Ballet West's Showcase

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In Ballet Black's Standing Ovation at the Nottingham Playhouse 17 May 2018 I mentioned that Ballet Black are coming to Scotland.  They are not the only ones.  I shall return on 27 May to see Ballet West's Showcase at the Macrobert Arts Centre at Stirling University.

The event is described as follows:

"This show is the culmination of the Ballet West students' year and the final assessment for the BA (Hons) in Dance students (awarded by the Open University). It demonstrates the breadth of experience the dancers have gained in classical ballet, modern ballet and contemporary and presents new works created for the students by Belgian choreographer Daniel Job. Degree courses at Ballet West combine training in technical dance skills with genuine performing experiences required by dancers working today."

The students will perform extracts from Paquita in Stirling.  The video shows a rehearsal in a studio that looks very much like the one in which I attended class on 30 April 2018 (see Visiting Taynuilt 4 May 2018).  Immediately after class I was allowed to watch Jonathan Barton coach Joseph Wright and Uyu Hiramoto in the grand pas de deux.  It was looking good even then and I am looking forward to the performance very much indeed.

One of the reasons for my last visit to Scotland was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the St Andrews University Dance Club t-shirt of which I was one of the founder members (see St Andrews University Dance Club's 50th Anniversary Gala 5 May 2018). The Club has commissioned some commemorative t-shirts to celebrate its first half century and one of my friends and university contemporaries was kind enough to send me one earlier today. The panel on the left shows my trying it on and the panel to the right is the back of the same t-shirt.

The other reason for my visit was to see Scottish Ballet's Highland Fling in Oban.  Their newsletter reports:

"The company is back in Glasgow after a whirlwind tour of Highland Fling in Shetland, Orkney, Oban and Stornoway and our hearts are full."

I love that expression "our hearts are full".  It a beautiful phrase which I shall try to remember and use in my own writing. It also reminds me of all the good things I associate with Scotland - some material like the beauty of the countryside but much more the intangible.  In their Dancer's Tour Diary  Scottish Ballet recount some of the places they visited and things they did on tour.  In this hilarious video they challenge their non-Scottish dancers to repeat some Scottish phrases like "braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht" and "Lang may yer lum reek". 

Our West Riding argot can be pretty impenetrable.  I wonder how much of it our Gavin has picked up while he has been with Northern Ballet. Happen a'll ask him next time I meet l'lad.

Toi Toi Toi Taynuilt

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Our good friends Ballet West are starting their tour of Scotland in Stirling tonight, We want them to know that we are thinking of them. Some dancers say "toi, toi, toi" at times like this. Others "chookas". Whatever works for them we wish it for them and send them all our love.

The company is giving three shows at the Macrobert Centre on the Stirling Unversity campus.  One tonight at 19:30 and two tomorrow at 14:30 and 19:30 respectively. If you live in central Scotland, hurry, for there are not too many tickets left.  The Macrobert Centre is a good venue offering free parking and a reasonably priced bar and restaurant.

Ballet West then move on to Helensburgh, Tower Digital Arts Centre 27 Jan, Paisley, Paisley Town Hall 28 Jan, Oban, Corran Halls 9 Feb, Glasgow, SECC 11 Feb, Greenock, Beacon Arts Centre 12 Feb, Livingston, Howden Park Centre 16 Feb and finish up triumphantly at Edinburgh, EICC on 18 Feb 2017.

I saw the company's 2014 Swan Lake in Pitlochry and very good it was too (see  Swan Loch - Ballet West's Swan Lake, Pitlochry 1 March 2014 3 March 2014).  Most of the dancers are students this is the first opportunity to see some of the names to watch in the future.   Isaac Peter Bowry who danced the male lead in Ballet Theatre UK's Romeo and Juliet in Wakefield on 14 July 2017 was von Rothbart in Pitlochry on 1 March. Genée medallist Natasha Watson the only British dancer of her year to make the finals of Lausanne was in last year's show. Sarah Mortimer, who delighted me when she was at Ballet Theatre UK, trained at Ballet SWest some years earlier.

Ballet West have just celebrated their silver jubilee (see Congratulations to Ballet West - here's to the next 25 Years 23 Nov 2016). They may be on the edge of a small village in Argyll but they have turned out some very good dancers over the years.

Ballet West's Romeo and Juliet

Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, 31 Jan 2015

I've seen three performances by Ballet West: The Nutcracker in 2013, Swan Lake last March and now Romeo and Juliet. The other two were good but this is the best by far. This is a very ambitious production with a big cast including some very young children. It would have been a credit to a full time performing company. As most of the dancers are students Ballet West's achievement is all the more remarkable.

Several factors made this production special.  Excellent choreography by Daniel Job: dramatic and with plenty of detail that is often missed by other productions. Great sets by Ryan Davies and Sara-Maria Barton. A well trained and coordinated corps where even the children performed like pros. Sparkling dancing not only from the principals Jonathan and Sara-Maria Barton but also from the soloists Owen Morris as Tybalt, Andremaria Battaglia as Paris, Miranda Hamill as the nurse, Isaac Bowry as Lord Capulet, Kathrine Blyth as his wife, Andrew Cook as Prince Escalus and Karen Terry as Friar Lawrence.

This is a ballet that demands not only great virtuosity from the principals with no less than 4 major pas de deux (the ball, the balcony, the bedroom and the crypt) but also great drama. Juliet grows up literally overnight. A playful adolescent teasing her nurse in the first Act. A woman who knows her mind and is capable of taking enormous risks in defiance of her father in the next. Romeo - passionate in love but also in fury. Drama also from the soloists. Katherine Blyth's grief at her son's death. Her anger on seeing his killer. Her performance gripped the audience - or at any rate it gripped me. Bowry who I had previously seen as Drosselmeyer and Rothbart showed he can act as well as dance. So too could Cook whom I had also admired very much last year.

Because the cast is large and the sets were elaborate the show needed a big stage. The Macrobert is not a small auditorium but it did not do justice to the show. This production has already toured China where it was no doubt danced in bigger auditoria. Probably the best place to see this show is the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow where the tour concludes on Valentine's day. This will be a memorable performance and if you live in Glasgow or anywhere near it you really should try to be there.

In the programme the company's founder and artistic Gillian Barton wrote how it started from humble beginnings in 1991 and how it has achieved great things with tours of China, finalists and medallists in important competitions and graduates in several major companies. Tonight I met Gillian Barton for the first time. Others including one of the members of my class at Northern Ballet had spoken very highly of that lady and I can quite see why.

Further Reading

4 Fev 2015 Kenneth Speirs Brother and sister look ahead to Romeo and Juliet performance in Paisley Daily Record
2 Feb 2015 Kelly Apter Ballet review: Romeo and Juliet, Stirling The Scotsman