Ballet West's Swan Lake - Dates and Venues 24 Jan to 1 Mar.

Ballet West will be touring Scotland with Swan Lake between 24 Jan and 1 March 2014.  Located very close to Loch Etive (see "Taynuilt - where better to create ballet?" 31 Aug 2013) that company must know a thing or two about water though as Loch Etive is a sea loch I doubt that too many swans are attracted to its surface.

The tour starts in Oban and continues through Musselburgh, Stirling, Dundee, Cumbernauld, Greenock, Dunfermline, Giffnock, Livingston, Pailsley, Dunoon, Inverness and Pitlochry. All good stuff as you can see from the YouTube trailer for a previous tour on the company's website.

Now this is a very good excuse for a visit to Pitlochry - not that I ever need much of an excuse - but I have a question for the management of Ballet West.  When are you coming here?  If you can get to China surely you can delight your public in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Taynuilt - where better to create ballet?

The countryside around Taynuilt

My very first post was my review of Ballet West's "Nutcracker" on 25 Feb 2013. I am something of a fan of Ballet West and I mentioned them again on 9 March 2013 after they had sent me a lovely programme (see "More on Ballet West" on 9 March 2013). One of the reasons I like Ballet West is that they give lessons to the public (see their Outreach Classes Timetable). I hope one day to take one of those classes since I visit Scotland whenever I get the chance.

Ballet West is based in Taynuilt which is about 12 miles from Oban.  I stopped at Taynuilt this afternoon on the way to the Isle of Mull ferry and took these photos with my ancient BlackBerry.

The village is in a magnificent setting with mountains on one side and a sea loch on the other.  I don't know whether Ballet West has ever thought of staging La Sylphide but they might because Taynuilt is Gurn and Effie territory.

Loch Erive

Ballet and scenery are not Taynuilt's only delights.  It has an excellent teashop called The Robin's Nest with the most delicious home made goodies.  I can recommend their toasted haggis sandwich with whole grain mustard but their sponge cakes are out of this world.    A great alternative to cupcakes, Cheryl, if you ever want to take a busman's holiday.

Robin's Nest Sponge Cake

So what news of Ballet West?  Well their outreach classes are resuming in September and they are planning a new tour for the new year.   No announcements have been made yet but they told me that they hope to take it to venues in England and Wales which would be brilliant.   As I said in my review, I am sure that audiences in London would take them to their hearts.

The first dancers I ever met were students on their way to Barons Court.  My old school was on the other side of the Cromwell Road.   Members of the first eleven always tried to hit a cricket ball through the windows of their rehearsal studios with the promise of a beating for the beating responsible and a half holiday for everyone else if anyone actually succeeded.   I couldn't help tweeting today that Taynuilt beats Barons Court as a place to learn and create ballet any day.