I had come to see Michaela DePrince whom I had already mentioned several times in this blog. She had been born in Sierra Leone, the country of my late spouse and my former ward who is the nearest I have to a daughter. I was amply rewarded for my journey because DePrince danced magnificently. But so did the other dancers some of whom are now principals or soloists in the Dutch National Ballet and other great companies.
That visit to Amsterdam was the start of many good things. I met members of the company, parents and other relations of those members and fellow fans of the company from the Netherlands and elsewhere. I made friends with many of them. Yvonne Charlton visited Powerhouse Ballet. She gave us some great classes in Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester and taught us some of her choreography. In the miserable days of lockdown, Maria Chugai raised our spirits with two wonderful online classes and her appearance at "The Stage Door".
On my visits to the Dutch National Ballet, I got to know the Netherlands, its cities and its people. I learned about its history, its traditions and its view of the world. Even though it has sounds that do not exist in our language, Dutch is actually a first cousin to English. Had it not been for brexit which ended free movement it is more than likely that I would be living there now.
The Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company has been so successful that other companies, including the Birmingham Royal Ballet, have followed its example. Earlier this year I attended the launch of BRB2 and met its Artistic Coordinator Kit Holder at Elmhurst Ballet School (see An "Evening with Ashton" and the Launch of an English Junior Company30 Jan 2023). I was in the audience when it visited Nottingham on 28 April 2023 and was very impressed (see BRB2 in Nottingham29 April 2023). I am looking forward to its next tour which will take in Poole, Canterbury and Northampton in May 2024 (see BRB2: First 2024 Tour Venues Announced 26 July 2023 Birmingham Royal Ballet website).
The idea of a junior company as a bridge between vocational school and corps de ballet is an excellent one. I shall continue to support Ernst Meisner and Kit Holder in their endeavours in any way I can.
Romeo and Juliet web trailer from Birmingham Royal Ballet on Vimeo. Birmingham Royal Ballet Romeo and Juliet28 June 2018, 19:30 Birmingham Hippodrome
We have seen a lot of work by Sir Kenneth MacMillan over the last year or so to mark the 25th anniversary of his death. Everybody has his or her favourite work by that great man. Mine is Romeo and Juliet. It is about 50 years since I first saw that ballet at the Royal Opera House and I was captivated by it. I have two abiding memories of that performance: Georgiadis's designs and Lynn Seymour's dancing. I cannot for the life of me remember who partnered Seymour on that occasion. It might have been Donald MacLeary, It may even have been Rudolf Nureyev. I certainly saw Nureyev with Fonteyn in that ballet - at least in film when I was a graduate student in Los Angeles if not on stage as I remember how much I preferred Seymour's dancing.
The reason I remember Seymour but not her partner is that MacMillan's ballet is a study of Juliet or rather her overnight transition from childhood to womanhood. Other choreographers have focused on different aspects of the story: Krzysztof Pastor on power or rather the power struggle between Capulets and Montagues reflecting the battle between left and right in modern Italian history (see Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet18 May 2014) while Jean-Christophe Maillot explores the role of Friar Lawrence (see Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good way8 March 2015). Romeo does not change or at least not in the same way and nothing like as much as as Juliet which is why I can always remember who danced Juliet in MacMillan's ballet but seldom her Romeo.
Because of MacMillan's focus on Juliet's transition I can't help comparing the ballerina who dances that role with Seymour. I have never seen a performance that has impressed me as much as Seymour's over the last 50 years but some have come close. Last night's exquisite performance by Celine Gittens came closest of all. She taught me new things about the ballet. Her realization of her womanhood as she tossed aside her toy. The look that she gives Romeo before they dance a step. No doubt that is part of the choreography but somehow I had missed them all the other times that I have seen the work. In Gittens I saw Juliet rather than a representation of Juliet. Just as I had with Seymour all those years before.
Another dancer who impressed me particularly last night was Ruth Brill. She was the nurse. Not a big role perhaps but a pivotal one. She accompanies Juliet through every stage of the story. A bighearted woman full of love. She is ragged mercilessly by Juliet in the nursery and outrageously by the Montagues in the town square as she tries to deliver Juliet's note to Romeo. She prepares Juliet for her first ball. She witnesses her wedding. She tries to intercede with Juliet's parents when they force her to marry Paris. She discovers Juliet's lifeless body on the morning of what was supposed to be her wedding day. She kneels beside her in the Capulet family crypt in the very last scene. Though very little of her face was visible under her veil I watched her eyes convey indignation as she was molested in the market place and then a frisson of delight as Romeo pecked her cheek after he had read Juliet's note.
Tall and athletic Brandon Lawrence was as worthy a Romeo as any I had seen in that role. His duel with Tybalt was as thrilling as his dance with the seemingly lifeless Juliet in the crypt was chilling. Valentin Olovyannikov was a haughty, headstrong Tybalt just as Shakespeare had portrayed him. Lachlan Monaghan was a gallant Mercutio stabbed in the back after he has every reason to believe his fight with Tybalt was over. It is always hard to hold back tears as he strums his sword as if it were a musical instrument and it was particularly hard last night. Samara Downs was a formidable Lady Capulet from the first icy curtsy at Escalus's command to the explosion of rage at the sign of her slain son. Alice Shee was a charming Rosaline. How many lives would have been saved had Romeo not given up on her.
There was so much to like in that performance. There is the dance by Juliet's friends at the Capulets' party as she plucks the strings. There is the mandolin dance by the men in fuzzy costumes. There was Paul Andrews's sets and costumes even though I think I prefer Georgiadis's which remind me so much of the work of Leon Bakst. There was the magnificent Maestro Kessels who won perhaps even more generous applause than he would otherwise have received after the second interval when the result of the Belgium match would have been known.
It was a long, hot drive to Biirmingham with congestion on the M1 and A52 forcing me to detour via Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield and an even worse drive back with the A38 (M) hors de combat and a massive tailback on the M6. After delivering my friend to her home I crawled into my bed at 02:55 this morning. But last night's show was worth it. Like the first time I saw Lynn Seymour I think I shall remember this performance for the rest of my life.
This work featured two of my favourite young dancers: Thomas van Damme who had delighted me the previous year with his performance of Ernst Meisner's Embers with Nancy Burer in 2015 (see Junior Company's New Season6 Feb 2015) earning Meisner my personal choreographer of the year award for 2015 (see Highlights of 201529 Dec 2015) and Emilie Tassinari who had impressed me and many others in Cinderella at the Coliseum (see Wheeldon's Cinderella13 July 2015). Those two have really blossomed since I first met them just over a year ago and I am sure that they can both look forward to a glittering future.
Photo Michel Schnater, Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet. Reproduction licensed with kind permission of the company,All rights reserved
Those chaps were also in that piece. As they have only just joined the company this was the first time I had seen them. I am very impressed and will follow their careers with interest.
You will find my review of the show in Ballet Bubbles on 16 Feb 2016.
Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Ballet Bubbles, Meervaart Theatre, Amsterdam, 14 Feb 2016
Mata Hari is a hard act to follow (see Brandsen's Masterpiece14 Feb 2016). Mindful of the words of Voltaire's wise Italian that "le mieux est l’ennemi du bien" I feared that anything following it would be an anticlimax. That was what happened after the opening gala in September (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet13 Sept 2015). After seeing some of the best dancers in the world on the same stage the same evening I was temporarily spoilt for anything else.
In fact, the Junior Company's matinee performance of Ballet Bubbleswhich I saw at the end of a weekend that included a preview of the 2016 to 2017 opera and ballet season with interludes of heavenly singing and dancing and a tour of the home of the company which allowed access to company class and a walk on the Stopera's stage for Friends of the Dutch National Ballet as well as Mata Hari was the pièce de résistance. It was in its own way every bit as good as Mata Hari. The ability of the Dutch National Ballet to stage two outstanding but very different shows at the same time is an astounding achievement. I struggle to think of another company in the world that could have done the same.
Of course, I should not have been so apprehensive. The week before, the Junior Company had premièred Ernst Meisner's joyful No Time Before Time at the finals of the 2016 Lausanne International Ballet Competition and nobody gets to dance there in any capacity unless they are special. Meisner's work was the finale of a brilliant performance which included work by David Dawson, Krzysztof Pastor, Hans van Manen as well as Charlotte Edmonds. In an opening address just before the start of the performance (which was in Dutch - not a language that I have ever studied - so I may well have got it wrong) I believe that Meisner explained that the Junior Company offers opportunities not only for the world's most promising young dancers but also for young technicians and choreographers such as Edmonds.
The performance was staged not in the Stadsschouwburg where the last two seasons' tours had started (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 201325 Nov 2013 and The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet8 Feb 2015) but in the Theater de Meervaart near an artificial lake called the Sloterplas in the western suburbs of Amsterdam. Although nobody in my hotel nor even the Stopera seemed to know where it was, the Meervaart proved to be a good venue, particularly for a matinee performance where there were lots of children. There was plenty of space to sit and chat before and after the performance. In the interval the management served drinks to the audience: red and white wine or fruit juice to the adults and every kind of sugary fizz to the children. A delightful gesture which I appreciated as I had had no time for lunch or dinner the day before nor any kind of meal on Sunday until after I had landed in England.
The show began with a short talk by Meisner who spoke about the company and the works that were to be performed. As in previous years each piece was preceded by a film in which a dancer set out his or her thoughts in his or her language of choice.
In the first film Emilie Tassinari introduced the pas de six from Arthur Saint-Léon's La Vivandière which was originally staged in London in 1844 with Fanny Cerrito as La Vivandière and Saint-Léon himself as Hans. This is a gorgeous romantic ballet which is a type of dance in which Tassinari excels and seems to enjoy. In the previous year she had danced a divertissement from Napoli delightfully. In La Vivandière she danced the role that had been created by Cerrito which includes some spectacular grands jetés and tours en l'air that prompted a barrage of bravo from the audience. Saint-Leon's steps were traced impressively by the young Canadian dancer Theo Duff-Grant. They were accompanied equally impressively by Lisanne Kottenhagen, Melissa Chapski, Clara Superfine and Hannah Williams.
The next piece was Eric Gauthier's Ballet 101. It is one of my all time favourites and one that I would love to do. In fact Mel has kindly offered to coach me. It requires enormous strength and agility but it is also very witty. Last year it was performed by Xander Parish at the 45th anniversary gala of Northern Ballet (see Sapphire 15 March 2015). I had previously seen Daniel Montero dance it for the Junior Company in 2013. I am collecting material for a book to be called "Will I like Ballet?" in which I shall refer to this piece throughout the work. On Sunday the piece was danced by Giovanni Princip who was nothing short of magnificent.
Next came Edmonds's Fuse which was arranged to Armand Amar's Dam in China and Paddy Fields. There is a lot of energy in this work with its compelling beat which was translated into movement by Thomas van Damme, Antonio Martinez Cegarra and Belle Beasley. Amar's music cannot have been easy to choreograph or dance but it was interpreted imaginatively by the choreographer and executed beautifully by her dancers. This was the first time I had seen Edmonds's work and I look forward to more.
The first act was rounded off by Dawson's 5. 5 is only the second of his works that I have seen, the other being Empire Noir in Cool Britannia (see Going Dutch29 June 2015). That work had been fast and furious and that was also true of 5. The music, Adolphe Adam's Giselle, albeit with some reworking,was familiar but the movement was not. It was exciting and the crowd loved it. The female roles were danced by Chapski, Superfine and Tassinari and the male ones by Joseph Massarelli and Daniel Robert Silva. Dawson has been commissioned by Scottish Ballet to produce a new Swan Lake. If his reworking of Giselle is anything can go by Liverpool can look forward to swans on steroids when Scottish Ballet comes to town.
The first ballet after the interval was Pastor's arrangement of Kurt Weil's Silbersee and Wie Lange Noch. Pastor is another of the Dutch National Ballet's resident choreographers whose work has been performed by Scottish Ballet. I was very impressed with his Romeo and Juliet when it came to Sadler's Wells in 2014 (see Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet18 May 2014). Silbersee was a duet by Silva and Massirelli and Wie Lnnge Noch a pas de deux by Tassinari and van Damme. A beautiful and haunting work with many layers of meaning.
No performance by the Junior Company would be complete without a work by van Manen. In previous years the great man has come on stage to take a bow and the applause has exploded. Trois Gnossiennes with music by Erik Satie is of particular interest to British balletomanes because of its similarity to Ashton's Monotones. The music is sublime and so is van Manen's choreography executed sensitively by Chapski and Princic.
The last work was Meisner's No Time Before Time and it was my favourite by a mile. Starting with a solo by Silva who is joined gradually by the rest of the company in long, swooping stretches each giving the impression of a great bird in flight. The score by the Romanian composer and violinist Alexander Balanescu lifted the audience and enhanced the impression of flight. It must have been such fun to choreograph and even more fun to dance. The piece builds up. There is a lovely duet. Then some exuberant jumps. A pas de quatre. More exits and entrances. A pas de trois. Finally two dancers remain on stage and the music cuts. For those of us who were fortunate enough to be at the Meervaart it felt as though we were dancing too. I don't think I have ever seen a happier audience.
There was no rush for the exits after the show. The bars remained open and the audience stayed to chat. I caught Meisner after the show. "Had this been London the stage would have been knee deep in flowers" I said to him. Having danced with the Royal Ballet he would have seen flower throws. I also met several of the dancers after the show some of whom I met for the first time and several of whom I already knew. In the next few weeks I shall gather material for a feature on the Junior Company which I hope will do them even more justice than last time.
The Junior Company is now starting a tour of the Netherlands beginning at Oss near the Belgian border on the 18 Feb 2016 and finishing in the Hague on the 28 May 2016. Coming from a small village in the North of England 200 miles from London I applaud this initiative. I only wish they could have included a trip to the UK this year as they have done in previous years. But the Netherlands is not far and no part of that country is hard to reach. A performance by 12 of the most promising young dancers in the world would richly reward the jounrey.
I am now a Friend of the Dutch National Ballet (Het Nationale Ballet in Dutch hence the terrible pun). The National Ballet is the largest ballet company of the Netherlands and is one of the great companies of Europe. I was led to them for three very good reasons.
At the performance at the Staddshouwburg I saw Hans van Manen. I have been a van Manen fan for over 4 decades and I am thrilled that he has brought Concertante to Leeds (see "Tempestuous Choice - Amsterdam or Leeds?" 31 May 2014). I saw that ballet last year and loved it (see "Angelic - Northern Ballet's Mixed Bill" 9 June 2013). If you watch the video you will hear all the lovely things that van Manen has to say about Northern Ballet and its dancers. I like that.
Van Manen is one of the resident choreographers (Vaaste choreograaf) of the Dutch National Ballet. The other is Krzysztof Pastor whose Romeo and Juliet I saw last month (see "Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet" 18 May 2014). Like everyone else whose mother tongue us English I was introduced to Shakespeare almost as soon as I could talk. I remember my father chuntering
"I go, I go. Look how I go,
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow."
whenever my mother had a little job for him. And my mother's admonition "Lend me your ears" when she wanted to tick me off. Now I know Romeo and Juliet likethe back of my hand but I learned something new about the play from Pastor. The Dutch National Ballet are launching The Tempest and I can't wait to see it. I'll miss the opening in Amsterdam because I have tickets for other shows but I am sure it will come to this country soon.
My Friends magazine arrived on Monday and though it is in Dutch an intelligent English reader can make out just about 50% without recourse to a dictionary. If you read German too then I would say 75%. There are also quite a few loan words from French and other Romance languages. Google translate is there for the rest. It is not quite as long as "About the House" but it is more substantial than my Friends magazines from Northern and Scottish Ballets. On the front page there is a photo of a scene from Dutch Doubles. I would have seen the show just for the square tutus. The main article is a feature on that ballet with a summary of an interview with the choreographer. Then there is a page entitled "Bits and Pieces". Though the title is in English the content is in Dutch. These are short articles the most interesting of which was that van Manen's ballets are to be performed in St Petersburg. The centre spread features Larissa Lezhnina (Lof voor Larissa) with quotations from Ted Bransen, Guillaume Graffin and others who have worked with the ballerina. On the back page there is a list of upcoming events of which the most interesting is a trip to China with the company.
So the company is worth supporting. If you want to become a Friend call Koos Schrijen on +31 20 551 8231 or send him an email.
