Bajadera where tech meets ballet

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Forget phone apps like Dutch National Ballet's Bounden (see Bounden - Something that appeals to my Interests in Technology and Dance 17 Dec 2013). Virtual reality ballet is old hat (see Pacific Northwest Ballet experiments with Virtual Reality 27 March 2017). To see the real potential of technology and ballet you need to visit Leeds or San Diego next Spring to see the world's first simultaneous performance of the same ballet from two venues 6,000 miles apart.

How can that be possible?

"Simple!" Smiles Bharatnatyam Bhatti, Chief Technical Officer, of Silicon Valley startup Pygmalion Pixels. "We project a lifelike image of a dancer onto the stage of a theatre here in Californa and the identical picture at the same time onto the stage of a theatre over there in Leeds, England."

Bhatti, originally from Hyderabad developed an interest in ballet while researching for his PhD on 3D imaging technology at Stanford.  "Did you know that there is actually a ballet set near my hometown" he added. "I think it is called La Bayadere, or something like that."

The technology involves taking multiple pictures of real, live, dancers and somehow running them through some special software which feeds apparatus that projects 3D images onto the stage.  The software allows a choreographer to get the images to do superhuman feats like 12-foot jumps or 128 fouettés.

Bhatti had heard that there were two premier dancers from Leeds in Southern California, Tobias Batley and Martha Leebolt, and invited them to take part in his project.  "Toby was really impressed when I showed hm a lifelike image of himself effortlessly doing any number of tours en l'air."

Toby and Martha told their former artistic director, David Nixon, about this technology and he came on board from the start. "David has created a whole new ballet based on that ballet I was telling you about but set somewhere here out west," said Bhatti. "I think he is calling it Bajadera which I've googled and turns out to be some sort of candy from Croatia but it sounds kinda Spanish like Baja California."

The story goes that Solly, a deputy sheriff, has just shot some desperadoes at a showdown in Tombstone. He loves Nikki,  a dancing girl in the Last Trump Saloon but the sheriff, Mr Gamzatti, has other ideas. His daughter is in love with Solly and has persuaded her father to make Solly an offer that he just can't refuse  - if you get my meaning. Adding to the complexity, the town's preacher has the hots for Nikki but she is just not interested in hm. Naturally, Nikki is not too happy about Solly's forthcoming marriage and attacks Miss Gamzatti with a knife. She says nothing at the time but vows to get her own back by planting a rattlesnake in a bouquet of flowers.

The wedding goes ahead in the Last Trump Saloon. The festivities begin with Donald, an orange coloured robot performing a jerky dance. Nikki is bitten by the snake. The preacher offers her serum that can save her life but she refuses it indicating that life without Solly just isn't worth living.  Just before Solly and Miss Gamzatti exchange vows the town is hit by an earthquake and the saloon is destroyed.

Solly chews on some magic mushroom and sees 246 computer generated images of Nikki descending a ramp doing tendus and arabesques.  There are solos by three of those images and finally Solly imagines himself dancing with Nikki again. In his narcotic induced stupor, Solly allows himself to be bitten by the rattlesnake that had been disturned by the earthquake and finds himself soaring into the afterlife looking for Nikki.

"So what do you think?" asked Bhatti. "Worlds fail me" I reply. "Toi, toi and chookas to everyone involved. Just let me know when it is all over."

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).

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.

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