Standard YouTube Licence
According to The Guardian's University League Table for 2019, St. Andrews lies # 3 in the nation. A mere 2.8 points behind the leader, Cambridge, 0.2 of a point behind Oxford which is #2 and almost 10 points clear of Loughborough which is #4. Now I know that there are other league tables and in any case one should never believe everything one reads in newspapers but there is no denying that St Andrews is what Americans would call "a good school". It is not easy to get into St Andrews and students have to work very hard once they are there.
It is all the more remarkable that many of those students find time to dance between handing in essays or laboratory work. "Ballet," as the wise teacher who led me back to ballet once said, "is a jealous mistress who is out to see you fail". Dancers have to put in the hours to see that they don't.
I danced when I was at St Andrews. In fact I was one of the founder members and first secretary of "Dance Soc" as we used to call it. I danced then for the same reason that I dance now. It helped relieve the pressure of a heavy workload. Then it was essays. Now it is pleadings, opinions and court work. I don't think I could have endured the pressures then without my weekly class with Sally Marshall in the Athletics Union on the North Haugh and I certainly couldn't do so now without my Tuesday evening classess with Karen Sant in Manchester or my Wednesdays with Jane Tucker in Leeds.
Last month I returned to St Andrews to watch the Dance Club's 50th anniversary gala. I was impressed by all the pieces but there were several that were particularly interesting. They included the intermediate ballet class's combination of ballet and Bollywood. In my review, St Andrews University Dance Club's 50th Anniversary Gala5 May 2018 I wrote:
"I should add that I loved all the ballets and, in particular. Ailsa Robertson's setting of Colour of Love to the Bollywood film song Gerua. It was an ingenious juxtaposition of two art very different art forms that worked brilliantly."
Colour of Love has been uploaded to the Dance Club's YouTube channel together with videos of much of the rest of the show. If, like me, you had never heard of Highland Fusion before then take a look at "From Here On In". It is very beautiful.Not a bagpipe in earshot nor a tartan in sight and just look at those gorgeous costumes. There is a lot of other good stuff up there "so feast your eyes" as they say in Australia where Fiona, the teacher who led me back to ballet, learned her skills.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary (more or less) of its formation, the Dance Club procured these anniversary t-shirts two of which arrived through the post a few days ago. They were a gift from my friend, a distinguished Scottish lawyer, who also attended the anniversary show. I wore one of them proudly to Move It at the Dancehouse in Manchester on 19 May 2018 which I mentioned in The Importance of Performance20 May 2018 and the other at Ballet West's Showcase in Stirling on Sunday.
Dance was not formally on the curriculum when I was at St Andrews but it was certainly one of the most useful things that I learned there.
Ballet West Showcase 27 May 2018 19:30 Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling
Each winter for the last 5 years I have come to Scotland to see a performance of a full-length classical ballet by Ballet West. On Sunday I returned to Scotland for Ballet West's 2018Showcase.
The Showcase took the form of a gala consisting of 18 separate works divided into two parts or "acts". Each act began with an extract from a classical ballet and included a solo and original choreography by the school's teachers, Natasha Watson, Indra Reinholde and Martin Fenton. Ballet West performed the Showcase at the Conran Halls in Oban on 19 May 2018 and the Macobert Arts Centre at Stirling University on 27 May 2018.
The first act opened with the grand pas de deux from Paquita which I had seen in rehearsal on my visit to Taynuilt on 30 April 2019. The full work is not performedvery often in the United Kingdom but the pas de deux isseen more frequently in competitions and galas. As in the rehearsal Paquita was danced by Uyu Hiromoto and Lucien by Joseph Wright. I admire both dancers but especially Hiromoto. As I wrote in Ballet West at the Beacon13 Feb 2017 which was the first time I saw her, Hiromoto has a certain quality that is difficult to pin down but I spotted it in Xander Parish and Michalea DePrince. She danced delightfully on Sunday. In her dancing I saw not just a talented and accomplished student but Paquita herself. Congratulations to Wright for his partnering and also to the soloists and corps de ballet who accompanied them.
The solo for the first act was the victim's dance from The Rite of Spring. It was performed by Francesca Rees who is still in her first year at Ballet West. The sharp, angular, movements to Stravinaky's throbbing score still manage to shock after 105 years. It cannot be an easy work to perform even for an experienced dancer and it must be particularly challenging for one so young. Rees responded to that challenge splendidly. She is clearly someone to watch and I shall look out for her on next year's winter tour.
Watson contributed no less than five works to the the first act They ranged from Symphony No 3 which was reflective to Who Lights the Sun which was playful. The contrast in mood was the difference between a deep, dark, pool and a fountain. Until last night the only work by Watson that I had seen was the piece that she had prepared for Oscar Ward and Uyu Hiromoto in the BBC Young Dancer Competition. Having seen her several times in principal roles and having blogged about her achievements in Lausanne and at the Genée even before I saw her I knew that she was an outstanding dancer. Now I see that she is at least as talented as a dance maker. The nation's - indeed the world's - artistic directors, impresarios, angels and others who commission dance would do well to take note.
Hey Now by Martin Fenton was in complete contrast to everything that had gone before. The programme stated that the music was by "London Generation" but I wonder whether that should have been "London Grammar". Be that as it may it was a pleasure to watch. The girls wore jeans and trainers with their hair in pony tails. They danced freely and vivaciously. It was the first time I had seen them like that. I was delighted.
One of most interesting works of the first act was Indra Reinholde's November to Max Richter's music. This was a fluent classical piece for third year dancers. Reinholde's A Mid-Autumn Night's Dream appeared to be an intriguing study of the unfulfilled aspirations. It consisted of a soloist with one group dancing reality and the other dreams. With layer upon layer of meaning I need to see it again and probably several times to understand it properly.
The first act finished with Sarajevo, a piece that Watson had made for the company's Glasgow Associates to Max Richter's score. A deeply moving piece that those excellent young students performed brilliantly.
The second act opened with the scene from La Sylphide in which James abandons Effie and follows the sylph. The work is performed regularly overseas but rarely in the UK which is odd as it is set in Scotland. We may see more of it in future as it has been staged recently by English National Ballet and Sir Matthew Bourne has produced Highland Fling for Scottish Ballet which is based on La Sylphide. Dylan Waddell, whom I knew from MurleyDance and Ballet Cymru, danced James and Sarah Nolan was the sylph. Nolan performed her role charmingly. I think hers will be yet another name to watch. Waddell partnered her sensitively enabling her to shine. In what I believe to be a variation to Bournonville's choreography, the ballet mistress, Olga Savienko, created roles for the sylphs which they performed delightfully.
Watching a Scottish company perform that beautiful work just south of the Highland line gave me considerable personal satisfaction. As long ago as August 2013 I wrote in Taynuilt - where better to create ballet:
"I don't know whether Ballet West has ever thought of staging La Sylphide but they might because Taynuilt is Gurn and Effie territory."
Well now they have and I am over the moon.
The solo for the second act was From Within by Hortense Malaval who is in the second year. It had been created for her by Watson. A very different work from the Rite of Spring but probably no less challenging. Malaval displayed not only considerable virtuosity but also the power to possess a stage and command an audience. The audience warmed to her and rewarded her with thunderous applause.
The solo was followed by three more works by Reinholde: Light and Ash, A Song of Sorrow and Pride and, my favourite of her works, Symphony No 41. The last work was created for the young women who had welcomed me to their class on 30 April 2018. They were my team. They had a difficult score. Late Mozart to me sounds a little like Beethoven and that's what I thought it was. I remembered one of the pundits at Northern Ballet's symposium on narrative ballet on the alleged impossibility of dancing to Beethoven yet here were these splendid young dancers doing just that. Or at least interpreting music that was equally difficult. Clad in flowing blue garments that must have been a delight to wear, they were clearly having fun. They danced with verve and my heart danced with them. They finished the piece on their backs as the lights cut. Bravissime! I clapped and clapped until my palms were raw.
A work that reminded me of van Manen's In the Future was Watson/s Pocket Calculator. Just listen to the words "I'm the operator of the pocket calcuulator". Watson spun those works in a generally fun slightly disconcerting work that showed yet another side of her immense creativity. The song also began the finale that drew the audience into the show. They clapped rhythmically to the music breaking into deafening applause as each wave of artists appeared to take their bow. Again, I clapped enthusiastically and shouted "brave, brave" for the women in blue.
I had seen the winter shows. I had even visited the school, watched and indeed attended one of its classes. But it was only on Sunday that I fully appreciated how good it was. In that Showcase the school showed the strength and depth of the artistic education that it offers. Had I any aptitude for dance and an ambition to go on stage, I should have loved to have studied there.
"This show is the culmination of the Ballet West students' year and the final assessment for the BA (Hons) in Dance students (awarded by the Open University). It demonstrates the breadth of experience the dancers have gained in classical ballet, modern ballet and contemporary and presents new works created for the students by Belgian choreographer Daniel Job. Degree courses at Ballet West combine training in technical dance skills with genuine performing experiences required by dancers working today."
The students will perform extracts from Paquita in Stirling. The video shows a rehearsal in a studio that looks very much like the one in which I attended class on 30 April 2018 (see Visiting Taynuilt4 May 2018). Immediately after class I was allowed to watch Jonathan Barton coach Joseph Wright and Uyu Hiramoto in the grand pas de deux. It was looking good even then and I am looking forward to the performance very much indeed.
One of the reasons for my last visit to Scotland was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the St Andrews University Dance Club t-shirt of which I was one of the founder members (see St Andrews University Dance Club's 50th Anniversary Gala5 May 2018). The Club has commissioned some commemorative t-shirts to celebrate its first half century and one of my friends and university contemporaries was kind enough to send me one earlier today. The panel on the left shows my trying it on and the panel to the right is the back of the same t-shirt.
The other reason for my visit was to see Scottish Ballet's Highland Fling in Oban. Their newsletter reports:
"The company is back in Glasgow after a whirlwind tour of Highland Fling in Shetland, Orkney, Oban and Stornoway and our hearts are full."
I love that expression "our hearts are full". It a beautiful phrase which I shall try to remember and use in my own writing. It also reminds me of all the good things I associate with Scotland - some material like the beauty of the countryside but much more the intangible. In their Dancer's Tour Diary Scottish Ballet recount some of the places they visited and things they did on tour. In this hilarious video they challenge their non-Scottish dancers to repeat some Scottish phrases like "braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht" and "Lang may yer lum reek".
Our West Riding argot can be pretty impenetrable. I wonder how much of it our Gavin has picked up while he has been with Northern Ballet. Happen a'll ask him next time I meet l'lad.
