World Ballet Day is coming

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One of the compensations of Autumn is World Ballet Day in which five of the world's top companies present their offerings and those of their guests. This year it falls on 5 Oct 2017.

The day begins in Melbourne with the Australian Ballet. We have a special interest in that company as they hosted Amelia Sierevogel earlier this year.  She told us all about her experiences with that company in Melbourne City of Dance 23 May 2017.  The Australian Ballet is sharing its slot with three other companies with which we have a connection, namely the Queensland Ballet, the Hong Kong Ballet and the West Australian Ballet.

We welcomed the Queensland Ballet to London in 2015 (see A dream realized: the Queensland Ballet in London 12 Aug 2015).  Gita and I also had the honour of meeting its legendary artistic director, Li Cunxin, when he visited the London Ballet Circle. Amelia and I have another connection with that company since our teacher, Fiona Noonan, trained and danced with them. Another favourite teacher, Jane Tucker, danced with the Hong Kong Ballet who are also guests of the Australian Ballet. The third guest that we follow with interest is the West Australian Ballet who are dancing David Nixon's The Great Gatsby in Perth this month.

The baton passes to the Bolshoi whose Taming of the Shrew delighted audiences in London last year (see Bolshoi's Triumph - The Taming of the Shrew 4 Aug 2017). The choreographer of that work was Jean-Christophe Maillot whose company Les Ballets de Monte Carlo will share the Bolshoi's slot. The Bolshoi's other guests are the Netherlands Dance Theatre who are well known and greatly appreciated here.  The Bolshoi will rehearse for us Balanchine's Diamonds and The Golden Age and introduce us to The Moscow State Academy of Choreography.

Next comes London with the Royal Ballet and four of our other great companies all of whom I know well and admire greatly. The Royal Ballet will rehearse Anastasia, La Fille mal gardée, The Sleeping Beauty and a new ballet by Charlotte Edmonds. Students from the Royal Ballet School will dance Concerto and the company will dance Anastasia.  The Royal Ballet's guests include some of the world's greatest companies including The Dutch National Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, La Scala, the Stuttgart Ballet and the Vienna State Ballet. This should be the highpoint of the day.

Across the Atlantic to Toronto with the National Ballet of Canada. They will be rehearsing Cinderella and Onegin and interview the great Karen Kain. Wayne McGregor and Robert Binet.  Their guests include the Miami City Ballet whom Gita saw in February (see Gita Mistry Attending the Ballet in Florida: Miami City Ballet's Program Three 6 March 2017) and the Boston Ballet who were in London in 2013 (see High as a Flag on the 4th July 7 July 2917).

Finally to San Francisco, one of the oldest and finest companies in America who also promise rehearsals of Diamonds and Cinderella as well as Liam Scarlett's Frankenstein, Helgi Tomasson's Haffner Symphony and a new work by Yuri Possokhov. Their guests include the Houston Ballet which suffered badly from Hurricane Harvey (see Houston Ballet  30 Aug 2017). I take a special interest in that company partly because of its many connections with this country. partly because Li Cunxin started his career there but mainly because the outstanding young artist, Emilie Tassinari, has recently joined the corps.

Every year seems to be better than the last and this year promises to be the best of all. Nobody can watch the whole feast on one day but, happily, recordings remain on YouTube for months after the event.  It takes about a year to savour it all.

Northern Ballet School's Showcase of Dance

Manchester City Ballet's Giselle

Photographer Caroline Holden

(c) Northern Ballet School 2011 all rights reserved

Reproduced with the kind permission of the School

Northern Ballet School, A Showcase of Dance, The Dancehouse, Manchester 8 July 2016


Northern Ballet School is a national treasure and I say that without exaggeration for many reasons. It has talented young people of many nations some of whom will make their mark on stage in ballet or musical theatre while others who will share their gift of dance as teachers. It hosts The Dancehouse Theatre, one of the institutions of Manchester, and Manchester City Ballet, the only resident classical ballet company in our metropolis. I have particular reason to be glad of the School's existence as it trained two of my favourite teachers in Leeds as well as those in Manchester. I attend class in its studios and have performed on the Dancehouse stage.

Last week the School presented its students in A Showcase of Dance at The Dancehouse,  The show was a combination of ballet and musical theatre reflecting its twin focus on classical ballet and jazz theatre. It consisted of 20 works in three acts some of which were quite lengthy. It began at 19:30 and ended just after 22:00. Each and every performance was brilliant in its own way.  As I tweeted last night, it was not just a good students' show - it was a good show by any standards.

Act I  began with a large extract of the second act of Giselle though it had been adapted by the students' choreographer, Anton Alexandrov, for his almost entirely female cast.  Myrtha, danced by Sayaka Sugimoto, and what a friend aptly called Myrtha's sidekicks, Zulm (Meagan Hoare) and Mona (Sally Hind), had at least as much to do on stage as Giselle herself (Yukiho Kasai) and a great deal more than Albrecht danced by Carlos Felipe Oliviera. That was the cast that had performed Giselle in December (see Manchester City Ballet's Giselle 12 Dec 2015) and the the same woodland backdrop was used. As before they were all good but I was particularly impessed  by Oliveira. With his shock of heair, was one of the most noticeable dancers in the show. I was also impressed by the corps who had some tricky steps including the tricky progress across the stage in arabesque.

The next two works, Beat It, by Helen Vidotti to the music of Michael Jackson and GUY by Lee Lomas to the music of Lady Gaga, were exciting and exuberant. They were followed by Cell Block Tango, a scene from Chicago where each of prisoners explained how they had landed in gaol. More great dancing from Oliviera in Anthea Garrett's Final Dance to the music of John Kander. This time Oliveria's partner was Larissa King. Dani Winters's brilliant Diamonds to DjeeeeeKK completed the first act.

More ballet in Act II with Lisa Rowlands's Juliet - A Thousand Good Nights to the music of Abel Korzeniowski. This piece had been  created to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Alex Burrows who had danced the peasant pas de deux in Gisele appears to have been Romeo. I was not clear which of the girls was Juliet unless they all were which is possible as they were all good dancers. Although I enjoyed all the works in act II, two stood out for me in particular. There was the utterly charming Family Scene written and staged by Chris Helmsley where a mother (Annabelle Dawes) and father (Cameron Barclay) spoke about how they fell in love before their inquisitive children (Kezia Coulson and Emilia Miller). One of many opportunities for the students to show their ability to act with American accents which so few Brits can do well. I also loved You Gotta Get a Gimmick  by Emma Woods. The other works in act II were I've heard that Song before, Just in Time, The Secret, Sax and Gasp.

The final act opened with one of the early scenes from the musical Little Shop of Horrors which I have enjoyed ever since I first saw it at Pitlochry. Seymour was played by Joseph Foster and Audrey by Lucy Davies. Both acted, danced and sang well as did the rest of the cast. That was followed by Statera, a work created by Alexandrov to Philip Glass's music. Great dancing by the cast which included Burrows, Hird, Hoare, Kasai and Sugimoto. Nexr came Garrett's Runaround to Mopmop's music. Lonely Town, another ballet by Alexandrov to Leonard Bernstein's music mainly for the men. Darcey Ferguson danced the prostitute which was the only female role. The final piece was Times Square Ballet, a sparkling work by Lee Lomas to Bernstein. Set in Manhattan there were snatches from On the Town including New York, New York which I can never get out of my head when I visit that city. Maxwell Statham performed Gaby which was the role created by Gene Kelly, Jak Elmore Chip which was created  by Frank Sinatra and Harry Poswell as Ozzie which was created for Jules Munshin. I saw more than a little stardust in their performances.

The show ended with thunderous applause to the strains of Donna Summer as the artists took their bow. I had enjoyed last year's Showcase (see Serendipity 10 July 2015) but this was even better. The names of at least some of these performers will be up in lights in the West End.

Let's bring the Royal Ballet to The Factory Manchester

Palace Theatre

Photo Wikipedia

With 2.9 million inhabitants the Greater Manchester metropolitan area is the second largest conurbation in the British Isles. It is also the largest conurbation without a resident world class ballet company. London has lots of good companies - the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Rambert, Ballet Black to name just a few. Birmingham has the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Glasgow Scottish Ballet, Leeds Northern Ballet and Newport Ballet Cymru.

It has not always been so. Northern Ballet began life in Manchester but moved across the Pennines first to Halifax and then to Leeds.  It now has a magnificent home at Quarry Hill in Leeds with its own theatre in the same neighbourhood as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds College of Music, Yorkshire Dance, the BBC and the Grand.  There is no reason why it should move anywhere else. Of course, we still see Northern Ballet in Manchester from time to time just as we see the Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Rambert and many other companies. We also have the Northern Ballet School which performs a classical ballet every year at the Danceworks Theatre in Oxford Road. All very good but not the same as having our own world class company.

A few years ago there were plans for the Royal Opera House to establish a Northern base at The Palace with regular seasons for the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera in Manchester. That would have been wonderful but austerity put paid to that (see Rob Sharp Royal Opera House shelves move north 28 Oct 2010 The Independent). Although the news report says that the plans have been put on hold nobody has tried to revive them in the intervening time.

But maybe we can do so now.  In his Autumn Statement 2014 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £78 million investment in a massive theatre and arts centre on the site of the Granada Studios to be known as "The Factory Manchester".  It is part of a £7 billion programme of investment in transport, science and technology and the arts to transform the cities of the North into a "Northern Powerhouse" to serve as an economic counterweight to London.  

An economic counterweight needs culture.  As Manchester City Council recognizes in its press release "£78m for The Factory Manchester - a new large scale, ultra-flexible arts space" 3 Dec 2013 

"The Factory Manchester will play an integral part in helping Manchester and the North of England provide a genuine cultural counterbalance to London, supporting the city and region's growth."

Now Manchester already has The Hallé, The Royal Exchange and The Lowry which go a good way towards providing that cultural counterweight but it needs first class opera and ballet to be complete.

We could try to persuade an established company in another city to move to Manchester as Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds did but that would be resented by the city such company would leave behind and we Mancunians are too big hearted for that. We could also grow our own company but that would take years. Dusting off the plans that were put on hold only five years ago now seems a viable option. If the BBC can move to Media City why not the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera for at least part of the year? The second city of the nation needs and deserves nothing less.

Post Script
The following paragraph appears in the Wikipedia article on the Royal Ballet:

"The Royal Opera House and Manchester City Council are currently in the planning stages of a new development known as Royal Opera House, Manchester. The proposal is for the Palace Theatre in Manchester to receive an £80m refurbishment, creating a first-class theatre capable of staging productions by both the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera. The Royal Opera House would take residence of the theatre for an annual 18 week season, staging 16 performances by the Royal Opera, 28 performances by the Royal Ballet and other small-scale productions. The proposals would establish the Palace Theatre as a designated base for the Royal Opera House companies in the North of England, as a producing house for new ballet and opera, and as a training centre for all aspects of theatre production. The proposals could potentially lead to the creation of 700 jobs for local people.
The proposals have been approved by Andy Burnham MP the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, and accepted by a number of public bodies. However the plans are currently being revised to address the concerns put forward by those who are opposed to the plans. Issues that have been raised include:

• How will the refurbishment of the Palace Theatre be funded?

• Will the proposals impact negatively on The Lowry, a theatre and arts complex in nearby Salford?

• Will the Manchester season present the same standard of performance as the Royal Opera House in London?"

More on Ballet in Manchester

13 Dec 2014 Alchemy
9 Nov 2014  A Mancunian Nutcracker
10 Oct 2014 What Manchester does today
29 Aug 2014 So proud of Manchester

More on the "Northern Powerhouse"

10 Dec 2014 Jane Lambert "Let's take this opportunity with both hands" IP North West
8 Nov 2014 Jane Lambert "Northern Futures Summit" IP Yorkshire (see the links to other articles)

Cinderella - even better

Northern Ballet, Cinderella, Lyceum, Sheffield 29 Nov 2014


When I reviewed Northern Ballet's Cinderella at The Grand last Boxing Day I described it as "a triumph". Yesterday's performance at The Lyceum in Sheffield was even better.

It was much the same cast: Lucia Solari in the title role, Javier Torres as the Prince and Hiranao Takahashi as Cinderella's father and the Magician. The most significant change was that Hannah Bateman danced Cinderella's stepmother. I have admired Bateman for some time but I did not appreciate fully how good she was until yesterday evening. Having made her acquaintance at the Decadent Afternoon Tea last June to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Centre for Advanced Training I can attest to her amiability but in role she was the epitome of meanness, peevishness and vindictiveness. Her performance contributed considerably to my appreciation of the ballet. The other dancer I noticed particularly last night  was Rachael Gillespie who danced Cinderella as a child. She loves to dance. She radiates enthusiasm with her eyes and smile.

As with Gatsby two weeks ago I was able to concentrate on the score and choreography. First time round I barely listened to the Philip Feeney's music (possibly because it wasn't Prokoviev) but this time I did listen and fell in love with it.  It has been resonating in my brain - especially the closing scene where Cinders runs to the prince  - all nght. As in Gatsby there is some very clever choreography. The skating scene on the Crystal Lake, the performing bear and huskies and the ecstatic pas de deux between Cinders and the Prince are just three examples.

And talking of bears I now know why I did not appreciate the Royal Ballet's The Winter's Tale  first time round. Nixon has a performing bear danced by the entertaining Matthew Broadbent whereas Wheeldon uses fabric which just didn't work for me and still doesn't. I had seen Cinderella a few weeks earlier and it is so good that I think it spoiled me for everything else. In my last review I spoke of the magic and the Cinders mobile. This time I noticed the ingenuity of some of the other scenes such as the opening with its forest and river.

This year we have seen Cleopatra, Dracula, Gatsby  and now Cinderella which are Nixon's most popular works. The last is my favourite work in Northern's repertoire and I would argue that it is Nixon's best work.

So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class

Pierre Adolphe Valette   Oxford Road, Manchester

Wikipedia

Northern Ballet started in Manchester in 1969 and one of the company's best ballets was Gillian Lynne's A Simple Man which celebrated the life of L S Lowry. I also started life in Manchester some 20 years earlier. As a Mancunian I have always regretted Northern Ballet's departure from our city though had they stayed they might never have been housed so well as they are now at Quarry Hill.

But as I tweeted when I visited In the Frame at the Lowry Northern Ballet's déménagement has not deprived our city of dance. Not only do we see a lot of dance at The Lowry, the Palace and other venues but we also make it as this wonderful Oxjam flash mob video shows. We have the Dancehouse, Northern Ballet School and KNT Danceworks. All at 10 Oxford Road which is approximately where Adolphe Valette would have been standing when he painted the picture above.

Yesterday I attended the Complete Beginners Ballet Class at KNT Danceworks and I had a great time. Our instructor was Ailsa Baker who was excellent. The Dancehouse is an old cinema which has been converted into a theatre and dance studios. Our class took place in a studio at the top which was large with a lovely curved roof and large windows allowing plenty of natural light.

There were about 20 of us - perhaps more - nearly all  were women and most of us were young.  I joined the class a few minutes before it started to find that most of the kids were stretching like experienced dancers. Complete beginners' class? Huh! Some beginners.  I introduced myself to Ailsa who asked me whether I had done any dance before. I owned up to being in the Over 55 Class at Northern Ballet. "Don't worry!" said Ailsa reassuringly. "If you can do more or less what I show you it is good enough for me."

But it immediately became clear that Ailsa has very high standards and she expects her students to make an effort which is fine by me.  We started some toe exercises followed by pliés and relevés and balances with our arms in first and fifth. Then we did combined pliés and tendus followed by glissés, fondus and grands battements.  It was during the grands battements that I realized that Ailsa is serious. As one half of the class swung their legs at the barre the other half were in pairs on the floor in plank position clapping hands alternately. Now that was a shock for this old lady but I wasn't giving up. Finally we had some stretches with our legs on the barre. Somehow I willed my back paws onto the second rail of the barre. Those who know me will realize that is no mean achievement.

After our barre work and stretches Ailsa called us into the centre and taught us some balancés, posés and a grand jeté which she combined in a lovely enchainement which we practised in groups starting from right to left starting with the right foot and then from the left with the left foot. Ailsa filmed us on her mobile phone. Ailsa used the same music as Fiona Nooman, my teacher in Huddersfield, which made me feel very much at home. I don't know the names of the tunes but I really love them. They go round and round in my head long after I finish class.

Alas, like all ballet classes it came to an end too soon.  "How did you like it?" asked Ailsa when I paid her my fee. "I really loved it" I said. "Then you'll be back?" "You bet!!" and I meant it "Though I can't come every week once my classes start again in Leeds."

There's something about Manchester and Manchester people. They (and I hope that includes me) are very friendly.  My mother, who came from Bramhope, noticed that. She went the opposite way to Northern Ballet. 

There's a lot to be said for this class. A lovely big studio. Good parking nearby (the meters stop at 18:00 unlike the curmudgeonly city fathers in Leeds and Sheffield who rake what they can off impoverished adult ballet students). A very reasonable fee - £5 for an hour. And a great instructor  who coaxes the best out of her class with a smile and words of encouragement.