interest in choreography.   I mentioned a choreographic workshop to which he had contributed a ballet.  I had admired the work very much particularly the take on Mr Nigel Farage's "You're not laughing now" remark with the hollowly cackling cast,  Again, he acknowledged my compliment graciously.

At this point we had the first question from the audience,  Amelia Sierevogel asked about some of the memorable costumes he had worn.  He mentioned the one with lots of buttons and others where there had been what can best be described as little local difficulties.  Elaine Berrill and Janet McNulty also intervened and Amelia asked a follow up towards the end.   He was asked what advice he would give to a young man particularly in view of prejudice against male dancers.  He acknowledged it was there and the answer was to persist,  There was one time when he thought he might give up and he actually left the class for a while.   I am glad to say that he had another think and resumed his studies,  The question on motivation and overcoming inhibitions had arisen a few days earlier in a Q&A with his class in Portugal. Janet was aware that he had done a lot of running and asked how that was affecting his legs and feet.  He replied that a certain amount of tension in those muscles was good.

As it appeared that Kevin Poeung was in the same room as Gavin I asked whether it would be possible to say "hello" to him. Kevin appeared and greeted us,   I asked them how they were coping with the lockdown.  While they were appalled by the casualties they had made the best of it.  They had a chance to appreciate their home, carry out some DIY and enjoy some quality time which would not otherwise have been available with a busy schedule,

I asked about Gavin's plans for the future.  We discussed his award-winning film on the company's digital dance platform. He was learning business finance to qualify for a managerial role in the performing arts.  I asked about roles he hoped to perform.  He had mentioned Simon in David Nixon's Swan Lake on the company's website.   He explained that was because of Simon's personality, As he had mentioned that he would like to dance the big classical roles in his 2014 interview I asked whether he retained any ambitions in that regard.   He replied that he had already danced the lead in The Nutcracker in Montana a few months ago which he had enjoyed but he was not sure that he was ideally suited to the great Petipa roles.

We finished with an appeal for contributions to the Academy of Northern Ballet.  I have placed a donate button to the ACADEMY OF NORTHERN BALLET PARENTS ASSOCIATION on my Facebook page.   Alternatively, donors can call the Academy on 0113 220 8000 or email academy@northernballet.com.

Nixon's Little Mermaid - Perhaps His Best Work Yet

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Northern Ballet The Little Mermaid 19:15 2 Dec 2017 Sheffield Lyceum

In 2017 in Retrospect 7 Jan 2018 I chose Northern Ballet as my company of the year because of its three, new, full-length ballets:

"These were Kenneth Tindall's Casanova which I had expected to be good and was not disappointed (see Casanova - "it has been a long time since I enjoyed a show by Northern Ballet as much as I enjoyed Casanova last night" 12 March 2017 and Casanova Second Time Round 7 May 2017). Daniel de Andrade's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which I did not expect to like at all but was moved deeply (see The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - "an impressive work that was danced splendidly by Northern Ballet" 10 Sept 2017) and David Nixon's The Little Mermaid which I have yet to review but is, perhaps, his best work yet."

Here is my promised review.

There are many reasons why I liked The Little Mermaid. First, the libretto which follows Hans Christian Anderson's story closely. Secondly, the score. I applaud Nixon's commissioning Sally Beamish who had also composed the music for David Bintley's work, The Tempest (see The Tempest 9 Oct 2016). Thirdly, his casting which provided an opportunity for Abigail Prudames and Joseph Taylor to shine in leading roles.  Lastly, but by no means least, I admired Kimie Nakano's sets and costumes very much, particularly the underwater scenes in the first act.

The quality of this ballet that impressed me most was the detailed study of the mermaid's psyche,  She exchanged a carefree life below the waves with friends and family for an excruciating and lonely existence on land.  She gave up all that she had for the love of a human.  She did that not once but twice.  She had an opportunity to sink a knife into the prince who had spurned her and thereby return to the sea as a mermaid.  An opportunity that some women would have seized willingly even without the reward of personal transformation. Instead. she chose a path that she thought would lead to self-annihilation.

Much was demanded of the dancer who was to perform that role.  It had to be one of the company's younger members for the mermaid, like Shakespeare's Juliet, was on the cusp of adulthood. Also like Juliet she had to project a range of emotions, some conflicting as she grew up almost overnight,  Prudames was impressive in that role. Earlier in the year I had seen her in the preview (see First Impressions of the Little Mermaid 27 July 2017).  I noted then:

"I also liked some of the extracts, particularly the solo when the mermaid. danced by Abigail Prudames, discovers her new legs. Stranded on the shore she experiences pain for the first time. Prudames communicated that sensation chillingly. Much as Edvard Munch does in The Scream."

Three months on and after several weeks of  performances on tour she was even more impressive.

Though less is demanded of the male lead emotionally, the audience has to understand why the mermaid was prepared to sacrifice so much for him.  He has to be magnetically attractive, dashing and handsome. Taylor showed all of those qualties and more. Brave in the storm and compassionate on finding a beautiful, solitary. voiceless young woman on the shore,  Though captivated by her dancing he remained faithful to his bride.

The bride was danced by Dreda Blow, one of the company's leading soloists. A pretty role that she performed delightfully.

Other important roles were the lord of the sea (Matthew Topliss) who supplied the potion that transformed the mermaid into a human being as well as the knife by which she would have changed back, the mermaid's sisters, Ayami Miyata and Rachael Gillespie, two of my favourite artists who are always a pleasure to watch and the mermaid's affectionate and faithful friend, the seahorse, Kevin Poeung, another dancer whom I like a lot.  The corps had important tasks in the ballet, as sea creatures (or, in some cases, as bearers of such creatures), as sailors, fishermen and villagers. Altogether it was a very polished performance.

I had enjoyed the extracts from Beamish's score in the preview.  Having heard the whole work I liked it even more than her music for The Tempest.  I particularly liked the Celtic allusions that Beamish inserted subtly much in the way that Løvenskiold had done in his score for La Sylphide. There were Scottish or Irish echoes in the men's kilts (plain material without tartans) and in the human characters' names: Adair, Dana and Brina.

This production will visit the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh between the 22 and 24 March 2018. I shall be interested to know what a Scottish audience makes of the kilts and Beamish's score. It will then move on to Milton Keynes (close to two of the company's most devoted fans) in April and round of its tour at Leicester in May. No new full length works this year but with tried and tested favourites like Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre and The Nutcracker the company can expect another good year.

Northern Ballet's "Wuthering Heights" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse

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Northern Ballet, Wuthering Heights, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds 6 Sep 2016

Guest Contributor  Janet McNulty

The West Yorkshire Playhouse (WYP) has always been a special performance space for Northern Ballet since their first season there in the early noughties. Most of the productions performed there have been created there and only A Midsummer Night's Dream has toured extensively to the Company's more usual theatres.

Wuthering Heights is a first for the Company as it is a main stage production transferring to the much more intimate space of the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Since the news was first announced I, and many other fans, have been waiting eagerly to see how this ballet favourite would transfer to WYP.

Well the wait was finally over last night when Northern Ballet opened a short season of Wuthering Heights at the WYP. There was a lovely sense of anticipation as the house lights went down...

I was not disappointed. Wuthering Heights looked every bit as wonderful as I expected it to in this terrific theatre. The orchestra was hidden away behind the set but their playing of the score, under the baton of John Pryce-Jones was splendid. The positioning of the orchestra also meant that the audience was very close to the action and we were able to take in every tiny gesture of the dancers.

Opening night was led by Dreda Blow as Cathy and Javier Torres as Heathcliff. Dreda was a wild Cathy, adoring Heathcliff from the start but also being swayed by the riches of Thrushcross Grange. She was totally hemmed in to her marriage to Edgar (exquisitely danced and acted by Nicola Gervasi). Javier was everything we would expect from Heathcliff - darkly brooding and very passionate in his feelings towards Cathy. One of my favourite moments of this work is the red duet when we have seen a subdued dance between Cathy and Edgar who cannot express their feelings to each other and as they part Heathcliff bursts into the garden. Their duet is exciting and passionate and last night I forgot to breathe!

We were very privileged to see Rachael Gillespie make her debut as Isabella last night - she was just exquisite. She was a total innocent abroad and it was easy to see how she fell for Heathcliff's rough charm.

The ballet starts with Mr Earnshaw bringing the foundling Heathcliff into his house and shows young Cathy's growing attraction to him as Hindley becomes neglected and embittered. Kevin Poeung and Ayami Miyata portrayed the young loves incredibly expressively. Kevin's facial expressions were subtle and a joy to behold. Giuliano Contadini gave a very nuanced performance as Hindley from enthusiastic young boy to embittered sadist and sad drunk. Victoria Sibson and Hiro Takahashi brought all their experience to the roles of devoted Ellen and the devout Joseph. I particularly noticed Victoria's devastation during Cathy's death scene.

One of the joys of watching Northern Ballet is to glance around the stage and see how involved all the dancers are, no matter how small their roles and last night was no exception.

It really was a terrific start to Northern Ballet's Autumn season!

Comings and Goings

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Both Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet have published press releases on arrivals and departures and promotions within the company. Birmingham's was published on Monday and is headed End of Season Announcements. Northern's was published yesterday and is headed Dancer promotions and joiners for 2016/17.

I should like to congratulate everyone in both companies who has been promoted. All are well merited. As readers know I try not to have favourites but there are some artists who delight me particularly in both companies.

Of those who have been promoted in Birmingham I am especially glad to see the elevation of Celine Gittens to Principal. Her performance as Swanilde in Coppelia at the Lowry on the 5 March 2015 was Sensational.  Another of my favourites is Delia Matthews who is now a First Soloist. I was at the Opera House in York when she was injured in Les Rendezvous. I almost felt her pain (see Birmingham Royal Ballet in York 21 May 2015). I was so sad. But she made a great recovery and danced beautifully in Romeo and Juliet as Rosaline (see A Good Outcome from an Unhappy Event - Singleton's Fine Performance 6 March 2016) and in The Taming of the Shrew just a few days ago. Yet another promotion that delights me is Brandon Lawrence who is now a soloist. A Bradford man he soars in every role - particularly when he dances in Yorkshire.  As I said last year

"if I have to single out anyone it has to be Brandon Lawrence, a Bradford lad who clearly relished his return to God's own county. He danced proudly and magisterially. There was no doubt that he was glad to be back on home turf."

 Finally, I am delighted by Valentin Olovyannikov's promotion. He was a great cleric and innkeeper in The Taming of the Shrew.

I was delighted by all the promotions in Leeds but particularly by Rachael Gillespie's. Abigail Prudames's and Kevin Poeung's.  Rachael excel's in everything but one role that she danced particularly well was as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan (see Not too sure about Fairies but I certainly believe in Rachael Gillespie 21 Dec 2014). My favourite performance by Kevin Poeung was as Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2013 (see Realizing Another Dream 15 Sept 2013). I think my favourite performance by Abigail was in Jane Eyre which I saw in Richmond a month ago.

There is one advancement that I long to see, especially as two of Northern Ballet's premier or principal dancers are on leave of absence. No names no pack drill but her dancing is

Heavenly

and she is

Beautiful 

to watch. Though Janet McNulty and Mel Wong might argue otherwise I am probably that dancer's number one fan.

Sad to be see departures and leave of absence from both companies and I wish all leavers well. However, my sadness at Luke Schaufuss's departure is mitigated by the fact that I can still see him in Scotland. He was great in La Sylphide last year (see A dream realized: the Queensland Ballet in London 12 Aug 2015). Finally, a big hello to all the joiners to both companies. I shall look forward to watching them dance. No doubt some will become big stars.

Up the Swannee

The Swannee River, USA

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Northern Ballet, "Swan Lake", Leeds Grand Theatre, 12 March 19:30

The Leeds Grand Theatre was packed to the gunnels for the last performance of Northern Baller's Swan Lake on Saturday night and the applause at the end was deafening. Cheers, roars, ululations. The audience was almost delirious with excitement. I am sorry to say that I didn't join in with them. I clapped gently at the end of the performance out of respect for the dancers who gave their all.

Had this ballet been called something like Simon and Anthony I might have been a bit more tolerant but it was billed as Swan Lake for goodness sake and it bore as much resemblance to Petipa's masterpiece as the River Medlock does to the mighty Mississippi. Now David Nixon is a fine choreographer and I admire many of his works. I have called his Madame Butterfly a masterpiece and his Cinderella a triumph but I am afraid that his Swan Lake does nothing for me. I have now given it two chances. The first when it came out on 14 Feb 2004 which happened to be my birthday (see Don't Expect Petipa 5 Jan 2015) and the second last Saturday. I am not inclined to give it a third.

"But what didn't you like about it?" asked a classmate from my Over 55 ballet class this morning. "Oh it was so boring" I replied. "Where were Legnani's 32 fouettes?" I replied. "And the divertissements?" The Hungarian seemed to have morphed into a tango and the Neapolitan into a party piece. I found myself looking at my watch almost for the first time ever in over 50 years of ballet going. I didn't like the libretto, the orchestration or arrangement, the sets or even the costumes. It reminded me of the eighties fashions of erecting a Doric arch on a right-to-buy Thatcher house or installing a Rolls Royce grill on a beetle.

The evening was saved for me by the dancers who were good. Many of my favourite dancers were on stage. Jeremy Curnier as Anthony, Antoinette Brooks-Daw as Odette, Ashley Dixon as Simon, Ayami Miyata as Odilia, the magnificent Pippa Moore as Anthony's mother and the equally magnificent Hironaeo Takahashi as his father. There were some good albeit brief performances further down the batting order by Kevin Poeung as young Anthony and Gavin McCaig foundering on his bike.  Their performances would have excited the audience which would be why the show had such a good reception, For many in the audience Northern Ballet's production will have been the first Swan Lake they may have seen in a while. For some it may be the only one they know.

Tchaikovsky's music is of course uplifting and there is only so much one can do to spoil it. Though someone had a pretty good try with the outsize floaty blue textile thingee which you see in the trailer that reminded me of the bear in Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale. The last time I saw Nixon's Swan Lake I had to skedaddle down to Covent Garden to see the Royal Ballet's Swan Lake to get the former out of my system.  The Royal Ballet are not doing Swan Lake this year but English National are at the Albert Hall in the round in June and of course my beloved Scottish Ballet are bringing David Dawson's to Liverpool. The rehearsal on World Ballet Day looks really exciting.

Just because I don't like Northern's Swan Lake doesn't mean you won't. It's running in Sheffield until Saturday and then on to Norwich and Milton Keynes.  And then there's Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre to which I am looking forward very much. They usually run a triple bill in the Stanley and Audrey Burton in Spring which they take to the Linbury but of course the Linbury is closed this year and that is a pity because that is the best show they do. I'll probably give 1984 and Beauty and the Beast a miss this year (it's the bus that get's me) but I can recommend Jean-Christopher Maillot's Romeo and Juliet (see Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - Different but in a Good Way 8 March 2015).

Northern Nutcracker

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Northern Ballet, The Nutcracker, The Grand Theatre Leeds, 18 Dec 2015, 19:00

I had begun to worry about Northern Ballet. 1984 did not quite meet my expectations even second time round (My First Impressions of 1984 12 Sept 2015 and 1984 Second Time Round 24 Oct 2015) and I had seen them dance better than they did in Bradford with Wuthering Heights (see  Northern Ballet's Wuthering Heights in Bradford 22 Nov 2015). All that coinciding with the management's increasing my Friend's membership subscription by 133% including VAT on the basis that the concessions which I have never taken up constitute a chargeable supply (see The Increasing Cost of Friendship 14 Oct 2015).

All of that, however, is in the past - forgotten and forgiven. Last night's performance could not be faulted. It showed Northern Ballet at its best - energetic and exuberant.  I attended last night's show with my teacher and members of my ballet class at Dance Studio Leeds (see Dance Studio Leeds Beginners' Ballet Class 22 Oct 2015). For several members of out class it was our first taste of ballet on stage and for them it must have been magical. I enjoyed it tremendously even though it was at least the third and probably the fourth time time that I had seen that production (see my pre-Terpsichore article Cracking Nuts - Copyright in Choreography IP North West 24 Nov 2011 IP North West).

I think the reason I liked last night's show so much was that all my favourite dancers were there even though some of them were not on stage for very long. The excellent Hannah Bateman danced the Arabian dance with the magnificent Javier Torres and Joseph Taylor. The splendid Hironao Takahashi danced Drosselmeyer. The great Pippa Moore was a slightly dotty granny. Isaac Lee-Baker was the pater familiae. Sean Bates doubled as the Sugar Plum's cavalier and the mischievous little boy who broke the nutcracker. Kevin Poeng was a fine prince, Antoinette Brooks-Daw  a delightful Clara, Niola Gervasi an impressive mouse king and Ayami Miyata a gorgeous sugar plum. Great also to see Gavin McCaig doing so well and Rachael Gillespie and Abigail Prudames are always a pleasure. All the cast did well and I congratulate each and every one of them.

Good though this production was there are a few light touches that could make it perfect. First, the scenery needs a bit of attention.  The walls of the Edwards' drawing room (would it really hurt to call them the Stahlbaums as every other company does?) are noticeably flimsy even when viewed from the gods. The orchestration could be reviewed. More than one member of our group thought it was too light. I missed the vocals in the snow scene at the end of Act I. Why can't James be Fritz or Hans, Clara's pesky little brother? And where were Harlequin and Columbine? French and Chinese dolls, apparently, even though Kiara Flavin, Jeremy Curnier and Matthew Topliss danced them well.

Having said that there are some delightful touches that one does not see in every other production. There are the mime sequences where Clara recounts the battle with the mice to Drosselmeyer and later her dad and the children's pieces, particularly the little chap with his trumpet whom Gita named "man of the match". Cara O'Shea has to be congratulated for the work she did with the little ones for so often it is they who can make The Nutcracker.

The Nutcracker is not to everybody's taste. It is very sweet to the point of sugary. But if you have never seen ballet before - particularly if you are very young - this is a good one to start with and Northern Ballet's is one of the best.

Leebolt's Juliet

Watching the same ballet twice in a week is  not something I do very often for a variety of reasons. But I was so taken by Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet last Saturday with Tobias Batley and Dreda Blow in the title roles that I made an exception. I felt compelled to see it again last night but this time with Martha Leebolt and Giuliano Contadini as the lovers.

It was, of course, very good. How could it be anything else with Leebolt as Juliet, Contadini as Romeo, Antoinette Brooks-Daw as the nurse, Javier Torres as Tybalt, Lucia Solari as Lady Capulet, Sean Bates as Benvolio and Matthew Koon as Mercutio not to mention another impressive performance by Isaac  Lee-Baker  as Friar Lawrence. But somehow some of the sparkle of Saturday night was missing. That was surprising because the last night of a run is often the best. Especially when a show has received excellent reviews as this one has as well as great feedback from the audience.

The absence of sparkle was not the performers' fault. The dancers danced their hearts out as they always do and the Sinfornia played well. But theatre is a two way communication. A great show needs a great audience as well as a great cast and last night's house was definitely not the same as Saturday's. For a start there were fewer of us. The stalls where I sat were nowhere near full. And they were plenty of distractions. The Grand is a very noisy auditorium at the best of times. There's a light rumble whenever someone shifts in his or her seat. But when a file of latecomers take their seats in the middle of the first Act it sounds like a tube train. Worse, there were giggles at certain points such as when Juliet with her back to the audience slips off the top of her clothing before her embarrassed nurse or when the lovers envelope themselves in a sheet in the bedroom scene.

However, there are advantages of seeing a show twice in quick succession and that is that one notices details of the choreography and the story that one missed first time round. Maillot's choreography that I found angular on Saturday does have beauty though of a kind that we are not used to in this country. Until my concentration was disturbed by the arrival of latecomers I reflected on the relationship between the friar and his acolytes, Kevin Poeung and Jeremy Curnier. They hoist Lee-Baker in the air with his arms outstretched as in a crucifixion. The balcony pas de deux is really quite lovely, There is exuberance as Romeo slides between Juliet's feet. There is playfulness as she listens to his heart as Romeo lies prostrate at her side.

One of the reasons why I prefer not to see the same show twice in the same theatre in quick succession is that it is natural to compare one cast with the other. I'm not going to do that here. I liked Leebolt and Contadini just as much as Batley and Blow but they were very different.

Leebolt, who has danced all the major roles in Northern Ballet's repertoire, was magnificent but she was much more like Cleopatra than a teenage girl. There were times when that was good. She communicates emotion well. We could feel her anger throughout the theatre when Romeo sloped into her bedroom after strangling her cousin. Nobody does rage better than Leebolt. Again nobody does despair better than her. Her entreaties to the friar where masterly. It is a big ask of a mature woman at the height of her career to put herself literally in the shoes of a child - though not impossible for a I saw Fonteyn dance Juliet convincingly when she was well over 50.

Contadini was a perfect fit for Romeo, He was boyish, tender, headstrong, contrite and above all passionate, He partnered Leebolt convincingly.

Solari, Brooks-Daw, Torres, Koon and Bates and indeed the whole cast danced well in their roles. They deserved a lot more than one round of curtain calls.

I shall miss Maillot's Romeo and Juliet now that it is done. If ever there was a ballet that should be taken to the Wells then it ought to have been this one. I would just love to know what a London audience would make of a Romeo and Juliet without sword fights but with a turbulent priest. As they put up with Pastor's version for Scottish Ballet last year which was in many ways a lot more radical I think they just might buy it

The National Dance Awards

The National Dance Awards were announced yesterday and I congratulate all the winners and indeed all the nominees.

I had been rooting quietly for Xander Parish and English National Ballet and am delighted that they had won in their respective categories.

I first saw Xander Parish dance at the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School and I have been following his career ever since. I saw him dance the leading role in Romeo and Juliet when his company visited London in the summer.  I also had the pleasure of shaking his hand when he spoke to the London Ballet Circle a few days later.  Not only is he a magnificent dancer he is also a thoroughly nice chap. He signed a birthday card that I bought from Northern Ballet for my ballet teacher's younger daughter. She and her hum (and of course her mum's student) were over the moon. He also made a lot of other people in the audience very happy.

English National Ballet was the first company I ever saw. For kids growing up in London and the Home Counties in the 1960s a trip to the Festival Hall to see The Nutcracker was always a great treat. The company had lovely dancers then such as Peter Schaufuss and Dagmar Kessler and of course it has lovely dancers now. I was lucky enough to see all my favourites in class when they visited Oxford in November. Last year I saw their Coppelia, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet in the Round and Le Corsaire and enjoyed them all.  On a personal note I was delighted that Sarah Kundi, one of the dancers who makes my spirits soar, joined the company.

I had my fingers crossed for Ballet Black, Arthur Pita and Kevin Poeung and am delighted they came so far.

Finally, the Royal Ballet's Giselle with Carlos Acosta and Natalia Osipova in the leading roles was one of my highlights of 2014.  Acosta's outstanding achievement award and Osipova's two awards were richly deserved.

Dracula

Dracula as depicted in the cinema: Béla Lugosi in the 1931 film

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Northern Ballet's Dracula, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds 13 Sep 2014

Although I am a Friend of Northern Ballet I had intended to give Dracula a miss, I have never been able to get into Bram Stoker's novel and I have never watched a horror film in the cinema or on TV. To my mind there are enough frightening things in reality without paying to be frightened synthetically.  Also, I had intended to be in Holland yesterday for the opening night of Dutch National Ballet's season and Van Dantzig's Swan Lake tonight but for various reasons that was not to be. So I went to West Yorkshire Playhouse instead and am very glad I did for I was rewarded with a magnificent performance.

As the theatre had run out of programmes I had to remember the plot from the website scenario which is schematic to say the least. The story is convoluted which is one of the reasons why I have never been able to finish the novel. All I could remember last night is that an assistant solicitor called Jonathan Harker found himself in Transylvania  where he encounters the evil count Dracula in his castle and gets into all sorts of trouble which follows him back to England. I also remembered that the novel had a connection with Whitby for which reason it attracts the attention of the modern Goths. However, I could not remember how the other characters fitted into the story so I concentrated on the choreography and the dancing which were stunning.

Created originally for Ballet Met  in Columbus, Ohio in 1999 this ballet was choreographed, directed and in part designed by David Nixon (see the Information Pack) who brought it to Northern Ballet in 2005 (see "Dracula 2005 - From the Archive"). You can get a flavour of the work from this YouTube video of a rehearsal:

The ballet hangs around Dracula, Mina, Harker and Lucy danced impressively by Javier Torres, Dreda Blow, Antoinette Brookes-Daw and Joseph Taylor with strong supporting performances by Lucia Solari, Jessica Morgan and Mariana Rodrigues as the brides of Dracula oozing sex and menace in equal measure, Seward (Nicola Gervasi), Holmwood (Isaac Lee-Baker) and Van Helsing (Matthew Broadbent). A special word of praise for Kevin Poeung who danced Renfield, a psychiatric patient confined to a cage tormented by his warder (Jeremy Cunier) who exploded into frenzy when released from his confinement.

The set, costume and lighting designs were imaginative. I was particularly impressed with Lucy's rose lid coffin and the horses of the night. The score by Alfred Schnitke and arranged by Mikhail Popov varied from the lyrical such as Mina's entry to the unearthly such as her pas de deux with Dracula. Nobody left the theatre humming the score but it worked very well.

West Yorkshire Playhouse is a few hundred yards from the company's headquarters at Quarry Hill so it is a special place for them and also for their audiences. Something magical often happens on the last night of their season in this theatre. It did last year (see "Realizing Another Dream" 15 Sept 2013) and it also did last night. The crowd roared and at least half of us (including me) rose to our feet. On the way out I said goodnight to Janet McNulty whom I know from Balletcoforum. "Aren't you glad you came here tonight?" she asked. "Indeed, I am" I replied, "It might have been as good in Amsterdam but couldn't have been better."

Other Reviews
Luke Jennings  Northern Ballet: Dracula review – lashings of gothic coupling 14 Sept 2014 The Guardian

Janet McNulty BalletcoForum 14 Sept 2014

Further Reading

Charles Hutchinson  Northern Ballet’s Dracula, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, September 4 to 13 4 Sept 2014 The Press