Christmas at the Dancehouse

Reproduced with kind permission of the Dancehouse Theatre

Manchester City Ballet Christmas at the Dancehouse 7 Dec 2918, 19:30, The Dancehouse, Manchester

Whenever I can I take the train to Oxford Road on a Tuesday or drive to Leeds on a Wednesday for a 90-minute ballet class.  I can't really keep up with students decades younger even though I do my level best but I am made to feel welcome at both classes and I always have fun.  When, by some enormous fluke, something does go right the smile on the face of the teacher is palpable.

The teachers of both classes and many of their colleagues whom I also revere were trained at the Northern Ballet School in Manchester.  They are all great human beings as well as fine teachers and accomplished dancers and the institution that produced them deserves support.  So, every December (when I can get a ticket) I  attend the annual performance of the School's classical ballet company, Manchester City Ballet, and every Spring I attend the showcase of Jazzgalore, its jazz and musical theatre company.

In all the previous years that I have been following the company, Manchester City Ballet has staged a full-length classical work at The Dancehouse theatre. I have seen and reviewed some excellent productions of The Nutcracker, Giselle and  Coppelia (see Alchemy 13 Dec 2014, Manchester City Ballet's Giselle 12 Dec 2015 and Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia 10 Dec 2016).  This year they did something different with their Christmas at The Dancehouse. They gave us Act II of The Nutcracker for the second part of the evening showing that they can do Spanish, Arabian, Chinese and Sugar Plum as well as anybody when they choose to do so, but they presented their own choreography using their singers as well as kids from McLaren Dance Company in Winter Wonderland for the first.

I must admit that I read the webpage advertising the show with some apprehension but the combination worked,  It gave a fuller picture of the school whose students elect a classical or jazz and musical theatre focus.  It showed, for instance, that some of its students can sing as well as dance. Francesca Thompson, for example, sang a contemporary version of Silent Night and danced the Rose Fairy.

There were some hilarious pieces such as Four Tramps where four strong men (Daniel Gooddy, James Hanna, Lucas Holden and Thomas Yeomans) entered with hands linked cygnets style actually dancing a few steps of that dance.  I know of one choreographer and a ballet mistress who would have kittens had they been in the theatre last night, but why not?  They were representing drunks and they gave a whole new meaning to pas de bourrée (for those who have forgotten their French "bourrer" means "to stuff" and to be bourré means to have had a skinful).  Another bit which worked better than one would think was a czardas to traditional Christmas carols. Finally, the Winter Wonderland was linked to The Kingdom of the Sweets when Father Christmas gave Clara (Ruby Nuttall) a nutcracker.

All credit to the choreographer, Lisa Rowlands, the ballet mistress Amanda Gilliland and the technical manager and lighting designer, Gary Whittaker.  I really liked the sets, lighting and projections, particularly of falling snow. Whoever thought of the idea deserves congratulations for her or his daring because it has paid off.

The second part included the best bits of Act II of The Nutcracker.   All danced well but I particularly liked Irene Ganau as chocolate (or the Spanish dance), Ioanna-Maria Antoniou and Elisa D'Acciavo as tea (the Chinese dance) and three of the four drunkards from the first part (Gooddy, Hanna and Yeomans) transformed into Russians.  The fourth of their number, Holden, danced the Sugar Plum's cavalier and although I admired his jumps and turns I had an anxious moment when he lifted Airi Aoki, especially in the final fish dive.  I thought perhaps they needed more time together.

Altogether I found it a very good show and anybody who can get to Manchester for this afternoon's matinee or this evening's show is in for a treat.  I thanks all the students who took part for entertaining us and wish them well for the remainder of their studies and their future careers.

Flash Back to the 80s

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Jazzgalore (NBS Musical Theatre Dance Co.). Flash Back to the 80s  24 March 2018, 19:30 The Dancehouse, Manchester


Northern Ballet School in Manchester claims to be  "an international centre of excellence in training for classical ballet and musical theatre."  I can personally endorse that claim as many of my teachers at KNT Danceworks and Northern Ballet trained there.  Students at Northern Ballet School can focus on classical ballet or jazz and musical theatre and both focuses have their own performance companies, Manchester City Ballet for classical dance and Jazzgalore for jazz and musical theatre.

Between the 22 and 24 March Jazzgalore presented Flash Back to the 80s, a two act review featuring the dance and singing from the 1980s.  I attended the show on 24 March and had intended to review it months ago.  The reason I did not do so is that I had asked for one or more photos from the show for my review which unfortunately never arrived.  What has arrived, however, is the above video which appeared on YouTube a few days ago.  It is a compilation of highlights of the show and  I think it is pretty fair and accurate.

I enjoyed the show and judging by the whooping and cheering I think the audience did too.  I particularly liked the numbers from Fame, especially Hard Work and the title song which were staged and choreographed by Andrew Margerison, Anton Alexandrov's Chess Ballet, Sarah Lawson's I can do that from A Chorus Line in Act 1.  In Act 2 my favourites were Helen Vidotti's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Emma  Woods's Raspberry Beret and two more works by Margerison, Whitney and the finale, Where's The Party.  Congratulations to Patricia McDonald who produced the show and Lee Lomas and Andrew Margerison who directed it.

Sadly I seem to have missed a couple of Northern Ballet School's recent shows. That is a pity because I am one of its well wishers.  I train at least once a week in its studios and I have danced several times in its theatre.   Above all I am a Mancunian even though I now live in Summer Wine country. I missed The Nutcracker because the rickets sold out very quickly and The Showcase of Dance because of conflicting commitments.  The school has published a video of highlights from The Nutcracker which suggests that it was very good.   I hope I shall not miss Manchester City Ballet's next performance in December. 

KNT's One Day Workshop on La Bayadère

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We spent the first sunny day of the year cooped up in a dance studio in Manchester. How sad is that?  Well not at all really because we had a whale of a time. For the first time, we beginners and pre-intermediate students had an opportunity to dance with the advanced class and the experience lifted us all.  Even me!  For that reason alone it was the best KNT intensive at the Northern Ballet School's studios that I have ever attended, though, I must emphasize, all the other ones have also been good.

We had two excellent teachers:  Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy and Martin Dutton of the Hammond.  Martin took our class and Jane the more advanced students. We had several joint sessions.  A warm up with Martin at the beginning of the day. Both teachers taught us the entry into the kingdom of the Shades towards the end.   We concluded the intensive with a joint performance at which each class danced its pieces before the other and we came together for the entry into the kingdom of the Shades at the very end. 

After a warm-up which started on the floor and ended with a brisk run round the studio, Martin led us into class. We did the usual barre exercises - pliés, tendus, glissés, ronds de jambe, grands battements et cetera - then a delightful port de bras, pirouettes dehors and dedans and some of the jumps that we needed to master for Solor's solo.   We had one chap in our midst - Peter from North Wales  - and Martin drilled him (and us) in tours en l'air.  Sally used to make me do these when I was a student at St Andrews and I still remember them up to a point (see Ballet at University 27 Feb 2017).  We finished off with some jumps.  Throughout the class Martin emphasized the importance of performance.  "You look like your attending a maths class not a dance class", he said. "Dance is supposed to be fun," "So is maths" I protested sottissimo voce which was somehow picked up by the class.  Very naughty to break a cardinal rule of class etiquette that I had learned nearly 50 years ago at St Andrews but that was a provocation I could not ignore

The warn-up and class took us up to lunch time so Martin broke for lunch at 12:20.  I nipped out for some sushi and berries from Tesco across Oxford Road. While over there I noticed that the old National Computer Centre will become an incubator sometime this Spring.  There is a canteen at Northern Ballet School which opens to the public only for shows at the Dancehouse theatre. However, it has tables, chairs and a vending machine and we usually meet to eat our sandwiches there.  Many of the beginners and pre-intermediate class were regulars at Karen Sant's Tuesday class but there were three of us from Jane's Wednesday night class in Leeds and Peter from North Wales.

After lunch Martin gave us a quick warm up and then led us into the repertoire.  Before playing the music he taught us the steps as he would in class.  One of our pieces included a cabriole which he broke down into its components.  Only after he was satisfied that we were as good as we were ever going be he taught us the whole solo. For the performance, however, he divided the class into sections and allocated each of us part of the choreography.   We were able to concentrate on our part and while we were a long way from perfect we were also far from a rabble.

The second piece he showed us was from Solor's solo while he was stoned on opium.  "Heavy man" as my roommate at UCLA used to say. There were lots of jumps and turns which were great fun but we had insufficient time to polish them into a performance.

We did, however, learn the whole of the entry into the kingdom of the shades with all those arabesques and tendus as we descended the notional ramp followed by the  bourrés, the descent to one knee which I daren't risk as I might never get up again and some awkward soutenus.  Martin led us through that piece in our studio.  Then Jane invited us into hers to join her students.  She had taught her class a slightly different choreography and the two teachers drilled us together until they were satisfied that we were doing the same thing.  The advanced class danced Nikiya's solo and the second shade's solo delightfully to warm applause from us. We danced our solo to probably over generous applause from them. It was good to have an audience which included my good friend Yoshie, Karen and Mark Hindle as well as the advanced class members.

The day passed far too quickly.  However, we have a show to which we can look forward on 19 May 2018 and, of course, the launch of Powerhouse Ballet with Jane Tucker in Huddersfield on 26 May.

"Show!" - the Video

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In Show 14 May 2017 I wrote how it felt to dance in Move It o at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester on 13 May 2017. Our teacher and choreographer, Karen Sant, filmed our performance and she has recently uploaded her videos onto YouTube so you can now see how we did.

It was a memorable night. We all had a whale of a time. Here are links to some of the other performances:

• The Advanced Ballet Class;
• The Advanced Contemporary Class;
• The Advanced Jazz Class;
• The Beginners' Ballet and Jazz Class;
• The Beginners' Class;
• The Beginner Contemporary Piece;
• The Intermediate Ballet Class; 
• The Pointe Class; and
• The Repertoire Class dancing the entry to the Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère.

Everybody who took part in those performances studies dance after a long day's work.  We are all ages. Some of us had taken up dance for the first time as adults. Our classes take place in the studios of the Northern Ballet School on Oxford Road of which the Dancehouse Theatre is an integral part. It is a really lovely place to learn dance. Karen once referred to us as "the KNT family". That is not a bad description.  If you want to join us, you will find all the information you need on the KNT website.

Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia

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Manchester City Ballet, Coppelia, The Dancehouse, 9 Dec 2016, 19:30, 10 Dec 2016

In Of Bikes and Buses 25 Oct 2016, I mentioned a short debate on Radio 4 between the newspaper critic, Luke Jennings, and David Nixon of Northern Ballet on "making ballet relevant to today." If relevance is your pigeon, you can't go far wrong with Coppelia. You don't need to change the story, commission a new score or give your dancers sticks to carry in their mouths. Coppelia has everything. Artificial intelligence. Societal dysfunction with juvenile delinquents roughing up a pensioner on his way to the pub and ladettes breaking into his workshop and trashing his handiwork. The ballet even anticipated the Turing test.

I like the ballet for many reasons none of which have anything to do with the music or choreography. It is about ordinary human beings in a rural village in deepest Mitteleuropa. Dr Coppelius is an inventor. Indeed, he reminds me of so many of my clients. After annoying his fiancee to such an extent that she nearly breaks off the engagement Franz plans a clandestine visit to the girl on Coppelius's balcony at the dead of night by ladder. Much like the defendant in R v Collins.

Manchester City Ballet, Northern Ballet School's performance company, has been dancing Coppelia at the Dancehouse Theatre since 8 Dec 2016. I had booked tickets for last night but I was delayed by congestion in Manchester city centre and missed the whole of the first act.  As I could not fairly review a ballet after seeing just two-thirds of the show I returned this afternoon to see the whole performance. It was very, very good.

Seeing the show one and a half times enabled me to see the four lead dancers in different roles.  Marin Shimizu danced Swanhilda last night and Dawn this afternoon.  Nika Lipolt was Dawn yesterday and Swanhilda this afternoon. Miguel Angelo danced Franz yesterday and Ted Beattie this afternoon.  Those four danced their roles differently but equally well.   Beattie and Lipolt are taller than Angelo and Shimizu and commanded the stage particularly well but Shimizu has dazzling technique particularly in the poses of her solo in the final pas de deux and she is an accomplished actor.  Everyone in the cast danced well but I must give a special commendation to Callum Green who was a great Coppelius.

The show was produced by the School's principal, Patricia McDonald, who was assisted by choreographers, Anton Alexandrov and Lisa Rowland and Ballet Master, Matthew Paluch. Polly Ward and the school wardrobe department produced the costumes. I don't know who designed the scenery but he or she did a good job.

If I can get up in time to catch the 04:48 from Huddersfield to Manchester airport I should see a very different Coppelius  by Ted Brandsen in Amsterdam.  I will tweet about that during the day and will review it properly when I get back to Britain.

Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia

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Manchester City Ballet is the performing company of the Northern Ballet School. Two of my favourite teachers, Cara O'Shea and Jane Tucker, danced with that company. It is for the time being our metropolis's only resident ballet company and thus an institution to be treasured.

Just before Christmas, the company performs a full-length classical ballet. Last year it was Giselle which I reviewed in Manchester City Ballet's Giselle 12 Dec 2015. The year before it was The Nutcracker which I reviewed in Alchemy 13 Dec 2014. This year it will be Coppélia which the company will perform at The Dancehouse on Oxford Road between the 8 and 10 Dec 2016. Manchester City Ballet last performed that ballet in 2012, when they were reviewed very favourably by Ian Palmer of Dancing Times and Mike Dixon of Dance Europe (see Coppelia 2012 Reviews).

Tickets are now on sale from the Dancehouse's box office on 0161 237 9753 or 0161 237 1413 or on-line at £12 (£10 concessions).

The Northern Ballet School has recently announced a series of auditions between 7 Nov 2016 and 13 Feb 2017. Further information on admissions is available on the Application Details page. Best wishes to anyone thinking of applying.

Want to see a good show in Manchester this Saturday?

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Closer to home than Kibera is The Dancehouse Theatre at Northern Ballet School in Manchester. That is where KNT Danceworks and other teachers offer a whole range of classes in many styles of dance in the evenings (see the Classes page on the theatre's website). I am proud to say that I am one of KNT's students (or perhaps "family member" as Karen Sant, our principal, so sweetly puts it).

Last June KNT were due to stage Move It!, its summer show, at The Dancehouse but a problem with the ceiling forced its postponement.  The ceiling has now been repaired and the show will tale place on Saturday, the 22 Oct 2016. As the Move It! web page indicates the show will showcase everything from ballet to flamenco including some styles such as Chinese folk dancing that are not often performed in this country.

I had a chance to see KNT's contribution in one of the studios on the day it should have taken place. As the title to my review indicates It could easily have gone pear shaped ........... 19 June 2016 ".... but instead it was a howling success." The show that we shall see on Saturday will be slightly different because Mark Hindle, who danced the pas de deux with Karen, is performing in The Lion King at the AFAS Circustheater in the Hague (see Hindle at The Hague 25 June 2016) but I am told to expect the entry into the kingdom of the shades from La Bayadere which will help to make up for Mark's absence.

I took part in the winter show on 30 Jan 2016 which was One of my proudest moments (see 31 Jan 2016). It included the scene from Swan Lake that appears in the video above. Now we are not quite up to the Royal Ballet's standards just yet but remember that we all have day jobs or are reading for degrees and that we have only the evenings and weekends after a heavy working day or week to study ballet and rehearse. With those caveats I think the achievement of my classmates and our teachers is remarkable.

The show will begin at 19:00 sharp this Saturday. Tickets are on sale for only £5 from the box office on 0161 237 9753 or 0161 237 1413 or you can order them on-line from Ticketline. The theatre has a bar (as well as double rail barres) and is surrounded by restaurants including Casa Pancho (I know, the name made Mel and me smile too) which serves the best burritos this side of Tijuana. I defy anyone to propose a better night out than ballet, beer and burritos for so little expenditure in the entire Northern Powerhouse.

A Unique Opportunity to learn a Bit of The Nutcracker

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I have lost count of the number of times that I have seen Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet over the years. I thought I knew both ballets intimately but I was wrong. The only way to appreciate a work fully is to try to dance it. My knowledge and appreciation of both works increased exponentially through taking Jane Tucker's intensives with KNT that take place in the rehearsal studios of Northern Ballet School in Manchester.

I have now been to three of those intensives and, believe me, they are tough. You arrive before 10:00 with your Pilates mat or towel, change into your leotard and do what start out as gentle floor exercises but end up as contortions. And that's the easy bit. Class starts next. OK pliés and tendus aren't too bad but Jane somehow inserts a variation  or refinement into every exercise. Those exercises get progressively demanding through the barre and centre work so that you are well and truly knackered by cool down and you just want to crawl to Oxford Road station after the reverence. But you're not done yet. Indeed, you have barely started. The rest of the day consists of wall-to-wall rehearsals. Then at the very end of the process you have to do a show. Read La Bayadère Intensive Day 1: There's Life in the Old Girl Yet 16 Aug 2016, La Bayadere Intensive Day 2: Idols and Disembodied Shades 17 Aug 2016 and La Bayadere Intensive Day 3: No Snakes 17 Aug 2016 to understand exactly what is involved.

"So why do you put yourself through all that pain?" folk ask. "You some kind of masochist?" The answer is an emphatic "no".  "I just love ballet and want to understand it better." There is no better way to appreciate the entry into the kingdom of the shades than by becoming a shade. To allow Minkus's mesmeric music to run through your body while attempting those arabesques (they should really be penchés) alternating with tendus and arms in 5th and a slight turn towards the audience. These are the building blocks of the ballet and through lining them up into a sequence you understand how the ballet is constructed.

A word of caution now. You can't expect to learn everything about Swan Lake or La Bayadere in a 3 day workshop. You need to have started ballet at an early age, to have attended schools like White Lodge and the Upper School, entered a professional company, danced in the corps, made your way up through the ranks and danced Solor or Nikiya before you can say that. But you do get some insight that you would never have got in any other way. When I saw the Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Lowry or English National Ballet at the Albert Hall last year I could live every step of the swans' entry, the cygnets, the Hungarian divertissement and a bit of Siegfried's solo because I had done those dances. Not very well, perhaps, but I had done them.

And you really do live them.

"Remember when you were 13 years. You're at your first adult ball. You are so excited." 

said Jane as she taught us Juliet's solo last April. Or

"You are a proud Hungarian princess in your heavy brocades" 

as we rehearsed the Hungarian dance with its stately développés and arm movements. Now despite the pain and effort I would not have missed that for the world.

That is why I have put my name down for Jane Tucker's beginners' intensive for The Nutcracker on 29 Oct 2016. Here's the bumf:

"** 1 DAY BALLET WORKSHOP! *** PLACES GOING FAST!
Dates
Beginners: Saturday 29th October (ONLY 8 SPACES LEFT!)
Advanced: Friday 28th October
Price
£60 (£20 deposit included in the price payable ASAP)
Times
10am - 4pm
Venue
The Dancehouse Theatre

Teacher Jane Tucker (Northern Ballet Theatre)

Repertoire Nutcracker
We need 20 students to be able to hold the workshop.
Please comment below if you'd like me to book you in. You will receive a registration form and info pack shortly after.
Here's an idea of what your day will consist of:
On the morning of your intensive, you will be able to enter The Dancehouse Theatre from around 9:45am. You can wait in the café/coffee shop on the first floor, where you can get to know other students on the intensive, or you can get changed so you are ready for class! You will be able to sign yourself in once we are in the studio, and we’ll have a short briefing about the course so you know what to expect.
The days will start at 10:00am with a 45 minute warm-up session, so please make sure to bring either a yoga mat or a towel with you! We will have a short 15 minute break after the warm-up session, and then the morning ballet class will begin at 11:00am. Class will be 90 minutes long, and we’ll have a short break in the middle so you can get some water and rest. We will have another 15 minute break afterwards, and then at 12:45pm we will start our technique/repertoire class.
Lunch will be at 1:30pm for one hour, and you will be able to eat it in the café/coffee shop on the first floor (no food or drink, except for water, is allowed in the studios). There are lots of shops, cafés, and other food places around The Dancehouse Theatre, so there will be plenty of choice if you are not bringing food with you!
The afternoon will be filled with rehearsals for the short performance at the end of the day.
Hope to see lots of you there, it's always been great fun!"

If you want to grab one of those last 8 places you need to contact Karen Sant of KNT through her Facebook page fast. You can also call her on 07783 103037.

The Factory begins to take shape

Manchester  Graffiti

Photo Mike Colvin

Source Wikipeda

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In his Autumn statement last year the Chancellor of the Exchequer promised a £78 million investment in a new arts centre in Manchester to be called "The Factory". I picked it up in my article  Let's bring the Royal Ballet to The Factory Manchester 11 Dec 2015. The Chancellor, whose constituency is in the Manchester city region, repeated his promise yesterday (see George Osborne’s Autumn Statement speech in full 25 Nov 2015 Financial Times).

The Autumn statement coincided with press reports of the appointment of the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to design the Factory (see Rem Koolhaas wins Factory design project as Manchester goes Dutch 25 Nov 2015 The Guardian, The Factory: CGIs of Manchester's multi-million pound culture hub  released 25 Nov 2015 Manchester Evening News and OMA wins competition to design huge Manchester arts venue The Factory 25 Nov 2014 De Zeen). Work is to start on the site next year and the building should be finished by 2019.

When completed the Factory will host the Manchester International Festival which featured artists from the Paris Opera Ballet in Wayne McGregor's Tree of Codes this year. Next year it will première Akram Khan's Giselle for English National Ballet. Manchester which is visited regularly by the Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Northern Ballet as well as smaller companies is probably the biggest audience for dance outside London.

So we now have an audience for dance and we will soon have a major venue for the performing arts in the city. All we need now is a major resident company. As I hinted last year we would welcome the Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet with open arms if it wanted to resume the negotiations for a Northern home which were terminated by the change of government last year.

Or we could build out own. Some of the building blocks are here. We have the Northern Ballet School in Oxford Road which already has its own performing company known as Manchester City Ballet. It will perform Giselle at The Dancehouse between 10 and 12 Dec 2015.  There is also the Centre for Advanced Training in Dance at The Lowry. All we need is to commitment and money.

Serendipity

Horace Walpole

Artist Rosalba Carriere 

Source Wikipedia

Northern Ballet School, A Showcase of Dance, The Dancehouse, Manchester 14 July 2015, 19:30

The set text of the English language "O" level paper for the Oxford and Cambridge Board in July 1965 was on the origin of the noun serendipity. It was coined by Horace Walpole to describe the fortune of three princes of Serendip who "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”. The word now means "fortunate happenstance" or "pleasant surprise".

A good example of serendipity occurred yesterday evening when I attended KNT Danceworks. I noticed that The Dancehouse  was busy. I asked what was going on and leaned that Northern Ballet School was presenting A Showcase of Dance in the theatre. My class ended at 19:39 so I scurried down to the box office for a ticket.  Save for the pas de trois of Le Cotsaire I think I caught the whole show.

As the programme states, Northern Ballet School in Manchester (not to be confused with Northern Ballet which started life and was based for many years in Manchester very close to where the School is now located) is "an internationally recognized centre of excellence in the training of dancers for classical and musical theatre careers". The School has a company called Manchester City Ballet in which students gain stage experience. Every year, the company stages a full length ballet.  Last year it was The Nutcracker which I reviewed in Alchemy 13 Dec 2014 and its next production will be Giselle between the 10 and 13 Dec 2015.  A Showcase of Dance displays the whole range of the School's activities starting with tutus and pointe shoes in one of Petipa's most popular ballets and ending with the razzmatazz of a West End musical.

The progranme started with Le Corsaire and I caught the pas de deux by Luca di Martino and Sayaka Sagimoto and the pas de six. These are difficult pieces and they were both executed well, This was followed by Earth Song, a contemporary piece on environmental damage and some distressing projections of deforestation and environmental destruction on stage. There was ballet again with Last Promenade to some great cello music which I could not recognize. Everybody recognized the music to Pandora's Box which was the Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. I was reminded of Milena Siderova's Full Moon for Bart Engelen of the Dutch National Ballet (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 March 2015) except this was a fight between Alexander Smith and some shadowy caped and hooded figures over a sinister looking box, It was impressively staged and very dramatic. Eye of Horus was also mysterious but much softer with haunting Middle Eastern music. A pretty duet by Carlos Oliviera and Peri La Riche to The Sound of Music followed. Then there was Bolero which was my favourite with the girls in gorgeous long dresses engaging almost flirtatiously with the audience. Finally there was The Night Shift featuring Carlotta Tocci and Daniela Pinto,

The second act began with cats - or rather dancers dressed as cats - scurrying from the top of the auditorium hissing and spitting at the audience on the way to the stage. I hissed back at two of them. That was The Jellicle Ball from Cats which was a fun piece. It was followed by more dancing from the shows - Too Darn Hot and Sweet Charity - and contemporary pieces like Sanctuary and Slum.  I was particularly impressed by the all male cast of Slum for their energy, It had more roars and grunts than the centre court of Wimbledon, Although this was A Showcase of Dance we had a song from Charlotte Russell who has a lovely voice though one which could have benefited from more projection to where I was sitting which was the top of the gods. She gave way to Come on Everybody which was 1959s rock n' roll with the boys in tight jeans and the girls in long flowing skirts. Finally there was Something Better Than This by Gabriela Brough, Alarna Morgan and Daniela Pinto and finally the whole company in Brass Band and a glorious finale.

There is an abundance of talent in this School and as a Mancunienne I was very proud of the young artists I saw yesterday. Until the second largest conurbation of the UK gets a resident world class ballet company back again this School carries the torch for dance in Manchester and it deserves to be supported. The show continues at The Dancehouse tonight and tomorrow and I strongly recommend it,

A Showcase of Dance by Northern Ballet School

I have just received an email from Northern Ballet School advertising A Showcase of Dance at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester between the 9 and 11 July 2015.

The showcase is

"the annual event which combines completely new choreography with the best of this year's dance performances produced by Northern Ballet School's Manchester City Ballet and Jazzgalore dance companies."

It will be the last chance to see the Northern Ballet School's students before they graduate and begin their careers.

I attended School's performance of The Nutcracker in December and enjoyed it very much indeed (see Alchemy 13 Dec 2014). I have also attended KNT Danceworks' ballet and contemporary classes in the Dancehouse studios (see So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class 29 Aug 2014 and My First Contemporary Dance Class 27 Feb 2015) which is all good stuff.

Tickets cost between £8 and £15 and are available from the theatre box office and Ticketline.

Chookas to everybody in the show.

My First Contemporary Dance Class

A dancer performing a contemporary
dance piece

Photo Wikipedia

I have enjoyed watching contemporary dance on stage for almost as long as I have enjoyed ballet but yesterday was the first time I took a full contemporary dance class. Even though I have to say that I woke up this morning as stiff as a board I enjoyed the experience tremendously and I look forward to my next class.

My teacher yesterday was Ailsa Baker who has already taught me some ballet (see So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class 29 Aug 2014). My only other experience of contemporary dance had been half an hour or so at Liverpool town hall on 8 Sept 2014 which was also with KNT (see It's not every Class that you can use Lord Canning's Eyes for Spotting 9 Sept 2014).

The class started off with pliés and balances as in ballet though we did not use the barre but then we had our first floor exercise. I had done quite a bit of that sort of work with Fiona Noonan in ballercise as well as some private lessons that she gave me a year or so ago so it was not a complete shock but I did find myself using muscles that had been left undisturbed for far too long.

After the exercises Ailsa taught us a routine which seemed to go step, step, step, arms in open fifth, a lunge to the right, step, step, step, arms up in open fifth again, a lunge to the left, step, step and then something like a rond de jambe and grand battement followed by a run back across the studio. We then rose on demi with our arms outstretched. Then something called step hop which was nothing like the temps levé that I had done in the Over 55 class in Leeds earlier in the day followed by run, run and leap on the other foot which was vaguely like a grand jeté, run, run and another step hop, run, run and a turn in the air, then run, run along the side of the studio with step hops and leaps back and finally a run to the centre. So far so good but then this poor old lady ran out of steam. The next move was a jump from a lunge to the floor followed by a roll to the knees, arms up a couple of times, then getting up, a couple of turns rather like chaînés, then another roll and up, a turn and yet another roll and run. It was those rolls which defeated me. Getting down was easy enough but springing up again was the killer.

We marked the routine a couple of times as a class first without and then with music.  Then we divided into groups. My group had lots of good dancers plus me and although I started off OK I am sorry to say that I let my group down by losing my balance after the third roll.  But nobody seemed to mind too much and I wasn't hurt.

I may be wrong but I think that these rolls are something that would improve with practice and the more times I take this class the better I shall become. It is definitely harder than ballet but I have never been one to duck a challenge. There was a time when I found ballet impossible whereas now it is only very, very, very, very difficult.

I really enjoyed that class. As I have said several times before, Ailsa is a great teacher who clearly loves to dance and extracts the last ounce of effort from her students by communicating to us her love of dance. I enjoy her ballet classes too for that same reason. I would love to do more with her but it is not easy for me to get to her classes as I usually take a class in Leeds on Thursday mornings.  "Nobody pays you to be a ballerina, Miss" my clerk never tires of reminding me (right now nobody is paying me much to be a barrister though I seem to be working every hour God sends) but after a gruelling day in court on Tuesday and after the disappointment of missing Fiona's Wednesday class after driving all the way to Huddersfield I felt justified in taking a second class yesterday. But, as I say, I woke up this morning stiff as the proverbial. Nemesis for Terpsichore perhaps?

Post Script

Just want to say that after the class my friend and I repaired to Panchos Burritos which is literally just round the corner from the Danchouse and Northern Ballet School. There we had two enormous burritos - one in the bowl and the other in a wrap plus a Fentimans mandarin and Seville orange jigger and a half litre of mineral water for £11.82. I had acquired a taste for Mexican food when I was a graduate student at UCLA in the early 1970s which was more or less the first time I saw contemporary dance. For many years Mexican food was almost impossible to find in this country and hardly worth eating when it was found. I am happy to say that Pancho cooks a mean burrito - as good as any I have consumed in Southern California. So - as jumping up and down and rolling about on the floor is bound to work up an appetite - Pancho's is the place to satisfy it.  That was another reason why yesterday was a very special evening.

Alchemy

Manchester's Theatre Street: The Dancehouse Theatre, Northern Ballet
School and KNT Danceworks

Photo Wikipedia

Manchester City Ballet, The Nutcracker, Dancehouse Theatre, 12 Dec 2014

For the last week Jeannette Winterson has been talking about Manchester on Radio 4. The title for her talks is Manchester: Alchemical City. She has chosen that title to celebrate our city's genius for creating riches of all kinds - intellectual, cultural, spiritual as well as material - out of base matter.

A good example of that genius is Northern Ballet School which set up in a derelict cinema on Oxford Road. If Manchester is to the United Kingdom what St Petersburg is to Russia then Oxford Road which connects out great universities to several of our theatres and concert hall is our Theatre Street (see "The New Mariinsky" 4 May 2013 for the significance of "Theatre Street").  The space has been converted into a magnificent centre for the study and performance of all kinds of dance. As well as the School, which justifiably describes itself as "an international centre of excellence in training for classical ballet and musical theatre" there is KNT Danceworks for adult classes which I attend whenever I can  (see So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class 29 Aug 2014) and the Dancehouse Theatre. Every year, members of the school dancing as Manchester City Ballet, present one of the classical ballets in that theatre.  This year they chose The Nutcracker which I saw last night.

The Nutcracker must be a challenge to stage because every member of the public thinks he or she knows the ballet and has his or her own notions as to how it is to be performed, whether a balletomane or not. It is one of the traditions of Christmas like Handel's Messiah. Most of  the major companies of the world have a version in their repertoire. The ballet is often shown on television. Tunes from the ballet like the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Waltz of the Flowers are played, whistled and even sung in all sorts of versions. There is not much of a story and thus not much for the principals to do but there is lots of character dancing and the second act is chock full of divertissements. 

Because the ballet is so well known choreographers and producers are tempted to put their own twist on the story and introduce gimmicks such as balloons. That is nearly always a mistake.  As I said when I reviewed Chelmsford Ballet's production ("The Nutcracker as it really should be danced - No Gimmicks but with Love and Joy" 20 March 2014) the ballet works best when it holds fast to Hoffmann's story and Petipa's choreography. Yesterday's performance by Manchester City Ballet was true to the original though the Stahlbaums were elevated to the Russian nobility as Count Pyotr and Countess Katrina, Drosselmeyer was renamed Kazimir and Clara's naughty little brother was called Misha rather than Hans or Fritz.

There were some interesting linkages between the first and second Acts. Clara had an elder sister called Natalia who morphed into the Sugar Plum Fairy and Natalia's fiancé in Act I became the Sugar Plum Fairy's cavalier in Act II. The battle scene between the toy soldiers and the rodents was one of the best I have ever seen. That was choreographed specially by Anton Alexandrov separately from the rest of the ballet which was choreographed by David Needham.  I should add that I loved Sarah Oxley's set designs, particularly her backdrop for the kingdom of the sweets with cup cake fillings substituted for onion bowl cupolas.

Manchester City Ballet showed that Northern Ballet School has a lot of very promising young dancers. Misato Ito who danced the Sugar Plum Fairy and Natalia and Jack Brownhill who was Sugar Plum's cavalier and Natalia's fiancé displayed considerable virtuosity. Nicole Hamill was an adorable Clara. She was given much more to do than in many productions in that she danced several of the divertissements of Act II.  Her dance with the children was particularly charming. Steven Lloyd, who also danced Clara's father was a magnificent King Rat. Luca De Martino, who was also Harlequin and in the Chinese tea dance was a great Nutcracker. Bradley Parsons, who also danced in the Spanish chocolate was an excellent Kazimir (Drosselmeyer). Megan Reid danced delightful solos in the snowflake and waltz of the flowers. While all the divertissements were good I cheered particularly loundly for the Russians - Alex Burrows, Carlos Oliviera and Harry Powell - the Mirlitons - Yui Hayahsi, Yukiho Kasai and Aida Martinez Pastor - and Columbine - Sayaka Sugimoto who also accompanied Bradley Parsons in the Spanish dance.

Unlike the second city of Russia the second city of the United Kingdom does not host a major ballet company for the moment (though that may change with the massive investment in The Factory - Manchester (see "Let's bring the Royal Ballet to The Factory Manchester" 11 Dec 2014)), but our city does have a very good ballet school on its theatre street.

Post Script
If you want to find out more about Northern Ballet School and the studios in which KNT Danceworks operates there is a beautifully made video called "Want To Be Here - A taste of life at Northern Ballet School" which I thoroughly recommend.

A Mancunian Nutcracker

Whenever I can I cross the Pennines to take the beginners or complete beginners classes at KNT Danceworks  (see So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class 29 Aug 2014). The instructors are clear and patient and the students are friendly. Everything one could hope for in a ballet class.

KNT Danceworks is next door to The Dancehouse theatre which presents comedy, drama and music as well as dance. However, between the 11 and 13 Dec it will host Manchester City Ballet which provides performance experience for the students of the Northern Ballet School. Judging by the extracts from Coppelia, Giselle and other performances on the School's YouTube channel those young men and women are good.

I shall be there to review the show on the Friday. Booking details are set out on the poster above.