Just over a year ago I mentioned that Sarah Mortimer had left Ballet Theatre UK to start a new career as a freelance dancer and teacher (see Sarah Mortimer24 Nov 2016). Sarah was a delightful dancer and I was very sorry to see her go. However, teaching is at least as important as I explained in One of the Best Ballet Experiences Ever14 Feb 2018.
I was therefore pleased to learn that Sarah has acquired her own dance studio known as Tenterden Studio Dance Company in one of the prettiest towns in Kent. According to the studio website, the studio hosts Tenterden Ballet Studios which teaches a wide range of classes including adult ballet between 11:00 and 12:00 on Friday mornings. Should I find myself in the area on a Friday morning (which is not impossible as Tenterden is not far from Ashford International railway station) I shall try to attend it.
Sarah also offers private and personalized coaching and lets out studio space to other teachers. I wish her every success in this venture.
Standard YouTube Licence 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 20143 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 Julietin 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 Years23 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.
Yesterday I mentioned Ballet West and its touring company (see Congratulations to Ballet West - here's to the next 25 Years23 Nov 2016). One of my favourite dancers, Sarah Mortimer, is a graduate of Ballet West. I first noticed her as the mermaid in Christopher Moore's version of The Little Mermaid for Ballet Theatre UK (see Pure Delight - BTUK's Little Mermaid in Southport27 April 2014). I looked out for her in that company's other shows. She was one of the reasons why I followed BTUK.
Sarah has now left BTUK and has become a freelance teacher and performer. She has put together an impressive associates programme with some excellent guest teachers, some of whom such as David Brewer and Inês Ferriera, danced with her in BTUK. She also gives private coaching at various levels and workshops on popular ballets such as The Nutcracker. Having seen a large part of the world including a lot of Scotland with Ballet West and every nook and cranny of the UK with BTUK whom I once described as the Bedouin of Ballet, Sarah has based herself in Maidstone where she was born and brought up. Apart from the associates, coaching and workshops which she offers through her website, Sarah teaches at Masters Performing Arts College in Rayleigh, 360 Dance in Tunbridge Wells and Tenterden Ballet Studios and as a guest teacher on various associate programmes and courses including Ballet West Edinburgh Associates and South East Ballet Scholars.
As ballet is intended for the stage, the best type of teacher is one who has enthralled an audience. Sarah has done that in countless repertory theatres, arts centres and other auditoriums the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. Without doubt, she will already have inspired hundreds of little boys and girls (not to mention many adults including, perhaps, a few pensioners) across the land to study ballet. Now she has an opportunity to guide many of those students to the next level. Very few of them (if any) of those studemts will emulate Carlos Acosta or Lauren Cuthbertson, but they should all develop a love for the art as theatregoers as well as dancers that will never leave them. I am sure that all my readers will join me in wishing Sarah well in this latest phase of her career.
Standard YouTube Licence Ballet Theatre UK, Pinocchio, Rotherham Civic Theatre, 4 June 2016 With perfect timing Ballet Theatre UK performed Pinocchioat the Rotherham Civic Theatre on the very afternoon that the English Defence League were demonstrating in the town centre thereby distracting 800 officers from all parts of South Yorkshire from their normal duties (see South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council grateful for disorder free demonstrations4 June 2016). Even though their demonstration is likely to have deterred many from venturing into Rotherham to see the show the company's excellent young artists still managed to attract a better audience than the demonstrators and counter-demonstrators combined which says a lot for BTUK and also a lot for Rotherham.
I have always had a lot of time for BTUK who regularly bring fresh, new full length ballets to small auditoriums the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. The Birmingham Royal Ballet has its midscale tours of three theatres in the North and Midlands and three in the South and West Country every May in order to bring ballet to new audiences. Last year Northern Ballet started to do the same with Madame Butterfly and are doing the same right now with Jane Eyre. BTUK however do that sort of thing all the time. Between 25 March and 19 June 2016 they will have performed Pinocchio in 36 venues often covering enormous differences with a few hours. For instance, between 1 and 5 June they will have travelled between Peterborough, Solihull, Great Yarmouth, Rotherham and Buxton. I have reviewed several of BTUK's shows (see Pure Delight - BTUK's Little Mermaid in Southport27 April 2014, The Bedouin of Ballet12 Dec 2014 and Ballet Theatre UK's Aladdin5 April 2015) and I know from the buzz in the bars that their performances are very much appreciated.
The story of Pinocchio is about a puppet that comes to life which when you think about it is not all that different from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein which Liam Scarlett has recently turned into a ballet (see Rarely have I been so impressed by a new ballet19 May 2016). However it is a lot less dark than Frankenstein though it is at least as complicated. Like Frankenstein the story focuses on what distinguishes a human from an intelligent machine which, of course, is also a theme of Coppelia. It is remarkable how three 19th century stories all of which have been transposed into ballet have something to say about artificial intelligence now that our technology is on the point of delivering it.
Because the story is complicated it is difficult to follow the ballet without a synopsis and because I arrived at the theatre just seconds before the curtain rose I did not get mine until the end. The only part of the story I could remember was that Pinocchio was made of wood and that his nose would grow whenever he told a lie. Although I could recognize a fox and a cat I became hopelessly confused by the blue fairies, the circus, the schoolchildren and the signpost pointing to "School" in one direction and "Fun" in the other. Now that I have read the synopsis it all makes perfect sense.
The ballet starts off with a romantic scene that reminded me a little of Bournonville's Napoli. David Brewer is the craftsman Gepetto and Ines Ferreira is his bride. I followed the bit where she died and came back to life as a blue fairy. I also followed the construction of the puppet and his awkwardly coming to life. Although I could recognize Emma Miller as a fox, Pedro Santos as a cat and Amy Keenan as some kind of insect (she turned out to be a cricket) and that they had been waylaid by Vincent Cabot and Charlotte Laura Eades in a circus it was not obvious to me what the school kids (especially the punchy little boy Lampwick danced by Sarah Mortimer) had to do with the story until after the performance.
If, as is likely, the company have children in mind, the choreographer might consider some sort of narration or voice over as Ballet Cymru did for Roald Dahl's Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs or English National Ballet's My First Coppelia. Aprogramme does help a lot but even if I had received it before the show I would have needed time to digest the complicated plot. Not all children's ballets need narration. Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet gets by without one. But this one does.
Nevertheless, Pinocchio is a gorgeous show with great sets by Martyn Plant and costumes by Daniel Hope. The music is beautiful and Christopher Moore's choreography is delightful. The ballet is coming to the end of its travels but you can still catch it at Horsham, Stourport, Middlesbrough, Chesterfield, Margate, Exmouth or Neath. Whether you are young or old, ballet newby or ballet snob, you should try to see this work. It is the best I have seen from BTUK to date and I am now a bigger fan of this great little company than ever.
Oh and just a word about Rotherham. It is a great place for fantasy. There is a "magical apothecary" in the town centre called Grimm & Co. from which humans are excluded. I kid you not. Rotherham is a great little town and that's just the sort of fantasy and fun its kids and grown ups need. Not the politics of fear and hate.
Ballet West is about to dance The Nutcracker again and has just announced its 2016 tour:
22-23 Jan Corran Halls, Oban
29 Jan Paisley Town Hall
30 Jan Tower Digital Arts Centre, Helensburgh
4 Feb Howden Park Centre, Livingstone
5 - 6 Feb Marcrobert, Stirling
11 Feb Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
13 Feb Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow
14 Feb Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock
20 Feb Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
They have also uploaded some lovely videos of Clara's photo shoot and the Rat King's. If the coming production is as good as 2013 we can look forward to a treat.
One of my favourite ballet companies is Ballet Theatre UK, They have some lovely young dancers: David Brewer, Ines Ferreira and Sarah Mortimer to name just three. They work incredibly hard travelling sometimes hundreds of miles for one or at the most two performances and then back on the road again. Look at their tour dates for their Autumn and Winter tour: Coventry on the 23 Oct (the company's website says the 25 by the way), Wimborne on the 24 and Bognor on the 25. And yet when they come on stage they seem fresh and full of energy.
By touring the small towns and suburbs of the UK they are bringing ballet to an audience that would never otherwise see it. Yes I know that the Birmingham Royal Ballet splits into two and tours some of the smaller venues of Northern and Southern England (see Vaut le Voyage - Birmingham Royal Ballet in Shrewsbury28 May 2015 and Birmingham Royal Ballet in High Wycombe31 May 2015) and that Northern Ballet has just completed a tour of smaller theatres with Madame Butterfly (see Nixon's Masterpiece22 May 2015) but these talented and incredibly resilient young men and women do that sort of thing all the time. Through their work they are removing some of the elitism and snobbery of ballet for which I for one am extremely grateful. To appreciate why that's important, read For Emma28 April 2014 an article that I wrote after their visit to Southport.
In order to draw an audience the company's artistic director Christopher Moore bases his ballets around well known stories. Ballet Theatre UK performed The Little Mermaid in Spring 2014 (see Pure Delight - BTUK's Little Mermaid in Southport27 April 2014), Swan Lake (albeit with a radically different libretto to take account of the size and structure of the company which annoyed some people but not me) last Autumn and Winter (see The Bedouin of Ballet12 Dec 2014) and Aladdin earlier this year (Ballet Theatre UK's Aladdin5 April 2015). This time the company is reviving The Snow Queenwhich is based on Hans Christian Andersen's well known fairy tale.
I have no doubt that this show will draw in the crowds from Coventry to Yeovil and I shall see them on one of their transits from the North but I do have a plea to Mr Moore as a reviewer. Please - pretty please - type out a cast list for each of your venues and get the local Staples to run off as many copies as you've sold tickets. It'll only cost a few quid and it will pay dividends in audience (and critics') goodwill. It really will. Also the dancers will be acknowledged - and these fine young men and women deserve to be acknowledged. Up to now I have been relying on the mother of one of the dancers to give me the cast lists but she is a busy lady with her own dance classes (see There's more to Harpenden than Thameslink17 May 2015). Alternatively, invest in an easel and pin up the names in the foyer as Matthew Bourne's New Adventures does.
Ballet Theatre UK also has a school which I shall discuss in a future post. One day I hope to meet Mr Moore and learn more about his vision and ambition for the company. If you have not yet seen this company do go to one of their shows. I have not yet met anyone - including grizzlies like me who can remember Fonteyn and Fracci - who has not left the theatre in which they have performed on a high.
A year ago a debate took place in one of the on-line forums to which I subscribe as to whether Ballet West was a good place to study. If I remember rightly it was started by a lady whose daughter had turned down a place at Tring for one at Ballet West. Now Tring is an excellent school. At least one of the dancers who makes my spirits soar trained there. But I can quite understand why that student preferred Tayhnuilt.
I surmise that much of the credit for the school's success must go to its founder and artistic director Gillian Barton. I introduced myself to her briefly last Saturday before Romeo and Juliet. She was charming and elegant and although we had only the briefest of chats she showed concern and generosity. I was very scruffy having just arrived from Yorkshire after a tedious drive without an opportunity to change or even apply makeup while she was so smart. She put me at my ease immediately. She asked whether I had tickets and a programme and when I said that I had both she offered to refund me. She also offered me a free tee shirt and it took a lot of persistence on my part to decline those refunds and persuade her that I wanted the merchandise because I wanted to support the school and its students. She eventually accepted my payment for the tee-shirt and donation to the school with grace. Now if I were a young lad or lass away from home for the first time and feeling rather homesick I would have been cheered up by her immediately. It seems a genuinely happy community. When the school wished Natasha Watson well at Lausanne on Facebook there were literally hundreds of "likes" and comments within hours.
A third reason for going to Ballet West is that Taynuilt is in one of the most beautiful parts of our nation. I explored it the summer before last while waiting for the Craignure ferry (see Taynuilt - where better to create ballet?31 Aug 2013). It is on the edge of a sea loch and at the foot of a magnificent mountain. Surroundings like that are bound to inspire young men and women with an artistic temperament. Now Taynuilt is a lot further from London than Tring but the United Kingdom is not a large country and we have pretty good roads and railways. With Skype and other VoIP services it is now possible to talk face to face to parents, siblings and friends by video more or less any time. Also Taynuilt is not the back of beyond. Oban is only a few miles away. It has all the amenities of a fair size town including supermarkets, cinema and performing arts auditorium and one of the best fish and chip shops outside Lancashire. Taynuilt is linked to Glasgow by rail where there are fast rail connections to the rest of the country and an international airport with direct flights to the rest of the world.
Ballet is a performing art and as I found from my own very limited experience that there is a whale of a difference between exercising in a studio or even rehearsing in a theatre and stepping out on to a stage before a paying audience (see The Time of my Life28 June 2014). The annual tour of Scotland gives the students including the associates and possibly some of the outreach students a chance to dance in public, Now that is valuable and not every school does that. Some of the best performances that I have seen have been by schools. I loved Ballet Central's programme in 2013 and Northern Ballet School's The Nutcracker before Christmas. Now watching a ballet school is not the same as watching Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Symphonia in Symphony Hall but in its own way and on its own terms it can be just as enjoyable. I get a thrill from seeing some of the potential stars of the future which is why I am flying out to Amsterdam on Friday to see Ernst Meisner's Junior Company.
Finally, Ballet West may be a small school but it has a massive footprint with its associate and outreach classes and summer school. To the most talented students it offers degree and HND courses but it also runs associate courses for aspiring professionals in Glasgow and Edinburgh which includes opportunities for kids as young as 8 and outreach classes for everyone. One of my ambitions is to take one of Gillian Barton's classes if ever I am in Taynuilt on a Thursday evening. Judging by the achievements of her students I am sure I would relish the experience and learn a lot from her.
So if I were a parent of a young boy or girl who showed promise at ballet I would happily encourage him or her to consider Taynuilt as a place to learn the art. I don't have massive resources but one of them is this blog in which I am happy to promote Ballet West and its pupils.
To give its students performance experience, the school has established a company which tours Scotland every Winter. I reviewed its performance of The Nutcrackerat Pitlochry in my very first post of the 25 Feb 2013. I also reviewed its performance of Swan Lakeat Pitlochry on 1 March 2014. This year I shall catch them in Stirling on 31 Jan 2015. They are completing their tour in style at the Clyde Auditorium on Valentine's Day (see Scottish Ballet and Ballet West3 Oct 2015).
I am quite a fan of Ballet West but there are two things I would really like them to do. The first is to bring their company to London and perhaps other parts of the UK so that the rest of the country can see how good they are. The other is to stage a performance of La Sylphide. This is a highland story and they are a highland company. It shouldn't be left to Danes and Australians.
Although I visit Scotland several times a year I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing Ms Watson. However, I have seen her colleagues from Ballet West in The NutcrackerandSwan Lakeas well as graduates of the school such as Sarah Mortimer who are now dancing with Ballet Theatre UK and they are good. Clearly, somebody is doing something right in Taynuilt.
The Prix de Lausanne is open to dancers aged between 15 and 18 who have not yet turned professional. According to the organizers' website its mission is:
"To reveal the potential of exceptionally talented young dancers (ages 15 to 18) from around the globe by having them perform before a jury of world-renowned dance personalities
To open the doors to the world’s finest schools and companies for them by providing scholarships to the most prestigious international schools and companies
To promote their scholastic education (a dancer’s career is short-lived: from about age 18 to 38) by ensuring that they earn a high school diploma which will facilitate their career transition
To preserve their health by applying a strict health policy: eating habits and body mass index are scrutinised before the competition."
The list of prize winners is impressive. They include Steven McRae, Alina Cojocaru, Diana Vishneva, Benjamin Millepied, Christopher Wheeldon and Carlos Acosta. Ms Watson has already done very well indeed just to get this far.
I regret that I cannot justify a week in Switzerland to see the competition but I do hope to see Ms Watson's fellow students and instructors in Romeo and Juliet in their annual tour which will culminate in a performance in the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow in February, Ballet West have already taken this show to China where it was received very well and there are videos of the company's rehearsals on its Facebook page (see Scottish Ballet and Ballet West).
Yesterday evening I saw Ballet Theatre UK ("BTUK") dance The Little Mermaidat The Atkinson in Southport. This was the first time I had seen BTUK and my first visit to The Atkinson and i was impressed with both. I left the theatre on a high (as I always expect to do) eager to see more of both.
BTUK is no ordinary company. It has a punishing schedule. Before coming to Southport it had danced a matinee and evening at Dunstable on the 22 April, an evening show at Tamworth on the 23, a matinee and evening at Keswick on the 24 and an evening at Runcorn on the 26. Today it crosses the Ribble to Blackpool and on 1 May it comes to Rotherham and then on Peterborough on the 2. I counted over 66 different venues throughout the British Isles. This show has quite elaborate scenery and props and sumptuous costumes. Bearing in mind that the dancers must find time for company classes, rehearsing their next production, eating and drinking, some kind of family and social life as well as travelling, I take my hat off to them. An hour's class alone takes it out of me. Admittedly I am a lot older than the dancers and very new to ballet but a couple of hours on stage is still hard work requiring considerable concentration and stamina even for a young man or woman with years of training.
The company is also remarkable in that it has an extensive repertoire choreographed largely by its artistic director Christopher Moore. These include an Aladdin but not David Bintley's, A Christmas Carol but not Christopher Gable's, an Alice in Wornderland but not Christopher Wheeldon's as well as old favourites such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty. I googled Christopher Moore but all I could find was the blurb on BTUK's website stating that he had trained at Tring and had danced professionally all over the world in many different productions. Clearly, the company is ambitious. It has established a school in Hinckley with Daria Klimentova as its patron and, according to its website, its guest tutor. In many ways BTUK reminds me of the London Festival Ballet in the 1960s when I first took an interest in ballet. I think BTUK is going places and I am not just referring to the tour schedule.
Yesterday's performance was lovely. First, it was a good story based closely on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale. In the programme Christopher Moore wrote that on the first day in the studio the company faced two rather large challenges one of which was
"would we use the original ending written by Andersen and used in the book's first edition, or would it be better to have a happier ending similar to the one used by the Walt Disney company in the classic 1989 animated film!"
In the end after much deliberation Moore and the company chose to stick with the original and I think that they were right to do so because it made for a much more interesting story and gave the character of the little mermaid some depth.
Having lost out on one Faustian pact with the sea witch she was offered another. The first agreement allowed her to come on shore with legs but only on condition that she should marry the prince whose life she had saved. The downside was that she would perish if she failed. The terms of the other pact were that she could return to the sea as a mermaid if she killed the prince who had rejected her.
Now that presented the mermaid with an interesting moral dilemma. At least some of the audience would urge her to accept the offer and kill the prince in order to save herself. Some would say that the prince had it coming for his ingratitude to the one who had rescued him. However, she decided to sacrifice her life in order that he might live. As Hans Christian Andersen tells us that mermaids do not believe in an after life, accepting instant annihilation in order to do the right thing is even more of a sacrifice than it would be for a human,
Secondly, the ballet had a very good score. I don't know how much of it was original. I recognized the Geordie ditty about a little fishy when the boat comes in as well as some sea shanties from the last night of the proms and an ear worm that was never off Uncle Mac's Children's Favourites in the 1950s but which I can't for the life of me remember/ However, it all fitted together very well indeed and I found myself humming bits of it to myself on the long drive back from Southport.
I have already mentioned the scenery, props and costumes which was yet another aspect of the ballet that I liked. Comparisons are odious and I have already cut out lots of references to The Winter's Tale but lengths of fabric have far more in common with waves than large land mammals. After being hauled half way round the kingdom and back one would expect the sea backdrop and the wedding dresses to look a bit tired by now but they were still fresh. And they really wowed the audience.
However, it was the dancing that I really loved. Now that there is a very remote possibility that I may perform in public at the end of June I am treating every ballet performance as an extra lesson. In this lesson I learnt a lot about port de bras. That is the most appealing aspect of Moore's choreography. There was drama as the mermaid painfully discovered her legs and was forcibly accustomed to human ways, How she grimaced and struggled in the bath, especially as the soles of her soles were scrubbed. All that added yet another dimensions to the ballet. How do people born without legs get used to them and begin to walk?
The programme came without a cast list and that was my only grip of the evening. I asked a gentlemen in a BTUK tee shirt who was selling programmes where I could get one.
"Oh we never give them out" he replied.
"But I want to review this show for my blog," said I. "Can you tell me who danced tonight?"
"Was the mermaid blonde or brunette?" the programmer enquired.
"Brunette, I think but under the lights with all that makeup ......"
"Oh it must have been Sarah" he said.
I looked at my programme and it did indeed look like Sarah Mortimer: but it was not until I returned home and looked up a post on BalletcoForum by someone I know only as Hfbrew that I could be sure. According to Hfbrew
"Sarah Mortimer as mermaid (the beautiful mermaid on the poster) , Luca Verone as the prince,Jessica Hill as sea witch and Natalie Cawte as princess."
All of them danced well as indeed did the whole cast.
When looking up Sarah Mortimer I noticed that she had trained at Ballet West in Taynuilt near Oban. I know a little bit about the school having seen its pupils and teachers perform "The Nutcracker"and Swan Lake. I have also visited the village in which it is located and rejoiced at its success in the Genée. I was delighted to see that not just Mortimer but also Joseph Mackie-Groves and Charlotte Eades studied at Ballet West. I am delighted that students of that school who are hundreds of miles from Floral Street, Tring, Birmingham, Leeds and even Glasgow are establishing themselves in their careers. I wish them and indeed all the dancers from every other ballet school and company every success.
Finally, I should like to say a word or two about Southport in general and the Atkinson in particular. Southport is a town that I should know better than I do because my father was born there. Apart from two forays to its county court when I was starting out at the Bar and one weekend at a party conference when I was on the committee of the party's lawyers' association I have never had much to do with the town. That is a pity because it has an excellent fish restaurant, the smallest pub in England, a lawnmower museum, an elegant thoroughfare called Lord Street (happily being restored to its Edwardian glory), a dance shop called Centre Stage and a magnificent arts complex all collectively known as "The Atkinson" of which the theatre forms part. The best thing about The Atkinson is that it has pictures and exhibits to admire during the interval as it is an art gallery, museum and library as well as a theatre.
Yesterday the theatre seemed to be packed. There was barely an empty seat in the house. We started at the slightly unusual time of 18:00 which worked out very well. Dining in time for a 19:30 start really is a little too early for most folk and after 22:00 (always supposing restaurants are open at that time) is a little too late. An early start meant that the show finished at a reasonable time for supper. It was not too late for young children - of which there were many - and it allowed me to navigate the somewhat, twisty roads of rural Lancashire in daylight. Maybe other companies and theatres should try an 18:00 start if they can.
PS
The reason why Hfbrew was able to give me accurate casting for last Saturday is that her son dances with the company. She did not identify him and I won't guess but if he was dancing on Saturday he did very well. I wish him and the others in the company all the best. If he cares to read "For Emma" he will see that I was not the only one who was bowled over by Saturday's show.
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